Art as a Form of Creation

    🌼This first term, in literature, we have been analyzing several poems in connection with wars. We divided in groups, and each group presented and explained a different poem to the class. After the presentations, our teacher Pat asked us to bring material in connection with the poems that we learnt; it could be a song, video, poem, article, a speech or whatever we wanted in connection with the topic. We divided in new groups and each member of it shared what she/he had brought to work. I worked with Belu Brito, Bauti Buljevich, Oli Llobet and Sofi Mele. What I liked most about our group is that we all brought different things; belu brought a song, olí and bauti a picture, sofi a drawing and I brought a video, so a lot of interpretations could be done and analyzed.

     🌼I brought a video which caught a lot my attention. I saw it on twitter a month ago (the 2nd of April the day we argentinians honor and respect the veterans that fought to defend the Falkland islands against GB) and I decided to save it as I considered it’s very powerful and transmits a really important message by making a huge criticism towards politicians and society. When Pato told us that we had to bring something to class in connection with the poems we had read and analyzed, I immediately remembered about that video. After I watched it again I realise the connection it has to the poems we had read in class; but mostly with the one I’ve worked with “Dulce et Decorum Est”. This poem written by Wilfred Owen, besides retelling and describing the atrocities that he struggled at war, also makes a huge criticism; a criticism to society, to church to politicians. A criticism to the ones who tell “the old lie” that dying for one’s country is “sweet and proper”. This huge criticism that Owen makes and transigir throughout this poem, is clearly seen in this video; how shamed this young veteran is about all what he has done, he can’t forgive himself the fact that he believed what society told him. He believed that the right thing to do was that: kill innocent people to defend his country. In the video he mentions that he now realised that it’s all a matter of power, of who has more territory; they don’t care about young kids who risk their lives neither the innocent people dying at war. We can also see that, although many years have passed since Owen wrote this poem, this continues happening; kids are still forced to fight and die for a cause they don’t even care and that it’s not worth it.

     🌼As I said before what I liked the most about our group was that each of the members brought something different to share. I really liked what Belu brought: a song. I consider that music is essential for any human being; it has the power to create emotions, to bring images, connections, i think that art in general but more specific music makes us perceive the world in a different way. That’s why I really liked the fact that Belu brought a song to share. The song is called “Goodbye” and it has a lot of connections with most of the poem we had read. It deals with war, death, how hard is for soldiers to fight at war and see their friends die; knowing they could be the next one. In the song, we can see how the soldier is dying, after so much suffering, so much pain he is finally resting in peace. This has a huge impact on his friends the other soldiers who saw him die in their arms; feeling useless as they couldn’t do anything to save him. In the video that I brought to share, the veteran talking makes reference to how tough and traumatic was making friends and then seeing them die; an event that cause trauma and will last in their memories forever.

    🌼I really enjoyed this activity, I consider that it was the best way to close up and fully understand all the poems we have analyzed in class in a creative and entertaining way.