The Parable of the Old Man and the Young - Imagery, symbolism and themes

Imagery and symbolism in The Parable of the Old Man and the Young 

Extended metaphor

In the main stanza of The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Owen creates an extended metaphor. Abram and Isaac each stand for the promoters of war and the soldiers who are sacrificed. The ancient implements from the Old Testament story, the knife, fire and bindings, are transmuted into symbols of war: fire arms, uniform paraphernalia and trappings of battle.

The angel represents pity and the ram symbolises pride. Thus God is urging war-mongers to sacrifice their own pride rather than the ‘youth’ of the nations. The old man represents those in authority, the politicians and generals, who want the continuance of the war. In his arrogance he disobeys God’s wishes and slaughters not only his son but

‘Seed’ is a term frequently found in the Bible where it refers to sperm and offspring as well as grain, and is thus a metaphor for new life and hope. 

The image of God

At the end of The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Owen imagines God urging the cessation of war in the same way as he stopped the sacrifice of Isaac. This is a different representation of God compared to six months previously when, in The Soldier’s Dream, God furthers the cause of war by sending the Archangel Michael to repair the weaponry that 'kind Jesus' had destroyed in the cause of peace.

The parables of Jesus in the New Testament used earthly situations as analogies of heavenly truths. Here Owen inverts the idea by using a story about what God and his angels say to teach about an earthly situation.

Themes in The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

Jon Stallworthy, the editor of The Poems of Wilfred Owen says:

In The Parable of the Old Man and the Young inhumanity is the main theme. The ‘old’ leaders of nations made willing sacrifices of their ‘young’ for the sake of maintaining their own military and political status. The understandable fear and confusion of the innocent sacrifices on the Western front, represented by Isaac, contrasts to the arrogance (and safety) of those who send them.

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