War Years and War Experiences, Research Paper Example

Owen and his Personal Vision about War Years and War Experiences

The heroic prestige of serving as a member of the army has been used over time by governments as they recruit young individuals to join the army. In times of danger and social conflict, the army serves as the most critical source of national defense. This is why filling up the army with the necessary human force it needs is considered a crucial part of developing a strong defense line for any nation. During the onset of the First World War, it was very important that each nation engaged in the war gain a relative number of young men who are willing to die for the hope of winning the fight. Dying is of course not so much of an inviting cause for joining the army; the government needed to make such a goal a noble one, something that would psychologically define the deeper meaning behind fighting and dying in the war field. In his poem, Owen provides a distinct visualization on what war is for him based on his experiences and based on what he has learned in the battle field. This poem brings about a life-like presentation of what warfare really is about.

Honor; this is one element promised to those who are willing to submit themselves into the system and become more involved in the aspect of saving the most valuable assets of their nation, the people. How much honorable is it to die? This is the conflict of idea that is presented in Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est. Relatively, Owen points out that the convincing power of the invitation that the government releases to the members of the community specifically create an honorific background that convinces the young men to submit themselves, their time, their effort and even their lives into an uncomfortable situation that could cause them to die. Imagine becoming the strong hold that could be the source of the most important defense for one’s country; imagine being in the front line defending one’s own nation for the sake of one’s own family; would it not be specifically heroic to picture this in mind? The idea of men becoming knights of valor and chivalry is a relatively indicative of what young men want to appear in the past. With these ideals in their mind, they are psychologically influenced to find a way to become more involved in the course of living for the sake of saving others from the possibility of perishing in the middle of an unwanted warfare. At the same rate, the soldiers recruited by other nations have the same idea in their minds and are motivated to do the same thing as their enemies are dedicated to accomplish, to win.

The struggle in the battle for valor and honor becomes a dreadful struggle for life. Owen tries to help his readers imagine the actual picture of the situation through creating visual presentations that helps his readers understand his ideas and the course of living that the soldiers had to contend with while they are out in the field to fight. As the battles begin, the soldiers are directed towards the line of battle they are to be assigned to. Each person hoping to visualize that particular picture of honor in his mind seems to lose track of what is supposed to be protected and what he hopes to achieve. The desire to become honorable and heroic suddenly deems off along with the fears of dying and being set out in the field without the possibility of coming back to the camps alive. He describes such thought and condition of doubt as he mentions in his poem: Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge; this line specifically points out how dreadful it was to be coming home from the battle field if ever such soldiers do come home from the battle field.

The fear does not end in the battle grounds; the young soldiers become highly agitated by what they see, what they experience and they realize the need to become accustomed to such feeling if they want to survive during the war years that they have committed themselves into. In his mind, Owen speaks of the psychological impact of the war years and how these situations actually identify well with the consideration of the desire of survival that each individual in their own camps want to achieve. To this description he adds:”… till on the haunting flares we turned our backs and towards our distant rest began to trudge …” obviously, the traumatic events affect the thinking and behavior of each person.

Owen defines the experience in a vivid picture as he and his comrades become subjected under a gas chamber elimination process from the enemies. He describes the situation to be rather daunting and psychologically detrimental. In his poem he notes, the condition of his comrades as he says how the men appeared as ‘old beggars under sacks’ and how each individual seemed to have been ‘drunk with fatigue’ after the incident of being in the gas chambers. The soldiers who appeared hopeful and full of positive thoughts before the war years began lost their sense determination and seem to have just followed the commands of their generals, not even realizing what they were fighting for and what they are actually subjecting themselves under the warfare. The lost of hope and life even while they are still living became a dreadful picture that the army members had to deal with through the years of their involvement in the warfare. Owen describes the situation as he mentions in his poem these particular lines: “…if in some smothering dreams you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in and what the white eyes writhing in his face his hanging face like a devil’s sick of sin…”At the face of death, the soldiers try the best to hope for the possibility of engaging in a more definite source of life, something that could prove to them that what they are going through is all worth it.

The question of whether these conditions are worth the sacrifice identifies well with the distinct desire of determining the real value of one’s life as it is subjected to particular challenges of survival continues to linger through the lines of Owen’s poem. He points out that the life the members of the army thought to be specifically grandiose, hoping to receive a hero’s welcome when they come home from the battlefield, slowly becomes a lost cost when the battle begins. The realities of war specifically subject the members of the army in a constant demise of self-worth. They become highly involved in the course of determined survival for a personal cause.  A few weeks in service makes them relatively subjected to the course of living that is undefined, uncertain thus making them lose their essence of understanding what is meant by heroism and valor.

The visual presentation shown through Owen’s poem specifically determines the actual situation that all soldiers from all ages and all nations experience at present. True, they are still considered as heroes who are worthy of proper recognition. Nevertheless, would such recognition be worthy enough for one to lose ones’ being, and worse one’s life? The reality of war years and the situations that the war field subjects the soldiers into specifically provide a distinct indication on how much unworthy the sacrifices are. While these individuals master the training in the army fields within their camp, they begin to see the worthless value of their lives in relation to the mission they are aiming to fulfill.

What constitutes real heroism is the willingness of a person to die; and according to Owen’s poem, it also includes the need of one to engage in the willingness of losing one’s being into the warfare. It is a sacrifice not only of one’s strengths and efforts. It involves the need to subject one’s whole being into the brutality of the war. Most of time, the soldiers, young men in their early years, begin to lose the positivity of their vision on what life is. They begin to have a disillusioned thinking about the real worth of life, something that would likely determine their way of thinking even after they leave the service. In a way, the realities behind what war is makes a distinct impact on what the worth of being in the army is actually like and whether or not it is actually worth all the sacrifices that a person is willing to give.

Works Cited

Owen, Wilfred. The Complete Poems and Fragments, by Wilfred Owen; edited by Jon Stallworthy (W. W. Norton, 1984),

Stallworthy, Jon (1974). Wilfred Owen, A Biography. Oxford University Press and Chatto and Windus. p. 11.