American Ignorance of War by Czeslaw Milosz’s

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American Ignorance of War by Czeslaw Milosz’s

‘American Ignorance of War’ is a historical overview of the life of Americans during the interwar years up to the end of the Second World War. Milosz indicates that he was once asked, while in Warsaw, whether Americans are stupid. This probably culminated largely due to their involvement in another devastating war, appearing to have forgotten the aftermath of the previous war. This paper is a critical analysis of Czeslaw Milosz’s ‘American Ignorance of War’, giving substantial examples and a close critic of the article, including organization, target audience, writers assumptions of the audience, including language, imagery, and style used.

Milosz’s article organization uses well-coordinated and distinct paragraphs with the preceding readings creating a logical flow. The essay also embraces a system of chronologically documented events to increase understandability and ease of transitioning paragraphs. Besides, the paper also embraces a system of hierarchically organization in documenting events to enhance appeal and capture the audiences’ attention while reading. Milosz’s essay organization also embraces the use of short paragraphs that are distinct, summarized, and detailed to capture and maintain the reader’s attention. The short paragraphs also make it simpler for readers to comprehend quickly, at a short glance, what the article discusses. The longer paragraphs are few within the article. Their purpose is to elaborate on topics that need more clarification. For example, when the author tries to explain why the people of the East can hardly understand Americans, he uses a longer paragraph to offer more explanation and enhance the readers understanding. This is helpful for minimizing misconceptions on the volatile issue of the East and West spheres. Lastly, the paper embraces the use of a succinct conclusion that allows the reader to derive own conclusions based on how he or she understands the article.

The article seeks to address its issues to a targeted active audience that should take action to rectify future errors by looking at the matters discussed from different perspectives. Milosz uses several question tags in the article to get the readers thinking before proceeding with the narrative. The first paragraph, for example, begins with the question ‘are Americans really stupid?’ Another question within the article asks which world is natural according to the reader’s perspective. Questions are useful tools that invite the audiences to reason and possibly give a solemn response while reading. Milosz also targets a mature audience that can decipher issues out rather than employ a shallow understanding. For example, when he uses the analogy that people think the world they are living in is natural, the author expects the mature audience to realize that ‘natural’ is used in a different context to mean the status quo of things, such as lifestyle, ways of dressing, bloodshed, and others. These, according to the author, create the natural world. In addition, the author also chooses his words wisely to enable only mature audiences to understand what the texts mean. For example, the author uses the term ‘copulate’ instead of ‘sexual intercourse’ to ensure that only mature readers can follow through the discussion.  In addition, the author uses several vocabulary words throughout his work to ensure that only mature audiences grasp the details. Other examples include .............