“The Death of a Soldier” Literary Reinterpretation Project

by Heather Chamberlain

This is a literary interpretation project I did for American Lit 2 over “The Death of a Soldier” by Wallace Stevens. The imagery of this poem really spoke to me. Clearly it is about soldiers going into war, but I found that it also symbolized the common man and how he approaches life. My dad once told me that before my grandfather passed, he had mentioned his greatest fear in dying is that he’d be forgotten by the living. He will never be forgotten me or by anyone who knew him well in life, but generations down the road he may well may be forgotten. I believe I have the same fear as my grandfather, or something similar. I feel this urgent need inside of me to serve some great purpose in life. My goal is to use my life to make a difference in someone else’s life, but there is a song that I like to think of that puts my priorities back into perspective. It’s a song by Casting Crowns that says “I don’t want to leave a legacy. I don’t care if they remember me. Only Jesus.” What I got from this poem, is similar to what I get from this song. The soldier is not glorified in war. The Christian soldier is not glorified in life. But we all serve a greater purpose than to glorify our own name. In anonymity there is honor. Another thing I really liked about this project is that I discovered my own artistic style. Between this project, and my Gothic Lit project, I’ve learned that I like to use art to interpret literature, and especially collage art. Before these projects I had never really done anything like it, except maybe scrapbooking, but I found I really enjoy putting a lot of 3D elements together to create an image. And I like to make each aspect of the image meaningful.