Analyzing Ernest M. Hemingway's "Champs d'Honneur"

"Champs d'Honneur" by Ernest M. Hemingway

Soldiers never do die well;

         Crosses mark the places—

Wooden crosses where they fell,

         Stuck above their faces.

Soldiers pitch and cough and twitch—

         All the world roars red and black;

Soldiers smother in a ditch,

         Choking through the whole attack.

    With this poem, Hemingway is able to properly portray the true tragedy of war—the potential benefits war would bring to a nation does not justify the physical and psychological damage done to human life during that time. The horror and suffering soldiers face while in combat, including those who are just caught in the crossfire, is unimaginable. Those who survive are scarred for life, and those who don't face a terrible death. The title of the poem translates from French into Fields of Honor, and the details Hemingway chose to include in his writing show the irony of this title—what honor is there in dying, scared and afraid, while fighting someone else's war? Why sacrifice your life for something so brutal like war? Hemingway even references this poem directly to the World War I gas attacks. This explains what he means by, "Soldiers pitch and cough and twitch—", assuming that they were just bombarded with gas canisters, causing them to "[choke] through the whole attack." Hemingway's portrayal of the terror soldiers face moments before dying, which he does within the span of only a few lines, make "Champs d'Honneur" one of his greatest war poems of all time.

Sonnet 1

"Short Story"

I took a trip on a very old carriage,

Driven by a man named Oliver West,

To see my daughter the day of her marriage

With a man I knew was trouble at best.

Upset, I traveled at the thought of him

Taking my child far away from me.

This gave me an itch right under my skin

While my heart filled with hate and agony.

But then I saw the most terrible sight;

A great big fire was burning the church

Where my own child was starting her life,

And my own heart raced and started to hurt.

    I feared for my daughter, and started to shout,

    "Oh please, dear God, please make her come out!"

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines -- First Impressions

Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying starts off in a Louisianan courtroom where a man named Jefferson is being tried for allegedly killing a man during a robbery. From what is gathered, Jefferson is obviously being falsely accused of this crime, but because the novel takes place in pre-Civil Rights South (and also the fact that Jefferson himself is black), he is charged with first degree murder and sentenced to death by electrocution. This is the main idea of what's going on in the beginning of this story, where Jefferson's death sentence sets up everything else that is going to happen in the novel. Gaines interestingly starts off in the middle of a key scene in the story; there is no buildup to Jefferson's trial, nor is there a proper introduction for any of the main characters. I feel like he did this to somewhat get us straight into the story, without adding irrelevant information that would just slow it down. At one point, the defense attorney gives reasons as to why Jefferson is innocent of the crimes he is accused of, but in the process says some very degrading things about the man. He says that Jefferson is not a man, but a fool; a fool that would get himself in the trouble that he was in; a fool that lacks any sense of intelligence; a fool that only acts on command. He even says that Jefferson "acted the way he did" because of the traits he inherited from his African ancestry. The man who is solely responsible for keeping Jefferson away from a death sentence is also the one who degrades and belittles him at the same time. I think Gaines gave this character this kind of dialogue to show the audience when this novel is taking place, and the type of attitude people had during that time. From what is said, you can tell that A Lesson Before Dying took place during a time when ignorance and prejudice were very prevalent.