¶ … Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien and the poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen are two wonderful pieces of literature that depict the horrors of war in a way that is both visceral and astute. The images, the relationships, the deaths, the birth of the unknown void, and the perils of being in a life or death situation are brilliantly told within the context of a battlefield. But what are the true horrors of war? Are they simply the awful experiences and the loss of life? Is the horror of it all the act of tolerating it and then becoming another person after? Regardless of what people experience during a war, it changes everyone involved. The loss of innocence, the loss of hope, the loss of sanity, the loss of the known, of stability, those are the true horrors of war. Although both works deal with the effects of war on soldiers, the poem does it in a way that shows a scene, a page of war. The short story reveals what happens after, what happens before and what happens in the middle, the little things. "Dulce et Decorum Est" has several scenes in the poem that show death and blood and gore. In the middle of the poem the line: "GAS! Gas! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;" (Owen 1) prepares the reader for the catastrophic events that will unfold as the soldiers experience the attack. Much like in other war related stories or poems, the fear, the anticipation often comes back with the soldiers who experiences war. The constant fear of being attacked or remembering what happened there, that is what is true fear and horror for them. They say it is always calmest before the storm, but it also the tensest, especially if one knows a storm is coming. This line is very similar to the anticipation...
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now