Essay: Analysis of Susan Sontag's 'Looking at War' and War's Impact

This essay analyzes Susan Sontag's essay, 'Looking at War,' critiquing the glorification of war and highlighting its destructive impact on society. The essay compares Sontag's views with a photograph from Vietnam in 1966, emphasizing the cruelty and injuries caused by war. It references Virginia Woolf's 'Three Guineas' and images from Life Magazine to illustrate the devastation and loss of life associated with conflicts. The essay discusses the perspectives of war poets and the suppression of anti-war sentiments, ultimately arguing against the celebration of war and advocating for peace. It also touches on the impact of the First World War through the lens of Ernest Friedrich's work, emphasizing the brutal realities of war and the need to prevent mass killings. The conclusion reinforces the condemnation of war's brutality and its detrimental effects on individuals and society.

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

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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

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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

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take part in their country’s politics and improved the conditions of their respective countries
(Freh: 27).
The author of the article Susan Sontag has also spoken about the tenth anniversary of the
nationally mobilizing Germany after the ending of the First World War. According to the critics,
the text written by Ernest Friedrich named War against War (Krieg dem Kriege). This reflects
the violence of the First World War through 130 photographs that had been collected from the
German medical archives and military records (Af Jochnick and Normand: 76). The violence of
war had stunned the people of Europe. It is clear from the description that human beings were
completely slaughtered like animals (De Rond and Lok: 1980).
The cognitive thinking ability of human beings might not have worked that time due to
various reasons. This is why people reacted in such a brute manner. The steamers on rivers and
seas were hit by tornadoes and people used to die like insects. These things are not acceptable at
all in the current society (Freh: 27). People who objected to war were hanged and these were
common events during those times. If the entire situation is put simply, it can be said that
agonies of death by soldiers are the harshest things that a person can imagine. Thus the glory of
war is not something that should be celebrated by people. Rather it should be stopped and people
do not like to se young men heavily bandaged in the head for injury due to war like the chosen
image of Vietnam 1966- The War Goes On (Feb 11, 1966).
In the concluding section, it can be said that the cruelty of war has been reflected through
the writing of Susan Sontag as she has criticized the war lovers heavily. War is something that
only brings devastation in the society. The agonies of people and their cries have spread the

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message that death will only bring darkness in the lives of common people and stop people to get
a good life.

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References
Af Jochnick, Chris, and Roger Normand. "The legitimation of violence: a critical history of the
laws of war." The Development and Principles of International Humanitarian Law.
Routledge, 2017. 49-95.
Boyle, Michael J. Violence after war: explaining instability in post-conflict states. JHU Press,
2014.
De Rond, Mark, and Jaco Lok. "Some things can never be unseen: The role of context in
psychological injury at war." Academy of Management Journal 59.6 (2016): 1965-1993.
Freh, F. M. "Psychological effects of war and violence on children." J Psychol Abnorm Child 4
(2015): e106.
Kamali, Masoud. War, violence and social justice: Theories for social work. Routledge, 2016.
Le Espiritu, Yen. Body counts: The Vietnam War and militarized refugees. Univ of California
Press, 2014.
Lessing, Benjamin. "Logics of violence in criminal war." Journal of Conflict Resolution 59.8
(2015): 1486-1516.
Sontag, Susan. "Looking At War". The New Yorker, 2002,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/12/09/looking-at-war.