Discussion Questions
March 14, 2006
- What does the movie say about the element of class in
war? How does that compare to anything else we have looked at to
this point?
- Based on what you have read by Sassoon and by Rivers, how
would you assess the historical portrayal by the movie?
- The movie contains a number of quite disturbing
images. Which scene did you find to be the most powerful and have the
greatest impact upon you?
- One of the questions we dealt with in an earlier class was the
differences between visual and written sources. More specifically, did you find the images of
the movie (Hollywood) more powerful than the images created by the readings
(real lives) throughout this course? Did you react differently to the
visual portrayal of some events in the movie than to the physical and emotional
agonies experienced by real individuals in our readings? Why or why not?
- Is it possible as historians to be able 'to put ourselves' in
the past and truly empathize with and/or understand our subjects?
- What do Sassoon's poems tell us about the nature of the war
experience? How would you compare Sassoon's poems to those of Wilfred
Owen? Which Sassoon poem do you find to be the most significant, and
why?
- If Vera Brittain and Seigfried Sassoon were to go out for a
beer, what would they talk about? On what would they agree, and on
what would they disagree, in their conversation?
- What are the perceptions of national character evident in Literary
National Images? Does this literature correspond to anything else
we have seen or read this term? Do these literary excerpts further an
understanding of any aspect of the war?