The Cruelty of War in Literature

The soldiers are poorly trained and do not have enough equipment to make them ready for the war. .
             Next, Owen uses an irony image of the soldiers "All went lame; all blind; drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of tired" (664) which also shows the impending doom and horror of war. Owen uses other literary device such as smile to describe the soldiers for instance when he describes them struggling to put on their gas masks. He uses also a vivid imaginary to show visions of hell through an unlucky soldier "flound'ring like a man in fire or lime" (664). The main goal of Own from these images is to send a message to the reader to not even think to experience something like this by using such vivid horrible imagery. The tone that Owen uses is unchanged throughout the poem. This tone is one of sadness and regret aimed at the effect of war on young men. The last few lines of the poem reveals Owen's pity for those, as himself, who were lied to about what war was and are now trapped by its endless effects on their consciousness.
             Just like Owen, Jarrell shows the horrific aspect of war in his poem and he is giving us an insight into war. "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell speaks both of the worthlessness and cruelty of war. He begins: "From my mother's sleep I fell into the State- And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze" (550) the gunner leaves the safety and the warmth of his mother womb to fall into the unsafe environment which is freezing belly of a high altitude bomber. In connecting the image of actual childbirth to war, Jarrell is stating that everyone born into world must eventually face death, some sooner than other. Many times, those combatants are very young, without enough training. Jarrell is using this poem to convey the fear of many young men who were taken away from their mother's comfort and shoved into this cruel situation.