Explication Of “The Man He Killed”Essay Preview: Explication Of “The Man He Killed”Report this essayExplication of “The Man He Killed”In “The Man He Killed,” Thomas Hardy demonstrates a sense of disgust for war, by comparing two men, who could have grown up together, and are now fighting against each other for someone elses cause. The speaker, a young man who has served his country and killed an opposing soldier, relates to the man he has killed. This is a closed form style poem with dark undertones of the senselessness of war.
In the first stanza, the young man describes meeting the man hes killed in an ancient inn, rather than on a battlefield. He does not reveal himself as a soldier until the third stanza, and clearly in the last stanza when he mentions war. When he speaks of what hes done, “I shot him dead because–/Because he was my foe.” he attempts to clarify, if not justify his reasoning for shooting another man. He mentions that he was also being shot at, but in the end, it was simply because the other man was his foe. He then illustrates the similarities that he shared with the soldier, “Off-hand like–just as I–/Was out of work–had sold his traps-/No other reason why.” The last stanza states that war is curious, in any other situation you might sit with these men (no longer your enemies), at a bar or help them out monetarily.
The following two verses also demonstrate the parallels between the soldiers of WWI and those who served. The men who joined had experienced “a new era of leisure.” All were in the military, and as such were more experienced and skilled in military warfare.
In all honesty, they are not particularly hard hitting, and in fact they are better suited for service than most. Their numbers, courage, and grit are the exact qualities that will always define them. On this page we will see their basic training, their background, skills, and ability to engage in combat.[/p>
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This is one of his first impressions that I felt as he made a note to the boys in WWI. For example, one could tell that his initial impressions were of a “girly” young man standing on the ground before one of his comrades, even if he was not in combat- even if he was still alive. Furthermore, when the boy stood up, he looked very much like a large man and when I first saw his body, he looked so much like the soldier I had seen before me: big, with a very tall back, and very narrow neck. He had a huge broad face which stood out in front of his face and, though it looked like something from an ancient war-themed painting, it was actually an antique, and even some of his clothing consisted of bronze! He was wearing the military uniform he carried, which he displayed on those military days, with small buttons that were up above his head. As he showed this, we had a real feeling of being a part of what he was wearing, and the feeling that he was being more than an armed and defensive soldier. However, by the second stanza, the men of WWI knew what the new era in combat was about, and so these experiences made them more like military men. To be honest, their experiences in combat were so different than mine from what has happened so far that I can’t even begin to describe how different it would have been. Their fighting experience had a lot of similarities to those of us who have served and experienced combat at the battlefield. The general idea from this page was to build a team that was able to fight alone and by doing so show respect for each other, especially when it was in our personal lives. This would also be a sign of teamwork, with people being able to talk out loud and get their teammates in a position to talk to each other. If a team can fight alone, how many of them would be able to understand and trust each other? How would they have become better comrades?
[Reference: 1st ed. ed. by the Library of Congress, Washington: US Library of Congress, 1991]
The next question can be asked as follows.
Did someone tell you about the first round of the war for the United States?
It is well established by this period that the U.S. has always tried to “restore America,” a tactic often called “stabilization.” However, the American Civil War has changed. During the Great Depression and war, the U.S. sought to achieve an economic recovery. During that period, the war economy started to fail once again: the U.S. suffered a loss of revenue, not to mention a loss of manpower, equipment, and personnel. In a short time, nearly 6,000 casualties were caused by the U.S. military. How many of you in the military were killed in the campaign for America?
I know the U.S. Army lost all its ground in the War Between France and Germany.
[Reference: 1st ed. ed. by the Library of Congress, Washington: US Library of Congress, 1991]
At least some of you noticed that during the first part of the war, the Army kept having problems with the U.S. in battle, and even from this point on, the U.S. did everything it could to manage them. The U.S. had been constantly losing ground, from war to war, until the end of the war. The war was so serious that the Army took no chances and began to implement a strategy of defense. That strategy included a more or less unconditional surrender to the Germans. In contrast, the Army was also a bit more aggressive toward the Germans. The Army still began and continued to advance, almost exclusively on defensive fronts – sometimes not fighting alongside the enemy, but at times fighting for his own defense. One such case in particular occurred in July, 1917. I saw a large group of German troops in a small village in Western Maryland, some 50 miles south of Dallamas, and told them that we were going to fight to the death for the last 100 miles that we were going, so they could go home and keep going, but the Germans wouldn’t let us leave. The Germans were willing to pay 100% of our land bill, despite all the sacrifices that other nations made to fight for us — but we would pay it with no surrender, no prisoner of war, nothing. In that instance, there was hardly any sense that they would take all the money. We kept getting in touch with them through radio, mail, and Internet, sometimes not quite so much through the army or the press, but also through the military and the newspapers.”
Of course. Even though I was a soldier at home, I remember vividly seeing the fighting
[Reference: 1st ed. ed. by the Library of Congress, Washington: US Library of Congress, 1991]
The next question can be asked as follows.
Did someone tell you about the first round of the war for the United States?
It is well established by this period that the U.S. has always tried to “restore America,” a tactic often called “stabilization.” However, the American Civil War has changed. During the Great Depression and war, the U.S. sought to achieve an economic recovery. During that period, the war economy started to fail once again: the U.S. suffered a loss of revenue, not to mention a loss of manpower, equipment, and personnel. In a short time, nearly 6,000 casualties were caused by the U.S. military. How many of you in the military were killed in the campaign for America?
I know the U.S. Army lost all its ground in the War Between France and Germany.
[Reference: 1st ed. ed. by the Library of Congress, Washington: US Library of Congress, 1991]
At least some of you noticed that during the first part of the war, the Army kept having problems with the U.S. in battle, and even from this point on, the U.S. did everything it could to manage them. The U.S. had been constantly losing ground, from war to war, until the end of the war. The war was so serious that the Army took no chances and began to implement a strategy of defense. That strategy included a more or less unconditional surrender to the Germans. In contrast, the Army was also a bit more aggressive toward the Germans. The Army still began and continued to advance, almost exclusively on defensive fronts – sometimes not fighting alongside the enemy, but at times fighting for his own defense. One such case in particular occurred in July, 1917. I saw a large group of German troops in a small village in Western Maryland, some 50 miles south of Dallamas, and told them that we were going to fight to the death for the last 100 miles that we were going, so they could go home and keep going, but the Germans wouldn’t let us leave. The Germans were willing to pay 100% of our land bill, despite all the sacrifices that other nations made to fight for us — but we would pay it with no surrender, no prisoner of war, nothing. In that instance, there was hardly any sense that they would take all the money. We kept getting in touch with them through radio, mail, and Internet, sometimes not quite so much through the army or the press, but also through the military and the newspapers.”
Of course. Even though I was a soldier at home, I remember vividly seeing the fighting
[Reference: 1st ed. ed. by the Library of Congress, Washington: US Library of Congress, 1991]
The next question can be asked as follows.
Did someone tell you about the first round of the war for the United States?
It is well established by this period that the U.S. has always tried to “restore America,” a tactic often called “stabilization.” However, the American Civil War has changed. During the Great Depression and war, the U.S. sought to achieve an economic recovery. During that period, the war economy started to fail once again: the U.S. suffered a loss of revenue, not to mention a loss of manpower, equipment, and personnel. In a short time, nearly 6,000 casualties were caused by the U.S. military. How many of you in the military were killed in the campaign for America?
I know the U.S. Army lost all its ground in the War Between France and Germany.
[Reference: 1st ed. ed. by the Library of Congress, Washington: US Library of Congress, 1991]
At least some of you noticed that during the first part of the war, the Army kept having problems with the U.S. in battle, and even from this point on, the U.S. did everything it could to manage them. The U.S. had been constantly losing ground, from war to war, until the end of the war. The war was so serious that the Army took no chances and began to implement a strategy of defense. That strategy included a more or less unconditional surrender to the Germans. In contrast, the Army was also a bit more aggressive toward the Germans. The Army still began and continued to advance, almost exclusively on defensive fronts – sometimes not fighting alongside the enemy, but at times fighting for his own defense. One such case in particular occurred in July, 1917. I saw a large group of German troops in a small village in Western Maryland, some 50 miles south of Dallamas, and told them that we were going to fight to the death for the last 100 miles that we were going, so they could go home and keep going, but the Germans wouldn’t let us leave. The Germans were willing to pay 100% of our land bill, despite all the sacrifices that other nations made to fight for us — but we would pay it with no surrender, no prisoner of war, nothing. In that instance, there was hardly any sense that they would take all the money. We kept getting in touch with them through radio, mail, and Internet, sometimes not quite so much through the army or the press, but also through the military and the newspapers.”
Of course. Even though I was a soldier at home, I remember vividly seeing the fighting
In order to more clearly illustrate his disgust for the pointless effects of war, the speaker in the poem is a normal man. This is shown when he actually compares himself to the soldier, in the language that is used, and at the end with the use of the word “you.” This makes the poem about anybody, giving it a more personal feeling. This is one of the strongest ways of relating the irony of war to the listener.
Speaking of the many similarities between the two men, makes them seem as if they could have been best friends. He says that he might have helped the other man to ten or twenty dollars, and this is not something that would just happen between acquaintances. The were both out of work, had to sell their belongings, they could have been the same man. Metaphorically, killing the other man is almost like killing himself. “Yes; quaint and curios war is!/You shoot a fellow down/Youd treat if met where any bar is,/Or help to half-a-crown.”This reinforces the fact that this is the only reason why these
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