The Effect Conflict Has on People
Good morning teachers and peers, today I’m going to discuss conflict, the affects it has on people with examples from two texts. | What is conflict? Conflict is another word for fighting, battling, or struggle. Conflict can be expressed in many ways, such as; war, hate, aggression, bullying, and competiveness. Conflict has negative effects on people. Conflict can result in death, mental illness, suicide, and destruction. Conflict is cause by many reasons including differences in values, desires, needs, habits, and wealth. The first text I’m going to discuss today is a poem called Dulce Et Decorum Est by a famous poet named Wilfred Owen. The poem is based on first hand experiences in France, in world war one.
The poem describes owen’s firsthand experience in the front line. | The poem is about how going to war for your country is not a noble thing to do, that Dulce et Decorum Est is a lie mentioned in line 27 in stanza 3 meaning it is not a sweet and right thing to do. Owen at first thinks that going to war for your country is Dulce Et Decorum Est, Latin for sweet and right, but after he experiences conflict his opinion changes on conflict. The next text I’m going to discuss today is a film called “Tomorrow when the war began”. Tomorrow, when the war began is a 2010 Australian adventure film written and directed by Stuart Beattie and based on the novel of the same name by John Marsden. | Wilfred Owen has written the poem in such a way that it gives the audience the feeling that they are experiencing conflict in the front line and in a similar way to the film. He gives this feeling by putting repetition in the poem like Gas! Gas! Quick boys! In line 9 in stanza 2.
By doing this he reinforces to the audience the horror and brutality of conflict. This helps Owen to bring the poem alive and engage the audience. | He also gives the feeling by putting imagery in the poem by saying “men marched asleep in line 5 in stanza 1 or the white eyes writhing in his face in line 19 in stanza 3. Owen uses this imagery to express just how oppressive warfare is on the soldiers’ soul. The film gives that feeling by showing gunfire and explosions for example when Elli the main character blows up a barrel killing multiple soldiers.
The film uses this to show how conflict can desensitises people. | Conflict is destructive. It will ruin people’s homes, break up their families, destroys people’s friendships/ relationships and It also breaks people physically and mentally. In the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est, it is outlined very clearly that conflict is destructive, seen by the experiences and the effects it had on the soldiers. | In the film however, it does show the destructive nature of conflict but the film also shows how conflict desensitizes people.
The film shows this when Elli threatens to kill her friend named Chris for falling asleep on watch. The soldiers in the poem are said to be “bent double, like old beggars under sacks” in line one, this is a simile that outlines the condition of the soldiers and how bad of an effect it is having on them. It is making them brittle and weak, this shows just how destructive conflict actually is. | In the poem it describes how a man is watching his friend die right in front of him after the gas attack.
Owen describes this by putting in metaphors, for example as under a green sea, I saw him drowning in line 14. He also uses similes like, floundering like a man in fire or lime in line 12. In the film it shows how people’s homes get torn apart. They show this when the teenaged group get back from a place they call hell, and all their families are gone. Also how they witness one of the characters home getting blown up by a fighter jet. | The two texts I have studied are both similar and different in various ways. Both the texts are expressed from a first person view.
They both tell us about how negative and destructive conflict actually is. However the poem is told from the front line and the film is told from a different perspective yet still tell us how negative conflict is. | My personal opinion on conflict is a negative one, after studying these two texts my perspective has changed on conflict. Conflict should be a last resort for resolving matters, not the first. It is simply to destructive for anyone to have a positive view on it. Thank you for listening to my speech and have a nice day.
