The ANZAC Legend Essay Example

One way the nature of war is portrayed by Tucker is how war can dehumanise the soldiers. This is seen through Victor, when he is looking at a Turkish soldier, that he sees as the ‘enemy’, “He was dressed in a Turkish uniform, but his face was not distinctly turkish…It looked like any human being’s face…One glance told me that my enemy was as human as me.”(Pg.102). Before he landed in Gallipoli, Victor views the Turks as less human than the ANZACs and it’s a shock to him that, “...they had human emotions like us.''(Pg.111). Even though Victor is young, at only 14, it shows the fact that both sides are thinking that just because someone isn’t on the same side of the war as you, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t still a human being. This is again displayed by the Germans when they were pushing the Turks into joining the war and fighting to defend their land. When the ANZACs found a Turkish soldier sneaking into the trenches, they discovered that “He was only part-Turk and had been forced into the army.”(Pg.115). It shows that even if the Turkish soldiers didn’t want to fight, on their own terms or weren’t even fully Turkish they were still forced to fight by the Germans. Showing that the war made higher-ranking officers forget empathy and cause them to dehumanise the Turkish men and think of them only as expendable soldiers, that may not even want to be fighting yet still, “...follow orders.”(Pg.112). These are a few of many examples that prove war brings out the worst in people.