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Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

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Owen’s poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, is about a day in which the soldiers experienced the First World War. Owen shows the reader that the word normal, no longer has any significance to the soldier’s lives. This is because the word normal, that they had once known, had now been destroyed by their experiences that altered their minds and physical being. As the war gets worse, the battlefield is characterized by the exertions of the war on the soldiers (Tomlinson, 33). Owen paints a graphic yet accurate picture of what is just another day on a battlefield of the First World War. On the soldier’s way to home, they experience being hit with a gas attack. In this event, the soldiers struggled to don and clear their gas mask “Gas! GAS! Quick boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time”(Owen 9-10). Unfortunately, not all the soldiers are able to don their gas masks in time. Eventually, some of the soldiers succumb to the gas and eventually lose their lives. The image the poem paints shows how one soldier chokes on the gas and dies. It shows how those that were able …show more content…

The theme of warfare in the poem is developed when Owen describe that the war is a nightmare to the universe (Bennett, 123). The theme of suffering is developed as Owen describes the physical pain the men suffered on the battlefield. Owen’s tone and description of the events let the reader see the psychological trauma suffered by those in war. Another theme that is shown is one of patriotism; the men join the military and went off to war blindly. Fighting solely for their honor and country. As Owen’s time in battle goes by he starts to see things in a new light. He now questions the sense of patriotism in young men being encouraged to join the war to fight and die for their country, for their honor. As he now believes there is nothing sweet in dying for your

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