- Futility.
- Immense loss of life dramatically juxtaposed against the earlier scene of peace and serenity.
- The lack of dignity, grace and respect with which men were forced to treat the dead bodies of their comrades.
- Sacrifice.
- Horror
- “The gaps in the wire became jammed with bodies” – lack of grace, life and loss, and enormity of the sacrifice.
- Sadness, futility- juxtaposition of skylarks to artillery fires.
Passage of time
Move between pre war, 1910, to 1916, to 1978 back to 1917, to 1978-79 returning finally to 1918 and ending in 1979. The effect of this is to present the thoughts of us now as we rediscover and look back to this era and contrast directly with the events. In doing so compound the horrifying and dramatic nature of the story as we compare our life today within the story and as we read. By starting in pre war 1910 we also are able to understand the mentality of the times as they entered the war and why the desire to join up was so strong.
Comparison with other literature
- Regeneration Trilogy: specific comparison here with an extract from Ghost Road.
- Poetry and literature written by contempory's to the events; Owen, Sassoon, Blunden, Gurney etc.
Analysis of extract from Ghost Road
See page 76 OCR.
- powerful
- distressing
- Watching comrade’s die, agonising, and realisation of happening to himself.
- The lack of grace at death- horrifying.
Extract taken from the Ghost Road:
“Prior looked at his watch, licked dry lips, and watched the second hand crawl to the quarter. All around him was a tension of held breath. 5:43. Two more minutes. He crouched further down whistle clenched between his teeth.
Prompt as ever, hell erupted. Shells whined over, flashes of light, plumes of water from the drainage ditches, tons of mud and earth flung in to the air. A shell fell short. The ground shook beneath them and a shower of pebbles and clods of earth peppered their steel helmets.”
- Tension mounting; calm then contrast to complete destruction.
- Chaos
- Fear
- Futility
Extract
“The second hand of his watch in slow motion. Twenty Nine past. The whistle in his mouth. His foot on the ladder. He swallowed hard and blew.
He clambered out and looked around him. It was for a moment completely quiet as the bombardment ended and the German guns also stopped. Skylarks wheeled and sang high in the cloudless sky. He felt alone as though he has stumbled on this fresh world at the instant of its creation.
Then the artillery began to lay down the first barrage and the German machine guns resumed. To his left Stephen saw men trying to emerge from the trench but being smashed by bullets before they could stand. The gaps in the wire became jammed with bodies. Behind him the men were coming up. He saw Gray run along the top of the trench, shouting encouragement.”
- Awareness of fate- nerves- no choice.
- Anguish, nervousness, foreboding.
- Isolation
- Rebirth, hope, purity, innocence.
- Peaceful.
- Relaxed.
- Appealing.
- Sense of happiness- contrast to paragraph two.
- No respect for dead.
- No time to mourn.
- Sacrifice.
- Futility of action.
- Hopelessness.
Comparison of extracts:
‘Ghost Road’ impresses upon the reader the harrowing effect of the abrupt transition from nervous tension, fear and anxiety to the eruption of chaos caused. This creates an immediate comparison for the reader and reinforces the sense of the enormity of the task they face and the bravery of the men who experienced it. ‘Ghost Road’, to a much greater extent than ‘Birdsong’ considers the mental side effects of the front line on the men, during World war one. This is clear as you read the remainder of the novel and the preceding volumes of the trilogy.
In contrast ‘Birdsong’ creates a greater sense of fear and anxiety in the reader, because we see a transition from anxiety to complete peace and then, chaos and bloodshed. This course of events serves several purposes, we, as readers, are shocked by the chaos because of the preceding tranquillity, so increasing the shock-factor. The bravery of the men is further reinforced because we see how difficult it must have been to force yourself to go ‘over the top’. In addition it is such a strong contrast in atmosphere, more so than ‘Ghost Road’s’ anxiety to artillery fire, the sense of gravity of the situation they were faced with is further increased. It is the sense of hope which this transition creates which in the end makes the battle all the more agonising to watch. You do watch it, in your mind, because the words are so powerful and the horror is never once evaded but faced and impressed upon the reader, leaving us in no question of the sheer horror of the front line.
Each extract creates powerful imagery and considers the daily ordeals of the front line in unbearable detail. Both extract’s leave a lasting impression in the reader’s minds of the futility of the ‘Great War’ and the extent of the lasting horror and anguish it produced.
