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  • Essay / Wilfred Owen's depiction of suffering among disabled people

    Wilfred Owen's poem Disabled forms a narrative following an anonymous soldier through six stanzas, containing vignettes of fragments of his life, contrasting his consciousness, and therefore his knowledge, throughout. By focusing on the consequences of the war, Owen focuses on the hope and purity of the young soldier before, to juxtapose with the destruction of the latter, now "disabled", this label forming his identity. This central idea of ​​the poem is reinforced by the fact that he is depicted not only from the soldier's point of view, but also from how others perceive him, primarily women - which determines his worth. From the first line of the poem, Disabled, Owen emphasizes the role of the soldier. isolation; "Waiting for darkness", suggests that he is not distracted from his own thoughts and thus the narrator depicts the lack of value he gives to his life, not waiting for morning, a new day, but rather “darkness”, expressing the futility of life. following the war. Owen further reinforces the idea of ​​soldiers stuck between life and death, even after the war is over, by referring to the "horrible gray suit" that this soldier wears, "horrible" akin to "ghostly", with connotations of death. , but not quite, echoing his borderline existence. In the last stanza, Owen describes the soldier as not being "whole", giving the idea that his life is not able to achieve the full capacity that other men possess, as well as his physical deficiency. Owen emphasizes the need to end with the repetition of “why aren’t they coming?” " when the soldier wants to be put "to bed", perhaps also implying the control of a higher power over his life, as well as the soldier's simple lack of autonomy or ability to care for himself . This idea of ​​sleep, which begins and ends the poem, is presented as comfort, a sense of finality for the soldier, and yet the repetition in the last line suggests a continuing cycle of routine, Owen potentially communicating that war leaves no one . .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Owen describes the control that war inflicts on an individual, providing, in contrast, that the soldier willingly 'threw his knees', 'poured ['his color'] into the shell holes'. By blaming the victim, while juxtaposing this, by describing his innocence, "his face / younger than his youth", Owen portrays this soldier, among many other young soldiers, as victims of war and military system. who thrived on their youthful ignorance and naivety. This depiction is reinforced by Owen's comparisons between war and a game in Disabled. In the third stanza he describes the war as a "burning race", the thrill and speed of which is enhanced by the whistling sounds provided by "race" and "accolade", three lines above, and yet this is clearly due to the disparity of meaning conveyed. in these two lines, "race", of exuberant energy and "the back will never prepare", of incapacity, both figuratively and literally. In the fourth stanza, Owen illustrates the nostalgic image of a football match and the sense of accomplishment of a wound when the soldier is "lifted to shoulder height", which he contrasts later, in the fifth stanza, with the few who “encouraged him to return home”. '; the soldier reflects on the fact that it is not “while the crowd applauds the goal”. Likewise, instead of a sense of honor following an injury, it is seen as "a strange illness", immediately expressing the poignant differencebetween the games of youth and war, even if the soldier initially only considered it within the limits of his own knowledge. in which this soldier decides to go to war, and many others join groups like buddy battalions or under the influence of others, is criticized by Owen, especially in the casual and childish nature of the fact that the This soldier's priority is to "please" others, which is repeated, rather than thinking for himself, as he does now, in the present where Owen is using it to contrast, as "he wonders why". Yet Owen is actually more strongly critical of the military system which allows war to be a conversation of childish jokes and drunkenness, and which further allows young men to "lie" about their age, as Owen describes them as “smiling”. The rapid change in the young man's idea of ​​war is illustrated not only in the language and shift between past and present throughout the poem, but also in the shift from a regular ABAB rhyme scheme at the beginning of the poem to a more irregular rhyme scheme, creating a rhyme every three lines in some cases. This, along with the extra feet in many lines, destroying regular iambic pentameter, perhaps illustrates the breakdown of expectations and, indeed, of the mind and body. In this way, Owen communicates the young men's inability to know better and thus depicts their vulnerability to an unjust military system that cares little for the promising lives of young men and instead preys on them and their youthful ignorance. focuses on the hope that these soldiers, when young, possess, in its vivid description of the "city" as it "sways", but the "bright lamps budded in light blue trees" suggest a layer of artifice to their existence, Owen also critiques the idea that the purpose and quality of young men's lives is defined by the presence and favor of women. In the second stanza, Owen depicts the promising and fulfilling life as one consisting of "girls" who "appeared more beautiful as the air grew dark", the repetition of the "l" sound as well as the assonance suggesting a feeling of playful indulgence, and yet a revulsion towards their changing and seemingly superficial attitudes towards men, and the effect this has on them, is evident in the contrast between describing their hands as "warm" and "subtle » and then touch the soldier "like a strange disease", a total opposition of meaning and sound. Owen also returns to this theme at the end of the poem, as the thought that makes the soldier only want to sleep is the "gaze of women" passing "from him to the strong men who were whole." Although love and care are clearly important to soldiers, especially when they return home and find no respite, Owen may not like women because they increase the struggle imposed on them. war alone, particularly because of the role they “please” on his volunteering. and the necessity they have in a man's happiness. Therefore, this low representation of women potentially reflects both the soldier's disappointment and Owen's dislike of their ability to provoke her. The lack of attention from women perhaps also reinforces the soldiers' lack of identity due to their injuries. In the first line of Disabled, the first detail the reader learns about this man is that he is sitting "in a wheelchair", as if that is the most important part of his identity, all that he is NOW. This stark realization is at the heart of the poem and recurs throughout; it is also described as a "bizarre disease", something inhuman, an irregularity in society,.