Should People Really Fight for Their Country?

"Uncle Sam" pointing at the viewer with the caption " I Want You For U.S Army Nearest Recruiting Station"

During World War I the spread of propaganda became extremely popular with the distribution of posters. Lithography was a popular choice for creating posters due to the fact that it was very easily reproducible. The image above titled "I want you for U.S. Army : nearest recruiting station" crafted by James Montgomery Flagg was a very popular image during World War I.  The  image was created with lithography and author David Lubin in his article titled "Losing Sight: War, Authority, and Blindness in British and American Visual Cultures, 1914-22" notes that the image " ...printed more than four million copies of the colour lithograph, making the object, in the artist’s [,James Montgomery Flagg,] words, ‘the most famous poster in the world'..." (Lubin 802-803). In many cases I agree with James Montgomery Flagg. The poster expresses a symbol not only popular during World War I but has also been a symbol that is widely recognized by almost all American's today. I think that "Uncle Sam" is just as great of a symbol to represent America as is The Statue of Liberty.

Lubin mentions that Flagg was a part of the group called 'the Vigilantes' who quote, "their stated purpose was ' to drive the peace-at-any-price men to cover, to arouse the youth of the nation to their duties in peace and war, and to carry on a propaganda that will thrill the country' " (Lubin 803). I believe that propaganda of this sort did help bring in more troops because the image is a very personal one (Lubin 804). It points at the specific audience, establishing more of a personal duty to fight in the war. Lubin also notes that "he [Uncle Sam] subtly reinforced America’s self-characterization as a nation based on loyalty to principle rather than people. Second, by treating Uncle Sam sardonically, Flagg played up Americans’ self-flattering view of themselves as a folksy people who always enjoy a good joke" (Lubin 804). Lubin's analysis insinuates that Americans looked at this poster with a sense of loyalty and humor. These two aspects, in my opinion, made people at the time want to join the war because it made the war seem less gruesome and more of a happy and patriotic occasion.

Wilfred Owen seems to counteract my notion in his famous poem "Dulce et Decorum Est". It is seen from the poem that Owen's interpretation of war is more realistic and gruesome. Unlike the poster mentioned above, the poem has no humor what so ever. It includes horrendous imagery of the war like "But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;/ Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots" (6-7). Owen also reveals the horrid reality of war in the lines "Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,/As under a green sea, I saw him drowning" (13-14). In these lines he describes the death of another soldier experienced right in front of his own eyes. This reality is not even hinted at whatsoever in the poster above. The "Uncle Sam" poster includes humor and pride for one's country while Owen's poem does the opposite. This is seen at the end of the poem in the lines "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori." (26-27) which means 'It is sweet and proper to die for one's country'.

Owen's poem brings us to question this. Is it 'sweet and proper to die for one's country'? What reasons are there to fight for one's country? Should one fight solely for the love of their country or should there be an honorable compensation for these soldiers? I think that soldiers should receive compensation for their amazing and courageous act of fighting in a war but should also not be forgotten after the war. The traumatic experiences mentioned in Owen's poem can affect a veteran mentally with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The contrast of the poem and the image also brings up the fact that we should not be blinded by the masked reality of the war. We should understand the risks and danger of war and this should cause the country to want to lessen our exposure to war. It seems that more than ever, we forget that there are actual people, that have families and friends, fighting in the war. We no longer consider the death of a few an extreme tragedy. Why so?

Works Cited
Lubin, David M. "Losing Sight: War, Authority, And Blindness In British And American Visual Cultures, 1914-22." Art History 34.4 (2011): 796-817. Academic Search Alumni Edition. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

Flagg, James Montgomery. I Want You for U.S. Army : Nearest Recruiting Station. 1917. Library Of Congress, Washington D.C. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Http://www.loc.gov/. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. <http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96507165/>.

Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce Et Decorum Est." Http://www.poetryfoundation.org/. Poems (Viking Press, 1921), n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.