Global issue: How do the traumatic experiences of soldiers in war affect their lives post war.

Global issue
Intro ● Introduce the global issue:

Literary Work Non-Literary Text

(1 min)
Text Overview Text Overview
● Text Intro: The literary work that I have ● Text Intro: the non-literary body of work I have selected is
selected is “disabled” by Wilfred Owen, A photograph by James natchwey entitled mourning a
It is about a solider who is currently Brother, which shows the after effects of war on the soldiers
recovering from an injury he suffered As well as their families. The aspects on which I will analyze
during the war. He sits in a wheelchair the picture are composition, body language, facial expression
and reflects over his past before joining and camera angles.
2 the army, his potential as an artist and ● BOW Background information:
how eager he was to join the army but The bodies of work I have selected are another two photos clicked
how badly it turned out. He was eager to By natchwey where one of them is a limbless soldier floating in a
join the army and so eager that he lied Pool and another is an injured soldier resting on the shoulders of his
about his age because through the Fellow soldiers. I believe these pictures bring out the global issue
propaganda he thought being a soldier Prominently as they both show the trauma experienced during war.
would be such a glorious life however he ● Author information:
soon finds out it isn’t as glorious as it James natchwey is a photographer who has been specialized in
was shown to be. 4 authorial choices Photojournalism and he has been documenting conflict disasters
which Owen used to emphasize the For 4 decades.
effect of the traumatic experiences are ● Context:
metaphors, symbolism, imagery and
juxtaposition.
● BOW Background information: The
literary bodies of work I have selected
are dulce et decorum Est and anthem for
the doomed youth as they were both
written whilst Owen was recovering
from his injuries in the hospital. This
shows that he was in a similar frame of
mind when he wrote the poems and the
poems both gradually explore the
traumatic aftermath of war on the
soldiers which relates to him being in the
hospital as he is recovering from his own
injuries suffered during the war.
● Author information:
● Context:
Purpose and audience Purpose and audience
● ●

Links and connections - GI statement Links and connections - GI statement

● How does the author develop the global ● How does the author develop the global issue in the BOW?
issue in the BOW? Some questions you might answer to create your GI statemen
Some questions you might answer to
create your GI statement: ○ How is the Global Issue presented in each work, and
○ By pairing the texts [in the BOW], what is exposed a
○ Through a comparison of the BOW, what element(s)
being criticized?
○ How is the Global Issue ○ By pairing the texts, what do we better understand o
presented in each work, and Global Issue?
what might this reveal?

The global issue is presented through disabled as

each stanza moves on there are comparisons
between the soldiers youth and the soldiers
current life which shows the affect of war on the
soldiers life after war.

○ By pairing the texts [in the

BOW], what is exposed about
the Global Issue?
○ Through a comparison of the
BOW, what element(s) of the
Global Issue do we see being
criticized?
○ By pairing the texts, what do we
better understand or see about
the impact of the Global Issue?

Justify the transnational nature of the issue

Introduction:

How do the traumatic experiences of soldiers in war affect their lives post war
The literary work that I have selected is “disabled” by Wilfred Owen, It is about a solider who is
currently recovering from an injury he suffered during the war. He sits in a wheelchair and reflects
over his past before joining the army, his potential as an artist and how eager he was to join the army
but how badly it turned out. He was eager to join the army and so eager that he lied about his age
because through the propaganda he thought being a soldier would be such a glorious life however he
soon finds out it isn’t as glorious as it was shown to be. 4 authorial choices which Owen used to
emphasize the effect of the traumatic experiences are metaphors, symbolism, imagery and
juxtaposition. The other two literary bodies of work I have selected are dulce et decorum Est and
anthem for the doomed youth as they were both written whilst Owen was recovering from his injuries
in the hospital. This shows that he was in a similar frame of mind when he wrote the poems and the
poems both gradually explore the traumatic aftermath of war on the soldiers which relates to him
being in the hospital as he is recovering from his own injuries suffered during the war. The non-
literary body of work I have selected is A photograph by James natchwey entitled mourning a
Brother, which shows the after effects of war on the soldiers As well as their families. The
aspects on which I will analyze the picture are composition, body language, facial expression
and camera angles. James natchwey is a photographer who has been specialized in Photojournalism
and he has been documenting conflict disasters for 4 decades. The bodies of work I have selected are
another two photos clicked By natchwey where one of them is a limbless soldier floating in a Pool
and another is an injured soldier resting on the shoulders of his Fellow soldiers. I believe these
pictures bring out the global issue Prominently as they both show the trauma experienced during war.

Literary:

One main theme being discussed in disabled is the tragedy of war, through a description of the
conflict as well as a constant juxtaposition between the current life of the soldier post war and the life
of the soldier pre going for war. This juxtaposition is used to emphasize the soldiers mournful
reminiscence of his life prewar. The juxtaposition is brought out from stanza 4 where the soldier
reminisces his youth where the trochee ‘now’ brings the reader back into the present as before that
they were reminiscing about the soldiers young days prewar. As the poet writes “back will never
brace” it emphasizes that post war due to injury he is a changed man and misses his youth. Another
authorial choice the author used to support the theme and relate to the global issue is metaphor.
When Owen discusses how he lost his youth to the war he employs a metaphor of how he “poured it
down shell holes till the veins ran dry”. In stanza 1 another metaphor used is “waiting for dark” which
could mean that the soldier is waiting for death since his life post war is so different compared to
prewar and all the trauma he felt during war that he doesn’t have the will to continue to live
anymore. Furthermore, a theme which is explored apart from the tragedy of war is the false
glorification of war in the eyes of young men as they view going to war as being heroes. This theme is
explored through authorial choices such as symbolism and imagery. The theme is brought out by the
line “look a god” in the context of wearing the uniform which proved how young men were convinced
through propaganda that the lives of soldiers are in fact glorious. In stanza two the joy of being a
solider is symbolized through the light imagery as the poet writes the town used to swing gay
however that is completely juxtaposed by the darkness which follows towards the end of the stanza.
The global issue is presented through dulce et decorum Est as imagery is used to represent the
soldiers as becoming disfigured and unrecognizable. This means that through the traumatic
experiences of the war the soldiers have drastic physical changes and after they go back to civilian life
they are not accepted as civilians. This further shows how soldier life is glorified however the same
people that had much respect for the soldiers are now unwilling to pay attention to them. There is
also intertextuality between disabled and dule et decorum Est as in disabled its stated that “all of
them touch him like some queer disease” where through context its understood that due to the
injuries suffered the once young and lively soldier is now not accepted by the community and is left
alone. The global issue is presented through anthem for the doomed youth as in anthem for the
doomed youth Owen uses vivid imagery to describe the trauma which the soldiers experience and
rather than directly talking about the impact of war on the soldiers the poet talks about the impact of
war on the soldiers and their families. The impact on the families is especially seen through the first
line “what candles may be held to speed them all” which refers to the candles to be a symbol of
mourning the loss of the soldiers who have been lost in the war.
Nonliterary bow-

Now the non literary body of work. A prominent theme which comes out is the loss due to war. In the
picture a high-level camera angle is used to establish the setting of a graveyard which sets a sad mood
through which the audience starts to sympathize and understand the pain of the person who is
mourning the loss of the soldier. Only one person mourning a soldier in a full graveyard displays how
war was idealized and so many young men fell into the trap however were falsely led into war and have
now suffered and lost their life. The single person mourning displays how the image of the soldiers post
war was ruined hence people don’t even visit the graves of\ the brave men who put their lives on the
line for their country. Moreover, the composition of the picture also shows the impact of war on the
soldiers. As discussed earlier the setting establishes the social image of soldiers, however the single
person mourning also displays how soldiers were dehumanized after war and the death of a soldier
hence made no impact on society since whenever one would fall people would expect another young
man to put their life on the line and have no respect for them afterwards. The picture is in landscape to
display more of the setting, and it is an objective picture hence there is no bias from the photographer.
The body language of the person mourning the soldier also brings out the loss they have felt as the
person has their hand on the graveyard almost as though they are wishing for the soldier to come back
and to not have gone for war in the first place. The facial expressions are not visible which adds onto
why the picture is objective and not subjective however one can assume that the person is sad because
of the loss of the soldier. The other two bodies of work that I have selected also relate to the global
issue as the picture with the soldier being carried out by other soldiers shows that people were
disinterested with what was happening with the soldiers lives and the only ones who truly understood
the trauma were the soldiers themselves. The picture with the man floating in water with no legs, it
displays how through the war the man lost his legs a huge part of who he was and presumably an
activity which he enjoyed before (swimming) he is no longer able to do due to the physical disability. The
way he floats around in the water makes it seem as though he has lost his purpose to live, not only
because of the loss of his limbs but also because of the traumatic experience he had serving. Seeing his
fellow soldiers passing away he might have felt like the lucky one to survive however being alone in the
swimming pool also proves that it was difficult for people to accept him as he is now and not have the
memory of who he was before the war.

To conclude, the global issue of the affect of war on soldiers lives post war is brought out through the
poem disabled by Wilfred Owen as well as the pictures by James natchwey. The poem has a rather
direct approach as it uses juxtaposition to bring out the global issue however also uses subtle techniques
such as metaphor, imagery and symbolism to display the global issue to fruition. The pictures by James
natchwey each have a unique approach to bringing out the global issue and use various technique s to
display the global issue.