Can you get inside the head of a combat soldier? I don't pretend to know. After reading the letters from the World War I British officers we attempted to interpret the mental state of the officers. A lot of people (including myself) seemed to think we could get in their heads. After class, I began to wonder if our statements and assumptions about the writing had any validity at all. The answer, I don't think that anyone who has not been under fire in a war zone can come close to relating to these writings. Yes, we can interpret the words on the page. We cannot, however, relate to the experience that those same words describe.
So what can the common civilian take from the words in these letters? We can certainly learn from their perspective of the horrors of modern war, learn to respect these men for their sacrifices, and hope that we can pay them back by living good and full lives provided by their sacrifices. I am in no way saying that reading these letters are a fruitless exercise. We need to learn as much as we can so that we can about these past conflicts so that we can avoid the same mistakes that made them so brutally difficult. We have a tremendous responsibility to these soldiers and all of those people who have laid down their lives for others.
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I think something you might be getting at here is the difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy deals with a common feeling between two people, whereas empathy is defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." People who have never been where men in uniform have been do not have that common feeling, and so we definitely cannot sympathize with them. We can, however, empathize and attempt to understand and share in the feelings of another.
ReplyDeleteDo we have first hand experience? No. Do we understand it perfectly? No. Do we have validity on the subject even though we haven't been there? Well...maybe. Lots of premier historians are experts on subjects and events they have never personally been involved in or were there for. However, I do think we need to make sure we don't stick out feet in our mouths and say something stupid or act like we really do know the totality of what's going on. But as you said, we definitely need to use this opportunity to learn as much as we can about their experiences.
I agree with what you're saying here, but then we need to go back then and analyze what it means to be a historian. I suppose that what David said outlines my point. Even though we weren't there and cannot precisely pinpoint their emotions, this is all we have as historians. There is an emerging field of history entitled "sensational historical analysis/interpretation," which focalizes specifically on what it -felt- like to be present at a particular historical event. While these historians will never be able to fully grasp what it was like, historical study seems to be reformating itself in ways to fill this gap, so that we may better understand the emotions and psychological stati of our predecessors.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting point to look at. It is very true that we cannot being to feel the things that these men went through and experienced. But their writings are a glimpse of their feelings. They did the best they could to convey thier feelings onto paper so that the reader (Probably not inteded to be us) could see where the writer was coming from and what was happening. I think that even a present day soldier could not understand the feelings of these men because of the huge difference in warfare. We try to interpret they feelings the best we can, and I think that as long as huge assumptions are not made, we are honoring the writer by keeping their literature alive.
ReplyDeleteI think you do have to be careful making assumptions about the people whose letters we are reading. Drawing conclusions is difficult because we are interpreting their words from a modern perspective. If we can try to take away as much of our modern bias as we possibly can we can learn a great deal about the perspective of the soldiers.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, but still think it is important to read these letters as you said. I do not think that a letter can give people the answer about what was going on in a soldiers head. Soldiers may write one way to not show their true feelings so that loved ones back home can feel like the soldier is okay and doing well. Feelings are hard to gather from letters, especially if an educated person is reading them. The writer of the letters may feel one way, but the word usage may show something else. Many scholars see the use words as important to expressing what you really want to express, but not everybody is highly educated and able to do so. Assuming that we know what soldiers are feeling based on their words is a little conceded. I do not believe that anyone can tell what a person may be really feeling based on words in any situation, assumptions are not truth.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is probably impossible for someone who has not had that combat experience to fully understand, but I would also say that if these letters were written, they were meant to be read and meant to convey those men's feelings and opinions. Maybe the point is not for others to experience the feelings of war, and certainly many of the letters could be used to prevent future generations from having those experiences. I think we should take these letters for what they are, and take Daniel's advice and be appreciative that ourselves and our children have the benefits of others' sacrifices.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that nobody get in the mind of a combat soldier unless you were one. Also every war is different. We can never imagine the horrors of war especially the idea of someone above you who you are supposed to trust may at any time send you to your death. I agree that we should read these and respect these men for what they sacrificed. I watched Band of Brothers based on WWII and as realistic that was that can never compare to the true horrors of that war. You can read and watch the horrors but never truly understand the sacrifice it takes to go through some thing like that.
ReplyDeleteDan, I agree that we need to look to the past, and try not to make the same mistakes again. However, it seems like history really is doomed to repeat itself over and over again when it comes to mankind and war. I hope there will never be another war like WWI, and that it's horrors and waste of human life will remain a lone example of what we don't ever want to happen again. Especially since only 20 years after WWI ended, the world was ripped apart on an equally horrible level. Hopefully our country, and others, will never become so detached from the reality of war, as to want to wage it on that scale again.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting perspective that certainly touched a chord with people. I agree with many of the comments above which demonstrate the struggles of a historian to gauge and evaluate sources (when did letters express "true" emotions and when did they seek to convey a false sense of security?) Yet, the reality is that these letters, as you say, represent an important source and a window into the thoughts and perspectives of soldiers, bringing us closer to the historical reality or truth of the experience.
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