Individual vs. Society HW

[Soontir C'boath]

I have a question that is based from my homework and I need help.

Ok i'm analyzing a poem about a a squad that is retreating from the front and going home tired etc. Until they hear gas shells and run...one of the soldiers died from the poison gas while retreating from the enemy. The man is put on a wagon and another soldier walks behind the wagon seeing the dead man as he march and says that the way he died does not go with the famed quote "It is sweet and dignified to die for one's country".

Now I know that poison gas is an undignified way to die....but what I don't understand is how is this a case of Individual vs Society..

Thoughts? Cause i'm stumped

Cyaround,
Jason

[jaeger115]

Hmm, it could reflect Society fucking around with the Individual's mind by feeding the Individual the lie that it's sweet to die for one's country in war.

[neoolong]

It is the worth of the individual vs. the worth of the society. Is it worth it for a man to give up his life for his society? But here, he is not really dying for his country since he died while retreating from battle. So was it still some noble thing? Or some such stuff like that.

[Frank_Scenario]

I've never heard of "Dulce et Decorum est" being an issue of the individual against society. It's antiwar, obviously, and the author was a British infantryman, IIRC. I guess it could be an expression of his conflict with a society that saw WWI as worthwhile. He's going against the norm with his poem. I don't know if that will qualify.

And if you're not talking about "Dulce et Decorum est" then ignore everything I've just said.

[Colonel Olrik]

I have a question that is based from my homework and I need help.

Ok i'm analyzing a poem about a a squad that is retreating from the front and going home tired etc. Until they hear gas shells and run...one of the soldiers died from the poison gas while retreating from the enemy. The man is put on a wagon and another soldier walks behind the wagon seeing the dead man as he march and says that the way he died does not go with the famed quote "It is sweet and dignified to die for one's country".

Now I know that poison gas is an undignified way to die....but what I don't understand is how is this a case of Individual vs Society..

Thoughts? Cause i'm stumped

Cyaround,
Jason

It's very easy, at least the way I see it.

Individually, it doesn't make sense to put yourself in a dangerous situation, even more when the personal potential gains are non existant. It's against every one of our instincts.

We fight willingly when our life is in danger, or of our loved ones. The people sent to Iraq are fighting not because they are feeling threatned, but because they're ordered to by the government (society). So, they're not following the basic instincts of self preservation we all have, as men.

The nation-state wars of the last centuries have been like that. Basically, the individual never had nothing to say about how the governments manage the crisis and the wars.

edit: For fucks sake, Iraq's just an example, probably not a good one. Replace it with the Napoleonic wars, instead. I didn't mean that the US military doesn't think the war is fair.

[Soontir C'boath]

That's what freakin stumps me...this whole entire poem is about Dulce Et Decorum Est....it's EVEN THE FREAKIN TITLE!!!

Edit: After reading your post Olrik...I think I know what your saying and i'll add it. Thanks..

Though.....i need to ponder further heh. Thanks a lot everyone.

Cyaround,
Jason

[salm]

society says it´s sweet and great to die for your country.
the individual, the infantry man, says dying for your country is as sweet as great as being picked up by a waterbomber while scooba diving.

[AdmiralKanos]

It is noble to die for a noble cause, presuming that the cause is, in fact, noble. But living would be better still. One of the major advancements in the nature of war over the last century has been the recognition that the soldier's life has value, and they are not cannon fodder.

In short, it's not so much that he died while retreating, as the fact that the reality of war is considerably less glamourous and dignified than the fantasy.

[Soontir C'boath]

In other words, they hype about war. Heh. Hmmm...HEEY!!..that's good.

Cyaround,
Jason