A Critical Analysis of Wilfred Owen’s Disabled Essay

Wilfred Owen, a Soldier Poet who spent time in several military hospitals after cosmos diagnosed with neuras soia, wrote the metrical com function Disabled while at Craiglockhart Hospital, after meeting Seigfried Mad Jack Sassoon. A look at Owens work shows that all of his known war poems came after the meeting with Sassoon in August 1917 (Childs 49). In a statement on the effect the Sassoon meeting had on Owens poetry, Professor incision Childs explains it was after the late-summer meeting that Owen began to use themes dealing with breaking bodies and minds, in poems that see soldiers as wretches, ghosts, and sleepers (49).Disabled, which Childs lists because of its theme of carnal loss, is interpret by most critics as a poem that invites the ratifier to condolence the above-knee, double-amputee veteran for the loss of his legs, which Owen depicts as the loss of his life. An analysis of this sort relies heavily on a stereotypical reading of disability, in which people with disabilities are more(prenominal) dependent, childlike, passive, sensitive, and miserable than their nondisabled counterparts, and are depicted as pained by their fate (Linton, 1998, p. 5).See more how to write a good critical analysis essaySuch a reading disregards not only the athletic fields social impairment, which is directly addressed by Owen, still it also fails to consider the constructed personal identity of the quash, as defined by the language of the poem. A large reason for the imposition of pity comes from the pen of Owen, himself, who wrote that the chief headache in his poetry is War, and the pity of War. The poetry is in the pity (Kendall, 2003, p. 30). Owens pity approach to poetry succeeded in protesting the war because it capitalized on human losses.Adrian Caesar makes it truely clear that the experience of war was Owens reason for joining. Even after being hospitalized for neurasthenia, Owen chose to return to France because he knew his poetry had improv ed due to his experience in the trenches (Caesar, 1987, p. 79). Whatever the case, Owen had neurasthenia, or shell shock, a mental disability. Disabled, which is about a veteran with a physical disability, should be viewed as an observation, and when the poem is closely examined, it plenty be seen to present a myth of disability rather than a realistic depiction.Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, a renowned literary critic in the field of damage Studies, states that literary representation of disability has consistently marginalized characters with disabilities, which in turn facilitates the marginalization of actual people with disabilities. More often than not, writes Garland-Thomson, disability is utilized for its rhetorical or symbolic potential (1997, p. 15). When the lecturer considers Owens quote about pity, taken along with his intent to protest the war, the disabled keep down of his poem becomes little more than a poster-child for pacifism.Moreover, Owens treatment of the subje ct exemplifies Garland-Thomsons conclusion that When one psyche has a visible disability . . . it almost always dominates and skews the normates play of sorting out perceptions and forming a reaction (p. 12). The normate, or the nondisabled person, brings to the text a whole set of cultural assumptions, on which Owen depends, to leave the reader believing war is futile and not worth the cost in human lives and injuries. My purpose is not to argue to the contrary I am not examining the value of war, that the devaluation of the disabled figure in Owens poem.Disabled consists of seven stanzas, which Daniel Pigg breaks down into five vignettes, representing the soldiers life. The first vignette, or first stanza, according to Pigg, sets the phase for understanding this alienated figure that the poet observes (1997, p. 92). Already the reader finds that the vocalizer occupies a privileged position, because he has no first-hand experience of what it is like to be an amputee and is mer ely an observer. The speaker sees a legless man, waiting for dark, dressed in a ghastly suit of gray (Lines 1-3).This pathetic image proffered to the reader creates a relationship base on pity, meaning that the reader places a high value on his functioning body while devaluing the losses of the subject. Waiting for dark could be interpreted as waiting for death, and the ghastly suit of gray may as well be the vestige of a ghost. The subject, who is seated near a window, hears priapic children at play in the park, saddening him until sleep mothered the voices from him (Lines 4, 6).The reader is to assume, as Owen has assumed, that the subject is saddened by memories of times past, when he, too, would play in the park with the other boys. So is the reader to assume that play and pleasure after day (Line 5) are no longer available to the subject? The end of the first stanza invites the reader to accept the subject as being dependent and child-like, as sleep mothered him from the voic es. Owen has effectively molded his subject into a convincing Other, a man near death and middle(a) into the grave.The second vignette, or the second stanza, delves into the subjects past, when he was nondisabled. As a contrast to the first stanza, where the language and imagery is bleak and foreboding, the second stanza begins with brilliant images of the town, in the lead the subject acquired his injury. However, the jubilee is short-lived as the reader is soon thrust back into the subjects present reality, after he threw away his knees (Line 10). In this line the reader becomes aware that the subject feels a certain amount of guilt and self-acknowledgment in the role he has played in the loss of his legs. precisely before exploring the subjects motives for joining the war, the reader is treated again to Owens dreary outlook on the veterans life. This time, the discussion is pertain on women and how the subject will no longer be able to enjoy their presence or company, for gir ls now touch him like some rag disease (Line 13). Piggs analysis of the word queer is worth noting because he uses it as an example of the subjects social displacement. It is in the second stanza that the reader is first encouraged to consider not just the physical impairment, but the social impairment of the subject.Pigg shows that early usage of the word queer to denote quirk began officially in a 1922 document written by the government. Based on this finding, Pigg assumes that the word could have been known and used by popular finish as early as 1917, when Owens poem was penned (1997, p. 91). Pigg claims that Owens use of the term illustrates a loss of potential heterointimate contact, while at the very(prenominal) time expressing that society has made him what he has become . . . the use of the concept in the poem makes one more aware of oppression in a society that has brought the soldier to this state (p. 1).Even though Pigg analyzes the social construction of the subjects identity, he limits his discussion to societys role in pressuring the soldier to join the war and not with the systematic oppression of disability, the result of the subject joining the war. However, this subject is best represented by Owens net two stanzas. In the next section of the poem, Owen reiterates the format of the previous stanza by giving the reader a glimpse of the subjects normal life, before becoming an amputee, when his youth and vitality were admired by an artist.Very quickly the reader is transported back to the veterans present situation. This juxtaposition of normal/ perverted within the stanzas forces an us and them division between the reader and the subject (Linton, 1998, p. 23). The remembrances of the subject offer an illustration of a typical life with which the reader can relate, which is then placed next to lines of the poem that offer a picture of what Owen would hope the reader to define as a horrible existence worse than death. The subject, which is a n actual person, becomes Owens mascot for the anti-war effort.The next three stanzas of the poem discuss the subjects reasons for entering the war. Again, Pigg offers an interesting interpretation of this section of the poem. According to Pigg, the subject joins the war in an effort to create an identity for himself, an identity which is ultimately based on a lie about his age. In lines 21-29, the subject reminisces about the time he decided to join the war and tries to pinpoint which intoxication lead him to such a decision a victorious football game, a brandy and soda, or the featherbrained jilts?In each case there is an overabundance of ego involved the subject seeks to capitalize on his ephemeral successes and perpetuate them as long as possible. In joining the war, he sees a way to do this, because society identifies those who go to war as heroes and those who do not as less than men. The subject decides it is a girl named Meg he tried to impress, then says Aye . . . to please the giddy jilts (Line 27). A jilt is a capricious woman, a woman who is freakish and impulsive.Owens point here is to allow the reader omniscient knowledge of the subject and his belief that the girls will love you for going to war, but if you return with a substantial injury, they become uninterested. This suggests that the girls are more interested in the idea of the soldier, the perfect body, as opposed to the reality of the soldier. Lines 30-36 further explain the subjects reasons for enlistment, stating that they were not because of an interest in foreign affairs, but for the superficial benefits of joining the military.Owen then inserts a small, three-line stanza as a transition from the subjects memories to his trustworthy status. Again, the reader is jarred by the juxtaposition of the normal and the abnormal. Instead of receiving a heros welcome, the subject is patronized by his own memories of what he had imagined his return to England would be like Some cheered him home , but not as crowds cheer Goal (Line 37). The irony re-enlists the help of pity, as the reader is encouraged to feel sorry for the subjects decision and subsequent loss.Owens purpose is to show that those who return from the war injured are pitied for their loss, rather than being honored for their sacrifice. The final stanza of the poem completes the circle that brings the reader back to the subjects self-dissolution. He has accepted societys estimation of his worth, or lack thereof, and has resigned himself to spend a some sick years in institutes/ and do what things the rules consider wise (Lines 40-41). The passive young veteran has acquiesced his life without a fight, but will continue to find the orders of a society that deems him as invalid.He has officially become disabled, in every sense of the word. The subject has assumed his role as an object of pity and is ready to take whatever pity they may dole, they being the nondisabled (Line 42). Before the poem ends, though, Ow en returns the reader yet again to the giddy jilts and their capricious desires, as their eyeball avoid the subjects changed body to look at the men who are still whole, suggesting it was not just the soldier they were interested in, but the see standard of beauty (Line 44). Here, the reader is expected to remember the subjects reasons for joining the military.The subjects concern with maintaining a nadir of masculinity and sexual attraction is ironically juxtaposed with his total loss of sexuality, which Owen implies is a total loss of identity, except as a spectacle and object of pity. The poem ends with the speakers frantic plea, How cold and late it is Why dont they come/ And put him into bed? Why dont they come? (Lines 45-46). The speaker epitomizes the nondisabled persons fear over lack of control of their own bodies and fates.The speaker realizes that he could just as easily be in he position of the subject, and with this knowledge the speaker agonizes over his own project ed fears the cold, desolate, and lonely life of the subject. We will never know the subjects reality, for Owen has locked him into an eternal battle with despair. Owen uses compassionate imagination to establish a link between the soldier and the civilian in an effort to express the abominable losses that come as a result of war (Norgate, 1987, p. 21). Unfortunately, in so doing Owen magnifies the inferior role disability occupies in society, rather than calling it into question.That which has been given up and that which has been taken away subsumes the identity of the subject. Owens one-dimensional representation of disability ignores the will to survive and make the most of the opportunities offered by life, in whatever form it may take. Thompson writes, As physical abilities change, so do individual needs, and the perception of those needs (14). In Disabled, Owen does not allow for change and does not offer the hope of a fulfilling life. Instead, he delivers a scathing portrait of physical and social disablement in early 20th-century England.