Good-bye to All That Literary Elements

Autobiographical Novel

Predominantly the Western Front, the battlefields of France during World War One

The narrator is Robert Graves. He narrates the book from his own experiences and therefore from his own point of view.

Depressing, negative, unjust

The soldiers at the Front are the protagonists, the Generals whose ineptitude caused hundreds and thousands of deaths are the antagonists.

The major conflict is World War One, specifically, the Battle of Loos, and the bloodiest battle in history, the Battle of the Somme.

Graves is injured and repatriated whilst suffering from both a serious lung injury and post traumatic stress disorder.

The lack of training given to the new recruits prior to their being sent to the Front to fight foreshadows that disastrous result of the campaign, because soldiers with no rank at all were suddenly called upon to take on responsibilities and strategy-making that they were unable to make.

Major General Richard Hilton stated that the battle was close to being an Allied victory, which is an understatement because it was nowhere near to being a victory; hundreds of thousands of British troops were killed and the battle was unsuccessful.

Graves alludes to poetry written by Siegfried Sassoon with whom he was close friends, and with whom he shared a talent for poeticizing his wartime experiences.

The imagery is dark and tragic; Graves describes the battlefield in graphic terms, and his own wounds in particular, giving the reader no doubt as to his feelings about the campaigns he participated in.

Graves considered himself someone who did not fall victim to propaganda, but believed the propagandistic urban myths that stated that there were German prisoners who were murdered instead of being returned to their country after the war had ended.

There is a parallel between the PTSD experienced by Graves, and the PTSD experienced by his friend Sassoon; they were both patients of Dr Rivers and suffered from similar visions and depression issues.

Temporary Gentlemen was the term used to describe the brand new, unranked soldiers who were quickly promoted to officer status without undergoing officer training.

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