PAPER I ------------ PASSAGE W

INTRO :
In The War in East Europe, by John Reed, he uses gory imagery to depict the irony and to show the normality of war created through his diction. In the passage given, Reed's diction helps to emphaize a competitive and laid back mood between two parties.

II. The war is set in East Europe as the title says. It simply depicts the actions of a war between two villages. This passage is from a soldier's point of view, perhaps someone who has been with the group of soldier for awhile.
Hence,
-> "We Christanied him immediately Ivan the Horrible..." { This shows us that they are pretty close, a person usually has to know a person's personality enable to give then a nickname}
-> "The horses pretended to be impressed..." { the horses have been in battle many times and therefore have seen these moves more than one to become unimpressed}

III. Reed uses his diction to allow us to understand that two parties are involed,
-> "...and we were off!" { connotes a race/ competition and creates a mood of a mission}

Slowly progressess the movement of the narrator's group and him or herself.
-> "...hard road that led frontward, slowly gaining upon & passing a long train..."

IV. Using diction, Reed begins to show us the setting of where the narrator and hie or her's group of people are traveling to.
-> "passing a long train of ox-carts driven by soldiers"
-> "Now we were in Bucouina"
-> "...rose the rice hills of Romania"

Traveling a long ways into battle, builds the evidence of having a normal mood or just going on a trip and not really into war.

V. Using imagery, Reeds can show us how the narrator sees the war as something normal.
-> "...leisurely sound of the cannon..." { leisurely meaning common and done without stress and/or thought to it}
->"...at intervals of half a mintue a gun spat heavily" {although this is gory, the tone in which it is said makes it seem very normal and unalerting}
-> "...dazzling in the sun..." {as if it's something beautiful, a tower that may have innocent people in there, falling, how could that be beautiful? again, irony}

CONCLUSION :
Reeds is trying to show us, the readers, the irony in our humanly actions of going into war. Depicting that wars have become the normal way of solving a dispute.