Discuss the main themes that emerge from Sherriff's Journey's end

Essay by randip434A-, April 2004

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Sheriff showed a lot of themes in this book, which made it very effective. The main themes were:

Heroism,

The reality of war

Grief/mourning

Irony of the play

Cowardice/fear

Hopelessness of war

The cross section of types of people/officers

The coping of the pressure of war.

Duty

In heroism, in this text, we clearly see that Raleigh tries to be a hero but fails. Raleigh (excitedly): "I say Stanhope's told me about the raid". This suggests that Raleigh had a set picture of war (go and kill the enemy and be a hero), but he didn't know the reality of it (death).

In the text, we see a quiet hero shown in Osborne. Osborne: "my names Osborne. Second in command of the company. You can call me 'sir' in front of the men". This suggests that Osborne went day in and day out for his country and did his duty, even though he knew he was going to die for a hopeless cause.

He was also very level headed, and was referred by everyone by 'uncle', so he made a great hero.

In the text, we see that Stanhope is nearly everyone's hero (Raleigh's the most). Raleigh: ... he was skipper of rugger at Barford, and kept wicket for the eleven...". This suggests to us that he was a born leader, as he led school teams, making him a great leader and is also admired by a lot of his collies, as he is very committed to his job.

In the reality of war, in the text, we see from Raleigh it is very quiet. Raleigh: "I've never known anything so quiet". This suggests Raleigh is very inexperienced, and he is learning the reality of war in this aspect.

In the text, we see that the expectations of Raleigh about...