Anti-War Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that German playwright Bertolt Brecht and English poet Wilfred Owen were both deeply personally impacted by war and both felt the need to express their anti-war sentiments and beliefs in their work. The author points out that, in Owen's anti-war poetry, war has destroyed an age of innocence; he express frustration about (1) innocent soldiers hardened by war and eventually killed in many cases, (2) the attitudes of civilians back home and (3) the way many simply ignored the tragic nightmare of the war. The paper relates that Brecht's perspective on war is similar to Owen's in that he is very anti-war; however, his perspective differs because he does not view civilians as ignorant but rather as interested in prolonging the war for their profit.

From the Paper:

"Owen's poem appears to be inspired by the many deaths of soldiers he saw each day in the trenches of war. He starts the poem off, describing innocent young men being sent to war like cattle are sent to slaughter. He abandons his original views of war as heroic and glorious, and describes it as one large funeral where young soldiers are not given a proper goodbye. Instead of the typical church bells that are sounded when someone dies under ordinary circumstances, there are only the sounds of gunshots when a soldier dies, he writes."

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