No More than a Mask

Although the artist of this piece is unknown, it still reveals the feeling of the World War I period. The piece is in greyscale that represents the absense of identity, life and humanity. It also enduces the sense of horror and hopelessness that the soldiers faced every minute they were at war. The background is empty with the exception of the ghastly weapons the soldiers are holding. Also, jagged lines like barbed wire, lacerations, weapons and running blood cover the soldiers.


The soldiers themselves are a horrifying site. Their uniforms cover every part of them and do not reveal any skin, hair or sign of a human under the uniform. Their helmets create a sense of uniformity and dark simplicity instead of individuality. However, the most important piece of the uniform was the gas mask. The masks play on the idea of skulls with large, blacked-out eye shields that look alien instead of human. The filter part of the mask reinforces the mutant look of the mask. A man's face is the most human, personal and identifying part of him. The masks completely covered this feature and removed the personality from the human. Humanity became the past because there was no way to tell that a human was behind the suit. It was the suit that was trained to kill and wanted to kill. Soldiers killed other suits, not other people. The human was not seen until the suit was removed from the already dead body to serve the needs of those still living. After, there were no burials for the dead because it would be suicide to leave the trenches. The now exposed soldiers decayed as the living were forced to stare at the bodies.


The horrors of war were countless, but this image represents the crime against humanity and dehumanization that occurred during the war. This image only begins to describe what the soldiers had to face every day.
(I apologize for the unknown author and quality of image :\)