ia_2010_degraaf_b


 * //__Sections B: Summary of Evidence__//**

The extract from Robert Graves’ autobiographical book, “Goodbye to All That”, quoted in appendix A demonstrates to what extent soldiers lived on the brink of life and death and how little regard they had for life itself. As Stalin said during the time of the Purges; “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is merely a statistic”. In the trenches, soldiers were likely to literally be blown to pieces at any moment. In his book, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Eric Remarque shares his opinion that the “emotional disconnection had [a] hugely destructive impact on a soldier’s humanity.” [1]. A soldier would be lucky to were only hurt in battle and even luckier if they then make it to the hospital. Graves calculated that the “best way of lasting through to the end of the war would be to get wounded.” [2]

Ultimately, during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, “Graves was struck by a shell fragment, a piece of which passed through his shoulder and chest, seriously injuring his right lung” [3]. He was “left for dead and pronounced dead by his surgeon [as did] his commanding officer in a telegram to his parents” [4]. He however, recovered to read of his own demise in The Times. He returned home, where his parents took care of him until he made a full recovery. Feeling guilty for leaving “his soldiers in peril while he himself was safe” [5], Graves return to the front. However “before seeing action again”, he was threatened with court-martial by his company surgeon to go back home immediately.

The oral testaments in Max Arthur’s book “Forgotten Voices of the Great War” [6], recounts the experiences of numerous influenced veterans and survivors of the War. Arthur presents the oral testament in a much more direct and almost brutal manner compared to Graves, given the reader a more serious and emotive perspective of the experiences of war. Extracts such as, “the conditions were indescribable. There were the wounded, dead and dying, rifles left all over the place,” [7] really presents the reader with a strong visual description of these terrible conditions. In addition, art can also present yet another perspective. Artist such as Otto Dix, George Grosz, Paul Nash and Wynne Nevinson have all produced war art. The piece that caught my eye was the oil painting, “Paths of Glory” by Wynne Nevinson. This piece was part of a series produced between 1900 and 1925, completed upon his return from France where he had been sent as an official war artist by the British government. Paths of Glory attempts to highlight the human cost of the war, with the on-going hillside in the background indicating a continuous number of dead soldiers carrying on beyond the limits of the canvas.

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[1] “Paul, for instance becomes unable to imagine a future without war”. Spark Notes Editors (Jan 2002), “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Spark Notes (ISBS: 978-1586633745) [2] Graves established the “best time to get wounded… [would be] when there was no rush on the dressing station services… [and] while the back areas were not being heavily shelled”. Robert Graves, (2000), “Goodbye to All That”, Penguin Classics (ISBN: 978-0-14-118459-3) [3] The Robert Graves Collection, University of Oxford, [], (25/08/2009) [4] Dr Ian Firla (2009), “Robert Graves – A Critical Biography”, St John’s College Robert Graves Trust, [], (25/08/2009) [5] Dr Ian Firla (2009), “Robert Graves – A Critical Biography”, St John’s College Robert Graves Trust, [], (25/08/2009) [6] Max Arthur, (2002), “Forgotten Voices of the Great War”, Ebury Press (ISBN: 0-09188-8879) [7] Sergeant Frank, “Forgotten Voices of the Great War”, Ebury Press (ISBN: 0-09188-8879)