Chapter 3, Total War, Totalitarianism, and the Arts

1. Why was there such a condition of totalitarianism in the early decades of the twentieth century?

2. In Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est, why does the poet try to reconcile the technology of modern war with traditional ideas of patriotism?

3. It has been said that T.S. Eliot favored “biblical rhythms”. In ‘The Waste Land ‘ what effects do they achieve?

4. Is the Second Coming, what is Yeats describing, deliverance or destruction?

5. What elements in Remarque’s All Quite on the Western Front, contribute to a sense of macabre?

6. How does Remarque achieve cinematic momentum?

7. How are the images of birth and death conflated by Jarrell’s The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

8. What are haiku’s, and who is Shuson?

9. In Wiesel’s Night, what similarities and differences are there with Remarque?