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In the two short stories, Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen and Who’s for the Game? by Jessie Pope, both authors use a variety of language features to portray various descriptions in a more vivid manner. Pope uses the features of metaphor and personification to give readers the perception that war is an exciting and glorious affair in which the citizens of a nation have a duty to protect king and country. Owen, on the other hand, uses the features of simile and onomatopoeia to make war seem much more horrific and dreadful; an event where innocent men suffer.

Owen uses a very descriptive simile to introduce the horrendous suffering and agony that soldiers endure in war. “Bent double like beggars under sacks.” Here Owen compares young, proud soldiers to old and battered “beggars.” We are fed a powerful image of tattered, broken men whose once-proud shoulders have been bent through the strain that they have endured. We begin to realise war is not a “game” that is to be taken lightly, it is a deathly affair and only hardship awaits those who readily take up its challenge. Owen feeds us an image that is very much in contrast to what we as a society perceive soldiers as. We normally imagine a soldier as a proud, smart individual with glory and pride etched onto their face. Here we are given an image of pain and anguish and due to this contrast the image is more potent. This has a certain relevance to the wider world. We question the toil and torment ordinary men and women must endure, even today, to defend their country from acts of terrorism and violence. Is protecting your country worth this strife?

Owen allows the reader to gain an insight into the agonizing death that soldiers face through the gross and horrific use of onomatopoeia. “The blood came gargling from froth-corrupted lungs.” This very dramatic onomatopoeia gives the reader the impression that they themselves are witnessing the death. The yelling, distressed soldier becomes all too lifelike and...