English Coursework
Marc, 2013 Marco Suen
English Language Assignment 1
Writing based on a piece or pieces from section B of the anthology
Compare the different portrayals of war and its effect on the lives of the individuals featured in “The Last Night” and “Disabled”
‘The Last night’ is an extract from the novel, Charlotte Gray, and describes the hours before the Jews in the Ghetto were taken to an extermination camp in France. Set in the 1940s, the extract is based on the holocaust, a genocide in which six million or more European Jews were taken away. Out of the six million, over one million were children. ‘The Last Night’ conveys heavily the innocence of children and the contrast between adult and child, as the adults are described as calm, knowing what will happen and the children as having no idea of the situation. ‘Disabled’ is a poem by Wilfed Owen, based on the injured soldiers during World War One. While ‘The Last night’ deals with the issue of the suffering of the innocent, ‘Disabled’ illustrates the glorification of war by propaganda and the realism of war by comparing the past and the present of the underage Scottish recruit. Of the 60 million European soldiers who participated in the Great War, 8 million were killed, 15 million were seriously injured and 7 million were permanently disabled. Our main character, who lost both of his legs and his will to live, is only one of the 7 million people.
In the poem ‘Disabled’, we can see that war has different effects on different individuals. For example, our main character, changed from someone that was “Younger than his youth, last year” to what is now “Now, he is old; his back will never brace;”, from the lines, you could see that under the intense pressure during his duty, he has aged rapidly, possibly from witnessing or experiencing a great deal of pain or horror. The phrase ‘last year’, suggest clearly that war could change one of the healthiest and optimistic to a pessimistic, weak and delicate person in
English Language Assignment 1
Writing based on a piece or pieces from section B of the anthology
Compare the different portrayals of war and its effect on the lives of the individuals featured in “The Last Night” and “Disabled”
‘The Last night’ is an extract from the novel, Charlotte Gray, and describes the hours before the Jews in the Ghetto were taken to an extermination camp in France. Set in the 1940s, the extract is based on the holocaust, a genocide in which six million or more European Jews were taken away. Out of the six million, over one million were children. ‘The Last Night’ conveys heavily the innocence of children and the contrast between adult and child, as the adults are described as calm, knowing what will happen and the children as having no idea of the situation. ‘Disabled’ is a poem by Wilfed Owen, based on the injured soldiers during World War One. While ‘The Last night’ deals with the issue of the suffering of the innocent, ‘Disabled’ illustrates the glorification of war by propaganda and the realism of war by comparing the past and the present of the underage Scottish recruit. Of the 60 million European soldiers who participated in the Great War, 8 million were killed, 15 million were seriously injured and 7 million were permanently disabled. Our main character, who lost both of his legs and his will to live, is only one of the 7 million people.
In the poem ‘Disabled’, we can see that war has different effects on different individuals. For example, our main character, changed from someone that was “Younger than his youth, last year” to what is now “Now, he is old; his back will never brace;”, from the lines, you could see that under the intense pressure during his duty, he has aged rapidly, possibly from witnessing or experiencing a great deal of pain or horror. The phrase ‘last year’, suggest clearly that war could change one of the healthiest and optimistic to a pessimistic, weak and delicate person in