In the second chapter of Interpretations of Occupation, Madeline Otis Campbell discusses the main roles of military interpreters, or terps for short, as well as the difficulties that terps face. Campbell dissects the terps’ roles into two categories: language translators along with understanding each culture that correlates with the language, and comprehending the cultural discourse differences between the two groups. In other words, terps not only have to know the languages of both cultures, but they must also know the reasons why each culture acts and thinks in the way that they do, and be critically understanding of the differences. Campbell suggests that cultural differences are a crucial factor in war, and especially between Iraqis and
In the personal essay "Unemployed", by Kenyon MacDonald, (2016), MacDonald claims that his termination that he viewed as one of the worst experiences in his life, to be a pivotal moment where he changed job careers and went back to school. He asserts that this termination gave him a new appreciation for what he has and he develops this idea by giving us background concerning his job employment. He then tells us what led to his being fired and how it made him feel. His purpose is to let young people know that in this world of change, it is important to appreciate what you have because it could change at any moment. His intended audience is other young people.
Erin George’s A Woman Doing Life: Notes from a Prison for Women sheds light on her life at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women (FCCW) where she was sentenced for the rest of her life for first-degree murder. It is one of the few books that take the reader on a journey of a lifer, from the day of sentencing to the day of hoping to being bunked adjacent to her best friend in the geriatric ward.
Living Out by Lisa Loomer is a play that tells the story of the complicated relationship between a Salvadoran nanny and the lawyer she works for. Both women are smart, hard-working mothers who want better lives for their children. The play explores many similarities and differences between them. Through the main character Ana, we understand what it’s like to leave a child in another country and to come to come to the United States. We also get what the potential cost is like to sacrifice your own child in order to care for someone else's. Through the lawyer; Nancy, we understand the pressure on women today. How they try to do everything perfectly and sometimes having to put work before their family. The play also looks at the discrimination and misconceptions between Anglos (White American’s) and Latinos.
Perspective allows people to see another person’s point of view. In the essay “The Cabdriver’s Daughter” by Waheeda Samady, she addresses her perception versus society’s opinion of her father. In her eyes, her father is a person capable of displaying kindness and expressing his profound knowledge while for some Americans, he is their preconceived notion of what a terrorist might look like. She challenges people to look past his scars and the color of skin, and “look at what the bombs did not destroy” (19). To her, he is the man that has lived through the Soviet-Afghan War, persevered through poverty, and denied these experiences the power of changing him into a cantankerous person. Samady feels prideful of her father’s grit through his past experiences yet feels sorrowful thinking about the life he could have lived if the war had never happened.
Sleep-over by Bonnie Jo Campbell is more than the usual teenager maturity story; between the lines, and behind the symbolism there is an underlying meaning. I believe the author is speaking from experience when telling this story. This story may be the authors depiction of the event of how she remembers it. From the title to the last sentence, Campbell expresses literary devices, natural languages, and involves her personal life into the story making it more than a teenage tale.
In Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, Tim O'Brien gives a dynamic example of how even the deep roots of ones culture can be modified. The focus is on the young lady, whose boyfriend manages to have her shipped over to Vietnam from the U.S. She is then thrown into a completely foreign culture that thousands of American GI's were experiencing. This change in culture affected the strongest and most skilled of America's ground troops. The affects on a civilian are almost unfathomable.
When one thinks back to all the school years between kindergarten and high school, they will not remember the name of every teacher they have ever had without hard thought. There are always going to be the teachers that stood out from all the rest for one reason; they connected with their students. When asked about school, students will not reply with an undoubted love for all the time spent going through it. It is simply something we must all go through to get on with our lives and be an active member of society. I get the strangest looks from my peers when I say I like school. Now obviously, I have not loved every second spent behind a desk or all the time required to be spent with every teacher, but overall I do enjoy school because of the
Most parents want the best for their children: financially, emotionally, and physically. However, sometimes there are external barriers that prevent full growth in these areas. These are the limitations that no parent feels comfortable speaking about because all they do is bring back memories of attempted success, yet never quite reached. In Tillie Olsen’s narration, I Stand Here Ironing there is a mother who is concerned for her daughter, Emily after a full nineteen years have passed. She begins to remember what her socioeconomic standings represented through the eyes of Emily, who is only now like a blossomed flower. There were struggles from both ends. Mother had to raise her daughter without the father, who had left due to poverty and mother also had to continue working a job to provide for food and for other survival necessities, which seemed to affect Emily’s happiness- which mother is now reminiscing about. Set during the Great Depression, the reader can understand that there will be financial shortcomings and many challenges that go along with this
“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, is a short story, told by an unnamed narrator, about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and other members of the army unit during the Vietnam War. O’Brien introduces and elucidates characters in this story by listing the tangible and intangible elements they carried with them. Although the men in this army unit are battling the enemy soldier, ironically, they are also conflicted upon their own thoughts about the Vietnam War and the true meaning of their experiences at war. To understand the war from different character’s perspectives, the ambiguous narrator plays a major role in effectively conveying the message of uncertainty and tells this fictional war story in a third person omniscient point of view. The narrator’s
In the writing by Cynthia Enloe, "Updating the Gendered Empire: Where are Women in Occupied Afghanistan and Iraq", she studies the role of women during wartime. She looks at the way in which women are used as a symbol by American leadership to legitimize the invasions of Afghanistan, yet the strategies employed complicate and contradict that message. One of her main points is that there needs to be a discussion about women. Without a dialogue, there will be no growth in politics of femininity. Therefore, there will be no lasting change in the unequal power arrangements at home and abroad (305).
According to the previous reviews of Phil Klay’s book, countless human manifestations results from collisions with young and armed Americans with a foreign country, whereby a few of them understands. Reviews captures on the manner in which the war evoked as well as emotions, predicaments, and heartbreaks. The reader looks forward to understand the outcome of the war. However, what makes the reader apprehensive is that the stories resonate with themes, such as battle, images of outstanding battleground pain, as well as psychological trauma due to the nature of the war, nuances of human nature and the associated violence.
After the tragedy and chaos of September 11th, 2001 there was an expectation for the United States to respond with aggression. In his address to the nation, President George W. Bush stated “The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts…We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” It became apparent that the perpetrators were affiliates of the radical Muslim group Al-Qaida, and with Al-Qaida as the espoused target the War on Terror in the Middle East began. War was presented as the only course of action. The attacks on the World Trade Center elicited fear in the US public and a post-9/11 state of emergency regarding homeland security made war … It started in Afghanistan and eventually transitioned into Iraq. I will discuss how an Orientalist discourse used by politicians and the media framed and justified the War on Terror . Through this discourse an inferior “other” was created and that alienated dehumanized the East and its people in the US public consciousness, internationally and within the United States.
In the personal essay “Context” (1994), the author, Dorothy Allison, explores the difference in lifestyles of the prosperous, sophisticated people and poorer, less fortunate people. Allison develops this by comparing her impecunious childhood with the privileged youth of her lover. Allison emphasizes her lack of certain experiences as child in order to give readers a vivid understanding of what was “normal” or a context for her. This essay is mainly directed towards people who are quick to judge how someone speaks or acts without having a thorough understanding of their context and what they consider as “normal”.
In 2000, Deborah Ellis the author, knowing the conflict of one other country and what was happening wrote the book The Breadwinner.Which is about the when the Taliban came and took over Afghanistan, and in the development making sure that women had no rights and men had tons of rights. This book takes place with a family of originally 4 women and 2 men, but one is only a small toddler that cannot go outside by himself. this leaves the only man to go outside by himself or escort the women being the Father. But soon the story takes a turn of events and the father gets taken away by a Taliban soldier for anonymous reasons. This means that he is leaving the family of all women with no rights, mostly women that have to wear burqa to even walk
Dorothy Allison in the book “Context” suggests that her girlfriend might not accept and even reject her for the social economic class that she comes from against the social class of her lover. The author has fears in scenarios which her soulmate looks at her differently, through a new view, in a new visual and mental sense that she might have hatred and not remain as close as before. The Author anxiety about rejection and coming from the “working class” that in order to be accepted as equals, they need to have similar economic class. The insecurities and lifestyle highlight by her is intended for people who are in or come from the lower class, as the lower class suffers from the same insecurity in everyday life fearing they might be mocked