Explore and Compare the Content and Style of “charlotte Grey” and “disabled” Bringing out the Powerful and Moving Exploration of the Theme of Loss

 Explore and compare the content and style of “Charlotte Grey” and “Disabled” bringing out the authors powerful and moving exploration of the theme of loss

The two texts that I will be studying both show the different ways that war can have an effect on people, and the subsequent loss. "Disabled" by Wilfred Owen is a poetic analysis of war that exposes the struggles of adjusting to civilian life. A deeper analysis of "Disabled" reveals the irony of war; a soldier's fight which results in the sacrifice of his mental and physical freedom. The soldiers and their families suffer from the events of the war daily, while those that benefit remain in oblivion of their suffering. "Disabled" is a poem detailing the tragic losses that a soldier suffers. Because of the war, the soldier has lost his body. His friends, memories, desirability, physical strength and admiration are all taken away from him without warning. This poem could universally apply to all the soldiers or even people in similar situations. This why the main character remains nameless and the title, it is broad enough for a wide audience to identify with him. In "Disabled" the character's thoughts and actions reflect his desire to be free but instead he is trapped, disabled, oppressed, and repressed inside of his own body, mentally, physically, and emotionally. ’The Last Night’ is an extract from “Charlotte Grey” that focuses on following two boys as they are waiting to be taken off to a Nazi concentration camp. It shows them being treated like animals and they are having to do things that they wouldn’t normally be comfortable doing. Both pieces are centered on a boy who is being affected by war.

Physical loss is one of the most obvious types of loss In ‘Disabled’. It is the cause for al the other types of loss depicted in “Disabled” and is the root of most of our character’s problems. At the start of the poem the author starkly portrays the message that the character has been severely injured “He sat in a wheeled chair” This is a very direct way of describing the condition in which the character is. You can’t miss it, much like the severity of his injuries. The author makes no attempt in hiding the severity and gruesomeness of the disability. “He's lost his colour very far from here. Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry” This is the first time we our told how the character has become disabled. It is also a very descriptive metaphor detailing how the character has become disabled. “It” refers to the colour and lifeblood of the character, but it can be interpreted to mean anything that he lost because of the war. His lifeblood was literally poured down shell holes. The author also depicts him in shades of grey, which symbolise visually the greyness of his life now. There is nearly no physical loss in “charlotte Grey”. The only type of physical loss that occurs is the fact that the children have to leave their orphanage, they are losing their physical home and they have no-where else to go. “the bus roared as the driver engaged the gear and bumped slowly out through the entrance”

        The loss of freedom and autonomy are on one the most soul-destroying types of loss for the character in “Disabled”. The whole of the last stanza details what changes the character had to make to his life to accommodate not having autonomy. The character is no longer able to stay at his normal home with his family, he has to stay in an institute where people can help him all the time. He needs this because he cannot do anything by himself. He has completely lost his autonomy, “And do what things the rules consider wise,”. This must be very distressing for somebody who used to be a keen football player “After the matches, carried shoulder-high”. The author really emphasises how much the characters life has been changed because of his loss of autonomy through the sharp contrast between being a local football legend and lying in an institute hoping somebody comes to put him to bed since he cant do it himself.

The children in “Charlotte Grey” do not know that they are about to lose their freedom and autonomy because they are naive. They did however know that they were being taken away but they did not know where to. However the adults are fully aware of what is happening and attempted to do everything in their power to stop it. “Many of the adults refused to drink because they knew it meant breakfast, and therefore the departure” It is quite interesting how when under pressure the adults start to act immaturely and the children start acting maturely .The adults try to be stubborn and can’t accept what is happening. They believed that they could change what happened to them by blindly clinging on to their past lives with menial actions, much like a child. However the children didn’t try to put up a fight or stop what was happening, instead they peacefully slept knowing that they couldn’t do anything to stop it. This is a very surprising level of maturity for children of this age, ”The children were at the deepest moments of their sleep”. This ironic contrast is used to portray how little the children and adults can actually do, ironic contrast is used in “Disabled” “One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg”.

        The character has developed a loss of trust because of his disability. It was because of the war that the character has become disabled. The ironic point is that he should not have even been in the war in the first place. The author uses the power of hindsight to show how many different people and establishments have combined to make the character want to go to war. This verse details the character recalling him joining the army. In hindsight he is looking back and doesn’t see a good reason for him to join the war effort.” - He wonders why.“ The conclusions he can draws are that he did it for the attention “Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts,” he wanted to become a local “god”, as any teen boy would. He also did it to please the girls he knew ”That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg”. Looking back he has lost trust in himself for making such bad decisions. He has also loss trust in the government. “He asked to join. He didn't have to beg, Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years” This shows how the army obviously knew that they were signing up an underage person, yet they still accepted him anyway, they were complicit in his tragedy. In hindsight the character wonders why the army, who are meant to be people you can trust and have authority, betrayed him and didn’t get the character to stop and think about his decision, but instead let him continue to lie to himself. This tugs on the emotional heartstrings of the reader as we can clearly imagine what is going on through the vivid imagery. There is also a sense of loss of trust in society “And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers”. He left the country a hero and when he returned as a disabled soldier “Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal. Only a solemn man who brought him fruits Thanked him; and then enquired about his soul” It is almost as if society want to remain ignorant of the bad things that happen in war. It is ironic how when the soldiers give the most they in return are given so little back. This has caused the character to also lose faith in society.