The poem ‘I Was Only 19’ written by Redgum, and the poem ‘Hundred Dollar Suit’ written by Husky Gawenda explore similar aspects on the nature of war. Redgum and Gawenda have the same speaker of their lyrics, as both poems are expressed through the eyes of a war veteran. Gawenda and Redgum express their characters demons from confronting war experiences, how soldiers in war are perceived to be exaggeratingly chivalrous, and how many soldiers endure suppressing war atrocities at such a young age. Redgum and Gawenda utilise these ideas through their strong use of poetic devices such as symbolism, imagery, personification, tone, and repetition. Thus, Redgum and Gawenda position the reader to reflect on the west’s inhumane war system, in order…show more content… Redgum showcases this through his imagery of, ‘This clipping from the newspaper shows us young and strong and clean’, whilst Gawenda depicts this from symbolism from, ‘On my knees in a hundred Dollar Suit’, in which he utilises the hundred dollar suit as a symbol of the embellishment of war veterans when really he is drawn down to his knees from the pain it has caused. Gawenda and Redgum also explore how this propaganda has convinced the public that their feelings of distress have surfaced from their own mental state, instead from the war. Gawenda illustrates this from the tone of ‘All the people came out of their shops… some (think he’s) just crazy’, which highlights how the public are quick to judge war veterans and that they are also oblivious to their hurt by declaring them ‘crazy’. Similarly, Redgum’s use of assonance by repeating the word ‘and’ at the start of each sentence reveals the ongoing faults with the public which ‘didn’t mention mud and blood and tears’ , furthermore showcasing why they believe that war inflicts no such mental damage. This acutely affects the reader by influencing them to seek greater depth to their depiction of soldiers in battle and war veterans, instead of believing the bed of lies the media are composing to the…show more content… Redgum’s repetition of ‘I was only nineteen’ and making it the title of the song utilises this by constantly reinforcing the theme of how soldiers are deprived of their youth. Similarly to this, Gawenda’s utilisation of repetition with ‘I wanna see my home again’ conveys a strong sense of vulnerability, which would originate from how young soldiers generally are. Therefore, Gawenda and Redgum‘s repetition creates great emphasis inside the reader’s mind which provokes them to question the ongoing faults with the West’s war system. Redgum and Gawenda also explore how this immense vulnerability leads to needing a sense of mateship in order to be able to persevere through war. The symbolic nature of Gawenda’s use of ‘brother’, likewise to the symbolism in Redgum’s use of his mate Frankie depicts this as it outlines the significance of just having someone else who understands their pain, and how war creates a great yearning for this reassurance. As a result, the reader is positioned to clearly realise that war does not limit a soldier to just physical pain, but it also creates mental pain which can certainly have a worse effect on their
