ANTI WAR

LITERATURE
COMPARISION

Name: Pranay
School: Future Kids School
Subject: English
Class: X
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Anil sir as well as our principal Saritha
mam who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic about ANTI WAR
LITERATURE, which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things
I am really thankful to them.
CONTENTS

• Poem Comparison
About Michael Mack
Bout “A Small Pain in my Chest”
Theme
After Blenhiem
About the poet
About the Poem
Comparison Between both poems
• Story Comparison
Comparison between the summaries
Comparison between the setting
Comparison between the Themes
POEM COMPARISON
A SMALL PAIN IN MY CHEST
The soldier boy was sitting calmly underneath that tree.
As I approached it, I could see him beckoning to me.
The battle had been long and hard and lasted through the night
And scores of figures on the ground lay still by morning's light.

"I wonder if you'd help me, sir", he smiled as best he could.

"A sip of water on this morn would surely do me good.
We fought all day and fought all night with scarcely any rest -
A sip of water for I have a small pain in my chest."

As I looked at him, I could see the large stain on his shirt

All reddish-brown from his warm blood mixed in with Asian dirt.
"Not much", said he. "I count myself more lucky than the rest.
They're all gone while I just have a small pain in my chest."

"Must be fatigue", he weakly smiled. "I must be getting old.

I see the sun is shining bright and yet I'm feeling cold.
We climbed the hill, two hundred strong, but as we cleared the crest,
The night exploded and I felt this small pain in my chest."
"I looked around to get some aid - the only things I found
Were big, deep craters in the earth - bodies on the ground.
I kept on firing at them, sir. I tried to do my best,
But finally sat down with this small pain in my chest."

"I'm grateful, sir", he whispered, as I handed my canteen

And smiled a smile that was, I think, the brightest that I've seen.
"Seems silly that a man my size so full of vim and zest,
Could find himself defeated by a small pain in his chest."

"What would my wife be thinking of her man so strong and grown,

If she could see me sitting here, too weak to stand alone?
Could my mother have imagined, as she held me to her breast,
That I'd be sitting HERE one day with this pain in my chest?"

"Can it be getting dark so soon?" He winced up at the sun.

"It's growing dim and I thought that the day had just begun.
I think, before I travel on, I'll get a little rest ..........
And, quietly, the boy died from that small pain in his chest.

I don't recall what happened then. I think I must have cried;

I put my arms around him and I pulled him to my side
And, as I held him to me, I could feel our wounds were pressed
The large one in my heart against the small one in his chest.
MICHAEL MACK
Michael Mack is a renowned poet, playwright, and performer. His stint in the
U.S. air force as an aircraft crew chief gave him a lot of fodder for his poetry.
Mack tried his hands at a variety of factory and labor jobs before he resumed his
education again at MIT and graduated from their Writing Program.
Mack’s poems and stories have been aired on the NPR and he has been
published variously in myriad journals. He has been awarded the First Prize in
the Writer’s Circle National Poetry competition and a fellowship in dramatic
writing from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, twice in 2005 and 2013. This
fellowship is esteemed as one of the most competitive and prestigious individual
Arts grants.
ABOUT ‘A SMALL PAIN IN MY CHEST’ POEM

‘Small Pain in My Chest’ by the American poet Michael Mack is a remarkable poem about a soldier’s
death and the narrator’s feeling at his death. The title is an ironical one. The soldier repeatedly says that he
has a small pain in his chest. But he finally died of his injury that he received at the battle. This poem
reveals the anti-war attitude of the poet Michael Mack.
The poem is written in very simple language. It consists of nine stanzas of four lines each. It follows a
regular rhyme scheme. The first two and the last two lines of each stanza rhyme. The lines of the poem are
rather longer. Apart from the first stanza, the last two lines of each stanza have the same rhyme pattern,
and all the eight stanzas end with the phrase ‘small pain in my chest’ with a couple of slight variations.
THEME

The poem A Small Pain in My Chest begins with a soldier boy calling the narrator and asking his help. The
narrator approaches the injured soldier boy and extends his help by offering him some water. After that
that two have a conversation about how the boy got injured in war last night. The soldier boy expresses his
feelings and thoughts in the course of the chat. But he could not survive his injuries that he calls “a small
pain” in his chest, and finally died. The narrator was shocked at his death.
So, the poem is all about a soldier’s confessions, thoughts and feelings before death, and the narrator’s
feelings at his death. Through this poem, the poet actually wants to evoke the pity of war in our minds and
raise a war against war. The poem is an anti-war poem.
ROBERT SOUTHEY
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet
laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey had begun as a radical,
but became steadily more conservative, as he acquired respect for Britain
and its institutions. Other romantics, notably Byron, accused him of siding
with the establishment for money and status. He is principally remembered
as author of the poem After Blenheim and the original version of Goldilocks
and the Three Bears.
AFTER BLENHEIM
SUMMARY OF AFTER BLENHEIM
‘After Blenheim’ by Robert Southey is an anti-war poem that centres around one of the major battles of eighteenth
century – the Battle of Blenheim. Written in 1796 in the form of a ballad, it offers deep insights on war and its
consequences. The 1704 War of Spanish Succession, in which a coalition of forces including the English, defeated
the Franco-Bavarian army on the land of Blenheim, a small village in Southern Germany, supplies its ingredients.
Through a conversation between an old farmer, Kaspar and his grandchildren, Wilhelmine and Peterkin the poet
gradually reveals the scene of a former battlefield. One of the kids has found something ‘large and round’ which his
grandfather explains is a skull, one of many to be found nearby. Similar instances run through the poem to support
the main ideas – tragic end of war & the vulnerability of human life. The poem After Blenheim makes us ponder on
the purpose and result of a war and even questions its validity.
The war caused huge devastation and thousands of casualties. But Old Kaspar seems to have an unconcerned
attitude towards this as he claims that ‘it was a famous victory’ and ‘things like that must be’. His gruesome
descriptions followed by his casual sayings create an effect of irony. It is ironic that it was a great war, but no one
knows why.
THEME

Southey’s poem After Blenheim is an anti-war poem. He is ironic here to present the fact that people in
general glorify war and war-heroes without knowing what good it does to mankind or why a victory is
called ‘great’ or ‘famous’.
In the poem we see that Old Kaspar repeatedly mentions the Battle of Blenheim as a great and famous
victory but he does not know the reason. He has a romantic view of war even after receiving the sufferings
himself during the war and after thousands of killings. This is all about the hollow romantic ideals regarding
war that warmongers have created very carefully in people’s minds. Southey’s poem is a protest against the
heroic ideals of war.
COMPARISON
Michael Mack’s poem ‘A Small Pain in My Chest’ and Robert Southey’s ‘After
Blenheim’ both are anti-war poems. But there is a difference in how the two
poems draws out the pity of war. While ‘A Small Pain in My Chest’ is a depiction
of a soldier boy’s feelings and emotions, ‘After Blenheim’ shows common
people’s ignorance regarding war and its validity. While both the poems raise a
war against the warmongers, Mack’s poem appeals to our heart but Southey’s
poem appeals to our brain. While Michael chooses to gather public opinion
against war through an emotional touch, Robert’s poem is a wake up call against
the propagandists who befool the common people in believing in the greatness
of war.
 In the use of poetic devices both the poems share some similarities. Both use stanza
division and a regular rhyme scheme. Both the poems use irony to emphasize the anti-
war message of the poets. Moreover, both the poems have a refrain (repeating line) —
‘small pain in my chest’ and ’twas a famous victory’ respectively– that holds the key
message.
As to the backgrounds, Small Pain in My Chest is a protest against war written after the
Vietnam War, while After Blenheim is all about the destruction caused by the Battle of
Blenheim. But, regardless of the backgrounds, both the poems are against war and thus
similar in theme and message.
STORY COMPARISON
COMPARISON OF THE SUMMARY
The Red Convertible
“The Red Convertible,” which also forms a chapter in Louise
Erdrich’s novel Love Medicine (1984, 1993), is the story of two
Native American brothers, Lyman Lamartine and his older sibling,
Henry, Jr. Narrated by Lyman, the story explores the relationship
between the brothers before and after Henry’s combat experience
in Vietnam, where he was held as a prisoner of war.
The story begins on an American Indian reservation in North
Dakota. Lyman has received a large insurance check after a tornado
destroyed his restaurant. He and Henry, a laid-off factory worker,
buy a red convertible. Free of daily responsibilities, they take to the
open road in their flashy automobile. Along the way, they pick up
Susy, a Native American woman who is hitchhiking. After giving her
a ride to her home in Chicken, Alaska, they spend the summer with
her family. Their idyllic journey comes to an end when they return
to their reservation and discover that Henry, who had volunteered
for military service, has been called to report for duty.
The Old Man at The Bridge
The story “Old Man at the Bridge” by Earnest Hemingway is set
in the backdrop of Spanish Civil War in 1938. It starts with the
description of an old man who was sitting at a bridge. It was a
war-like situation as the Fascists forces were advancing towards
Ebro. Our narrator, a war correspondent, was in the charge to
cross a pontoon bridge to check the advancement of the enemy
forces. He saw that an old man with steel rimmed spectacles and
dusty clothes was sitting beside the road at the bridge while
carts, trucks and people were crossing the bridge to get to a safe
distance from the enemies. The old man looked too tired to walk
any further.
Seeing the old man sitting there for a long time, the speaker
went to him and asked him where he came from. The old man
answered that he was coming from San Carlos, his native town,
twelve kilometers away from there. The man smiled as it was a
pleasure to him to mention his native land.
After nine months of combat duty in Vietnam, Henry is
captured by the North Vietnamese and imprisoned for six
months. During Henry’s absence, Lyman restores the travel-
worn car. Working on the convertible provides Lyman with a
tangible link to his brother. When Henry finally returns
home, he is profoundly changed. Gone is the fun-loving
child, and in his place is a jumpy, mean, and withdrawn man
who rarely speaks. He spends his days sitting quietly but
restlessly in front of the color television set. Because there
are no Native American doctors on the reservation, Lyman
and his mother consider sending Henry to a psychiatric
hospital but ultimately reject the notion. Instead, Lyman
believes that the red convertible might somehow bring the
old Henry back.
Taking a hammer to the car, Lyman beats the body and
undercarriage out of shape. It takes a month for Henry to
notice the damage, but when he does, he berates Lyman for
allowing the car to deteriorate. He sets about fixing it
himself, without Lyman’s help. Lyman is disappointed
because he had hoped that he and Henry would repair the
car.
Then the speaker had a chat with that man and came to know
that the seventy-six years old man had no one but pets — two
goats, a cat and eight pigeons. They were his family and he
spent his time looking after the animals. Now that the enemy
forces were approaching, he was asked to leave the place. So he
was forced to leave his pets on their fate. The old man is not
anxious about what would happen to his family — the animals.
He thinks that the cat would be able to look after itself. But
what about the pigeons and the goats? He asks the narrator to
guess what would happen to his pets? The speaker consoles
him that they will be fine.
He asks the old man if he left the dove cage unlocked. As the
old man answers in the assertive, he suggests that they will fly.
But he cannot throw light on the future of the goats.
Then our narrator urged the man to get up and try to walk
further as he would now leave. The man tried to walk but could
not. He sat down again in the dust.
The narrator mentions that it was Easter Sunday and a gray
overcast day. He finishes his story by commenting that there
was nothing in favour of the old man except the facts that the
enemy planes were not up in the sky for the overcast weather
and that the cats can look after themselves.
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE SETTING
The Red Convertible
The story "The Red Convertible” is set
on the Chippewa reservation in North
Dakota. The two protagonists, Lyman
and his brother Henry, buy a red
convertible which they take on a road
trip. They end up in Alaska, where...
I'm confused as to what the central
conflict is in "The Red Convertible”
The Old Man at the Bridge
The setting of “Old man at the bridge” is a war
zone at a pontoon bridge across the Ebro river
during the Spanish Civil War. The time is
Easter Sunday 1938. The setting is a spot in
the countryside during the Spanish Civil War.
An old man with spectacles sits exhausted by
the side of the road near a pontoon bridge
that crosses a river. Peasant refugees and
Republican soldiers laden with munitions and
supplies flee the advancing Fascist army.
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE THEMES

The theme of "The Red Convertible” is Symbolism, on the other hand, is a major literary tool employed in the
narrative. It is applied in the title of the story itself as well as in depicting of the two brothers, Henry and Lyman.
The main themes that pass through “The Red Convertible” include change, sacrifice, brotherhood, and emotional
effects of war. The theme of "The Old Man at the Bridge " is that war not only threatens to destroy the lives of
soldiers on the battlefield, but all living beings who happen to be in its path. This anti-war story focuses on what
we to day would call war's "collateral damage . " The old man is one example of collateral damage. He has been
living his ordinary, peaceful, compassionate life in a rural village in Spain. He has no idea what the fighting is all
about. He hates nobody, has no politics, and simply wants to do what he has always done, which is tend his
animals, but he is forced from his home. He has nowhere to go, no body to stay with, and no desire to start over,
yet he has to leave. Through his concern for the fate o f the animals he has left behind, we learn about even more
of war's collateral damage: he h as let his cats run free and has left his bird cages open, but what of his farm stock?
He worries about the bombs dropping from planes and an enemy army coming through. What will happen to his
poor animals? Like him, these are creatures without any politics or hate w hose lives are threatened and upended.
Hemingway wants to make sure that we don't forget about all the vulnerable creatures, from animals to elderly
people, who suffer from wars. He is saying that these lives count, too, and are part o f war's toll.
LOUISE ERDRICH
 Louise Erdrich  is an American author, writer of novels, poetry, and children's
books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled
member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a federally
recognized tribe of the Anishinaabe (also known as Ojibwe and Chippewa).
Erdrich is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second
wave of the Native American Renaissance. In 2009, her novel The Plague of
Doves was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received an Anisfield-
Wolf Book Award. In November 2012, she received the National Book award for
Fiction for her novel The Round House. She was awarded the Library of Congress
Prize for American Fiction at the National Book Festival in September 2015. She
is a 2013 recipient of the Alex Awards. She was married to author Michael Dorris
and the two collaborated on a number of works. The couple separated in 1995.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
 Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer,
journalist, and sportsman. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—
had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought
him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and
the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six
short-story collections, and two nonfiction works. Three of his novels, four short-story collections, and
three nonfiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics
of American literature.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he was a reporter for a few months for The
Kansas City Star before leaving for the Italian Front to enlist as an ambulance driver in World War I. In 1918,
he was seriously wounded and returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A
Farewell to Arms (1929).
Thank you