War and Peace in Literature and Photography

Martin Donohoehttp://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org

http://www.phsj.org

Why Literature

• Vicarious experience• Explore diverse philosophies• Promotes empathy, critical thinking, flexibility,

non-dogmatism, self-knowledge• Encourages creative and ethical thinking• Allows for group discussion/debate

• Valuable for educating health professionals

Themes

• Honor• Futility• Suffering• Death• Abrogation of Rights• Protest• Peace

Famous Novels of War and Peace

• War and Peace, Tolstoy• Red Badge of Courage, Crane• All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque• Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo• A Rumor of War, Caputo• A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller

“The War Prayer”Mark Twain (1835-1910)

• Written during the US war on the Philippines• Submitted to Harper's Bazaar (exclusive

contract) in 1895 - rejected as "not quite suited to a woman's magazine.“

• “I don't think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.“

• Published posthumously in 1923

“The War Prayer”

Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens)

Christopher ColumbusUpon meeting the Arawaks of the Bahamas

They…brought us…many…things…They willingly traded everything they owned…They do not bear arms…They would make fine servants…With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

John Wayne

I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.

William Tecumseh Sherman

War is hell.

Alexander Pope

Our business in the field of fight, Is not to question, but to prove our might.

Horace Odes (III.2.13)

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country

"Dulce Et Decorum Est"Wilfred Owen, 1917-18

…In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

"Dulce Et Decorum Est"Wilfred Owen

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,- My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

Ernest Hemingway

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

Josef Stalin

The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.

“Survivors”Siegfried Sassoon, 1917

…No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk. Of course they're "longing to go out again," --These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.

“Survivors” Siegfried Sassoon, 1917

They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died, -Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride. . . Men who went out to battle, grim and glad; Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

The BibleBook of Matthew

All they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword.

Mahatma Gandhi

An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.

Herbert Hoover

Older men declare war. But it's the youth who must fight and die!

Issac Asimov

Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.

Jean-Paul Sartre

When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.

Arthur Ponsonby

When war is declared, Truth is the first casualty.

Hermann Goering(at the Nuremberg Trials, shortly before being

sentenced to death)

Of course the people don't want war. But…it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship . . .

Hermann Goering

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders…All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.

Samuel Johnson

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel

George OrwellNineteen Eighty-Four

War is Peace.Freedom is Slavery.Ignorance is Strength.

Benjamin Franklin

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Will Rogers

You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.

Solomon Short

The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky.

Mao Zedong

War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.

Albert Einstein

A country cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

Jeannette RankinFirst Female Member of Congress

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.

Eleanor Roosevelt

We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

John F. Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

R. Buckminster Fuller

Either war is obsolete or men are.

Albert Einstein

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

John F. Kennedy

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

Günter Grass

The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open.

“First they came for the Jews”Pastor Niemoller

First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, for I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists, and I did not speak up for I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, for I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me.

Bob Dylan

Come you masters of warYou that build all the gunsYou that build the death planesYou that build the big bombsYou that hide behind wallsYou that hide behind desksI just want you to know I can see through your masks.

“Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1870”Julia Ward Howe

Arise then...women of this day!Arise, all women who have hearts!…Say firmly:"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,For caresses and applause.

“Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1870”Julia Ward Howe

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearnAll that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.”…From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up withOur own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!

“Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1870”Julia Ward Howe

Let women……promote the alliance of the different nationalities,The amicable settlement of international questions,The great and general interests of peace.

Margaret Mead

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

African Proverb

If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in your tent

Contact Info, References

Martin Donohoemartindonohoe@phsj.org

This slide show and others available at http://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org

http://www.phsj.org