Death can be perceived as many different things, either meaningful or meaningless. Deaths mainly occur during wars where bullets may hit targets where it was not intended. This is one of the many tragedies of war where accidental deaths are not taken seriously per say to the same extent. This is the main idea in Shihab Nye’s tribute poem For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15 where she states that there is no such things as stray bullets or accidental deaths. Nye states that media tends to mask the truths about harsh and difficult subject matters in order to protect the truth from the public. She brings these issues to focus by emphasizing the bullets effects as well as sympathizing for Mohamed for his death from a stray bullet. Shihab Nye stresses
In Brian Turner’s poem “Jundee Ameriki” (American soldier), he gives gruesome details of a situation that triggered posttraumatic stress disorder in a soldier of war. The poem, written in 2009, addresses a suicide bombing which occurred during the War on Iraq in November of 2005. At first the poem shares the events of his doctor’s visit. While getting the shrapnel fragments removed, the soldier is quickly reminded of the horrific events that led to the injury. The poem then begins to describe the emotional effects of posttraumatic stress disorder. The narrator uses symbolism and the structure of the poem to demonstrate how the emotional pain of posttraumatic stress disorder is much greater than the physical pain it causes (even if the emotional
The main idea of my story is fairly simple to understand. “Life is not fair” To understand this, you must know it is set at the time of Sudan’s civil war, where killing was a usual occurrence just about every si...
“Ducks” is valuable poem as Nye propagates the effect of the war on herself and Arab culture. Initially, she uses the appreciation many Arabs have for books as an example of the rich heritage of her people. However, Nye inherently ponders the question of when the world will see Palestinians in this way again since the conflict has produced an erroneous perception of Arab culture. Naturally, she writes about her...
In the aftermath of a comparatively minor misfortune, all parties concerned seem to be eager to direct the blame to someone or something else. It seems so easy to pin down one specific mistake that caused everything else to go wrong in an everyday situation. However, war is a vastly different story. War is ambiguous, an enormous and intangible event, and it cannot simply be blamed for the resulting deaths for which it is indirectly responsible. Tim O’Brien’s story, “In the Field,” illustrates whom the soldiers turn to with the massive burden of responsibility for a tragedy. The horrible circumstances of war transform all involved and tinge them with an absurd feeling of personal responsibility as they struggle to cope.
In conclusion, while books, photos, movies and other historical documentation can portray information or a message about wartime events, they will never be able to produce the feelings of those that were personally involved in wars have experienced. Yet, it is incorrect to criticize these writers. The information they reveal is still very important historical information. Even if a reader or viewer of this media cannot feel exactly the same emotions as those involved, they still often experience an emotional connection to the events being depicted. This is important, not only for the historical knowledge gained about wars, but also to understand the nature and futility of their occurrence.
Critics have already begun a heated debate over the success of the book that has addressed both its strengths and weaknesses. The debate may rage for a few years but it will eventually fizzle out as the success of the novel sustains. The characters, plot, emotional appeal, and easily relatable situations are too strong for this book to crumble. The internal characteristics have provided a strong base to withstand the petty attacks on underdeveloped metaphors and transparent descriptions. The novel does not need confrontations with the Middle East to remain a staple in modern reading, it can hold its own based on its life lessons that anyone can use.
These two literary works, 40 Hours in Hell by Katherine Finkelstein and Third World by Dexter Filkins, both present diverse perspectives on what occurred during the World Trade Center attack. Although both texts approach the coverage of this attack differently, as reporters, they both base their news using normative theory. Normative theory is the consideration of what is morally correct or incorrect. In relation to normative theory is the Social Responsibility Theory. This theory deals with how an individual must complete their civic duty, since they are apart of the press, as well as their actions must benefit society. Nonetheless, of these two texts, 40 Hours in Hell best fulfills the requisites of the Social Responsibility Theory.
Naomi Shihab Nye’s collection of poetry teaches the reader that the people of the Middle East are human, too. After 9/11, many people’s opinions of people from the Middle East changed significantly in a negative way. I think that a lot of people were worried about other potential attacks happening in the United States. Even now, because of recent events, many people feel threatened and they are scared of what is going to happen next. Nye’s poems remind everyone that not every person from the Middle East is threat. As she says in the introduction of her book, “A huge shadow had been cast across the lives of so many innocent people and an ancient culture’s pride” (Nye xv). Through this book, she wants to convey that they have their own lives and feel misrepresented by extremist actions.
In 1963, as protest to the authoritarian regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem, Buddhist monks began to go to public places in Vietnam and commit suicide, by drenching themselves in gasoline and setting themselves on fire. They did this as an act of civil disobedience, defined as an act of defiance of specific laws or policies of a formal structure which the individual or group believes to be unjust. The Buddhist civilization in Vietnam was not apparent to the Americans until the Buddhists began sacrificing themselves in Saigon’s public streets. The pictures of the monks engulfed in flames made world headlines and caused American intervention; and later the capture and killing of Diem and his brother. In contrast to these acts of civil disobedience, one can observe the actions of suicide bombers. In the Palestinian territories, those who support suicide bombing claim that it is merely a tactic of war in defense of their land and homes. Without superior weaponry, they see it as “a heroic act of martyrdom, a final act of resistance, stemming from desperation”(Suicide Bombers). Both the Buddhist monks and the “suicide bombers” in Palestine resort to self-sacrificial actions as their form of violent civil disobedience. Violent forms of civil disobedience should only be necessary to counter violence but never if it inhibits upon the liberties of the innocent. By this definition, the actions of the Buddhist monks are more justifiable than those of suicide bombers in the Middle East.
In the story “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, teaches readers how was makes humans less of human beings. In the beginning of the story the author explains how the main character or “the Sniper” obtained “eyes of a man who was used to looking at death.” This part in the short story shows implies how often this man has looked at someone dead or that he has killed. The fact that he continues to do his job and let the war take control of him. Whenever he kills a man, the person on the other end is not someone he knows, everyone is just an enemy. Over his in the Army, he had been washed of all his feelings, which make him allowed to do his job. Towards the middle of the story, he notices that a woman was giving the enemy his position. As was happening,
In Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and in Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, both authors commentate on the romanticism of violence that is often associated with war. Because of this, the authors are able to dispel misconceptions surrounding war. Furthermore, the memoirs allow the authors reflect upon their own experiences of war during their childhoods, as well as examine how cultural shifts perpetuated by both war and the increased influence of western culture that took place within their cultures shaped who they became. Through their memoirs, the authors portray the reality of war and violence through cultural experiences.
From the Civil War, to World War I, to the Vietnam War, humankind’s violent tendencies have oft resulted in the loss of an extreme amount of life; the Civil War resulted in an estimated 620,000 deaths, World War I with at least two million, and the Vietnam War with a rough, dastardly amount of 3.1 million. War had - and still has - an effect on everyone whom witnesses its reign of terror.
Consequently, “In recent years, tragedies involving mass killings in the US, such as The Aurora, CO movie theatre shooting in July 2012, and the Newton, CT has intensified social focus on trying to understand the dynamics and contributing factors that underlie such events”(Towers 2). Both of these shooting left the public shocked and concerned. As an article says one of the main concerns was “concern with the publics understanding of the shooting specifically who or what did the public blame” (Joslyn, and Do...
I learned that more than just people die in wars. I learned that war brings much more pain than just physical pain. I learned that being indifferent is the worst approach to an issue. In Night, Wiesel often discusses God and his relationship with him. At one point Wiesel declares that God dies at the gallows. To Wiesel and thousands of other Jews, it was probably true for them. How could their God expect their faith to be strong enough to endure the torture of the Holocaust? In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, a soldier is killed by the war. The death was not an ordinary one. The soldier hung himself because he had been at war, but he had not killed himself. The emotional pain and mental agony he suffered from the war killed him instead. Above all, I learned not to be indifferent towards situations that matter. Millions of lives could have been saved if people had not just stood idle. The photograph above amplifies my feelings on the subject. An entire village and its villagers could have been saved if people in an entirely different country had done something to stop
...l for the dead, they are shooting without reason, which relates to the theme of the quote in Thomas Hardy’s “The Man He Killed”. “I shot him dead because… because he was my foe.” This is an example of a soldier simply shooting because he is told to, and he has lost all say for himself and is controlled by others. Civilized sensibilities make men reason with shooting a man, but without them, shooting a man is just another task that one is being told to complete.