Wallace Stevens\' Poem \"The Death

¶ … Wallace Stevens' poem "The Death of a Soldier"

War has always been a powerful shaper of our history. Each generation has had to suffer through war, and the fight to protect what one nation or people see as right. However, modern thought on such a bloody affair has turned away from the concept of dying in patriotic glory, but to understanding the entire concept as having a lack of meaning. Both Wallace Steven's "The Death of a Soldier" and William Faulkner's "Two Soldiers" present the idea that when one looses one's life in battle, there is no glory; rather, the two works present a cold nihilistic image that glory has no real meaning in practical existence.

Wallace Steven's infamous short work "The Death of a Soldier" examined the death of a soldier in WWI, with very practical notations on the meaningless of his sacrifice. Stevens early on presents the idea that death is inevitable, and therefore not special in any way; "Life contracts and death is expected," (Stevens 1923). Death, seen here within the context of a soldier on a battlefield, is to be expected just like the coming of the fall. It is a typical event, which in most cases goes unnoted within the larger scheme of things. Stevens then asks the reader not to praise the soldier for some sort of bravery or chivalry, as typically associated with a soldier who dies in the name of his country. No one else around the dead soldier will do so, and so we see the reality of death in battle as much different as its myth. Rather, Wallace is taking a much more nihilistic stand in his representation of death; portraying it as both inevitable and somewhat meaningless. The soldier in question is one who will never achieve the glory many would assume for a war hero. Instead, he is nameless and unheard, dying alone with little recognition of his absence. In his death, the reader is open to the idea of death itself having no profound meaning, "Death is absolute and without memorial." It is common and inglorious. Thus, we can see that the perils of man seem meaningless in the overall scheme of the world, "When the wind stops, and, over the heavens / The clouds go, nevertheless, / In their direction," (Stevens 1923). Nature, and the rest of the world will always go on. Death, as well as life itself then seem meaningless.

Faulkner too paints a much more inglorious image of death, especially death on the proving grounds of battle to protect and serve one's country. In "Two Soldiers," a young rural southern Pete Grier leaves his family in the South to join the war, inspired by the patriotism which swept over much of the country at the time. Even the young eight-year-old narrator can see Pete's noble ignorance, yet is caught up in the image of glory it would bring to him and his family. It is within this fantasy the boy tries to stay with his brother through his deployment. This brings up the concept of proving yourself through service. However, in real life practicality, going to war actually puts the family at disadvantage. Pete's pop says to him "Besides, what'll I do for help on the farm with you gone? It seems to me I'll get mighty fat behind," (Faulkner 85). Pete's father also served in WWI and saw no rewards for it, having only stayed stationed in Texas. All Pete's leaving would do would cause his family grief, without the glory for his country. Thus, through going to war you are removed from the life in which you really matter. Pete is eventually killed, his body lost to the sea -- a similar fate to the soldier in the other piece.