My view on ‘Belonging’

Belonging is to find out the definiton of life and purpose of each individual’s exsistence. I believe the Board of Studies made every student to learn about this topic because it gives opportunity for the students to learn their own meaning of their own life and reasons for living. Because every single person in the world struggles in some point of their life, a person might ask these questions to themselves ‘Is this what I want in my life?’ or ‘What do I want to do in my life?’ Obviously these come in various forms, for example it could be whether choosing to go to university or TAFE, building intimate relationship or it could just be going to local library for some inspiration. Having knowledge on ‘belonging’ can enhance critical thinking and be proactive to certain situations in life.

Mental Case Youtube clip

The youtube clip showed the real footage of soldiers who were both mentally and physically disabled. The clip, with melancholic music on behind, showed various symptoms of mentally disabled soldiers. These include trauma from shell shocks which lead them to constant shivering and unrelenting fear, phobia to certain words such as ‘bomb’ and paranoia of getting killed. The clip gave viewers sense of feeling that horror does not finish when the war ends instead it could exsist in the form of mental illness.

The clip used various film techniques to convey the shocking symptoms of mental tourment these include, soundtacks, shot types and close ups. Throughout the clip, it is evident that the composer used melancholic music to constantly frighten the viewers, close up shots to clearly show mentally unstable soldiers and medium to long range shots to show viewers that vast amount of soldiers have been both mentally and physically disabled. Narration also provides us with information and situation during war that the soldiers felt.

The theme of Wilfred Owen’s poem Mental Case is similar to the film as it presents horror of the disabled soldiers. Owen used various language techniques to convey the shocking symptoms of metal tourments felt by the soldiers, which include use of rhetorical question, alliteration and connotation.

The poem begins with the introduction of rhetorical question which quoted as ‘Who are these?’ ‘Why sit they here in Twilight’ This quote is purposely made grammatically incorrect by Owen because he wanted readers to think that the poem was addressed by mentally disabled person, this creates horror to the reader as it shows how once normal person could become so mentally unstable. When Owen quoted ‘lungs that had loved laughter’ shows the image of soldiers that they once happy. Throughout the poem there are many connotation that are evident for example ‘sunlight’ as something beautiful and ‘ravished’ as negative connotation for seize and carry off

disabled Youtube clip

The footage showed the aftermath of soldiers after world war 1. There is no word that can describe the cruelty of war as the clip showed countless number of vicitms who were both physically and mentally disabled. The clip gives us understanding of how war can inflict permanent damage for their entire life. The footage did not just show aftermath of war but how humanity can create something beyond hell as to war.

The crippled soldier shown in the begining of the film clearly shows physical damage caused during the campaign, and it is obvious that these soldiers will never be able to stand on two feet which could have enourmous trauma for rest of their life. This idea is similar to the poem Disable by Wilfred Owen as the poem is about a young man who was sporty and popular among girls enlisted into war. This man ended up losing his leg and nightmare was just the begining as the poem described his rest of life living in an institution alone.

Both footage and owen’s poem is a powerful source of realist perspective of war. They give us not only information but feelings and emotions of the soldiers who faught in war. I believe the producer of the footage and Wilfred Owen addressed to the future generations that the war is never glorious or honourable thing and consequences are beyond imagination.

Dulce Et Decorum Est youtube clip

The youtube clip showed various propaganda posters present at the time of war. These posters described war as adventurus and heroic by using image of soldiers who seemed to look excited. It also introduced emotive words such as fight, at the front, take up the sword of justice, to give impression to the reader positive sense of war. Popular music at the time has been added to the slideshow to enhance this imagery of glory to fight for their country. These does not only glorify the war but persuading young man to fight for their country. In contrast Wilfred Owen described war as completely diffrent to the clip as he defined war as hopeless and there is nothing glorious or adventurus about war. Wilfred Owen’s poem Dulce Et Decorum Est describes this idea to great extent.

From the poem’s title, Dulce Et Decorum Est means in Latin, sweet and glorious which obviously is an irony that Owen used, because throughout the poem he introduced conditions in war such as  horrible conditions in the frontline and trench, gas attack that made soldiers to choke and die and wounded soldiers treated badly. For example when Owen used alliteration, which is quoted ‘All went lame All blind’ clearly shows the consequences of  wound done by both weapon and the gas. This use of alliteration shows how every soldier did not survive any attack thus gives reader a sense of horror.  Owen used metaphors, personal language  and emotive words to convey the horror of the gas attack, for instance he quoted ‘As under a green sea I saw him drowning’. This quote shows the image of soldier who has been gas attacked to get drowned by the green gas which he most likely has been killed. This poem did not only criticized the propaganda, but how people in power brain wash the mass which has been practised since the Roman poet Horace was around. The old lie ‘ Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori’ which means It is sweet and glorious to die for ones country has been introduced in the last stanza of the poem to convey how this irony has been continually used throughout history.

In conclusion there is no truth about dieing for ones country is glorious.  According to Owen, the truth in war involved not adventurus, heroic and glorious but hopeless, sadness and indignation.

Futility Youtube clip

If you were a composer, what images and sounds would you use to convey ideas and feelings in the poem Futility?

If I was a composer I would use variety of disturbing images, sound clips and horror music to convey the feelings in the peom futility. The distrubing  images I will be using will be those pictures taken at the time on the battlefield which include dieing soldiers and raging weapons such as artilleries and tanks. I will be adding sound clips such as gunfire and bombing to give viewers strong impact of the battlefield. In Futility Wilfred Owen juxtaposed the peaceful countryside with the battle at  Western Front in France, I might consider adding a picture of a peaceful countryside which suddenly changes with artillery strike sound track on background into battlefield which clearly shows horrible pictures of the trench and the massacred soldiers. This sudden unexpected change will give viewers a shocking feeling thus more horror can be achieved to the viewers.