Private Chris MacGregor was one of the 14 soldiers from 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, photographed by Lalage Snow before and after their tour of duty in Afghanistan. The album that was created tells a story of both the physical and emotional toll that war has on soldiers.
The image itself is a side by side comparison of three close ups featuring the soldiers face. Of the little background visible it is colourless and features no objects. As a result, the face in the image recieves all of the audience’s attention. The images are placed in a chronoligical order with the portrait of the solder prior to his deployment on the left, during in the center and him after returning home on the right. By placing the images in this order the photographer, Lalage Snow, creates a story, unfolding right in front of the audience’s eyes. Although each induviduals interpretation of what that story tells may differ there is an underlying theme that resonates with emotional and physical stress, strain and fatuige.
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Prior to his deployment when his photo was first taken on the 11th of March his eyes say that he is disinterested and carless with youth, really not giving much thought about the photographer taking his photo. Three months later on the 19th of June they tell a very diffent story. His eyes seem saddened and one can only imagine what he has whitnesssed. Finding the words to describe Pvt MacGregor’s eyes after his return his difficult, however one would say that they are hardened, as though they are protecting his emotions. This relates to the feeling of isolation many soldiers experience when they return from war as they do not feel as though they fit into a civillian
War causes a loss of innocence and brings a soldier further away from their home life that they once loved as a child. In the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” the author Erich Remarque uses symbols to prove that this is how soldiers lives change after they return from war. Remarque uses the symbols of potato pancakes, horses and the earth to exhibit that war takes away the feeling of comfort that was once associated with home, while bringing on new responsibilities and a loss of innocence.
“Facing it” by Yusef Komunyakaa and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, are two powerful poems with the graphical life like images on the reality of war. It is apparent that the authors was a soldier who experienced some of the most gruesome images of World War I. In “Ducle et Decorum Est” Owen tells us about a personal experience in which he survived a chemical warfare attack. Although he survives, some of his fellow troops do not. As in “Facing It” Komunyakaa is also a soldier who has survived a war. Komunyakaa response to his war experience is deeply shaped by his visit to Lin’s memorial. Inspired by the monument, Komunyakaa confronts his conflicted feelings about Vietnam, its legacy, and even more broadly, the part race plays in
The rambunctious behavior of the soldier’s triumphant victory is a strong message visually for the viewer. These soldiers struggle to find their identity and once the war ends, the identity they’ve build at war vanishes, (McCutcheon, 2007). As a result, they essentially lose a part of them selves, (McCutcheon, 2007). When they return home, many soldiers struggle with psychological issues that prevent them from resuming their once regular lives, (McCutcheon, 2007). The images of soldiers celebrating at the end of war give the viewer a taste of this problem. This also allows the viewer insight to the deeper issues surrounding an American soldier’s mental stability and mentality. Through this image, along with many others throughout the film, the viewer is able to dig deeper and truly analyze what they are seeing.
Everyday men and women die in the most brutal way possible away from their family either killed from gun shots or landmines and they do come back. But in caskets, as images like these emphasize the destruction of war and these snaps just show the side effects of humankind's worse anger being shown. In the Article “The Stranger in the Photo Is Me”, Donald M. Murray expresses how harsh it really was in the war and how it changed himself forever and not in a good way. Not to mention, that he describes the way he felt ready to go to war, maybe even excited, but he wishes that horror on no one “I would not wish for a child or grandchild of mine to undergo the blood test of war” as the sacrifice these men and women go through is undeniably tremendous
War is a hellish battleground where many lives are taken. In war there is constantly images and events that happen which can change a soldier’s life forever. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque uses the symbols of boots, butterflies and horses to advance the main theme in the novel, that war takes young men’s innocence away.
In Otto Dix’s “Shock Troops Advance Under Gas”, Dix presents the brutality of war for everyone to see. From the barbed wire snagging a troop’s arm to the gas masks, this work illustrates true horror. Dix’s illustration of war helps display that war truly is not something to write home about with pride. Thus, I present the argument that war is not something to be patriotic over, and it is not something we should be thanking the troops for. They are brave individuals, but the duties they perform are not – they are the product of cowardly nations. The purpose of this paper is to convey my personal feelings towards this work, war and how it is not the answer, and tying in my visit to the McNay Art Museum back to aspects of war.
Owen uses the contrast of the soldiers’ state pre-war and post-war to highlight just how much the soldier has lost through going to war. Physically, pre-war, the soldier is described as ‘younger than his youth,’ and has an ‘artist silly for his face.’ Suggesting that his beauty is worth capturing permanently in paint. The words ‘younger ‘and ‘youth’ emphasise this man’s innocence and boyishness, the tautology places emphasis on how young he is thus outlining his immaturity before the war and making his loss at war even more tragic. The contrast once he has returned where Owen
During times of war, it is inevitable for loss to be experienced by all. In the poems “The Black Rat” and “The Photograph” written by Iris Clayton and Peter Kocan respectively, the idea of loss is explored through an omniscient narrator recalling a soldier’s involvement in warfare. While Clayton writes of a soldier’s abrupt loss of hope and how this experience negatively affects his life, Kocan explores how the loss of a loved one affects a family sixty years later. While both poems incorporate similar techniques in imagery and narration, the time setting for each poem is different as “The Black Rat” is set in Tobruk, Libya during World War 2 and “The Photograph” is set during World War 1.
The text, The Things They Carried', is an excellent example which reveals how individuals are changed for the worse through their first hand experience of war. Following the lives of the men both during and after the war in a series of short stories, the impact of the war is accurately portrayed, and provides a rare insight into the guilt stricken minds of soldiers. The Things They Carried' shows the impact of the war in its many forms: the suicide of an ex-soldier upon his return home; the lessening sanity of a medic as the constant death surrounds him; the trauma and guilt of all the soldiers after seeing their friends die, and feeling as if they could have saved them; and the deaths of the soldiers, the most negative impact a war
All three of these pieces represent a firm standing on the effects of War on humans. When examining Damon Winters photo of Sgt. Brian Keith features of a visual argument appear. The picture is a representation of an implied statement. The picture shows a Soldier with his family in the last moments before he is deployed to Afghanistan.
In this book, Tim O’brien reveals all his experiences in detail about the war; as well as stories about his fellow soldiers, and makes a true, but over the top about them. He explains how he feels through stories that are difficult to clearly identify as “true.” This book has a lot of themes, death and violence is one of the major themes.
O’Brien’s use of imagery allows him to paint a vivid depiction of the horrors experienced by the foot soldiers in Vietnam. These horrors perpetuate the physical and emotional
In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.
Poets frequently utilize vivid images to further depict the overall meaning of their works. The imagery in “& the War Was in Its Infancy Then,” by Maurice Emerson Decaul, conveys mental images in the reader’s mind that shows the physical damage of war with the addition of the emotional effect it has on a person. The reader can conclude the speaker is a soldier because the poem is written from a soldier’s point of view, someone who had to have been a first hand witness. The poem is about a man who is emotionally damaged due to war and has had to learn to cope with his surroundings. By use of imagery the reader gets a deeper sense of how the man felt during the war. Through the use of imagery, tone, and deeper meaning, Decaul shows us the
The clothing of the soldier looks civilian, but he seems to have all the equipment for war. By taking a closer look at the photo, the feeling of the bullet going through the soldier’s head seems realistic. The composition of the photo have included the motion of the soldier falling back with pain and death. In analysis of the photo, there were several reasons that made it so impactful for the world and the history of war photography. First of all, the close up of the soldier being killed reflected on the bloody side of war. In addition, the picture emphasizes on people have lost their live pursuing for what they believe. Throughout Robert Capa’s career, his intention as a war photographer was never in the interest on how the advancement of weapon or artillery. His work and his intention has always been on people and how war has affect people in multiple ways. As a young kid serving days in the Hungarian jail, he knows how it feels to be oppressed by the dictatorship and living without what a purpose. War is the solution to regain freedom, but it is also a method to take away freedom. People are always the winners and the losers of