https://www.pinterest.com/pin/426153183465636670/
War is about despair because soldiers experience hopelessness in the face of the deaths of their fellow soldiers. At the start of the war, soldiers are hopeful and energized at the thought of going to war with the full support of their brothers in arms. But as the war progresses, they start losing comrades as well as hope every time one of them dies. They cannot make sense of why one person dies and another lives. After a while when they start realizing that they may not be able to go home, they get angry and despondent. The sight of their fallen fellow soldiers consumes their every thought of whether they are going to die or not. The shock of seeing a friend get blown up, forces one to spiral into a pit of despair. In this picture, the surviving soldier is sitting on a damaged cannon unable to cope with the fact that his friend just got killed. His face is in his hands because he is asking “why him and not me?”. One can see that at the bottom of the picture the surviving soldiers hat is on the ground depicting a sense of anger and frustration at the reality of war. This soldier is taking time to commemorate his brother in war by observing a moment of silence.
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ReplyDeleteMatt, I agree. War is the place where humans are most miserable. Losing the man next to you is like losing family, it could have been a sibling at home that you died next to and it would feel the same. The image you shared I depicted the same way, the man sitting on the cannon is grieving at the loss of his partner. I can imagine that after one loses someone close to them in battle they experience many different feelings. People grieve, deny, and even try to bargain to bring back their loved one. The definition of despair is "the complete loss or absence of hope". In war, soldiers have no time to dwell, the ones who get stuck in the past are the ones who give up. I guess one could say that war is fighting the feeling of despair no matter the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteThis post gives me a great insight on what soldiers deal with on a day to day basis. This makes me see what drives soldiers down and what gets the best of them. I think this image is also a great way to represent the argument being made. It makes me truly wonder how anyone can move on after seeing what they have seen. Overall, this post makes me think about what soldiers have to go through during war and how it changes them.
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