The First Casualty; Owen
AQA A-Level English Literature
Paper 2: WW1 and its aftermath
,Poems chosen for each theme
Truth = Dulce et Decorum Est, Anthem for Doomed Youth
Killing = Dulce et Decorum Est, Strange Meeting
Courage v Cowardice = The Dead-Beat, Disabled
Psychological Trauma = The Dead-Beat, Disabled
Class/ Social Division = Disabled, Strange Meeting
, Truth – Thesis
AO4: Throughout war literature, writers frequently expose the conflict between official
narratives and lived experience, revealing how war distorts and conceals truth.
TFC: Elton presents truth as something deliberately manipulated by military and political
institutions, as Abercrombie’s murder is hidden beneath patriotic fabrications and
Kingsley’s investigation becomes a struggle against systemic deception.
Owen 1: Similarly, in Dule et Decorum Est, Owen attacks propaganda that glorifies war,
exposing the “old Lie” as a deliberate falsification designed to sustain recruitment and
morale.
Owen 2: Anthem for Doomed Youth, however, suggests a more pessimistic view,
implying that war does not merely conceal truth but destroys the possibility of recovering
truth and meaning altogether.
AO1/5: Therefore, both Elton and Owen present truth as a significant casualty of war,
though while Elton maintains some faith in uncovering reality through investigation,
Owen questions whether truth can survive the devastation of modern warfare at all.
, Truth – TFC AO1
Title ‘the first casualty’ derives from the quote often attributed to Senator Hiram Johnson: “the
first casualty when war comes is truth”
Institutional lies: the government conceals A’s murder, publishing false accounts of heroic
death. Truth is managed for political purposes.
Personal deception: A hides his sexuality and his changing views on the war. Characters
conceal information that might incriminate them or others.
Detective: K’s role as detective is to uncover truth, but the novel questions whether truth can be
recovered in conditions designed to destroy it.
Evidence: witnesses and evidence literally disappear into mud – war destroys the very
conditions that make truth discoverable
AO4/5: connects to broader modernist concerns about epistemology (theory of knowledge). The
detective genre, which typically restores order through truth, is subverted by a context that
makes such restoration impossible.
AQA A-Level English Literature
Paper 2: WW1 and its aftermath
,Poems chosen for each theme
Truth = Dulce et Decorum Est, Anthem for Doomed Youth
Killing = Dulce et Decorum Est, Strange Meeting
Courage v Cowardice = The Dead-Beat, Disabled
Psychological Trauma = The Dead-Beat, Disabled
Class/ Social Division = Disabled, Strange Meeting
, Truth – Thesis
AO4: Throughout war literature, writers frequently expose the conflict between official
narratives and lived experience, revealing how war distorts and conceals truth.
TFC: Elton presents truth as something deliberately manipulated by military and political
institutions, as Abercrombie’s murder is hidden beneath patriotic fabrications and
Kingsley’s investigation becomes a struggle against systemic deception.
Owen 1: Similarly, in Dule et Decorum Est, Owen attacks propaganda that glorifies war,
exposing the “old Lie” as a deliberate falsification designed to sustain recruitment and
morale.
Owen 2: Anthem for Doomed Youth, however, suggests a more pessimistic view,
implying that war does not merely conceal truth but destroys the possibility of recovering
truth and meaning altogether.
AO1/5: Therefore, both Elton and Owen present truth as a significant casualty of war,
though while Elton maintains some faith in uncovering reality through investigation,
Owen questions whether truth can survive the devastation of modern warfare at all.
, Truth – TFC AO1
Title ‘the first casualty’ derives from the quote often attributed to Senator Hiram Johnson: “the
first casualty when war comes is truth”
Institutional lies: the government conceals A’s murder, publishing false accounts of heroic
death. Truth is managed for political purposes.
Personal deception: A hides his sexuality and his changing views on the war. Characters
conceal information that might incriminate them or others.
Detective: K’s role as detective is to uncover truth, but the novel questions whether truth can be
recovered in conditions designed to destroy it.
Evidence: witnesses and evidence literally disappear into mud – war destroys the very
conditions that make truth discoverable
AO4/5: connects to broader modernist concerns about epistemology (theory of knowledge). The
detective genre, which typically restores order through truth, is subverted by a context that
makes such restoration impossible.
