Satire In Mark Twain's The War Prayer

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Destruction of humanity Humans always want to expand their own nations and become the best in the world. This is the reason why wars have happened for thousand of years and never showed sign of stopping. Wars bring terrible destruction. However, people do not truly recognized the results after the war, they are blinded by patriotism and materialism. “The war prayer”, a short satirical story written by Mark Twain, illustrated a town when they are preparing for war. By using satire, Twain had successfully shown the blind patriotic and religious belief as a motivation for war, and his hope for humans to realize the real consequences of the war. Twain points out the irony when the town is celebrating the war. The war is nearly begun, “[t]he country …show more content…
They pray to God that He “...would watch over [their] noble young soldiers”, “encourage them in their patriotic work;” “make them” “invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory” (Twain). They are praying to God to help them kill and destroy their enemies. But their enemies are also humans, and they might pray the same thing. God represents love and forgiveness, but they are asking Him to eliminate others. Twain wants to show the greed of humans for victory of war which blind them from the realization that no one actually win the …show more content…
When the aged strange man enters the church, he states that he is the messenger of God and he is going to convey what their praying fully import. He says that when they “prayed for victory [they] have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory-must follow it, cannot help but follow it” (Twain). The citizens are lack of awareness that the war only bring obliteration and devastation. Twain emphasizes the irony when the citizens appeal to pray for the better nations, they actually pray for destruction. Moreover, the strange man describes what the citizens really pray for, is to “blast [ the enemy’s] hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet” (Twain). Twain wants to expose the deadly outcomes of the “glorious” war. There is no winning in war, only the pain of survivors and the grief of those left behind. In the end of the story, “[i]t was believed [that] the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.” (Twain). Twain highlights that even when the consequences of the war is clear, no one think of stopping the war. They still cannot realize the price behind the victory of war. He truly hopes that people can aware that war only bring agony and
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