Halting the Glacier: Routes of Anti-War Literature
War is a dark element of human history that most people of today’s generation have not experienced. ... We are the Sega generation” (“Kosovo War Quotes”). ... (“Kosovo War Quotes”)
Williams 2
Today, though, war is breathing its toxic gasps down the United States’ neck. We are on the brink of war with Iraq, and this “Sega generation” may quite possibly get to experience the tragedy dubbed “war. ... On the other hand, many of those who lived during periods of war used anti-war propaganda to denounce the horrors of human conflict. One type of this anti-propaganda is the anti-war novel. The authors of this method of literature use different fictional routes to imply their anti-war sentiments.
Of these cohorts who were mislead by the pro-war half-truths used by their governments, many died, many were injured, and many suffered, but few returned with songs of patriotism in their hearts. Generations of men and women have been lost via war, not only to death, but also to the obliteration of their minds and the collapse of their faith: faith in religion, faith in people, and faith in their home countries. ... in Kleist and Butterfield 68)
War’s influence on human lives directly influences the literature put out by those who undergo it. Human conflict has been a prevalent theme in literature since the beginning of the written word. The Bible, the most highly read and distributed (and to many the most important) piece of literature of all time, is packed with war. The Greeks, whose plays, poetry and stories are regarded as some of the first great literature, wrote of almost nothing but war. Most Greeks respected war and revered soldiers above most others. ... in Kleist and Butterfield 2)
Propaganda even existed within the Greek society; a song by the soldier-poet Tyrtaeus is the earliest known song that promotes war:
Noble is he who falls in front of battle
bravely fighting for his native land. ... (Annette Teffeteller, “The Glory Myth,” from The Spoils of War 137)
Throughout history, war has remained a ubiquitous literary theme. Whether promoting or denouncing it, literature has affected war and war has affected literature. Wars have been initiated as a result of certain works of the written word: many historians, along with President Abraham Lincoln himself, would say that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin started, or at least aided in starting the Civil War. ...
Some of the most celebrated of this war writing is modern American literature. Most of these are, of course, written in response to two of the greatest wars in history: World War I and World War II. These two conflicts were so incredibly catastrophic that
Williams 5
they produced virtually no positive reactions, therefore a majority of negative literature has come from them.
In summer of the year 1914, an event in Europe plunged the countries of that continent and eventually other countries as well into what has been called the most destructive war in history, World War I. ... It did, though, bring an unnecessarily large amount of countries into any variance that did arise (Faragher, Buhle, Czitrom, and Armitage, “World War I”).
By August both adversaries had bartered declarations of war. ... entry into the Great War on April 6 (Faragher, Buhle, Czitrom, and Armitage, “World War I”).
The destruction of the Great War dragged on for over four years and caused the death of millions of Europeans and Americans–Americans who questioned whether the war truly even concerned them or their country. ...
In 1939 an American named Dalton Trumbo published his World War I novel, Johnny Got His Gun, and settled himself among the superlative antiwar voices of his generation. ... Johnny was Trumbo’s response to World War I and to the events escalating in Europe at the time, being written during a time when war seemed impending. Trumbo intended Johnny to be a plea to the country not to get involved in these incidents: “If the book is any good at all it is good as an argument against war,” he wrote in February soon after finishing the novel, “and it will be utterly valueless if the country is either in war or in favor of war by the time it is published” (qtd. ... By the time it was published on September 3rd of 1939, the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact had already been signed, and World War II had officially begun only two days previously. ... Roosevelt signed a declaration of war against Japan and the United States entered World War II (Faragher, Buhle, Czitrom, and Armitage, “World War II”).
With the success of many war films such as The Big Parade (1925) and All Quiet on the Western Front (1931), and with Trumbo himself being known as a screenwriter, he decided on the idea of making Johnny into a film. ... Firstly, the war kept this goal out of reach until its end in 1945 as the movie industry had assumed a pro-war position in order to defend its profitable overseas markets. After the war, Trumbo was delayed yet again by a more personal incident; he had been a member of the Communist Party since 1943, and he declined to respond to questions before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 and was sent to prison. ... There were a number of projects presented with the intention of improving Johnny’s image, including an anti-war variety show starring Donald Sutherland (one of the stars of Johnny) and Jane Fonda
Williams 8
titled “Fuck the Army,” but none helped to revive the film.
To link to this page, copy the following code to your site:
All Papers Are For Research And Reference Purposes Only!
You may not turn these papers in as your own! You must cite our web site as your source!
