University essay collection

Generals Die in Bed: Propaganda Versus the Realities of War

soldiers and civilians. Such stories were designed to spur hatred for opposing soldiers and contrast them against the 'golden' image which propaganda had presented for American soldiers. Harrison reverses the concept of the atrocity stories by telling graphic details inflicted by our soldiers: "He will hold his trembling hands on high and stammer the international word for compassion and mercy. He will say that beautiful word comrade, a word born in suffering and sorrow, but we will stab him down shouting to one another" (Harrison, 29). In sharing these instances of violence, the perception of the two sides are rendered more equal. There are several more scenes of soldiers begging for mercy, but being met with death at the hands of our soldiers. It shows that there was considered to be no room for mercy in war, and contrasts the images displayed in propaganda.

New recruits nearing the end of the war were more likely to have the us-versus-them mentality and express more distain for the soldiers they fought. They would have spent a longer time being exposed to the anti-Germanic propaganda and atrocity stories because they spent the end of their childhood into their young adulthood in civilian life: "children were expected to go along with the group and play war games in which hating the enemy became great fun. Posters, picture books, and pamphlets made war part of childhood experience, using details sometimes linked to fairy tales that would have been familiar to most children" (Kingsbury, 169). The 'hatred of the enemy' in World War 1 was mild in comparison to the degree it reached in the second world war, when propaganda had more time to foster the resentment, negativity, and hatred; however, propaganda during the first world war also distorted the image of opposing soldiers. As Josef Seethaler writes in Selling War: The Role of the Mass Media in Hostile Conflicts from World War I to the 'War on Terror' : "The great War was no longer a 'gentlemen's disagreement'. On the contrary, the respective public opinions viewed the enemy as the incarnation of evil, which precluded compromise and only considered unconditional surrender as a satisfactory outcome" (Seethaler, xi). Despite this being the general opinion in civilian life, it was not necessarily an accepted outlook to the soldiers who understood the falsities of propaganda, which is why it is important to note how Harrison approaches the idea of 'the enemy' in his novel. The interactions his characters have with German soldiers do not represent loathing; most interactions come with a degree of respect and mutual understanding for the situation that they are both in.

The novel also humanizes these other soldiers through the interactions the narrator has with them. In one scene, after capturing two German soldiers, he shares his cigarettes with them and, despite not speaking their language, attempts to have a conversation: "I want to tell these boys what I think, but the gulf of language separates us... The wounded one's cigarette goes out. I move the candle towards his mouth. He puts his thin hand on mine to steady it. The cigarette is lit. He looks into my eyes with that same doggish look and pats my hand in gratitude" (Harrison, 67). This scene humanizes the German soldiers by aligning them with the characters of Brownie, Broadbent, or fry, the narrator's fellow soldiers, as similar scenes have taken place earlier in the novel designed to convey moments of bonding.

One of the strongest examples of 'humanizing the enemy' is through the scene that names a fallen soldier that the narrator has killed. The narration makes readers consider the life of the German soldier prior to the war: "And Karl...? Maybe he was a farmer or a mechanic. Who knows? He could have died in a hundred way in civilian life" (Harrison, 74). The emotional and ungraceful bayonet scene where the narrator impales another soldier is not swift, but drawn out. It makes it difficult for the reader to dismiss the death and move on to the next scene. Once the soldier dies, and the scene appears to be over, Harrison further humanizes the fallen German soldier by providing the character with a brother distraught with grief, showing that the other side is not some nameless force. The narrator even imagines a letter from their mother: "I imagined that I see the happy face of the mother when she heard that her two boys were to be together. She must have written to the older one, the one that died at the end of my bayonet, to look after his younger brother. Take care of each other and comfort one another, she wrote, I am sure. (Harrison, 67). The image that he conjures in his mind of a concerned mother, would be one that many Canadian soldiers were familiar with as well.