War and Memory in Irene Zabytko?s ?Home Soil?, Bruce Weigl?s ?Song of N

Bullets flying through the air right over me, my knees are shaking, and my feet are numb. I see familiar faces all around me dodging the explosives illuminating the air like lightning. Unfortunately, numerous familiar faces seem to disappear into the trenches. I try to run from the noise, but my mind keeps causing me to re-illustrate the painful memories left behind. The three narratives â€Å"Home Soil† by Irene Zabytko, â€Å"Song of Napalm† by Bruce Weigl, and â€Å"Dulce et Decorum Est† by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it. In the story â€Å"Home Soil† by Irene Zabytko, the reader is enlightened about a boy who was mentally and emotionally drained from the horrifying experiences of war. The father in the story knows exactly what the boy is going through, but he cannot help him, because everyone encounters his or her own recollection of war. â€Å"When their faces are contorted from sucking the cigarette, there is an unmistakable shadow of vulnerability and fear of living. That gesture and stance are more eloquent than the blood and guts war stories men spew over their beers† (Zabytko 492). The father, as a young man, was forced to reenact some of the same obligations, yet the father has learne...