Since the birth of communication, media has been used to convey information to those willing to absorb it. Beginning with publications and simple spoken words, and soaring to new heights in the twentieth century with radio, television, and the internet, media have been made accessible to people in every aspect of their daily lives. With such a strong hold on modern society, mass media have been able to shape popular culture and often influence public opinion. However, when abused, the power of media can harm the general population. Biased media tend to make people strive to be someone else’s idea of perfect while subconsciously ignoring their own goals. Stereotypes formed by the media that include thin, tanned women, and wealthy, muscular men have led to a decline in self-acceptance. The majority of media today often present the perfect body to the public, hoping that consumers will strive to achieve fitness using a certain product or idea. While this form of advertising may somewhat increase a product’s market share, many people suffer from inner conflicts as a result of failure to achieve the body of a top athlete or fashion model.
Along with emotional conflicts, those influenced by the media have encountered physical problems, including bulimia, anorexia, and the employment of harmful dietary plans. Unless reality is discerned from what is presented in certain media, some people will continue to suffer. Consumers could find the truth more easily if media offered products advertised by normal people without all the extra glamor. In addition to this, if the public could view advertising only as something to get one’s attention and not a portrayal of how one should look, there would be fewer problems. Until either is accomplished, the negative effects will be felt by the vulnerable, and companies will continue to make their money.
Those consumers given a false impression about a product through various forms of media are the ones who suffer most from our society’s portrayal of the perfect body. After being influenced by a television commercial or a magazine pictorial, certain people in this world will purchase an item hoping that the same success shown in the medium will be had by them as well. The truth of the matter is that this hardly ever happens. Every day, ugly people wear sensual cologne, and slow runners wear Carl Lewis track shoes.
Use of Imagery and Metaphor in Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est
Use of Imagery and Metaphor in Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est
Through vivid imagery and compelling metaphors “Dulce et Decorum Est” gives the reader the exact feeling the author wanted. The poem is an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen and makes great use of these devices. This poem is very effective because of its excellent manipulation of the mechanical and emotional parts of poetry. Owen’s use of exact diction and vivid figurative language emphasizes his point, showing that war is terrible and devastating. Furthermore, the utilization of extremely graphic imagery adds even more to his argument. Through the effective use of all three of these tools, this poem conveys a strong meaning and persuasive argument.
To have a better understanding of the poem, it is important to understand some of Wilfred Owen?s history. Owen enlisted in the Artists? Rifles on October 21st 1915. He was eventually drafted to France in 1917. The birth of Owen?s imagery style used in his more famous poems was during his stay at Craiglockhart War Hospital, where he met Siegfried Sassoon (another great war poet). Owen?s new style (the one that was used in “Dulce et Decorum Est”) embelished many poems between August 1917 and Septermber 1918 (Spartacus Internet Encyclopedia). On November 4, 1918, Wilfred Owed was killed by enemy machine gun fire as he tried to get his company across the Sambre Canal (Lane 167). The poem tells of a trip that Owen and his platoon of exhausted soldiers had while they were painfully making their way back to base after a harrowing time at the battlefront when a gas shell was fired at them. As a result of this, a soldier in his platoon was fatally gassed.
Owen has arranged the poem in three sectio…
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…rase “Dulce et decorum est pro partria mori” means, “It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country.” Owen calls this a lie by using good diction, vivid comparisons, and graphic images to have the reader feel disgusted at what war is capable of. This poem is extremely effective as an anti-war poem, making war seem absolutely horrid and revolting, just as the author wanted it to.
Works Cited
Lane, Arthur E. An Adequate Response. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1972.
Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce et Decorum Est”. Literature and the Writing Process. Fifth ed. Ed. Elizabeth McMahhan, et al. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. 582-583.
“Owen, Wilfred,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000.
htt://encarta.msn.com
“Wilfred Owen.” Spartacus Internet Encyclopedia 2000.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jowen.htm