Kyle Andre
March 21, 2013
20th-21st humanities
11:00-12:15am

Response Paper
War has proven to be a major cause for change in our society throughout history. During the time of World War I (1914) and World War II (1939), an era emerged for artists to express themselves through the wars’ heart wrenching stories which fueled their poems, novels, and short stories. During the First World War some of our history’s greatest writes emerged.
American literature came about through writers’ emotions and responses to the war. Sentiments ranged widely. Some writers felt that the war kept peace within nations and believed dying for your country was a noble thing to do; while some became frustrated and felt that the war was a useless and evil cause. British officer Wilfred Owen is a great example of World War I poetry. He expressed his feelings of anger and towards the war though his poem called “Dulce Et Decorum Est”. His poem discussed the horrific acts of the war and the excitement as not pleasant, but merely cruel. In Owen’s words, war was a “senseless waste of human resources and a barbaric act of human behavior”.
These men were the writers that experienced the firsthand accounts of the war through being on the frontlines and experiencing firsthand what the soldiers had to go through. Some writers were more fictional than others. Hathaway wrote the novel “farewell to arms” which expressed the physical and emotional heartaches that he and his fellow soldiers experienced at the time. Remarque was a German soldier. His views of the war were expressed, in first person, through the discussion of trench warfare and poison gas.
Max Ernst constructed his masterpiece, “Two Ambiguous Figures” and his work became highly sought after. His artwork depicted chemistry and biology equipment in the laboratory. This was an expression of objects used in modern warfare in relation to