While reading, the main purpose of the article "Faces of War" by Caroline Alexander focuses on the devastating events that the Great War had caused. We see that as the world entered the 20th century we also entered a new kind of era of warfare. As technology was increasing dramatically, many countries had evolved towards new forms of weapons and combat tactics. These technological advances have allowed many of the already developed countries to be more inefficient in battle. Such battles have led to much chaos and destruction in the world. But what stood out after the war was how the soldiers were traumatized by their experience and overall view of themselves. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The question the author asks is how, among all the terrible post-war life experiences that the soldiers had to endure, Alexander focuses on how the soldiers had to live life with special masks to cover flat wounds on their faces because of the war. And as I read this article, I felt very sorry for the soldiers who had to go to war and come back alive only to suffer more from the wounds they returned with. But as technology improved weapons, it also improved medicine that allowed surgeons to provide plastic surgery service and give soldiers who had severe facial injuries a new face that was meant to match their original face identically. And of these surgeons who impressed me was Sir Harold Gillies for the way he stood out in the way he helped develop a process like plastic surgery for men who returned from war with wounded faces. Gillies was very interested in his work as he wanted men to look at themselves again. Gillies continued by stating that “men without noses are very beautiful, like ancient marbles” (Alexander). And what I noticed was that Gillies felt that the soldiers affected by such a tragedy were seen as unique in a certain sense because they resembled ancient marbles. I think this had a good impact on the soldiers as they were already suffering from the trauma of the war. The most critical information in this article is how the technique of making masks for soldiers was improving as more soldiers would need to use a mask. And this is where I feel Francis Derwent Wood; a sculptor played an important role in contributing his ideas and establishing his views on the conflict of the situation. As a sculptor and with the skills he possessed, he helped sculpt and give ideas to the surgeons who would also help in the process. He also established a mask manufacturing unit which was recognized by an article titled The Lancet. But we see that the central assumptions underlying the author's thinking were how such an expansion of the process of helping wounded soldiers to look like themselves again was growing. And it was important that these men looked like themselves again. And the main reason Alexander mentions this is because people who have received such treatment have kind of chastised themselves for feeling horrible to others around them. Alexander says, "The psychological effect on a man who has to face life, an object of horror to himself as well as to others, is indescribable," Dr. Albee wrote. ”…It is a fairly common experience for the maladjusted person to feel estranged from his world. It must be absolute hell to feel like a stranger to yourself” (Alessandro). The men who were lucky enough to come back alive felt it.
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