http://www.keiththompsonart.com/pages/grandmap.html is the actual website with a much closer version of the wonderful picture. I definitely recommend going to the link to get the full affect of the picture. The art was made by Keith Thompson, who is a modern artist who is basically unknown except for this amazing piece which shows a map of Europe with a twist of metaphoric characters depicting the countries involved in WWI at the time of the war. The picture shows all of the Allies as tanish, animals who are attacking the dark, mechanical contraptions who represent the central powers. I think that the picture truly embraces the passion behind the two sides while they were fighting each other because it is obvious by the animal/machines expressions, that they are going all out to hurt their enemies. I like this picture so much because it is esthetically pleasing, on top of actually having a symbolic meaning.
http://www.collectinghistory.net/WWI%20U-boat.jpg
This picture shows the sinking of the Lusitania by the U-boat in Atlantic ocean on May 7th 1915. This event was one of the main reasons why the United States joined the war effort for the Allies, and it brought the fear of war and death, to the door step of the US. I thought this picture was a very good depiction of the sinking because it showed the ship on the verge of sinking, along with the German U-boat leaving as if they are showing that they did not care that they had just sunk a ship with innocent people on it. The picture made me realize how ruthless Germany was by sinking the Lusitania and how mad it must have made the United State citizens at the time. When I picture myself in the shoes of an ordinary citizen in the US during this time, I believe I would've back the US when they said they were going to join the war, and this event would have made my pride for the US increase tremendously.
Otto Dix: War
Pg. 897
As stated above, this picture is entitled "War" and was painted by the famous artist Otto Dix. After our teacher mentioned this picture several times in our study of this chapter, I figured that it was pretty important so I observed and studied it a little more closely. This picture truly shows the harsh, gruesome reality of war and how heartless and absurd it can be. The picture was eye opening to me in present day, so I can't even imagine how controversial this picture was right after the war. When I see this picture, it makes me think about all of the human lives that were lost during this silly war and just makes me down right mad. The war was fought over silly alliances and "I'm tougher than you" mentality which, in my opinion, does not make up for the loss of lives at all. I think that if they leaders that were behind all of the fighting in WWI saw this picture, they would have been a little more heartfelt towards all of the fighters, enemies or not, because they might have realized how horrible the war they were fighting was and might have stopped it earlier. That's what I believe the true power of the picture could have been.
