Analyze of Tim O’Brien’s novel and Wilfred Owen’s poem

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Analysis of Tim O’Brien’s Novel and Wilfred Owen’s Poem
The two works by Wilfred Owen and Tim O’Brien are as a consequence of what the writers felt about World War One and the Cold War respectively. Duce et Decorum Est was written by Wilfred Owen as a reflection of his experiences as a soldier during the first world war. O’Brien in ‘’The Things they Carried” writes as though it is fictional, but he does tell of the experiences of soldiers during the cold war. The two writers illustrate the gory pictures of war as it happens in France and Vietnam during the First World War and the cold war respectively. The two works on war seem to target a common enemy, and that is the myth of the values of war. The losses of the First World War did not send a message worth respect hence the Second World War and later the Cold War. The architects of war seemed not to learn anything from all the losses occasioned by the wars. Different military strategies, technology, and politics existed at the different times but what remained constant is the tragedy of human life. Government and the army propaganda give praise to wars and lie to citizens how democracy and liberty among other values get promoted through combat. A close study of the two works unearths the true nature of war which contrasts in its entirety with government rhetoric on the virtues of war; war is a hopeless, ridiculous and disastrous affair.
Owen does not shy from stating the truth from the onset of his poem.

The words such as beggars, sacks, hags, and cursed in the opening lines of the verse show a life of depravity (Roberts). Figurative language gets well sued to drive the point home, falsehood of propaganda. Far from glorifying war, Owen presents the gory details of war. The first line of the poem paints the picture of the soldiers while in Vietnam; by the author’s grading, they resemble beggars. Owen uses smiles to create a grand opening (Roberts). From the first stanza, one tells of the gloom and hopelessness that soldiers faced while in Vietnam. Strangely, Owen is one kind of a person capable of creating art out of his lowest moments in life. What Owen tells all through the poem is a recollection of what happened, for him being one of the soldiers, the sonnet acts as a testimony. Owen did succumb to the war shortly after writing the poem (Roberts). The First World War gets referred to as the Great War, all for the losses occasioned. Preconceived notions about war get challenged by Owen through the graphics employed in the poem (Roberts). The sonnet does not lack in vivid images created at the heart of the battle. Owen achieves his mission of castigating the atrocities of war in a subtle manner.
Tim O’Brien just like Owen resorted to using literature to castigate wars. O’Brien in his fictional works that turn out to be a memoir of the fictional character Tim O’Brien tells of the horrors of the Vietnam War. Owen was an American soldier who served in the Vietnam War though he seems to distance himself from the Tim O’Brien in his works. Such as Owen, O’Brien does question the perceived ‘noble’ intentions of war (O’Brien 1). O’Brien intends to blur the line between fiction and fact; this results through the telling of the story from Tim O’Brien’s view, a fictional character that was at the Vietnam War. Through Tim O’Brien the created protagonist, O’Brien explores his emotions unaltered as if it were a memoir.
The Things They Carried gets narrated in a manner that makes readers confused about what are the intentions of the narrator. It is not by mistake that O’Brien casts doubt on his narrations; the Vietnamese War era was a confusing moment (O’Brien 2). The work of Tim O’Brien intends to illustrate the exact happening during the Vietnam War, that is, confusion and conflict. Confusion and conflict is not a theme limited to the work of O’Brien but extends to the entire Vietnam War literature genre. O’Brien struggles between fleeing to Canada and staying in the service but opts to keep serving (O’Brien 2). The struggle with self, tells of the desperate situation soldiers confronted. Although O’Brien provokes different thoughts about his works, few people remember to focus on the Vietnamese war where the events of the story occur. O’Brien drives readers away from forming an opinion on the Vietnam War while encouraging the same for storytelling and hearing. However, the horrors of the war do not escape a keen eye. The ambiguity in O’Brien’s storytelling signifies the unresolved war questions.
The two accounts of war tell of the same but in different ways. However, they do not fail in apportioning blame, to governments for their conniving ideas when it comes to wars. Human suffering gets suppressed in both accounts as illustrated by the writers. The writers voice their cries through literature with the hope that someday, the military and other government agencies would call war what it is and stop the beautification of a beast with terms such as sovereignty and democracy.

Works Cited
O’Brien, Tim. The things they carried. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.Roberts, David. “WILFRED OWEN – DULCE ET DECORUM EST, Text of Poem and Notes.” Warpoetry.Co.Uk, 2011, http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html.