ANALYSIS ON THE BOOK GOODBYE TO ALL THAT BY ROBERT GRAVES

Autobiographical Account:

"Goodbye to All That" is an autobiographical account written by Robert Graves [1].

It covers Graves's life from his childhood in England to his service as a military officer in World War I and
his post-war years [1].

The memoir provides a candid and poetic account of Graves's experiences in the war and his coming-of-
age [1].

Themes:

Disillusionment: The book reflects the disillusionment felt by Graves and his generation after World War I
[3].

Loss of Innocence: Graves's experiences in the war and the atrocities he witnessed led to a loss of
innocence and a transformation in his worldview [3].

Change and Transformation: "Goodbye to All That" explores the profound changes in England and
society brought about by the war [3].

Brutal Realism: The memoir presents a brutally honest depiction of the horrors of war, challenging
romanticized notions of warfare [2].

Literary Significance:

Context of "The Lost Generation": The book is considered a significant work of literature from the "Lost
Generation," a term used to describe the disillusioned generation that came of age during and after
World War I [3].

Artistic Perspective: Graves goes beyond a traditional soldier's memoir and places the reality of war
within a larger socio-political and aesthetic context [2].

Impact on Siegfried Sassoon: The honesty displayed in "Goodbye to All That" caused strain in Graves's
friendship with poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was also known for his war poetry [2].

The title of Robert Graves’ memoir of his service in WWI is an indication of the overarching
theme. Goodbye to All That can be read both literally and figuratively. Not too much long after returning
back to England from the horrors of the war, Graves would say goodbye to his homeland and take up
residences in Majorca and the United States.

On a level that conflates the literal and the metaphorical, the brutal honesty that Graves displays in his
memoir would wind up being a way of saying goodbye to many of his friends. In particular, the
poet Siegfried Sassoon would become a casualty of the honesty of Graves. Sassoon was one of the many
British poets who established their reputation early with equally brutal descriptions of the horrors of
war. Brutally realistic those poems may be, Graves is honest with them from a different perspective,
suggesting that even in their ugliness, they served the purpose of glorifying war. Sassoon would become
perhaps the most notable collateral damage caused by the explosive reception of Goodbye to All That.
The autobiography really excels on the metaphorical level, however. Goodbye to All That is more than an
eyewitness account to history. For Graves to have written a soldier’s memoir in the traditional sense
would have been no different from the poetry of Sassoon and Wilfrid Owen that—while unquestionably
not romantic—nevertheless suffers the ultimate fate of all poetry: becoming romanticized by its readers.
The memoir casts the bloody and bruising reality of warfare within a larger socio-political context and,
just as importantly, within the context of art and aesthetics.

What Graves is really saying goodbye to is the England he knew before the war. And England that was
just as much gone forever as if they had lost the war against the Germans. Death on a massive scale, the
political upheaval in Europe which led to outbreak of war, the economic cost of paying for everything
and aesthetic sensibility engendered into the more poetic souls who fought in the trenches essentially
meant that nothing was ever going to be the same for England. For his own part in that transformation,
the reaction to Graves’ book was equally significant.

The Germans are not the only villains. The brutal honesty with which Graves depicts the Great War is not
reserved simply for bullets and blood. Graves is unwilling to overlook or discount the hypocrisy on the
winning side. Among the sub-themes which Graves touches upon as being agents of forcible change in
British society brought about the attack from across the Channel is the rise of feminism, the decency of
pacifism, the indecency of jingoistic patriotism and tragic dimension of misplaced nostalgia.

With the assurance of someone who has looked into the abyss and seen the future, Graves scored
with Goodbye to All That what is still today considered one of the definitive works of literature inspired
by one of the most wasteful and useless demonstrations of mankind’s ability to destroy for no good
reason. Who wouldn’t wish to say goodbye to all that?