This source is a piece of Primary evidence. This is helpful because it is a first hand account of what life was like for him. I reckon that the source is fairly honest; this is because he said some hard hitting things in the text like that he had lost his faith in Christ, which you wouldn’t really lie about. Also he explains in some detail about the subject so he knows what he is talking about. This source is also relevant to the task because it tells of an individual in the war.
Although this source is good it has got some dubious bits of information. This source may be unreliable because it was written 10 years after the war had ended so the writer Siegfried Sassoon may have forgotten some parts of the war or accidentally switched things around, he even may have altered it to get more interest in this Autobiography but I reckon this is quite unlikely because he seems honest in what he is saying.
Although it is difficult to judge the reliability as we don’t know enough about this source. Further evidence is required. It does seem adapted though as the schoolteacher must have written it up to give it to us. It isn’t completely fair because it is only from the Allies point of view, it would be good if it had some Germans point of view in it.
Source B
This source is called Dulce et Decorum Est a poem by Wilfred Owen written in 1917.It is a piece of Primary Evidence.
The poem tells the story of a phosgene gas attack as troops were making their way back from the front line. The Latin saying Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori means it is sweet and noble to die for your country. This poem is very Hard hitting and seems honest mainly because it recalls Wilfred Owen remembering about a horrible gas attack that happened which it probably did because the 1st world war had a lot of gas attacks. Also the source was written in 1917, which was during the war so he wouldn’t have forgotten about the war because he was still in it. Wilfred Owen knows what he is talking about because the poem is quite long and detailed, it explains things like how other people were looking and feeling. Also he says that the Latin phrase is a lie. So it seems he was quite angry while he wrote this so maybe it affected his thinking.
However this poem only represents his point of view, it would be nice to compare with maybe someone with a different general rank to him in the army, so it isn’t really a fair source. It may have been adapted we don’t know, it could have been written in Latin because the author has put in a phrase of Latin so he obviously knows how to write it. This source is relevant to what the Task says so it is a pretty good source.
Source C
Source C is a Textbook account from “Challenge and Change” which was written by Philip Ingram. It was published in 2000. This source is a piece of secondary evidence. This is helpful because the author may have used several sources and looked at different points of view.
This is quite a long source so the author must know what he is talking about. He has probably studied about the war and read other books about it as well. The source is fair because it covers all points of view on what life was like in trenches to changing attitudes on the war.
The source is biased because the Author has only chosen what he wanted to put in. The source may not be as accurate as some others because it was written 75 years later. Also the research the author must have done may have been false or inaccurate. The source is very relevant because it tells you a lot about how individuals lived in trenches and what they felt like.
Source D
Source D is different from all the others sources because it is a video. It is an episode of the BBC comedy Blackadder. The episode is called “GoodByee!” It was first screened in 1992. Video’s can be good in some ways because you can actually picture the scene rather trying to figure it out in your mind. Also T.V and Video can keep you interested longer than reading.
You can’t really tell if the source is honest because the program covers all points it makes with comedy so you don’t know if it is actually true or the program has made it up just for comedy sakes. The writers of the show must have been for informed about the 1st World War because some points in the Episode did actually happen like The Battle of The Somme which they touched on in the Episode and also the Generals who were in the program who were actually real and fought in the World War.
The source may be unreliable though because it was written for a particular purpose which was to be comedy to watch on T.V and not a source as it were for writing essays, so the director would have been biased because he put in what he thought was funny and not what was very explanatory about the war.
This source only really covers the British army soldiers and Generals point of view, which is better than some sources, but it would have been good to see in the episode about some German soldiers or even French soldiers.
The source is quite relevant to the Task because you can see visually what was going on and also you can remember the more funny parts of the episode, which sometimes give you valuable points and facts.
Source E
This source, which we had to choose on our own I, decided to choose a talk, which one of the schoolteachers gave us about what life was like for people fighting in the war. Mr Rogers (the Teacher) collects World War One artefacts and Memorabilia, he also reads up about the war and is fascinated about it. In this talk he brought a few artefacts with him like a rifle they used in the war, a bayonet (a dagger), a shell and also a grenade. He explained about the war and the artefacts for roughly 15 minutes and then we asked him some questions.
The reason I choose this for my source was because it was a memorable and very interesting. Mr Rogers really knew what he was talking about and must have studied the war for some time. I really felt Mr Rogers was telling the truth just by looking at him. In some text sources you don’t know if they are telling the truth but just by looking at him you could tell.
He also covered all points of view from both sides and wasn’t being biased because we were allowed to ask him questions about anything to do with the war.
A weakness of this source is that it should have been longer but the time ran out for him although there was a lot of information in the 15 minutes.
The source is an excellent source and is very relevant to the task.
Conclusion
As you can see there are strengths and weaknesses in all of them. Comparing these sources shows there are a variety of views from all the individuals who took part in the war. Although if you knew a person’s personal experiences during the war you might understand why they have the views that they have. The perfect source would be a mixture of both Primary evidence and secondary evidence. That way you could have a first hand account of what happened and also the breadth and detail of events. The most interesting source that I looked at was Source E because it was so fascinating and also he could see what weapons they used and how they were implemented. The most detailed source was Source C because it told you a lot about what trench life was like and also the attitudes of the soldiers. The most hard-hitting source was Source B the poem. It was very honest and scared you by giving you feelings about how they felt when they were gas attacked.
All the sources are useful in finding out what Individuals lives were affected during the First World War.
BY DHIRAJ AERY
