Likewise the point of view is similar of that in "In the Shadow of War". A young child Omovo is in the Second World War, with his father, who does not think Omovo is old enough to understand war. As suggested by him saying “It’s bad for children to listen to the radio about war”. This makes Omovo curious to see why his father is hiding him away from the war. Omovo with his own eyes wants to find out why people are being hurt, and in the process nearly gets himself killed. For instance he sees a young woman tormented by a group of soldiers. He wants to help the woman out and so follows the soldiers to the water's edge where the woman's body is disposed of. The soldier's spot him and chase him back to his home, where he just makes it inside. …show more content…
This highlights the idea of how children's curiosity can lead them to life threatening situations. It shows how young children during times of war do not understand the consequences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The children simply see the war as a time to explore, as many parents do not want their children to learn about war, so rebel against their parents when told not to. The war from the perspective of young children is confused, and they don’t understand what war is for, and this can lead to horrific consequences. Whereas the texts “The Soldier” and in the “Break of the Trenches”, shows the point of view of soldiers directly involved in the war.
In “The Soldier”, a soldier is fighting in the war and leaves a note to whoever may find it if he was to die. He wants to be remembered for his courageous acts during the war. A more mature point of view is seen in the eye of a solider, directly involved in war. He is brave, and will die for his country. This is seen in sentence “In the rich earth, a richer dust concealed”, suggesting he would die for his country. He would sacrifice his life and be buried for his country. He is unselfish in the way he cares for his country. “Gave, once her flowers to love, her ways to roam”, suggest how he felt about his country. The Soldier feels a special connection for England like how he would treat his mother or someone he loves. I have arrived at this conclusion because of the way in which he has described England, like someone he loves. “Her” is used to show how the soldier sees his country like a woman he loves. This point of view gives a perspective to how soldiers in war have real respect for their country and are willing to die for their country. They realise as soldiers they are most likely to die, so want to have died for a reason, not just because they died from a
gunshot. Likewise this point of view is similar in the poem “Break of the day in the trenches”. This point of view gives an insight to the way the soldiers see war. This soldier has a negative approach to the war and sees it as horrible and horrific. A soldier is talking to a rat, which has made his way from the opposing side he is fighting against. He sees this as victory, as no soldier has done this. This shows how the rat is only the real winner of war. He sees the rat surviving against all gunshots, as the rat feeds on the human remains. The rat is not a target of the enemy. “Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes, less chanced than your life”. Here he is talking to a rat and comparing the chance of survival against the soldiers he is fighting with. Even the strongest athlete cannot survive against the gunshots. He is realistic in the way he sees war. He wants to hide the truth from himself that most likely he is going to die. The sentence “Poppies whose roots are in men’s veins, drop and are ever dropping, but mine in my ear is safe, just a little white with the dust”. He wants to think his poppy is safe, but it is not. The truth is that once a poppy is picked it is slowly dying as it does not have the nutrients to survive. This is showing how he feels inside. He knows he is going to die, but doesn't want to think about it. He knows that he is slowly dying just like the poppy behind his ear. ‘The darkness crumbles away”, shows how even though the soldier fought for their county they too were human and felt scared at the most scariest of times. The point of views across the four texts gives an insight to how the age of people affect their attitudes towards war. As a young child experiencing war, the attitudes towards war is seen as naive and curious. These attitudes can lead to tragic consequences, or children seeing more than they need to. They don't understand the meaning of war and why it is happening. They want to rebel against their curfews and rules to make themselves feel stronger and better, but doing this puts them in immediate danger. This is compared to “The soldier” and “Break of day in the trenches”, where a more mature perspective is seen. They realise as soldiers they are most likely to die, so want to have die for a reason not just because they died from a gunshot. These points of views help to show the idea of the wider world around us. These texts help to show the wider society issue of how people think war will not affect them because of where they are. For example the war in Syria is one of big concern. People of New Zealand and across the world think that just because it is thousands miles away it won't affect them. But this is not the case. An example would be from how Bruno is from a higher socioeconomic status and in World War II, people never would have suggested Bruno would die due to war. But due to certain circumstances it did. This is an excellent example of how even though the chances of war affecting New Zealand is very low, it could happen and this is why society needs to be ready, just like “The soldier” who left a powerful message. The attitude of the soldiers during war was selfless and considerate of the country they were fighting against. Although they all felt scared and helpless as suggested by ‘The darkness crumbles away”, in “Break of Day in the Trenches”, they fought on for their country.
“The Soldier” written by Rupert Brooke in 1914 is a pro-war poem to express the bravery of soldiers going to war and fighting for their nation. Brooke's poems use of extended metaphors “Earth a richer dust.” Is used to explain that when a brave soldier dies the ground will forever hold its value. This allows him to convey his message of bravery by fighting for your nation because the earth will forever be grateful of your brave actions. He also uses personification “A dust who England bore, shaped aware,” To compare England to a mother as it gave life to the soldier and molded the
War changes people. Usually when one thinks of war, blood, battle and death are the first things that come to mind, but psychological trauma is over shadowed by these popular thoughts. Though war, on the surface, is focused on such gory aspects, The Wars by Timothy Findley shows us an angle where the chaos of war significantly affects a soldier’s mind mentally. War definitively effects the life of all soldiers, so much so that they may show signs of insanity after, or even during battle. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder triggered when a victim experiences a significantly traumatic event in their life, and has difficulty returning to life as it was (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). Insanity as defined by Psychology
... horrors of war such as, his parents who still view war as glamorous and idealistic. War takes a heavy toll on soldiers who fight in it and in these dangerous moments anybody would have gone insane. It takes a very special type of soldier to be able to handle both the psychological and physical challenges that a soldier has to face in everyday battle. A soldier such as this must be capable of handling the sight of a mutilated comrade and not immediately chatter to pieces. The author conveys this message in his extreme use of words with negative connotation such as shells, typhus, dysentery, and trenches. In this portion of the novel a great deal of emphasis is placed on the word death which is repeated several times and standing on its own it holds a great deal of negative connotations. Therefore, due to the severity of the situation and the extensive use of words with negative connotations the overall tone of the novel appeared to be very depressing or serious. This selection also demonstrates just how mythical the character of war that many individuals who have not experienced the tragedy of battle believe to be true by illustrating just how appalling and grim war is in reality.
The just war theory is described by Thomas Massaro in his book Living Justice as the “principle that warfare might be justified under certain conditions” (108). The complexities involved with international relations makes determining a just war very difficult. Even though historically pacifism hasn’t gained much traction within Catholic circles, it currently is gaining popularity with many mainstream Catholics. With so many differing views on military action, one might ask, “What determines a just war? How can we balance the need for peace with self-defense?” An examination of criteria for a just war and critiques written on this topic might shed light on these two questions.
The United States has been involved in many wars since its inception. WWII in particular had a significant impact on the world and the United States. Through the years 1939 to 1945 the majority of the world suffered many tragedies and hardships. In total, 50 million people died including women, children, civilians, and innocent bystanders. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, was responsible for a significant amount of these deaths. Hitler, aligned with Japan, wanted to seize all of Europe and Japan wanted to conquer Asia. A major cause of WWII was that Germany strongly disapproved of the Treaty of Versailles. Germany especially didn’t like that they had to accept all the blame for WWI, paying $ 6,600 million for the damage they caused in WWI, and they were only allowed to have a small army and six naval ships, no tanks, no air force and no submarines were allowed. Also, the Rhineland area was to be de-militarized and taken out of Germany’s possession. All of these conditions were written in the Treaty of Versailles. During the war the world formed two sides, the Allies and the Axis Powers. The Allies included Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States, known as “the Big 3”. The Axis Powers included Germany, Italy, and Japan. At the end of the war the Allies were triumphant and the world gained its peace.
Knowing a victim of an unforgettable and unforgivable crime will cause a person to lose a type on innocence. However, witnessing the heinous violation of the victim is much stronger. After the witness sees and hears the exact event, it is nearly impossible to disregard his or her memory. This is true in the short story “In the Shadow of War.” The protagonist of the literary work, a young boy named Omovo, witnesses the killing of a woman.
The fall of the Soviet Union ushered in the era democracy. The world has seen, since then, many countries overthrow their old governmental structures in favor of democracy. However, for some countries this is only a dream, because sustainable peace requires not just a reform of government but a reform of all agencies in any way connected to the government. One major area that must be reformed in order for a democracy to thrive is the Security Sector. The best way to affect sustainable peace through security sector reform is to allow the people of a country to reform their security sector with aid from or based on a more experienced democratic power this can be seen through two cases: the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Romania.
The Thirty Years War was a series of conflicts, not-knowingly involving most European countries from 1618 to 1648. The war, which was fought mainly in Germany, was started when Bohemian Protestants furiously attacked the Holy Roman Emperor in terms to impose a restriction on their religious and civil liberties. By understanding the Thirty Years War, you will notice the notable religious, political and social changes. The changes paved the religious and political maps of Europe. Not only did this war affect the religious and political demographic, it caused populations to perish and lose large amounts of their goods. What was known as a religious battle, turned out to be a political feud in competition of which state has the greater power affecting men, women, soldiers and civilians. “[The bohemians] had no idea that their violent deed would set off a chain reaction of armed conflict that would last thirty years and later be called Europe’s “first world war” of the modern era.” When the war ended, the lands were defiled and over 5 million people were killed.
War has been a consistent piece of mankind 's history. It has significantly influenced the lives of individuals around the globe. The impacts are amazingly adverse. In the novel, “The Wars,” by Timothy Findley, Soldiers must shoulder compelling weight on the warzone. Such weight is both family and the country weight. Many individuals look at soldiers for hop and therefore, adding load to them. Those that cannot rationally beat these difficulties may create Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tragically, some resort to suicide to get away from their insecurities. Troops, notwithstanding, are not by any means the only ones influenced by wars; relatives likewise encounter mental hardships when their friends and family are sent to war. Timothy Findley
With the Great War beginning over a hundred years ago in 1914 there are no survivors left to reflect or corroborate any first hand accounts of the war that ushered in deadly new practices like trench and chemical warfare. Paul Fussels book The Great War and Modern Memory explores not only the firsthand accounts but also literature to the subject published during that time. There are no shortage of war memories detailed in Fussels book, and many of them look into experiences had by soldiers during the war that are unique only to them. In a book that sets out to chronicle the memory of all of World War I why are these specific memories included? Obviously they are curated by Mr. Fussel, whose primary intention seems to be to give a well rounded
On December 7, 1941, America was attacked by Japanese aircraft in an awfully successful air raid. Due to this attack on Hawii , President Roosevelt declared war on Japan. Everyone knows obviously America won, and yeah we know people were shot and killed by the Japanese but what you may not know is not everyone went home after the war was over many people in fact were captured and sent to terrifying concentration camps where they were overworked and barely fed just because they were caught fighting for their country. All the men caught were known as prisoners of war (POW),they were taken to places in Japan called either prison camps or concentration camps, the name really made know difference because the prisoners were welcomed by the same bizarre
The Vietnam War was a major war that occurred from 1959 to 1975 partially as a result from the Geneva Accords between the ARVN, lead by the Ho Chi Minh, and the NVA. This war started when the U.S wanted to prevent the spread of communism in Vietnam with the help of South Vietnam. In other words, the U.S government wanted to prevent a domino effect of communism that would spread to many neighboring countries. However, the public did not agree with the government and there were many protests across the U.S. After the Vietnam War ended, both the U.S and Vietnam were distraught by all the anarchy that occurred during the 16 years of war. Many foreign relations were cut in half, politics in both America and Vietnam were changed, the people of both countries were changed forever, and economies were crippled as a result from the Vietnam War.
A war crime is an unjust act of violence in which a military personnel violates the laws and acceptable behaviors of a war. Despite all the violence in a war, a soldier shooting another is not considered a war crime because it is not a violation to the laws and practices of a war, and it is considered just. A war crime is defined as a “violations [violation] of the laws and customs of war” (“War Crimes”), and are attacks “against civilian populations, prisoners of war, or in some cases enemy soldiers in the field” (Friedman). War crimes are typically committed with weapons or by uncommon, cruel, devastating military methods and are “…Committed primarily by military personnel” (Friedman). There are many different types of war crimes one can commit, including “murder, ill treatment…murder or ill treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages or devastation not justified by military necessity” (Friedman). Originally constructed as international law by the London Charter on August 8th, 1945 and further developed by the Hague Conventions of 1899, 1907 and the Nuremberg trials, war crimes are aggressive, unacceptable and unjust actions performed by military workforce that occur during a war.
Zinn’s question was if the bloodshed and deceit were necessary in order for the human race to progress and one might argue that yes, to a certain extent. If the English did not colonize America, maybe America would not be what it is today. The Europeans came here with their tools and influence over the country. The colonist used the bloodshed in order to control the Native Americans, the Africans, and even their own people. They did not want them to rebel therefore, they devised systems in order to manipulate them. Even though they implemented this system the Native Americans and the Africans Indians rebelled against the Europeans. The Europeans would oppress the people, imprisoned and punish them in order to have control over the colonies
Indeed, with the topic of War as our main theme this year, I have come to the conclusion that it certainly brings immeasurable mass destruction. War is an unfortunate event that leads to violence, destruction, slaughter as well as annihilation. The last few centuries mark a significant era of Wars that have killed millions of people. These wars, particularly the U.S. Civil War in 1861 and the Second World War in 1939, give us a broader understanding of the horrors that an individual faced during a violent period.