Looking at War - Essay Analysis

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH
The purpose of the following essay is to analyze the essay by Susan Sontag in the year
2002 named Looking at War (Sontag). The glory of war has been criticized by the author in her
text. She has also criticized most men as they like the overall idea of war and find some glorious
factors inside it. The concept of getting satisfaction in fighting has been largely criticized by the
author of the essay. The essence of this text will be analyzed by comparing it with one
photograph that will highlight the violence in war and its negative impact on the society.
The violent and destructive conditions of war are quite important in this context. Susan
Sontag has described about her feelings properly about war and its destruction capabilities. She
has also highlighted on the text written by Virginia Woolf in 1938 named Three Guineas.
(Sontag). Woolf discussed the importance of the roots of war and its significant problems in the
later times. The images of war have been depicted by the Life Magazine over the years. One
example can be given in this scenario (Lessing: 1502). The name of this picture is Vietnam
1966- The War Goes On (Feb 11, 1966).
The cruelties of war have been reflected throughout this image and it has brought out the
stark conditions of war in various aspects. In this image it can be seen that two men are sitting at
a place, wounded and their heads are heavily bandaged. Though the war brings out the valiance
of people through the wars, it also highlights on the level of cruelty and injuries that war can
bring to the human beings (Sontag). Therefore, it is very important to know that human beings
must not glorify a thing like war since it has been harmful for civilization since it has taken away
the lives of many people.
Susan Sontag has also gone on to say that this cruelty of war can be reflected through
scattered corpses of men and women all around the corner. Without these things, wars are

2ENGLISH
incomplete and it is pure bloodshed (Kamali: 37). There are many poets like Wilfred Owen and
Siegfried Sassoon who had firsthand experience of the war and they completely despised it
because of the violence it has shown towards the common people (Sontag). The pictures of the
dead children are also shown in the Life Magazine archives.
There is a saying that people who do not take part in the war are always in favor of wars
since they can brag about their valor through promoting war. Throughout the book, the author
has said about the fact that pictures presented in several journals and magazines are quite
heartrending (Boyle: 20). The images of the World Wars are also presented through these photos.
However, it can be said that ruins and left out places are the reflections of war. There are several
regions in the world that are completely devastated (Sontag). There are such instances in the
words of the author that many personnel have lost their lives because poison gas attacks and or
their heads being severed. The images are published with headings in the languages like French,
German, English and Dutch (Le Espiritu: 29).
Therefore, it has become very necessary to raise the voices against these wars and stop
mass killing in such ways. In order to take steps against public display of these books, the police
used to raid the bookstores in various cities. Thus the essay by Susan Sontag has been very
effective to make the common people understand the ravages that wars bring with them. The
peace lovers all across the world are only trying to establish peace in the world and this can only
be done by putting a stop to the practice of genocide (Af Jochnick and Normand: 76). The
images presented in Vietnam 1966- The War Goes On (Feb 11, 1966) have presented the fierce
rendition wars in front of common people. The two injured persons in the war could have also
led a beautiful life by pursuing their careers in the fields they liked the most. They could even