Irony, Symbolism, and Imagery Reveal the Emptiness of War in One Hundred Years of Solitude
While most scholars have agreed that war is a real and significant part of human history, these same scholars have yet not reached a consensus on the characteristics of war. History books often lean toward glorifying war with stories of soldiers dying for their honor and homeland; novels, on the other hand, tend to point out the emptiness of war with stories of soldiers losing their youth and contact with the world. The selected passage from Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novel One Hundred Years of Solitude adds to the debate over war's characteristics. Through the literary techniques of irony, symbolism, and imagery, this text reveals the major theme that, in reality, war is not glorious but empty.
By having Colonel Gerineldo Marquez conclude his telegraph with the slogan "Long Live the Liberal party," the author successfully creates a sense of irony in the reader at the end of the second paragraph. While the first two sentences of the passage present Colonel Marquez as the civil and military leader of Macondo who has realized the emptiness of war, this party slogan presents words that carry no weight when written by a man who believes his commanding officer to be a total stranger. Positioned high on the military chain of command, Colonel Marquez received the opportunity to witness the war's progression from an isolated conflict of clear definition and predictable course, to a widespread conflict of augmenting intensity and uncertainty. Therefore, his words "I understand, Aureliano,...Long Live the Liberal party" become ironic. Colonel Aureliano Buendia will consider these words to be a patriotic affirmation of orders, when th...
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...magery, and irony, combine to create a successful introduction of one of the novel's major themes - the emptiness of war. By having Colonel Gerineldo Marquez realize the true nature of war and then referring to him as the first in line to make that realization, the author sets up the reader for a series of other witnesses whose testimonies should make the statement concerning war's characteristic emptiness even more valid. Later in the novel, Colonel Aureliano Buendia discovers the true nature of war only after twenty years of fighting along with a sad realization that the conservative regime he had been trying to topple all this time is good and in accordance with the people's wishes. Colonel Buendia then recognizes that war is not a conflict of ideologies, but an ugly and empty struggle for power, concluding a thematic thread started by Colonel Gerineldo Marquez.
Many soldiers who come back from the war need to express how they feel. Many do it in the way of writing. Many soldiers die in war, but the ones who come back are just as “dead.” Many cadets come back with shell shock, amputated arms and legs, and sometimes even their friends aren’t there with them. So during World War I, there was a burst of new art and writings come from the soldiers. Many express in the way of books, poems, short stories and art itself. Most soldiers are just trying to escape. A lot of these soldiers are trying to show what war is really like, and people respond. They finally might think war might not be the answer. This is why writers use imagery, irony and structure to protest war.
The first barrier to a better life had to do with surviving poverty or the absence of certain privileges. In Angela’s Ashes, Frank, the protagonist of the book, along with his family had to endure persistent rains, exposure to disease and starvation. Frank and Malachy Jr. had to resort to stealing food several ...
Many people believe that the importance of family is crucial. The memoir Angela’s Ashes is written by Frank McCourt. It examines the poor upbringing and the relationships within the McCourt family during the 1930’s. Through the use of descriptive language, dialogue and characterisation, it supports and opposes various values including the importance of family and the impact it has on the relationships enclosed in the memoir.
The Dunning School was a gathering of history students who shared the school of thought, from Reconstruction time of American history. Its perspective supported the components of the preservationist ideals. For the most part, this consisted of rich landowners, representatives, and northern Democrats. It also included the Radical Republicans in the South. The perspective of the Dunning School overwhelmed academic and well-known portrayals of the period from around 1900 to the 1930s.
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
Poets have often addressed the theme of how soldiers at war long to come back home and return to a normal life in solitude away from the harshness and ruggedness of war. But, what happens once they are back? Are their days as solemn, nights as tranquil as before? Seldom are these questions answered. This poem is of a soldier who is bombarded (no pun intended) with questions about war on his return and the subsequent discomfort that he faces in realizing that his hands have the blood of many foreigners (War Poets). The war changes the identity of an individual, the way he sees himself and those around him. And this blood that every soldier bears is something that water might clear, but the conscience always bears. In order to survive, soldiers have to kill their enemies who in reality are no different than themselves. They are to kill out of force and not out of choice. Once a soldier is back, things are never the same again even if the people and surroundings
At a young age McCourt saw things and had to do things, that not many people have to deal with in their life times. McCourt was the first of seven children, and watched many of them sadly pass away, and took a parent role to the others. In Chapter 1 we see that Mccourt had a little sister named Margaret. Shortly after her birth came death and it not only changed his life, but his whole families. Angela and Malachy, McCourt’s parents, both became very depressed after her death, Angela neglected her children, Malachy started to drink again, and lost his job. The family, poor as it was, had no income coming into the house, and for that moved to Ireland, which changed McCourt's life.
Women are overrepresented in low-income service sectors and public sectors, while underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and high-income private sectors, especially in top managerial positions. In other words, the concentration of women in the lower-income workforce contributes greatly to the overall gender wage gap.
In Frank McCourt’s memoir Angela’s Ashes, the connection between tone, syntax, and point of view combine to create an effective balance of humor and pathos. This is shown through the perspective of little Frank McCourt. Sometimes it is human nature to try to make a tragedy seem better than it is in order to go on with our lives. Frank’s struggle to make his situation as a poor, Catholic, Irish boy more bearable, is demonstrated through the positive tone, powerful syntax and childlike point of view.
This makes their constant struggle to survive even harder and prevents them from climbing to the next rung in the social ladder. The poor are discriminated against and held down by the church, school, and their fellow impoverished neighbors, as well as the rest of the world around them to the point where they often give up trying to get out of poverty all together. Shockingly, the place where the McCourts are most discriminated against is the one place where they should feel wanted, loved, and equal to those around them, the Catholic Church. Frank McCourt, the main character who was a young teenager at the time, had the door slammed in his face by the Catholic Church on at least two occasions because of his poverty. The first time he is turned down by the church, Frank’s quest is to become an altar boy. The priest declares that the church is not looking for any more altar boys. However, the real reason Frank is turned down is because of his poverty. Angela, Frank’s mother, is infuriated and exclaims, “I’ll tell you what it is, ‘Tis class distinction. They don’t want boys from lanes on the altar. They don’t want the ones with scabby knees and hair sticking up. O...
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable child hood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood Is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood", writes Frank McCourt of his early life. Although Frank McCourt's autobiography, Angela's Ashes, paints a picture of both terrible poverty and struggles, this text is appealing and up lifting because of its focus on both humor and hope. McCourt's text shows the determination people living in dreadful conditions must have in order to rise above their situations and make better lives for themselves and their families. The effect of the story, although often distressing and sad, is not depressing. Frank as the young narrator describes his life events without bitterness, anger, or blame. Poverty and hardship are treated simply as if they are a fact of life, and in spite of the hard circumstances, many episodes during the novel are hilarious.
...conclusion, the McCourt’s decision was appropriate because concerning both, North American and Irish historical contexts at the time, Ireland was a rising country while the United States declined: hope was not present within the North Americans but it was in the Irish. In the psychological aspect, Frank’s family was willing to rebuild their life after the loss of Margaret and the progressive depression of Angela. They needed a new place to begin their lives.
Hemingway uses the tropes of the horse and the airplane to symbolically portray the two contrasting views of the war held by the small bands of Spaniards and the Fas...
The simple definition of war is a state of armed competition, conflict, or hostility between different nations or groups; however war differs drastically in the eyes of naive children or experienced soldiers. Whether one is a young boy or a soldier, war is never as easy to understand as the definition. comprehend. There will inevitably be an event or circumstance where one is befuddled by the horror of war. For a young boy, it may occur when war first breaks out in his country, such as in “Song of Becoming.” Yet, in “Dulce et Decorum Est” it took a man dying in front of a soldier's face for the soldier to realize how awful war truly is. Both “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” are poems about people experiencing the monstrosity of war for the first time. One is told from the perspective of young boys who were stripped of their joyful innocence and forced to experience war first hand. The other is from the perspective of a soldier, reflecting on the death of one of his fellow soldiers and realizing that there is nothing he can do to save him. While “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” both focus on the theme of the loss of innocence, “Song of Becoming” illustrates how war affects the lives of young boys, whereas “Dulce et Decorum Est” depicts the affect on an experienced soldier.
Question: How is 100 Years of Solitude symbolic to the biblical story of Adam and Eve? Use evidence from the book.