In terms of actual violent and graphic imagery Journey’s End is fairly lacking, there is a lot of talk about death but never any in depth description of wounds or people suffering. For instance there is no description of the raid, the only information about it is that Raleigh was injured. There is however some suggestion of injury, “S-M shrinks back and throws his hands across his face, as though a human hand could ward off the hot flying pieces” which give the text a definite dark tone to the otherwise cheery mood. The likely explanation for a lack of graphic imagery is that the text was intended as a play and therefore severe injuries would be complicated to apply mid-performance.
Birdsong alternatively is a fairly graphic novel, Faulks was not afraid to describe in detail the shear horror and physical grotesque of war. As Birdsong is a novel the inclusion of such description is far more practical than in the play format of A Journey’s End. Faulks uses violent imagery to captivate the reader, well-described events can be easily imagined by the reader and therefore creates far more involvement with the characters and settings. “His nose dangled and Stephan could see his teeth through the missing cheek” is a good example of violent imagery that is very effective in drawing the reader in. The far greater amount of violence in Birdsong is likely to be because the text was published far after the war, Faulks was far more informed about the war and he did not have to worry about causing public upset.
An element that plays big parts in both texts is the loss of battlefield friends and the deaths of family members. Journey’s End features many descriptions on this topic, such as “There’s not a man who was here when I came.” Which Stanhope says, indicating to the audience just how many men have died and how many friends Stanhope must have lost to the war. However the only example of a casualty in Journey’s End is when Raleigh gets wounded by shrapnel “Mr Raleigh’s been ‘it, sir. Bit of shell got ‘im in the back” and consequently the reader is shown emotion from Stanhope for the first time, showing how the safety of someone dear can invoke unnatural feelings in people.
Just as Stanhope lost Osbourne Stephan looses Wier in Birdsong. Unlike Journey’s End Birdsong is a novel not only based upon people during the war but their lifestyles and previous history before they were sent into battle. It is because of this that Birdsong is far more than a simple war story, the characters develop throughout the novel and bonds are formed between them. When certain characters die in Birdsong there is a genuine feeling of remorse not only from the characters but from the reader as well, for instance the death of characters like Jack Firebrace whom the plot has followed a fair way through novel are killed off so easily and mercilessly. Birdsong’s use of graphic description and character relations emphasise the death of familiar characters superbly, almost forcing the reader to genuinely feel for their deaths.
Journey’s End portrays a very psychological side of warfare, the complete meaningless killing of soldiers is highlighted many times throughout the text. “General wants us to make a raid to find out who’s coming into the opposite line here”, the troops are far more informed than the higher ranking officers who have never really seen how easily men die after leaving the trench. Higher ranks would spend most of their days sat in a dugout or even further away from the front lines. Complete lack of appreciation for human life is also expressed by the officers, “Still it’ll be awfully nice if the brigadiers pleased”, this quote show a disregard for the many men that had died, they got what they wanted so they could not care less.
Both Birdsong and Journey’s End make references to the higher authorities making orders without knowing the full extent of the situation, however the men had to follow their commanders orders despite how life threatening. There is again a reference to rescuing men from no mans land after an attack, in Journey’s End the Germans let the Allies get the wounded soldier back whereas in Birdsong they had to be quiet when retaking their dead bodies because they were afraid the Germans would shoot them.
Overall these two incredible texts both impose a fantastic portrayal of the war, however they both put forward very different views on what are considered to be ‘the horrors of war’.
