How and why writers have explored different views of the First World War. Propaganda, poetry, film and Blackadder.

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How and why writers have explored different views of the First World War?

In 1914 the First World War broke out and thousands of young men signed up. At the start many men were enthusiastic towards the idea of signing up for the army. This is because of the attitude the propaganda portrayed and the pressure to do your duty. This attitude changed dramatically because the truth and horror of war became more and more obvious which caused the number of recruits to drop and ended in all able men being forced to sign up.

Propaganda is a form of communication, which steers people’s views and ideas in the same direction. In the First World War, the Propaganda being produced was the idea that war was the idea that war was an adventure. One idea of propaganda is the phrase commonly used in the First World War; ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’. The phrase is Latin and means ‘It is sweet and glorious to die for your country’. It was used to recruit soldiers for the army.

                                           

One famous image used on a propaganda poster is Lord Kitchener and the phrase ‘your country needs YOU’. In the poster the way that Lord Kitcheners eyes follow you wherever you go evokes the feeling that he is actually talking to you and makes the poster more personal.  Many young men would have been easily persuaded by this poster because if they feel that their country needs them they would want to step up to the challenge. The poster is clever because at the time of the First World War, Lord Kitchener was very respected against young men and would have affected them.

                                             

The second poster says ‘Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?’ The image itself shows a father and his children after the Great War. The son is playing with toy soldiers, which creates the idea that he aspires to become a soldier; this idea plays in the gender stereotype that men should fight in war and women should take part in more passive activities. The daughter is reading a history book and asking her father what he did in the war. The father cannot look into the face of his daughter, which makes the viewer think he did not fight. The father’s position is one in deep thought, which shows he is trying to think of what to say. If a young man saw the poster he would put himself in the place of the father. It would make him feel guilty and probably make him sign up. This poster also reinforces the idea that going to war will make your family proud of you.

Jessie Pope was an English poet, writer and journalist best known for her patriotic, motivational poems published in The Daily Mail during World War I to encourage Army recruitment. One of Jessie pope’s famous recruitment poems is ‘who’s for the game?’ The poem looks at war in a favourable light.

Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played?

The red crashing game of a fight?

Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid?

And who thinks he’d rather sit tight?

The poem gives the idea that war is a game and something to enjoy. The poem has a very even and biuncy rhythm which makes the mood of the poem cheery. At the beginning many people in the country where very patriotic and Jessie pope demonstrates this in ‘who’s for the game?’

Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘exposure’ is about how both meaning of the word exposure affected the soldiers in he First World War. In the first part Owe presents how the soldiers are exposed to the more obvious side of war and how conflict is dangerous. The second part explores exposure to the elements and how this is just as dangerous.

The language Owen uses in the poem is deeply disturbing and provides horrifying images of the soldiers. Something I noticed straight away is how Owen uses almost rhymes. Each stanza almost fits into an ABBAC rhyme scheme; e.g. silent and salient, these words don’t sound right together and add to the feeling of broken soldiers. In the second line Owen uses alliteration with a W ‘worried we keep awake’. W is quite a soft sounding letter on its Owen and creates a contrast between the literary devices being used and the language. This is like the view of the soldiers and the people who had never fought in a war. In the first stanza the language creates a sense of the calm before the storm; much like the soldiers waiting in the trenches before having to go ‘over the top’.

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‘Mad gusts tugging n the wire. Like twitching agonies of men’ in this stanza Owen is describing how the wind makes a sound that reminds him of other soldiers dying. It also mentions the idea that two battles are going on – the battle of conflict and the battle to survive. At the start of the third stanza Owen talks to how ‘the poignant misery of dawn begins to grow.’ This is an effective use of language because dawn is normally associated with a new beginning and happiness, where as in the poem Owen uses the word ‘misery’ which highlights ...

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