Preview

Essay About Conscientious Objectors

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
872 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay About Conscientious Objectors
Conscientious Objectors
Some historians argue that conscientious objectors were nothing but cowards. How valid is this interpretation of conscientious objectors during World War I?

There were 2 different main interpretations about conscientious objectors, one interpretation is that they were cowards who refused to serve in the war because they were scared and dishonourable. Another interpretation is that they were brave and courageous for defending themselves.

I disagree with this interpretation because despite them being portrayed as cowards, they still stood up for themselves even though there were severe consequences.
Some conscientious objectors were against all aspects of violence and fighting, these people were known as absolutists. And some were just against killing others and had no problem helping out in the war with jobs like
…show more content…
The white feather is mentioned in source B1 as “the symbol of cowardice and failing one’s country.” It was given out by women to conscientious objectors during World War I to remind them that they should be serving in the army. Many people did this with hate because they may have been grieving the loss of a loved one who had died in the war. The intended effect of handing these out was to make conscientious objectors feel bad about themselves. The medium of this source is a history book published in 1928 in order to show the disrespect towards conscientious objectors.

The medium of source B5 is a poem extracted from a magazine showing the negative attitude towards conscientious objectors. The poem was anonymously submitted, lowering its validity. The source implies that conscientious objectors were cowards who would gladly send out their close family but never themselves, a quote supporting this is “Send out me brother, his sister, his mother but for gawd sake don’t send

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The fight-or-flight response is the fundamental physiological reaction to potentially harmful or a threatening situations. Essentially it states that our bodies are programmed from birth to either fight back, or get out of harm’s way when we are in danger. In times of chaos, such as war, this fight-or-flight response can be seen in a range of ways: soldiers at the front line of battle, families hiding-out for months on end, women and children fleeing to other countries. Oftentimes, one who flees is deemed a coward, and one who fights back a hero. However, this assumption is not always true. Human nature is not the only factor that decides whether you are a coward or a hero. Personal integrity and values play a more crucial role in determining whether we fight back and act courageously,…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It isn’t a trait that you would find in many soldiers or veterans today, which is intriguing considering the war occurred only seventy years ago. The cartoon also leaves me with the question of how many able-bodied men chose not to join the war effort, and if they were shunned to a high degree for not doing so?…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the American Revolution Soldiers weren’t the only ones who were at high risk of death. For example in the small town of Redding, Connecticut there was a variety of different opinions on war. Unlike like most happy stories and fairytales there was no good side, there might have been a good cause but no side was considered innocent. The Patriots were killing someone for a crime they did or looked like they were committing even if they were fighting for their side. The British were exaggerating situations to get a chance to execute a fellow loyalist or Patriot. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by, James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier,…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    World War 2

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages

    John Morton Blum retiree of Yale University depicts “combat soldiers as largely disconnected from the geopolitical goals articulated by President Roosevelt.” Each soldier had his own individual motivation entering into the war but all had the same reason to win the war, to make it home. Home was what encouraged the troops to fight. The Saturday Evening Post ran a series asking soldiers what they were fighting for, they were quoted saying “I am fighting for that big house with the bright green roof and the big front lawn”...“that girl with the large brown eyes and the reddish tinge in her hair.” Blum describes the GI as a homely hero, the common good man and the peoples' hero. The soldiers had no visible purpose but winning the war so that he could return to comfort.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conscientious objectors were a big part of the war and I agree with Bennett that they are a part of the “greatest generation.” CO’s were involved in the war, even if they did not agree with fighting. In Hacksaw Ridge, Doss was against touching a gun and CO’s were against fighting, but they found other ways to help out. They were assigned different jobs and being a medic was one of them. I think people do not often give credit to medics because they are not the ones fighting, but in reality, they are very important.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hum/120 News Story

    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages

    At the heart of this Red Scare the conscription law of May 18, 1917, which happened during World War I in order for the armed forces to be able to conscript more Americans. This eventually caused a lot more problems in the recollection of soldiers for the war. For any one that wanted to claim that status, they had to be a member of a "well-recognized" religious organization, which forbade their members to participation in war. As a result of such from the legislation, 20,000 conscientious objectors were taken into armed forces. Out of these 20,000, 16,000 changed their minds when they reached military camps, 1300 went to non-combat units, 1200 gained furloughs to do farm work, and 100 of these, 450 went to prison. However, these numbers are small in comparison with the 170,000 draft dodgers and 2,810,296 men who were inducted into the armed forces. The "Red Scare" (2010)…

    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Summary Of The Movie Glory

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages

    They where brought in for manual labor not even to fight, which Shaw was skeptical himself on rather or not they were even capable of fighting. It was up to the troops to prove to Shaw they could fight. Shaw writes to his mother complimenting the troops stating how well they learn, to him learning faster than white troops, about how brave and how they can sedate themselves. As writing to his mother the new came as the troops gather Shaw reads, “In accordance to president Lincoln’s wishes everyone was advised that the Confederate Congress has issued a proclamation it reads, Any Negro taking in arms against the Confederacy will be returned to slavery. Any Negro taking in federal uniform will be put to death. Any white officer taking in command of Negro troops shall also be sentenced to death.” I feel does not make sense because I feel like all of Shaw’s troops want to fight.…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the very beginning Tim O'Brien stressed his opposition to the war in Vietnam. He even comes out and states at the beginning that, "The war, I though, was wrongfully conceived and poorly justified". At this time there was a massive movement against the war. This the upcoming election and Eugene McCarthy openly opposed to Vietnam it was no surprise to learn that O'Brien supported him. But supporting the antiwar movement was not enough to avoid the draft, especially for O'Brien. With protests rising and the Yippies leading major protests against the war and draft, conscription was still a major worry among the public. It was known that if you were of age and not in college then Vietnam was your next stop. Unless of course individuals could gain deferment through specific issues as did some of O'Briens friends at the time. But even with strong opposition, both morally and emotionally to the war, O'Brien still knew he had a duty and obligation to serve. In one instance when O'Brien is speaking to a chaplain regarding the war, the chaplain uses a strong example of American Exceptionalism by saying, "If you accept, as I do, that America is one helluva great country, well then, you do as she tells you". He the. Goes on to say that, "i did not wan to be a soldier, not even an observer to war. But neither did i was to upset a particular balance of the order I knew, the people I knew, and my own private world." This again reinforced O'Brien that his duty…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dbq Civil Peace Analysis

    • 2308 Words
    • 10 Pages

    For instance, a German soldier reports to the Daily Observer in 1915 that he was enraged because of high prices and food shortages in Germany. The German soldier expresses his strong displeasure over high class citizens who take the soldiers’ inhuman sacrifices for granted and mistreated the women and children(Doc 7). The German soldier is very reliable because he first hand experiences total war, especially because he loses his morality in killing opposing soldiers. Fighting for a country with national pride is one thing, but knowing that civilians who are not “doing the dirty work” and exploiting a community at home is very frustrating, especially for a soldier. Also, German soldiers were unable to return home to protect or check up on their families in the middle of war efforts; this act is a defiance of orders if the soldier neglects to notify his supervisor or is classified as desertion, which is punishable by death. Due to this dissatisfaction with conditions in German cities, many soldiers do not want to fight if it benefits a civilian who is “dead weight.” Also, another example of a German who observes the effects of total war is Evelyn Blucher von Wahlstatt, who records in her diary that several women protest, “The state that called on us to fight cannot even give us decent food, does not treat our men as human beings,”(Doc 8).…

    • 2308 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front was a story of a group of young children, nineteen years old or so, who enlisted in the military on the advice of one of their professors. They were told, and believed, that they would be seen as heroes in everyone’s eyes, and that they were doing such great things for their country and showing extreme nationalism and patriotism. As the months went on, fighting on the front lines, these men realized that this life was nothing like what they were told the military life would be. They were promised fame. This was not the case and through their time in the trenches these men were stripped of their humanity, grew to hate their commanding officers, and were fighting purely for survival to see another day.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the start of the war waves of nationalism swept through Europe but after the death of millions, people became weary and tried. People believed the war would be over in a few months and only a few casualties. The war ended with delight in the winners and with bitterness in the losers. During WW1 there were many people who did not want to fight in the war and those people were called conscientious objectors. Conscription was introduced in 1916 by the government however there was a ‘conscience clause’ added to the Law which freed those who had a conscientious objection to bearing arms if they went to a tribunal and could argue their case. This included people who were generally against war, political objectors (those who felt Germany was not their enemy and religious objectors (Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses). However a few conscientious objectors still fought…

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over the past hundred years Chicanos had fought bravely for their country. But if you try to look for books or articles about Chicanos in books about Vietnam they are, for the most part, almost absent. They fail to recognize how important Mexican Americans were in this war. They fail to mention that Mexican American soldiers are the most decorated ethnic group in the America. In the bestseller Everything We Had by Al Santoli, though it discusses soldiers in the Vietnam War, not one Chicano is interviewed .…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Combat High

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    War is brutal, imagine young men far away from the comforts of western modern life as we know it, no running water, no communications with the external world nor any kind of entertainment, wanting of close relationships such as close friends, girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse, parents, that make us who we are as individuals. Situated in a strange place full of people wanting to hurt them. In spite of all lacking somebody has to carry the war burden, somebody has to stand up for all the things we enjoy as a society, someone has to fight for our freedom, and there they are.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    WW1 questions

    • 2136 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Men who got called up for service could appeal to a local Military Service Tribunal. Reasons included health, already doing important war work or moral or religious reasons. The last group became known as the Conscientious Objectors.…

    • 2136 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The conscientious objector tells us about a person who refuses to be involved in war for moral and ethical reasons. War has never solved problems. In this poem, war itself is being considered as immoral. This is because war takes lives.…

    • 581 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays