The Beast Within
The spawn knelt in the shadows of the corner. His iridescent eyes
searching the dark for his prey. A prey he knew very well, almost too well.
From the end of the stone corridor the spawn's ear picked out a single
disturbance. From behind the mask a man's mouth twisted in a smile and a thought
of satisfaction crossed his mind.
Rising to his feet the spawn walked defiantly down the corridor. His
armoured boots making no sound on the cold floor. A heart that beat no blood,
pounded within the unnatural armour of the spawn. At last his mission was
drawing to a close and so too would this endless torture. The one being
responsible for his spawning would now ultimately reach its death.
The door was close now, and the spawn's soulless eyes peered into the room
from the doors barred window. Standing over a bench stood a man. An old man,
gnarled with age and working on an intricate machine. To a mortal man the sight
would appear ludicrous. An old, befuddled man could hardly attract the attention
of such a powerful warrior. But to the spawns eyes, he only saw the truth.
He didn't see the lines of age which covered the man's face. Nor did he see
the disfigured spine which pushed the man's back into a painful composure. But
he did see the beast within.
To the spawn, what stood in the other room had no dimensions, it glittered
with a warrior's sweat and had an evil which protruded off its hide like
poisonous spines. This creature had roamed the aeons sending multitudes of
innocent 'children' to nothingness before their time.
In ages past it was known as Ra, god of the sun, then it was known as
Xeues. Only a thousand years ago they called him a Dragon, and now, he was known
as a scientist. Figure heads for the world, able to control the elements to
their wishes.
But today, it was time for the creature to end its cultivation of evil on
earth. One man who the beast had killed had refused to die. By sheer power of
will he had re-spawned to become the 'Spawn', and now, after centuries of silent
following had finally decided that enough was enough!
Kicking open the barred door the Spawn raised his hell blade in a warriors
salute and cried, "Your time is up beast! Never again will you commit crimes
against humanity! With this sword I commit your body to the flames!" The spawn's
According to the Indian Times, madness is the rule in warfare (Hebert). The madness causes a person to struggle with experiences while in the war. In “How to Tell a True War Story”, the madness of the war caused the soldiers to react to certain situations within the environment differently. Tim O’Brien’s goal with the story “How to Tell a True War Story” is to shed light on the madness the soldiers face while in the war. Tim O’Brien tells the true story of Rat experiences of the war changing his life.
There is a fine line between sanity and insanity, a line that can be crossed or purposefully avoided. The books The Things They Carried and Slaughterhouse-Five both explore the space around this line as their characters confront war. While O’Brien and Vonnegut both use repetition to emphasize acceptance of fate, their characters’ psychological and internal responses to war differ significantly. In The Things They Carried, the narrator and Norman Bowker carry guilt as evidence of sanity. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim and the innkeepers carry on with life in order to perpetuate sanity. Both authors develop a distinct theme of responding in the face of the insanity of war.
Insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” a quote by Albert Einstein that helps sum up humanity’s love for horror movies. People go see horror movies all the time, each time the graphics are clearer and more intense than the last. Are people expecting them to change? If not then why would anyone in their right mind, make a conscious decision to go see the next horror movie knowing what they know, understanding that someone will get stabbed, beaten, shot, or killed? Its simple humans crave them, we enjoy horror but why? In this essay Stephen Kings thesis “I think we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little bit better” (405). In that statement he provides a twisted example of “Why we crave Horror Movies” claiming it’s mainly because of our mental state. King explains there are many reasons for going to see them, he says we go to have fun, we go to dare the nightmare and we go to re-establish our since of normalcy. All of which I find are strong arguments were he states his case. With his use of urbane humor, he says “the potential lyncher is in almost all of us”(406). King uses practical wisdom to lead his audience to believe that without horror films, humans are all ticking time bombs set to explode from buildup of pathos, just waiting to become another “funny farm crazy” or “Jack the ripper” to some degree or another.
sight from hell by some. He had such a daunting personality that often times people would surrender or lose the will to fight merely from seeing him.
is searching for him and that he is going to have to encounter him at
The complexity of the plot starts when the reader is introduced to a man lost in a cave and his source of light goes out and continues when the man realizes that “starving would prove [his] ultimate fate” (1). Readers get a sense of hopelessness the man is feeling, and this is where the tensions begins to build. Alt...
is turning into night, all the good things are going to sleep, and the evil
eye. “I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly that no human eye--not even
The Beast (aka The Beast of War) is about a Soviet T-62 tank lost in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1981. The movie was released in 1988. It was based on a William Mastrosimone play entitled Nanawatai. It was directed by Kevin Reynolds, who later directed Waterworld. It starred George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Baldwin. A Soviet tank unit in Afghanistan helps "clear out" a village, destroying it. One of the tanks, led by a ruthless Commander Daskal, orders the crushing of a captured prisoner under their treads of the tank. Leaving the village, Daskal's tank is separated from its unit and is soon lost. Mujahadeen warriors, led by the murdered prisoner's brother Taj, discover the lost tank and see an opportunity to take revenge. Knowing that the tank is in a valley with only one exit, they begin following its tracks, intending to use a captured RPG to attack it. Some women from the village also follow along with captured grenades in hand. The tank crew is made up of four Soviets and one Afghani. As night falls and the crew sets up camp, the Afghan tank crewman Samad teaches the tank driver, Konstantin Koverchenko, about the fundamental principles of Pashtunwali, the Pashtun people's code of honor: melmastia (hospitality), badal (revenge), and nanawatai, which requires even an enemy to be given sanctuary if he asks. We then see that Commander Daskal, called "Tank Boy" during the Great Patriotic War for destroying a number of German tanks in the Battle of Stalingrad, is not ruthless only to the enemy, but also to his men. He despises Samad and kills him on the pretext of suspecting him a traitor. After Konstantin threatens to report Daskal for the killing, Daskal orders the other two crew members to tie Konstantin to a rock, with a grenade to serve as booby-trap for the Mujahadeen. Some wild dogs come upon him and as Konstantin tries to kick at them, the grenade rolls down the rock and explodes, killing a dog but leaving Konstantin unhurt. The sound, however, draws the group of Afghani women. They begin to stone him and are soon joined by the mujahadeen. Konstantin is saved when he remembers Samad's lesson about "nanawatai," sanctuary. He calls out the word and the mujahadeen are obligated to take him with them. Camping out in a cave, they feed him and ask him to fix the broken RPG.
There was no one left to provide the creature with companionship and was forced to isolate himself from society once again. When the family moved out of their cottage, the creature decided to go on his own adventure and seek out his creator. Upon doing so, the creature encountered a young girl who was about to drown near a lake. When the creature successfully saved the little girl, an older man confronted the creature and shot him in the shoulder. Because of what happened, the creature explained to Frankenstein that his, “...daily vows rose for revenge-a deep deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish [he] had endured.” (Shelley 61). With this burning rage, the creature decided to take his revenge out on his creator, Frankenstein. One by one, Frankenstein’s relatives and closest friends were murdered by the creature, but his father’s death, was the final push. Frankenstein believed that he was the cause for all the murders and that he had to destroy what he created. He told Walton that, “...as [he] awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge.” (Shelley 88). The only way to stop future deaths, was to hunt down the creature and kill him. Fueled with hatred, Frankenstein traveled for months in hopes of finding the creature. However, in his final days, Frankenstein was no longer
The pathway through war by use of anecdotes and character perception traces the arduous efforts of Yossarian to avoid being victimized by circumstance, in this instance Catch-22, a formidable, unwritten loophole found in basically every written law. “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to” (Heller 46). The entirety of Catch-22 is hypocritical. Due to Catch-22, justice is never exacted, the innocents become the victims, and the squadron that Yossarian is a member of has no choice when it comes to flying over twice the amount of missions given by the Air Force Code. Run ragged due to Catch-22, Yossarian becomes the witness to the horrendous slaughter of his crew, as well as the destruction of those closest to him. Yossarian’s fear of death is highly intensified, and eventually gets to be so much that he
The impression made by a character in a play is one of its most complex and debatable components, for each individual, from the director to the audience, forms an idea based on their own interpretation of the work. Each character can be read differently, with each perception having its own implications beyond the text. The analysis of alternate perspectives of Hamlet can provide insight into possible hidden motivations and underlying plot elements invisible in the original text.
One who is righteous, pure, and ethical obtains a solid moral compass. A lack of morality in an individual results in insanity. This is shown in Timothy Findley’s The Wars; the war corrupts individual’s integrity which ultimately leads to their insanity. Robert Ross and Rodwell depict lunacy as war demoralizes them. As individuals receive commands that violate their virtues, as a repercussion a person will become irrational.
a hunted man, who is hunted because he knows what is going on. All in