Historical/Biographical Approach - Disabled (Wilfred Owen) by Natalie Prus https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx en-us 2020-11-05 18:25:16 UTC 2020-12-07 15:39:40 UTC hello@padlet.com Disabled prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/895270992
BY WILFRED OWEN
 
 
He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.
 
*        *        *        *        *
 
About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,—
In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,
All of them touch him like some queer disease.
 
*        *        *        *        *
 
There was an artist silly for his face,
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He's lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.
 
*        *        *        *        *
 
One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,
After the matches carried shoulder-high.
It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,
He thought he'd better join. He wonders why.
Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts.
That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,
He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years.
Germans he scarcely thought of, all their guilt,
And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears
Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.
 
*        *        *        *        *
 
Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.
 
*        *        *        *        *
 
Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,
And do what things the rules consider wise,
And take whatever pity they may dole.
Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is! Why don't they come
And put him into bed? Why don't they come?
 
]]> 2020-11-05 18:25:16 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/895270992 Questions that the Historical/Biographical Approach asks: prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/895270994
  • What influences – people, ideas, movements, and events – evident in the writer’s life does the work reflect?

  • What has the author revealed in the work about his/her characteristic modes of thought, perception, emotion or actual life? What place does this work have in the artist’s literary development and career?

  • When was the work written? When was it published? How did critics and the public receive it? Why?

  • What does the work’s reception reveal about the standards and values during the time it was published and reviewed?

  • To what extent can we understand a time period as it is reflected in the literary work? 

    • ]]>     2020-11-05 18:25:16 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/895270994     Thesis Statement prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/895271037 Applying the Historical/Biographical Approach to Wilfred Owen's "Disabled" reveals that when people fail to appreciate the struggles that soldiers experience in war, they might disregard their human dignity with the result that the soldiers feel useless and neglected by society.]]> 2020-11-05 18:25:16 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/895271037 Writer Influences prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992243329 sources (friends) thought that he was gay - interesting to see how he used that word in the text and the last line... "queer disease" - back then it was frowned upon to attracted to the same sex
    - here he brings up sexual frustration (notice the use of his words)]]>     2020-12-06 22:05:50 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992243329     Writer Influences prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992243991 perhaps this is a depiction of what he really saw during the war?]]> 2020-12-06 22:06:34 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992243991 Writer Influences prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992244968 kilts - is he fancying men?]]> 2020-12-06 22:07:33 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992244968 Writer Influences prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992247241 Owen suffered from a head injury from war - perhaps this was his experience or his friend's (Sassoon - his mentor and fellow soldier) while at the "institution" where they took care of those who couldn't? perhaps he noticed he would never be the same as he was after the war "women glances at other men" so this can be him comparing himself to them?]]> 2020-12-06 22:09:52 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992247241 Writer Influences prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992247926 commentary about Germans, Austria - makes me come to conclusion that this is the world war

    WW1
    - during WW1 no one understood the horror and sacrifice it would take to go to war, generally people were more excited and eager to go to war ]]>     2020-12-06 22:10:31 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992247926     Writer Influences prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992248788 Owen joined the army when he was 22 - perhaps his soldier friends were around the same age as him, including 19?]]> 2020-12-06 22:11:19 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992248788 Writer Influences prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992251695 Interesting enough, Owen's never returned home from WW1 and his mother found out about his passing on November 11th.....

    "Cheering"
    - most people assumed the war would be easily won and that it would be a brave experience for young people, which was quite the opposite of what young soldiers experienced as it made some men "less of a man"... meaning they literally lost their limbs and there is less of them :(]]>     2020-12-06 22:14:11 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992251695     His typical work prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992271031 portraying the impaired veteran as a stereotypical victim of tragic loss - which this poem reflects]]> 2020-12-06 22:34:07 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992271031 Context prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992272138 literary and historical environment of early-twentieth-century Britain - perhaps the deeper meaning of this text can be the representation of disability during the First World War???????

    This poem was written while he was convalescing at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh after sustaining injuries on the battlefield, and was revised a year later. This work was the subject of Owen's initial relationship to poet Robert Graves.]]>     2020-12-06 22:35:21 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992272138     Written and Publication Date prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992275285 written - 1917
    *In 1917, he was affected by an explosion and after he healed, he returned to service and died in battle in 1918. 
    publication - ??]]>     2020-12-06 22:38:39 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992275285     prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992279990 He explains the almost casual way he decided to go to war – after a game, when he was drunk, he thought he ought to enlist. Swayed by a compliment and a girl named Meg, his justification for going to war illustrates his youthful ignorance and naïveté is in full effect - Owen was called "carless" as a writer - perhaps as a soldier too?]]> 2020-12-06 22:43:35 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992279990 Critics Say... prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992282878 - "Disabled," which Childs lists because of its theme of "physical loss," is interpreted by most critics as a poem that invites the reader to pity the above-knee, double-amputee veteran for the loss of his legs, which Owen depicts as the loss of his life.

    - On October 17, 1917, Graves (a man he met at the hospital and who read Disabled for the first time) had written to Wilfred,

    Do you know, Owen, that's a damn fine poem of yours, that "Disabled". Really damn fine…..you have seen things; you are a poet; but you are a very careless one at present…. But I have no doubt at all that if you turned seriously to writing, you could obtain Parnassus while I'm still struggling on the knees of that stubborn peak.
    ]]>     2020-12-06 22:46:34 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992282878     prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992286770 shell-hole = a crater like hole in the ground (from war); interestingly enough, On the 30th of April, while on parade, he was noted as being "shaky," and on 1st May, he was diagnosed as suffering from shell-shock ("neurasthenia") and evacuated to England. After a medical examination, Owen was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh.]]> 2020-12-06 22:50:44 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/992286770 he will spend a few year in institutions prusn1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/993799800 perhaps Owen was warning the future generations of the horrors of war?]]> 2020-12-07 13:02:07 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/993799800 WW1 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/993966179 During WW1 many men did not realize what they were facing before they entered war, there expectations were different from reality. Upon entering the war many men were killed because of that assumption.]]> 2020-12-07 13:51:05 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/993966179 What influences peoples ideas and decisions https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/993983445 The biggest influence on a person is definitely their past and their upbringing. In disabled, we were informed about a soldier, Wilfred Owen who was in a wheelchair and has been through the struggles of fighting. His emotions and thoughts will also be influenced by the war. An example, in this poem is when no one really comes to help out the soldier on the wheelchair as he states "Why dont they come and put him into bed" here the author is  confused and even feels betrayed as he sacrificed his life for the country and in return they dont even come back to put him to bed. A soldier would think differently and would give a lot of respect to veterans, because they know the horrors of war. ]]> 2020-12-07 13:55:14 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/993983445 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/994317351 Injuries are one of the main topics in this poem, due to the lifelong deficits that soldiers came back with during this time period. ]]> 2020-12-07 15:05:33 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/994317351 https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/994473926 Possible sexism towards women? Men used to believe that women were fragile and could only manage living with "strong men" and this phrase was possibly written with that perception, when in reality this women might've been looking at other men because she is friends with them or appreciating the other men who served in  the war who coincidentally didn't experience intensive deficits. ]]> 2020-12-07 15:35:47 UTC https://padlet.com/prusn1/nlwlyw9tyelyw5dx/wish/994473926