While both Weapons Training explore the dehumanising nature of war, they are exploring different aspects of the same topic. Weapons Training focuses on how men are turned into weapons, and Homecoming focuses on how the dead are merely statistics, no longer men. This dehumanisation is explored in both poems through the use of imagery, structure and dialogue, and themes.
Throughout both Weapons Training and Homecoming Dawe uses varying and vivid imagery to explore the aspects of dehumanisation caused by war. In Weapons Training racist imagery is used to convey the dehumanisation process. The men must see the Viet Cong as an enemy and so racist imagery is used to dehumanise them, thus making it easier for their deaths to be justified. Dawe refers …show more content…
Dawe also refers to them as a ‘brand new pack’, this infers that they are a pack of wild animals, and are not human. Once again dehumanising the Viet Cong to make it easier for the soldiers kill them. Homecoming also used imagery to explore the dehumanising aspects of war. “piled on the hulls of Grants, in trucks, in convoys” conveys an image of endless dead soldiers piled up in rotting heaps, with no care being directed towards them, it has become a usual occurrence. Homecoming is littered with imagery of dogs, “the howl of their homecoming”, “raise their muzzles in mute salute”. The effect of this is that it relates the soldiers to dogs, whom are often considered as loyal and loving. Dog are also often treated poorly, injured and put down, this can be considered as a metaphor for the soldiers. Now that they are dead, after nobly serving their country they are merely …show more content…
The mood created in Weapons Training is harsh and uncaring. Through the use of diction such as “if you had one more brain it’d be lonely” and “your chances of turning the key in the ignition considerably reduced”. The first quote shows that the ‘drill sergeant’ wants to grind down the soldiers, and make them respect him, no matter how offensive and harsh he has to be. In the second quote, he reminds them of what might happen if they don’t listen to him, but does not say it with much meaning or emphasis, but merely as a passing comment, as if it holds no significance, which also creates the uncaring aspect of the mood. This harsh and uncaring mood shows that even the sergeant no longer sees the recruits as people, but weapons to be trained. In contrast, the mood created in Homecoming is cold, sterile and sombre. The first few lines repeat “they’re”, creating a very impersonal opening. Imagery such as “frozen sunset” also helps to add to the cold and impersonal mood created. The imagery “frozen sunset” also creates an ironic paradox, as this is an elegy, and dead people will never see another sunset or sunrise. The sterile mood is also created through the use of imagery. “they’re rolling them out of deep freeze lockers” “zipping them up in green plastic bags” makes the bodies of these dead soldiers seem more like some frozen meat that is being transported to a store. It’s extremely emotionless and detached.