Quote:
|
What would be the story purpose in presenting this terrible after-effect of battle?
|
How about letting the readers know how it was for soldiers after such a horrendous war?
Taking a step back for a second, World War I was just gruesome and awful. It was even called the War to end all Wars because of it's violence. In the beginning it was old fighting tactics against new technology and the result was deadly.
Also, for those who look at the period of World War I you realize it didn't solve any of the problems that caused the war. There really was no territory gained...they were fighting over feet and a few miles the whole time. The French and German lines were pretty a stalemate the entire duration of the war. Nobody had invaded Germany, yet it was Germany who went to England and France and said...let's stop this. There was nothing solved at all. It was pretty much an agreement to just end it since already enough people had died, and none of the countries could keep up with the cost to continue with the war. So, without solving any of the problems, everyone just agreed to stop since no one felt like they could continue on with the War.
There was a poem I came across written by a World War I soldier (I'll see if I can dig it up as it's absolutely amazing). It's a poem talking about integrating the soldiers from the war back into society and how difficult that is going to be. These were men with not only physical wounds but mental wounds as well, and bringing them back into a now 'peaceful' society...how is it going to work? It's an amazing poem and he uses sarcasm to hammer the point home with the reader. It's titled
'Does it Matter.'
I'll see if I can find the whole thing but pretty much the first couple stanzas were talking about the ending of the war and
'getting away from it all.' Then his last stanzas he uses sarcasm to talk about the problems of bringing soldiers back into society...For instance
Losing your legs - does it matter?
People won't look at you differently...
Losing your sight - does it matter?
there are good jobs for the blind...
And the last part I will never forget...
All the bad dreams - does it matter?
You can just drink them away and forget...
Eventhough PTSD wasn't coined back in World War I the effects were still around. And the problem arose of bringing these physically and mentally effected soldiers back into a society where there was no more war.
Perhaps, Tolkien was trying to effect the readers in the way that the soldier of World War I effected me when I read it? Eventhough if that author uses sarcasm to act like he's just shrugging everything off...that's the very reason why it's so effective! And it really hits home.
Some more things...
I think in both cases its the authors trying to get to the readers and show them how it was like...show them the experiences. Me, I've never come close to going out in a War...I don't know how many here have. I've had family members, but I have no personal experience. So, when I read something like
Does it Matter or even in some cases
Lord of the Rings it's a way to see how life was like for the soldiers in World War I. I can experience something and
connect with events where I wasn't even born yet. And that is truly effective writing..when you can get across to your readers and have them, in a sense, at least understand how things really were.