By We now are in Belgium and have recently been visiting some Word War I sites and memorials. First there was Vimy Ridge in France, which is technically a part of Canada, followed by Ypres, Passchendaele, as well as other sites in Belgium. I was expecting to be mournful over the soldiers that died, or maybe to feel some nationalistic pride for Canadian achievements in the war, but instead I felt mostly anger.
This angry reaction was not to the war itself, but to the way that the memorials and tour guides portrayed the war. One of our courses on this trip is based around myth and the idea of a hero, a theme that I could sense greatly at these sites. In my opinion, the mythical hero is what allows war to continue; this myth makes young men and women think that if they go to war that maybe they too will become heroes. This myth masks the reality of a soldier’s role which is ugly and largely full of futility. These dead soldiers are praised and idealized, but should they be?
Dan T.