How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings about World War One? How far is the extract similar to and different from your wider reading in the literature of World War One? You should consider the writers choice of form, structure and language, as well as subject matter.

By the extract being from Bertrand Russell’s autobiography it should show an accurate depiction of the war at the time, due to him actually living through these events. However, autobiographies could be biased as they are based on the writers’ beliefs and opinions rather than just the truth and facts. By him also being a pacifist and refusing to fight it would also mean he hadn’t been at the front so would only know what the rest of the people at home would, meaning that they would only be able to access the censored media within Britain at the time.

By this being an extract from an autobiography we could expect for it to be a truthful depiction of the time, due to it being published a considerable amount of time after the war in 1967-69. However by Russell being a pacifist it could also be critical about the war due to him being against it. Within the first line of the extract Bertrand already shows a strong feeling of anger towards the war and the people that were involved in creating it “I became filled with… rage against all the statesmen of Europe”. Through his phrase of ‘all the statesmen of Europe’ it shows he wasn’t just angry with the British government but also all the other government officials that were involved in the creation of war. Even though he later on says ‘if I should happen to meet Asquith or Grey I should be unable to refrain from murder’ emphasising his anger towards government officials due to the fact that Asquith was the British Prime Minister at the time and Grey was foreign secretary to him through the beginning years of the war, both of them being part of the Liberals. This could be linked to Sassoon’s declaration because even though it was made in 1917 it was confronting the fact that the soldiers had entered war under false pretences made at the beginning by Asquith, also showing anger towards officials that involved them in the war.

Further throughout the extract he mentions “I was myself tortured by patriotism” which could be linked to the propaganda produced by the British government at the start of war, persuading men to join up to fight. Patriotism was used widely in propaganda and was successful in getting many men to join up; it was also present in many poems published at the beginning of the war by poets such as Rupert Brooke and Thomas Hardy in their poems ‘The Soldier’ and ‘Men Who March Away’. In Hardy’s ‘Men Who March Away’ it is mostly present in the line ‘England’s need are we’ making a close connection with the country and it seeming the country is asking them, not the officials that are in power. By it being personal to Bernard ‘I was myself tortured’ it shows that even though he was against the war, he was still affected by the patriotism within the country. It also presents the propaganda as effective and influential on the men by the fact that even though he is a pacifist, he was still overcome with the patriotic feeling that the government was trying to put across to the men at the time. The use of ‘tortured’ makes links with pain, putting across the vision of that even though he was against this it was almost painful for him not to get involved due to the effectiveness of the government’s propaganda at the time.

He also mentions about the death of youth in the war “the massacre of the young wrung my heart” which is a reoccurring theme throughout most of the World War 1 literature and poetry. An example of the death of youth can be found in Journey’s End during Act 3 with the death of Raleigh and also in Strange Meeting at the death of Barton. Even though there were many deaths of the young the full extent of how many had died wasn’t known when the war was in process due to the censorship over media and letters from soldiers at the front. This was because the government believed that by civilians at home knowing the true extent of death and destruction at the front this would lower morale and cause resentment for the war. This was especially the case in summer of 1916 after the Battle of the Somme due to the fact that there were nearly 60,000 casualties on the first day of the battle. Through Russell’s use of ‘massacre’ and ‘wrung’ it shows violence and the true terror of pain that it would have been like for the people, emphasising why the government didn’t want the true extent to be known by civilians as they would be severely against the war and all morale would be lost.

In conclusion, this extract shows that Russell was against the war which wasn’t surprising due to the fact that he is a pacifist. However, this could also make what he has said biased, but due to the circumstances and links to other literature we know that this is partially accurate in what it is saying due to links with patriotism and the links to the death of the young. He could be looking back in hindsight as he was writing this after the war which could have had an impact on what he was writing. He does have some similarities with the poet and soldier Sassoon as they both were against the war, however this was for different reasons as Russell had never experienced the true horrors of war that the soldiers did.