Why Conflict and War Are Central Themes in IB English A
In IB English A: Language & Literature, conflict and war are among the most powerful recurring themes across world literature. They reveal how language captures violence, resistance, memory, and human endurance.
Studying these themes allows IB students to explore how authors represent individual and collective struggle, exposing the moral and emotional complexities of power, loss, and survival.
Conflict may occur on many levels:
- Personal: internal or emotional turmoil.
- Interpersonal: between individuals or groups.
- Societal or Political: war, ideology, or systemic oppression.
- Psychological or Moral: inner conflict between duty, guilt, and conscience.
Understanding Conflict and War as Literary Themes
Conflict drives narrative tension and reveals how characters confront injustice, identity, or change.
War magnifies these struggles on a collective scale, showing humanity at its most destructive — and most resilient.
Example:
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses fragmented narration and sensory imagery to expose the trauma of mechanized warfare. Similarly, Owen’s poetry transforms the battlefield into a landscape of irony and pity, not heroism.
Step-by-Step: How to Analyze Conflict and War in Literature
Step 1: Identify the Type of Conflict
Ask:
- Is it internal or external?
- Does it center on morality, politics, or survival?
- What ideology or value system drives it?
Example:
“In Atonement, McEwan fuses personal guilt with wartime chaos, blurring the line between private conflict and public catastrophe.”
Step 2: Examine Language and Imagery
Writers often use contrast, symbolism, and tone to reveal the horrors of conflict.
Key features to look for:
- Diction: Violent, fragmented, or ironic language.
- Imagery: Blood, silence, decay, or light/dark motifs.
- Tone: Shifts from glory to despair or disillusionment.
- Metaphor: War as disease, machine, or storm.
Example Analytical Sentence:
“Owen’s use of ‘the monstrous anger of the guns’ personifies violence, transforming inanimate machinery into a living force of cruelty.”
Step 3: Analyze Structure and Perspective
Form influences how conflict is perceived.
- First-person narration: Personalizes trauma.
- Nonlinear structure: Mimics fragmentation of memory or PTSD.
- Alternating perspectives: Reveal the moral complexity of both sides.
Example:
“In The Things They Carried, O’Brien’s shifting narration between fact and fiction challenges how war stories are told — and who has the right to tell them.”
Step 4: Explore Context and Purpose
Conflict and war cannot be separated from historical and cultural context.
- How does the text respond to its political moment?
- Does it glorify, question, or condemn war?
- How does context shape representation of heroism or victimhood?
Example Analytical Sentence:
“Written in the aftermath of World War I, Sassoon’s satirical tone dismantles patriotic propaganda, revealing the futility behind nationalistic rhetoric.”
Step 5: Evaluate Emotional and Ethical Implications
Strong IB essays move beyond physical conflict to examine psychological, emotional, and ethical dimensions.
Example:
“In Mother Courage and Her Children, Brecht’s alienation technique forces audiences to confront the moral cost of profit during war, questioning complicity rather than inspiring sympathy.”
Key Subthemes to Discuss
- The Dehumanizing Nature of War: Soldiers reduced to symbols or statistics.
- Loss of Innocence: War as catalyst for disillusionment.
- Memory and Trauma: Survival versus guilt.
- Resistance and Rebellion: Acts of defiance amid oppression.
- Moral Ambiguity: The conflict between duty and humanity.
Example:
“Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun humanizes civil war through intimate relationships, transforming national tragedy into personal narrative.”
Comparative Approaches | Conflict and War Across Texts
- The Things They Carried (O’Brien) vs. All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque): Reality vs. myth of heroism.
- Antigone (Sophocles) vs. A Doll’s House (Ibsen): Personal conscience vs. state authority.
- The Kite Runner (Hosseini) vs. 1984 (Orwell): Guilt and political silence.
Example Comparative Thesis:
“While O’Brien presents war as psychological fragmentation, Remarque transforms it into spiritual desolation — both rejecting the illusion of glory.”
Applying Conflict and War Analysis in IB Assessments
Paper 1 (Unseen Commentary)
- Identify imagery and tone that convey conflict or resistance.
- Analyze structural pacing, contrasts, and emotional tension.
Example:
“The juxtaposition of silence and explosion captures both the external chaos and internal numbness of the soldier’s psyche.”
Paper 2 (Comparative Essay)
- Compare how two writers represent moral, emotional, or ideological conflict.
Example:
“While Brecht exposes war’s capitalist exploitation, Adichie personalizes conflict through empathy, transforming ideology into human experience.”
Higher Level Essay (HLE)
- Link conflict to a global issue, such as representation, memory, or power.
Example:
“Through shifting narrative voices, both writers challenge how war is remembered — not as national pride, but as a universal wound.”
Individual Oral (IO)
- Use conflict as a lens for examining social or political power in both literary and non-literary texts.
Common Mistakes When Writing About Conflict and War
- Focusing on historical events instead of literary technique.
- Ignoring emotional nuance — treating characters as victims only.
- Overgeneralizing war as “bad” without analyzing how the author conveys this idea.
- Forgetting to discuss context or ideology.
IB Tip: Every discussion of conflict must connect language → power → human consequence.
Why Analyzing Conflict and War Builds IB-Level Insight
This theme helps students engage with human ethics, emotional truth, and representation, all core elements of the IB English curriculum. Understanding how writers portray conflict encourages empathy and critical literacy — essential for top-band analytical writing.
Through RevisionDojo’s IB English Language & Literature course, students can access guided war-literature study notes, comparative essay outlines, and exemplar IOs exploring conflict as a global issue.
FAQs
How is conflict represented in literature?
Through contrasting emotions, power struggles, and symbolic imagery that reveal moral or psychological tension.
Why is war an important literary theme?
It exposes humanity’s extremes — courage, trauma, cruelty, and endurance — reflecting broader social and political truths.
How do I write about conflict in an IB essay?
Focus on authorial choices: how language, tone, and structure shape meaning and emotion within context.
