Baldan Sofia 4ALS

War and Peace in “ The Great Silence”

In the text “The Great Silence”, taken from the novel “The Unknown Soldier”, the reader can find out some considerations about war and peace.
Just considering the title “The great silence” the reader can make up an idea about the point of view about war conveyed by the text. The adjective “Great” conveys the idea of something important and significant and the noun “silence” evokes a sense of respect and pain. So the title represents what happened after the Great War. I think that the author didn’t choose the title by chance: the adjective Great refers directly to the First World War also named the Great War and the noun silence evokes the atmosphere and the sceneries at the end of the war (dead, destruction and pain) but also evokes a sense of peace. “The Great Silence” is also the name gave to the two minutes of silence made during the last journey of the Unknown Soldier from Victoria Station to Westminster Abbey where he was buried: one minute for those who died during the war and the other one for those who returned home.
So in the text there are presented two different point of view of war and then of peace: the political point of view and the common people’s point of view.
From the description of important people’s attitude (politicians or generals), who attended the rite, comes out a good idea of war: it was justified with the Unknown Warrior’s cult and the consequent situation of peace. So the politicians considered war a necessary way to reach peace and live a better life: all the fallen were honoured and considered the heroes of the nation ( The king deposited flowers on the cenotaph and then on the Unknown Warrior’s grave, he also made two speech in order to celebrate all the Unknown Soldiers and celebrate the war).
On the other side we find out common people’s point of view: the crowd who attended the procession and the rite covered the entire last route of the Warrior and what characterized those moments was the silence: “the last stroke of eleven reverberated and then faded into the deepest silence any there had ever heard”. The images that this sentence creates in the reader’s mind conveys the idea of something melancholy, desolated, painful and significant. So there is presented also a negative idea of war as bearer of death and destruction. I think that this text expresses all the pain of those returned from the front and of those who lost a beloved person: silence is a way to express the pain and create a connection with the other people I think it is a silent protest against the false ‘tale’ of a war made in the name of peace.
In conclusion I think that in the text isn’t presented only one vision of war and peace but different: everyone has its personal point of view. In particular, I’ve found out two main point of view one in favour of war and the second against it. I think that in both cases the Unknown Soldier has an important role as bond for people: he is a way to unify people under a common ideal ( as hero of the nation or as symbol of all the fallen).