Summary:
World War 1 was a horrendous thing to happen and there are many different views on the war by different people, the fathers and the people who didn't go to war viewed it as a courageous thing to do and they thought that the soldiers were honouring there country by doing it.
World War 1 was a very tragic and depressing time for everyone who was involved in it. This essay will show the effects of the war on those people and how they helped each other to cope with it and to get through it. It will also show the poem DULCE ET DECORUM EST by Wilfred Owen which shows that the war was a horrible thing to be involved in, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque which shows the story of a young soldier struggling to cope with the devastating and horrible things that occur in the war and the posters that were used in the World War 1 to make more people enrol.
During World War 1 the government was thinking of new ways to get people to enrol in it because everyone had heard of how terrible it was, hardly anybody wanted to enrol because of this. One of the ways the government got people to enrol was with posters and most of the time they put down the opposing side, this happened with both sides. Propaganda was commonly used in these posters as a way of getting people to enrol.
One poster called The Crime of Those Who Vote 'NO!' displays a picture of two Australian citizens plunging daggers that say no on them into an Australian soldier and a German standing on top of a balcony ledge smiling down at them. Its purpose is to get Australian citizens to vote yes so that the government can force people to go to war without them having to sign up. The aim of this poster is to make Australians think that if they vote no then the Germans will invade and take over there land. These posters changed many peoples opinions on war and therefore made more people enrol.
One of these people who enrolled in World War 1 was Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, he was born in Plas Wilmot near Oswertry Britain in 1893. Wilfred Owen was most famously known for his poems about the war. These poems showed that the war was a horrible thing to be involved in. One of his most famous poems was DULCE ET DECORUM EST, which in English means it is honourable and fitting. This poem tells us about the horrors of World War 1 and how the soldiers who went to war suffered from the many dangerous weapons in it.
One metaphor in this poem says "through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning" it means that the enemy have fired gas bombs at the soldiers and that the gas is really thick, it also means that it is very hard to see through the green gas clouds but Wilfred just manages to see his friend drowning in the poisonous gas.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a famous book that was written and then published in 1929 by Erich Maria Remarque. The book is based on Erich but he changed the name of the character to Paul Baumer, it shows the story of Paul a young German who (accompanied by nineteen of his classmates) enlists in the German army at the age of eighteen. While Paul is at war he discovers that it is a very scary and dangerous thing to be involved in. A lot of Paul's classmates die in the war and he starts to realise that comradeship is a very important thing to have in those sorts of situations.
Towards the end of the story Paul and one of his friends Albert Kropp are the only two people remaining from there class, Albert is in hospital because he lost his leg due to an injury, so Paul writes a letter to inform Albert that they are the only two left out of the twenty who went to fight in the war from there class, also at the end of the story Paul finds a lark singing in a tree, this also happens at the start of the story, this symbolises a new beginning and it also shows that amongst all of the terrifying things that happen in the war there is still some good things that can happen to. When Paul tries to draw the bird he is shot and he dies, it is ironic because just as the war is about to come to an end Paul dies and he has been there almost since it started.
In conclusion World war 1 was a horrendous thing to happen and there are many different views on the war by different people, the fathers and the people who didn't go to war viewed it as a courageous thing to do and they thought that the soldiers were honouring there country by doing it. The soldiers who actually went to war viewed it as a sad, painful and traumatising experience and most of them never got over it.
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