A Shout for the Truth
An In-Class Essay
by Ivete dos Santos
“The first casualty when war comes is truth.” Every country has its anthem that claims its citizens to be brave, patriotic, and, if it is necessary, willing to die for their countries. War is showed as an essential thing to maintain peace, integrity and dignity of a country and its people. Then, everyone has to sacrifice himself for the sake of his motherland. Is it true? Is there only genuine, noble purpose in making war? In “Dulce et Decorum Est,” by Wilfred Owen, and in “Village,” by Estela Portillo Trambley, the picture from war shows to the readers that this belief is a fake, an illusion, and what really can be seen is the big lie that is behind the powerful and eloquent words. Just meaningless words.
In “Dulce,” the speaker depicts a crude reality in World War I, when young men died as “heroes,” according to what those responsible for that war wanted to show to the nations. However, behind this “truth,” what happened , in fact, on the front was juveniles having a terrible and inhumane death. “His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin, … the blood/Come gargling from the froth – corrupted lungs” (197). This poem is written in first person and shows exactly what was happening with those “innocent tongues” (197) and the speaker would like to call the people outside to heed and face the reality:“If you could hear, at every jolt, … my friend, you would not tell with such high zest…” (197).
On the other hand, in “Village,” the setting is in the Vietnam War, and the narrator, who is not the protagonist, shows, at the beginning, an anguished “hero” that, not by chance, is called Rico, which means rich. Rico, who “had been transformed into a soldier, but who knew he was no soldier” (177), day by day, discovered that the “truth” about enemies sometimes is merely to justify an action that had no glory, no honor “something beyond the logic of war and enemy…” (177).
Rico knew that in that village there were no enemies, but typical civilians like his village: “people all the same everywhere” (178). “The village of Mai Cao was no different than Valverde, the barrio where he had grown up” (177). How could those people be dangerous? Elders, women, children? However, the “superiors,” who are responsible for the war usually make the soldiers believe that those innocent people are enemies, using ,as a practice, the method of brainwashing “not really peoples’ homes , but ‘hootches,’ …makeshift enemy.” (177). Nonetheless, Rico had knowledge and feelings: “He knew this not only with the mind but with the heart” (178). Therefore, because of that, Rico could act according to his beliefs and, although he had become a traitor, he knew he was completely free, despite the physical prison he had to leave: “I’m free inside…Free…” (182).
Different setting, different time, different protagonist. Nevertheless, the same lie hides the truth. Both stories bring to the reader a shout for the truth. In conclusion, even though most people are against war, it is made for a few powerful people who keep distance from the front. War continues to kill, to cause damage and eternal hurt in thousands of hearts. Then, unfortunately, the old lie “Dulce et decorum est” still lives!
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