Bullets flying through the air right over me, my knees are shaking, and my feet are numb. I see familiar faces all around me dodging the explosives illuminating the air like lightning. Unfortunately, numerous familiar faces seem to disappear into the trenches. I try to run from the noise, but my mind keeps causing me to re-illustrate the painful memories left behind. The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
In the story “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, the reader is enlightened about a boy who was mentally and emotionally drained from the horrifying experiences of war. The father in the story knows exactly what the boy is going through, but he cannot help him, because everyone encounters his or her own recollection of war. “When their faces are contorted from sucking the cigarette, there is an unmistakable shadow of vulnerability and fear of living. That gesture and stance are more eloquent than the blood and guts war stories men spew over their beers” (Zabytko 492). The father, as a young man, was forced to reenact some of the same obligations, yet the father has learned to let go of the past, while the son is still caught in the presents of the war.
The son’s memories of the war seem to overpower his ability to interact socially with family and friends. The father can only hope and pray that his son will one day regain the emotional stability that he used to have before the affects of Vietnam. In the poem “Song of Napalm,” it is a straight narrative of what it is like to live with memories from such a horrible war. “Song of Napalm” follows a Viet Nam soldiers’ memories of a scene he once saw. His mind tries to distort the image of a girl getting bombed and burning in front of his eyes into a pleasant scene.
The effort to make the scene pleasurable is the mind’s way of trying to protect itself from the horrific incident that actually happened. I was sane enough to pause and breathe Outside my wild plans and after the hard rain I turned my back on the old curses, I believed They swung finally away from me… (17-20 page 1154). Weigl is trying to shelter his mind from the unbearable effects of war.
But in the end, he cannot maintain the self-deception, and must face the cold, hard truth. The irony in the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” is that it is not sweet and fitting to die for one’s country when you have actually experienced war. Owen is describing how psychologically and physically exhausting World War I was for the soldiers that had to tolerate such a cruel suffering and not how patriotic and honorable it was. It shows the true life of a soldier, lying low, ill, endlessly marching through mud with bloody feet, away from and into the pain of gas poisoning of comrades, and away from the injured and dead. Yet they will never be able to get away from the memories. “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (15-16 page 761).
It ends with a bitter attack on those who see glory in the death of others. Owen makes images and actions familiar, even to those who have never experienced war. All the individuals within these stories are feeling the emptiness and over whelming fears that most soldiers have of war. The men in all three narratives want the chance to be free from the nightmares, flashbacks, and hallucinations so they can return to normal. Sometimes when men return from war, they can forget all disturbing events that took place. On the other hand, when returning, some men are so emotionally and mentally drained a number of them will loose their families and friends or remain psychologically insecure.
Works Cited Owen, Wilfred “Dulce et Decorum Est.” Robert’s pages 760-761 Robert, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs. Literature: Introduction to Reading and Writing. 7 th Ed.
Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2004. Weigl, Bruce. “Song of Napalm.” Robert’s pages 1154-1155 Zabytko, Irene. “Home Soil.” Robert’s pages 489-494.