Beyond the Poster: Unveiling the Realities of War and the Trauma of Soldiers in Literature from WWI to Vietnam
Category
Creative Works
Department
English
Student Status
Graduate
Research Advisor
Dr. Lori Martin
Document Type
Event
Location
Sunflower
Start Date
10-4-2025 10:40 AM
End Date
10-4-2025 10:40 AM
Description
Recruitment posters from World War I, Il and the Vietnam War all had a common theme: displaying the duty and bravery of those who chose to put their country first by enlisting. These posters promised a romanticized heroism and a revered future where freedom is achieved for all. But the reality of these conflicts was rooted in an imperialist cycle at the expense of millions of people. This presentation aims to exhibit and understand not only the atrocities that soldiers experience but their inability to re-inhabit their societies as a result of mental, emotional, and physical disabilities as illustrated by Tim O'Brien, Ernest Hemingway, and Kurt Vonnegut in their novels that span three subsequent wars. Each writer challenges the glorification and necessity of war by depicting disconnected relationships, fragmented realities, and the characters' inability to reclaim an identity that is removed from destruction and violence. The purpose of closely analyzing the authors, their books and supporting literary articles is to understand the perception of war versus the reality through the experiences of the characters and how these experiences accurately or inaccurately portray that of real soldiers during the appropriate times. This analysis also aims to understand the role that gender, the perception of masculinity and nationalism was weaponized against soldiers to keep them complicit in this system.
Beyond the Poster: Unveiling the Realities of War and the Trauma of Soldiers in Literature from WWI to Vietnam
Sunflower
Recruitment posters from World War I, Il and the Vietnam War all had a common theme: displaying the duty and bravery of those who chose to put their country first by enlisting. These posters promised a romanticized heroism and a revered future where freedom is achieved for all. But the reality of these conflicts was rooted in an imperialist cycle at the expense of millions of people. This presentation aims to exhibit and understand not only the atrocities that soldiers experience but their inability to re-inhabit their societies as a result of mental, emotional, and physical disabilities as illustrated by Tim O'Brien, Ernest Hemingway, and Kurt Vonnegut in their novels that span three subsequent wars. Each writer challenges the glorification and necessity of war by depicting disconnected relationships, fragmented realities, and the characters' inability to reclaim an identity that is removed from destruction and violence. The purpose of closely analyzing the authors, their books and supporting literary articles is to understand the perception of war versus the reality through the experiences of the characters and how these experiences accurately or inaccurately portray that of real soldiers during the appropriate times. This analysis also aims to understand the role that gender, the perception of masculinity and nationalism was weaponized against soldiers to keep them complicit in this system.
