Analysis

This compares and contrasts two works , namely The Things They Carried ' by Tim O 'Brien and Dulce et Decorum Est ' by Wilfred Owen This is an interesting challenge , since the works in question are very different in form , one being a collection of short stories and another one being a poem . However , as subsequent analysis clearly shows , there are more commonalities between the two than dissimilarities

The first apparent commonality is the thematic preoccupation of the two works , namely the shocking disparity between the rhetoric of patriotism and horrors of war . Both

in the times of the First World War and Vietnam War , idealistic young men were persuaded by their governments that taking up arms and killing whoever that government designates as an enemy is an honorable task . However , all of them turned out unprepared for the cruel realities of war , such as death , suffering , and mayhem .Another similarity is the rich symbolism of the titles of both works Dulce et Decorum Est ' is the first part of the phrase that was often heard during the First World War , Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori . These are the lines from Horace 's second roman ode proclaiming the sweet propriety of death for one 's country (Ziolkowski 2005 ,

br 184 . In other words , the title of the Owen 's poem means that it is sweet and right to die for the motherland . The literary device used here is irony : there is nothing sweet and right about war instead , war...