What does he promise will result from his audience having fought and won? How do the soldiers turn his message into irony?

Write a paragraph length answer (100 word minimum) for each reading question. Include observations about basic literary elements (character, structure, plot, setting, tone, and theme for prose; theme, structure, rhyme, symbols, images, etc. for poetry). Include specific, parenthetically documented observations and/or short quotes from the unit readings to support each answer. Edit each response for clarity, conciseness, and correctness before the due date.
IMPORTANT: Avoid using online sources like Wikipedia, SparkNotes, Grade Saver, etc. in place of your own analysis. If you borrow ideas, words, or other information beyond the course text, they must be documented parenthetically and a Works Cited page included. Instead, emphasize and document your own understanding of the readings in responding to the prompts.
Please number your answers and leave out the prompts/questions in your submission. Introduce each answer by identifying author/title/theme being discussed.
Unit 4
Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) wrote one of the early patriotic poems of World War I (1914-18), a conflict that claimed 8+ million military dead, one third of whom succumbed to disease. Brooke was an established poet before the war and volunteered as soon as hostilities began. He died of blood poisoning aboard ship in the Aegean Sea, en route to the Battle of Gallipoli, having never seen action. Yet he was mourned as a national hero back in England. How does the narrator in “The Soldier” want to be remembered should he die in the war? What is the basis of the patriotic sentiment of the poem?
John McCrae (1872-1918) served as a medical doctor for Canadian forces in World War I (1914-18). He died of pneumonia shortly before the war ended. His poem “In Flanders Fields” was written after he had officiated at a funeral for a friend killed in the fighting near Ypres, Belgium in the spring of 1915. The image of the red poppy became a symbol of the war dead, largely because of the popularity of this poem. Who is the corporate narrator of “In Flanders Fields”? Who is the immediate audience? What is the message to that audience? What is the only hope for rest for the narrator? What is the connection to patriotism in the poem?
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) was decorated for bravery and wounded in the early months of World War I (1914-18). His support for the war shifted dramatically in response to his experience. He became a vocal critic of the war, including its shifting rationale. He questioned the competence of its leadership, both political and military. His poem “They” questions an unthinking leader’s support for the war from the point of view of ordinary soldiers tasked with the fighting. The bishop, a religious leader in the Church of England, makes a speech to motivate the troops. What is the thesis of his patriotic message? What does he promise will result from his audience having fought and won? How do the soldiers turn his message into irony? A saying of the time was: “Went to the war with Rupert Brooke and came home with Siegfried Sassoon.” How does this poem affirm that saying?
Optional Prompt: Compare the critique of leadership implied in Sassoon’s poem “They” with that of a war film like Strangelove (1964), Catch 22 (1970); Apocalypse Now (1979), Blackhawk Down (2001), Shooter (2007), The Hurt Locker (2008), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), 1917 (2019), or other.
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) wrote clear, vivid, starkly descriptive scenes of the front lines of World War I (1914-18). Like many soldiers he entered the war with patriotic zeal only to have his view of the war challenged by its protracted and violent realities. He writes of the particular horrors of a poison gas attack in “Dulce et Decorum Est.” How do the Latin words of lines 27-28 translate? Why does the narrator call these words “the old lie”? What is the basis for critiquing patriotism in the poem? What imagery does Owen use to establish his critique of patriotic fervor?
World War II (1939-45) continued the realignment of nations begun in World War I (1914-18), resulting in even wider destruction and higher casualties (21+ million military dead; 49+ million civilian dead). The experience of the ordinary soldier in war has been caricatured as “long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” Henry Reed’s (1914-1986) poem “Naming of Parts” describes the difficulty a trainee has in paying attention during a tedious lesson on firearms. What distracts him from “the lesson”? Contrast the emotions and physical descriptions of “Naming of Parts” with Randall Jarrell’s (1914-1965) “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner.”
Brian Turner (b. 1967) served seven years in the U.S. Army, including in Iraq. His poem “The Hurt Locker” focuses on the title metaphor. From the descriptions in the poem what is a hurt locker? What does it mean to “open” the hurt locker?
Optional Prompt: If you know the Academy Award winning film The Hurt Locker (2009), relate the title metaphor to both the film and the poem. What is the film’s main character, Sergeant First Class William James, motivated by above all else? What is his personal hurt locker?

Last Completed Projects