The Experience of War essays

The Experience of War essays The nature of the Great War was one of horrible conditions the soldiers on the front line had to endure and the suffering of the civilian population at home. In the passage The Experience of War, we are given a first hand look into the conditions that both the soldier and the civilian had to go through during this difficult time. The letter from the soldier expresses his concern over the losses his regiment incurs as well as how the newspapers glorify what is happening on the battlefield. The excerpt from the diary of the Viennese women explains in detail the dilemma that the civilian population had to go through just to get a small serving of horsemeat and the civil unrest associated with it. World War I was an experience that educated all people on the home front as to the gruesome conditions that the soldiers had to go through during times of conflict. The media of the time presented the war as a romantic endeavour, an adventure that all men should not want to miss. This could not have been farther from the truth. Life in the trenches, on the front lines of the war was intolerable. Men sleeping in the wet mud, with little or no shelter, artillery smashing the earth all around you with their massive concussions and the whistle of bullets passing by your head. Death was an ever present thought which lingered in every soldiers mind. They were reminded of this constantly from the dead bodies that lay out of the trenches. The soldier in the passage has obviously accepted the fact that he is probably going to die when in the very first paragraph of the letter he bids farewell to all those that knew him as well as when he states that everybody must be prepared for death. Many soldiers tried to calm themselves about the prospect of death by saying that their life was in Gods hands and if they died, then it was not such a big deal since their soul belonged to God, suc...