Reading Testament of Youth, war as an experience really struck me as a theme at the beginning of the selected readings. The poetry of Rupert Brooke is mentioned as one of the readings that the young Vera Brittain reads in her studies while Roland is away at the front. Brooke’s poetry is almost extreme in how it romanticizes and idealizes war as almost a cultural experience. For Brooke and his audience, fighting in World War I was an opportunity for glory that shouldn’t be missed by any young men.
Brittain is skeptical of Brooke’s themes, and her skepticism made me think of how words and literature affect those who are not at war, but are awaiting the ones they love to return. Brittain can only hear of her Roland through the letters that he sends and the news that comes through the papers. As she puts it, ” In desperation I began to look carefully through his letters for every vivid word-picture, every characteristic tenderness of phrase, which suggested that not merely the body but the spirit that I desired was still in the process of survival” (Brittain 107).
In the current news, reading of the attacks by Israel on Gaza Strip, even after the recent withdrawal of Israeli troops, makes me wonder if people here in the US who have family just hold their breath every time a story comes out like the one today, where “An Israeli air strike on a car in the southern Gaza Strip has killed a Palestinian and wounded at least three others, reports from Gaza say” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7864652.stm). How angry must these families be when they see poetry by people like Brooke, or when they see news editorials glorifying all the various conflicts around the world. For those who have loved ones fighting, or even those who have loved ones in war-torn areas, war is a struggle of daily emotional survival, and there is very little honor involved.
February 8, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I really find the whole discussion of the patriotism of those like Rupert Brooke very interesting. It is almost a necessity for some like Brooke to exist, or no one would ever join the military. If everyone spouted the vehement or disturbing words of Siegfried Sassoon or Wilfred Owens, who in their right mind would sign up for military service? That’s just my opinion. Maybe if there were no Rupert Brookes — no one around to describe war in such high and mighty, glorious terms — there would be a decrease in the number of wars? I’m just throwing ideas out there, I’m not sure what the case would be. Maybe there would be no difference (?).
Regardless of what the case is, there is no denying that those who actually see combat and the viciousness that war bring out in men tend to have a near-complete disdain for the musings of those like Brooke. War is not a glorious thing. To die for one’s country is not beautiful; it is still death. I find this to be especially interesting when this coming week’s reading “The Ghosts May Laugh” is taken into account. Will people recognize the “beautiful sacrifice” that soldiers made on an individual basis 50 years from now? Would humans risk going to war and facing arbitrary death if we KNEW there was no afterlife, that is life is all we get? Interesting questions.
February 10, 2009 at 11:37 am
While I think that poetry from Brooke was necessary, they are often too romanticized. War is a brutal thing that costs us many lives. We see that in history and we see that today with what is going on it Gaza, Iraq, and in Afghanistan. I don’t know how I would have been able to handle living in the time during Vera Brittan. With the technology we have today, we can see news stories pretty much as they happen. We can talk with people who are overseas with such ease as email and text messaging.
While reading Vera’s “Testament of Youth,” I could almost feel her pain and her desperation while she was waiting for any sort of letter from Roland and then later, Edward. It would break my heart not knowing right away if something was wrong with the one I loved.
Even today, in a day and age where our technology is improved over Vera’s time, we still may not find out right away if our loved one has died. Out in the battlefields, word may not get out to us right away. I guess I am lucky enough to have not experienced this at all. I don’t know if I would want to have a loved one go into war. I like being able to know things right away.
April 13, 2009 at 11:21 pm
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