… ty. The soldiers became enraptured in paranoia from being exposed to these deadly elements. “Carnage incomparable,” and “human squander rucked too thick for these men’s extrication”/ “therefore still there eyeballs shrink tormented back into their brains, because on their sense sunlight seems a bit blood-smear (17-20).” As sun breaks they receive none what to light them, but only, “an awful falseness of set-smiling corpses (Mental Cases, 24).” These men are utterly defenseless in the foreign realm, barren and dead in spite of the oceans of gas and raining shells; they become disabled. They are defenseless to reclaim their lives; “now he will never feel again how slim girls’ waists are (Disabled, 12) / “all of them touch him like some queer disease (13) /”he’s lost his color very far from here, poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry, and half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race (18).” The men go into the war urged by “the old lie (Dulce et Decorum est, 28).” They believe that glory and honor is more grand than what they know, however, war they find is vacuous and deadly. There “receding voices will not return (But I Was Looking At The Permanent Stars, 9).” The beauty they once know is fleeting in times of war and old images dissipate.
As the soldiers watched the stars they slowly began to dissipate, and counting them all one by one they checked just to make sure they were there, however, like the light of many they have slowly emanated away. Owen contrasts the Hemingway , by displaying the realities of war, diverging them from the epic and heroic displays of the classic heroes. The Hemingway code hero specifically abides by a principled set of ideals honor, valor, endurance, and overwhelming courage. If a character is able to portray these traits in the face of danger than he can be deemed a code hero. The code hero is the ideal man, displaying the classic masculine traits such as self-control, self-reliance, strict morals-although fitting into his own set of values and most importantly fearlessness.
The Hemingway code hero cannot be scared of anything, even death. He tries to combat it but must eventually, courageously fear death and overcome it. During the warfare the code hero is not plagued with regrets or any sentiments of guilt and pain. He is meant to exemplify the perfect man without fear.
The code hero believes in “Nada,” or nothing. This greatly contrasts Owen’s deadbeat soldier. Plagued with exhaustion, grief and disillusionment, the deadbeat soldier is meant to be pitied, and acts as a representation for why not to go to war; he is pathetic and utterly wretched. “Lay stupid like a cod, heaving like meat”/ “ill do ’em in, he wined”/”he sent him down at last, out of the way (The Deadbeat 2-12).” He is meant to be an exemplification of all the evils or war, the code hero, however is valor and dashing even in the midst of war. There’s no talk of rotting blood or vile images, the most graphic display in a Hemingway story might be the main character getting slugged and wiping the residue of spit and blood from the side of his unshaven face. The code hero is plagued with fears and personal hells, but he is expected to overcome it; while not showing fear or loss of commitment.
Santiago, in The Old Man and the Sea, faces a near death experience; he must overcome this huge monstrous fish equaled to him in size and might all while displaying the same traits. He must never give up, and if he does he’s a coward. The deadbeat soldier has already essentially given up on life. He is a dead man walking. Owen curses the expectations that Hemingway sizes men up to. Courage he believes is given to those undeserving of it, valor is falsely built into the backbone of the youth and to die for one’s country is foolish.
Hemingway forces his characters to go up against these enormous tasks, which until they pass, they are not men. The code hero is also not allowed to show emotion or complain. The differences in the deadbeat soldier and the code hero represent the split between what Owen coined the “old lie (Dulce et Decorum est, 28) ” and the new fight. Owen was idealism’s strongest opponent. The idea of cheering crowds and lush rewards is what sucked young men into the war. He battles the “old lie (28) “, that is told to children eager for glory; “dulce et decorum est (28),” – it is sweet to die for one’s country.
He denounces romantically heroic war idealism and condemns the people who sit at home and beat patriotism into their children. War is not glory, honor; pink cherubim babies will not one day here of a man’s heroic displays, rather their story will go down into the frothing ocean of rising gas. Through his vivid displays, Owen tries to rip the implanted romanticism ideology and guilt imbedded by parents. Owen demands that parents not tell their children about the war, meaning any ideology they have built up since the revolution, with such enthusiasm and prestige; he exposes the truth. “My friend, you would not tell with high zest; to children ardent for some desperate glory, to old lie dulce et decorum est pro patria moni (24-28).”Patting goodbye, doubles they had told the lad he’d always show the Hun a brave man’s face; father would sooner him dead than in disgrace, – was proud to see him going, aye, and glad (S. I.
W, 1-4).”Perhaps his mother whimpered how’d shed fret until he got a nice, safe wound to nurse. Sisters would wish girls too could shot, charge, curse… (4-8).” The “old lie (28),” would blind people, would instill them with courage and not prepare them. As soldiers suffered, ” his eyes grew old with wincing, and his hand reckless with age (S. I. W, 13-15).”Courage leaked, as sand from the best sandbags after years of rain”/ “but never leave, wound, fever, trench-foot, shock”/”death sooner than dishonor, that’s the style’s o father said” /”that’s the style, death sooner than dishonor;” put on a brave man’s face (15-20).” The soldiers will die surrounded by sweltering lies; die for your country-that’s the American spirit.
Reasons for going to war, were both many and few, few right, many wrong, dew true, many false; they were not even their own. It was too deadly, so that daddy could feel honorable and mother can feel pride for her son’s paper thin scars. The war was so impersonal, it was just another extent of idealism. Most soldiers neither knew what they were fighting for or who they were fighting against. The American spirit, was their lingo and honor and courage was their dying breath- to die for Uncle Sam was their epithet.
Owen sometimes compares the government and the soldier to that of the Roman’s and Christ. Owen emphasizes the souls of the soldiers by saying “blood all over our soul (Metal Cases, 20).” He talks of “black-blooded (Mental Cases, 12) “, representing the devil’s blood in blood spilt. The men are in hell “sleeping, and walking hell, but who these hellish (Mental Cases, 9).” These men are in their own personal hells on earth. He compares a soldier to Christ who’s disciples have left him. “One ever hangs where shelled roads part. In this war he too lost a limb, but his disciples hide apart (At a Calvary near the Ancre, 1-4).
The government represents the priests. “Near Golgotha strolls many a priest, and in their faces there is pride that they were flesh-marked by the Beast by who the gentle Christ’s denied”/ “the scribes on all the people shave and bawl allegiance to the state, but they who love the greater love lay down their life, they do not hate (At a Calvary near the Ancre, 4-9).” That they were flesh-marked by the beast symbolizes the soldiers giving into the government or the devil, and they have sold their souls by joining the army. They are the priest who are a part of the war yet do nothing and berate the soldiers. They smile with prideful faces in feelings that they are doing something. They “Bawl allegiance” to the state, while the soldier’s”/ Christ “lay down their life (At a Calvary near the Ancre, 10-13).” In the parable of The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, Owen compares Abraham to that of a father who is ” a military architect for his son’s doom (W. O Association, 356),” and the son to Isaac.
“Then Abraham bounded the youth with belts and straps and built parapets and trenches there, and stretched forth the knife to slay his son (The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, 7-11).” Isaac is betrayed by his father and murderers that he may have more glory symbolizing the government and soldiers. The reasons why the men chose to go into war are shown as foolish and not self-controlled. “It was after football, when he’d drank a peg, He thought he’d better join- He wonders why (Disabled 23-24).”Smiling they wrote his lie: age 19 years. Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt, And Austria’s, did not move him. And no fears of Fear came yet.
He thought of jeweled hilts For daggers in plaid socks; of smart solutes; And care of Arms; and leave; and pay arrears. This was the “old lie (28),” imbedded in the young men. “There was no glory, little or no honor; Some cheered him home, but not as a crowd cheers a goal (Disabled, 37-39).” Owen tries to discard the “old lie (28),” through his war poems and through smart prose creates a plausible contradiction to classical ideas of heroism and romanticism.