“They call me ‘The Reaper” (Irving 7). For as long as he can remember, Nicholas Irving was always obsessed with the idea of becoming a Navy SEAL. He fawned over the weapons, submersibles, and explosives they used, especially after watch Navy SEALs, but he wasn’t too keen on the idea of becoming “disciplined.” As a teenager he didn’t do too well in school, his only A in his entire high school career coming from ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps). After his high school graduation, he signed himself up for the Navy SEAL Cadet Corps Camp in Florida. A few weeks after attending this camp, he was called back to Florida where he soon learned after a series of test that he was colorblind. However, this minor setback did not stop him and he soon …show more content…
Nicholas Irving possesses the traits of an epic hero. Nicholas Irving is an epic hero because he travels over a vast setting. Nicholas Irving explains to readers in his autobiography titled The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers that when his comrades in Fort Benning learned that Nicholas’ battalion would be deployed there, they told them to be prepared to be bored out of there minds. He also explains that everyone is always on edge during predeployment and that, “when word came down that we were going to Kandahar, we all met the news with a mixture of relief and curiosity” (Irving 9). Even though the Third Ranger Battalion were informed that the deployment to Kandahar was going to be boring, it was actually the complete opposite. They members of the battalion, including Irving, faced off with Taliban members on many occasions. They risked their lives’ by fighting for their country in order to keep America safe. Nicholas Irving himself faced many Taliban members and he shot and killed them in order …show more content…
Irving describes a mission where he and his sniper spotter, Mike Pemberton, were tasked with taking down a suicide-vest maker. However, there are more men than they expected. Irving mentions what he felt as he heard rounds being fired and how he “felt in complete control and lined up on the third guy, who was now running away, and fired. The force of the strike sent him sprawling forward” (Irving 32). Nicholas Irving takes out the Taliban members with ease and no hesitation, earning himself the title ‘The Reaper.’ He has a total of 33 confirmed, not counting the amount that were not taken into consideration. Even though there were more men than expected, Pemberton and Irving both manage to take them out without any hesitation. An article titled “How an Army Rangers Sniper Became ‘The Reaper’” by Kyle Smith depicts Irving’s journey on becoming one of the deadliest special ops snipers. He compares Nicholas Irving to ‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle and depicts a mission that Irving was involved in on a deployment in Afghanistan. He writes,”Irving got a look at the target, who turned out to be a suicide bomber, who sprinted away. The first shot missed. The second did not” (Smith). The suicide bomber was planning to blow up Irving’s squad and he knew that he was the only one who could stop him. Nicholas Irving could barely see the target through the thick brush he was running in, yet he still managed to take him out
Before O’Brien was drafted into the army, he had an all American childhood. As talked about “His mother was an elementary school teacher, his father an insurance salesman and sailor in World War II” (O’Brien). He spent his tour of duty from 1969 to 1970 as a foot soldier. He was sent home when he got hit with a shrapnel in a grenade attack. O’Brien says as the narrator, “As a fiction writer, I do not write just about the world we live in, but I also write about the world we ought to live in, and could, which is a world of imagination.” (O’Brien)
When Paul was in the war he and his Friend Kat ran into a recruit that had been shot and they were debating whether or not to put him out of his misery. "We'll be back again soon," says Kat, "We are only going to get a stretcher for you."We don't know if he understands. He whimpers like a child and plucks at us: "Don't go away--” Kat looks around and whispers: "Shouldn't we just take a revolver and put an end to it?" (Page 34). In the movie Gallipoli, the main character Archy was a runner and he had no idea what he had gotten himself into. But when it was his time to cross the front line he had hesitation and did what he had signed up for. In the poem In Flanders Field it makes you feel sad for all the lives that had been lost. “Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.” this gives you a feeling of sadness for all the people who died and their families that they will never see
Incidentally, as I write this paper I gaze upon a framed picture of a man. Over the right shoulder in the background is a blue field with silver stars behind his right shoulder. In juxtaposition behind his left shoulder is a field of red containing a pattern of gold and silver. His cover is stark white, precisely in the middle a gold eagle globe and anchor symbol. Determined blue eyes gaze back at me. His mouth set with resolve. His uniform, deep blue trimmed in red. Gold buttons run down the center. The leather neck fastened tight with two gold eagle globe and anchors on either side of the closure. A United States Marine stares back at me and I weep because some general, some officer one day may consider my son to be an acceptable loss.
Weiss, M., & Maurer, K. (2012). No, Way Out: A Story of Valor in the Mountains of Afghanistan. New York: Penguin Group US. Retrieved November 05, 2010, from books.google.co.ke/books?isbn=1101560762
Overall, the author showed us the courageous and coward s acts of O’Brien the character. The fact that he was a coward made him do a heroic act. O’Brien made the valiant decision to go to war. It would have been easier and cowardly to jump and swim away from all his fears. However he decided to turn back, and fight for something he did not believe in. Thinking about the consequences of running away makes him a hero. He went to war not because he wanted to fight for his country, but for his own freedom. Either choice he could have made would take some kind of courage to carry out. Going to war required some sort of fearlessness. In other words, running away from the law would have been brave; but going to war was even tougher.
The violent nature that the soldiers acquired during their tour in Vietnam is one of O'Brien's predominant themes in his novel. By consciously selecting very descriptive details that reveal the drastic change in manner within the men, O'Brien creates within the reader an understanding of the effects of war on its participants. One of the soldiers, "Norman Bowler, otherwise a very gentle person, carried a Thumb. . .The Thumb was dark brown, rubbery to touch. . . It had been cut from a VC corpse, a boy of fifteen or sixteen"(O'Brien 13). Bowler had been a very good-natured person in civilian life, yet war makes him into a very hard-mannered, emotionally devoid soldier, carrying about a severed finger as a trophy, proud of his kill. The transformation shown through Bowler is an excellent indicator of the psychological and emotional change that most of the soldiers undergo. To bring an innocent young man from sensitive to apathetic, from caring to hateful, requires a great force; the war provides this force. However, frequently are the changes more drastic. A soldier named "Ted Lavender adopted an orphaned puppy. . .Azar strapped it to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device"(O'Brien 39). Azar has become demented; to kill a puppy that someone else has adopted is horrible. However, the infliction of violence has become the norm of behavior for these men; the fleeting moment of compassion shown by one man is instantly erased by another, setting order back within the group. O'Brien here shows a hint of sensitivity among the men to set up a startling contrast between the past and the present for these men. The effect produced on the reader by this contrast is one of horror; therefore fulfilling O'Brien's purpose, to convince the reader of war's severely negative effects.
When Adam entered the Navy he was the oldest in his group. This did not stop him from being one of the top performers in his class and by far one of the most popular. He received many reports from his commanding officers while he was in SEAL training praising how well he was doing. “He scored OUTSTANDING on the most recent command inspection and SEAL PRT. Brown is on track to become a stand out performer. He has unlimited potential and is dedicated to excellence” (Blehm 159). Adam performed very well on his SEAL training and he could do anything because he never took the easy way out. Adam was so determined to be a Navy SEAL that he always was the first to do everything and do it right. Reports like these were very common for Adam. He never got a bad report, and they all praised his work ethic and willingness to do anything to help somebody. After he became a SEAL and he was working his way through the ranks of the military, he was shot in the eye with a practice bullet while training. This caused him to lose vision in that eye. He loved the Navy and wanted to keep trying to make his way to SEAL Team SIX, the most elite military group. He could have been dismissed from the military and gotten paid for getting hurt in action, but he decided to make some changes and go back and fight with his team. He started by switching over to shooting left-handed and went to Sniper School. One of Adam’s classmates in Sniper School commented on how astounding it was for Adam to go through the course. “To lose vision in your good eye within a year prior to that class and say ‘Screw it, I’m going to Sniper School -- oh, and by the way, I’ll do it all left-handed, that’s hard core. I don’t think it’s ever been done in the history of sniper schools in the world” (183). To go blind in your dominant shooting eye and complete Sniper School, arguably one of the hardest advanced combat course in the Navy, is unheard of and
Irving uses many other images and scenes within this story that could be delved into further. However, I believe these three main points, along with the knowledge of the political climate of the times, shows Irving’s genius in representing both sides of the political gamut. Irving was able to cater to both the British and the Colonist without offending either side. Irving’s genius was that even though this was an allegory of its time, its elements could represent either or both sides of the conflict during the Revolution. This dual representation in an allegorical story ensured his success, in both countries as a writer. It allowed Irving to make a political statement without taking sides.
Wasdin started with SEAL Team Two, tested into SEAL Team Six, then challenged himself further by becoming a SEAL sniper. His mindset is if he didn’t get the bad guys first, they’d get the good guys, and when you read his stories, you are thankful we have people like him. Unfortunately, these days of numbing boredom can also cause the reader to be bored. When he talked about war or training to become a seal, the reader was interested, but when he talked about sitting in an outpost for a couple weeks seeing nothing and no action, the reader will question when will the action and intense stories that got them hooked in the first place come back. This is the autobiography of a boy who grew up dirt poor, worked so hard during his childhood that BUD/S seemed no more mentally challenging than what he faced every day, simply trying to survive his stepfather.
Tim O'Brien does not go to war because he believes in its vitality. He never goes to war because he knows it strengthens his country. He goes to war because he is consumed by the pure embarrassment of his cowardice. His bravery is nonexistent; it is a combination of fear and shame masquerading as courage that forces him to be a hero. Without his fear, he would never have submitted his life to the insignificant
The story demonstrated the tough decision the snipers had to make in the war. The snipers had to go through a lot of hard training; it took a lot of dedication and motivation. Being a sniper is a very tough position they had many responsibilities. They had to protect their teammates over night while they traveled to their destination. Snipers had to stay put overnight without being able to leave their location to make sure their teammates do not get ambushed, sniped from the terrorist, or walk into a trap. The terrorist would set traps in the ground and the sniper would have to watch to make sure the Americans do not walk into it or they would catch them planting the bomb and kill them in the
The three character perspectives on war are interpreted entirely differently. Tim O’Brien is illustrated as the most sensitive soldier out of the three. “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole.” (124). Tim’s sensitivity is revealed when he shows how bewildered he is as he stares at the lifeless Viet Cong body.
A human being develops and grows throughout their life through many challenges and sometimes it takes an event in one’s life to change a person. In the novel “The Caine Mutiny” by Herman Wouk, is a novel about Willie Keith, a chubby and well educated son from an upper class family who joins the Navy. Willie goes into the Columbia University School of Journalism, which has been converted for the war effort. He is almost rejected because of his physical reasons of not being fit, but his Princeton background saves him from being rejected. As soon as he stepped in this navy life and went through a long journey with the navy crew , Willie became more independent, responsible and courageous.
In "The Thematic Paradigm", Robert Ray explains how there are two distinctly different heroes, the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero embraces common values and traditional beliefs, while the outlaw has a clear sense of right and wrong but operates above the law (Ray). Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. "The attractiveness of the outlaw hero's childishness and propensity to whims, tantrums, and emotional decisions derived from America's cult of childhood", states Ray. (309) Ray also says, "To the outlaw hero's inconsistence on private standards of right and wrong, the official hero offered the admonition, you cannot take the law into your own hands." (312) The values of these two traditional heroes contrasts clearly. Society favors the outlaw hero because we identify with that character more. We see ourselves more so in the outlaw hero than in the official hero. The outlaw hero has the "childlike" qualities that most of us wish we had as adults. To civilians it may seem that the outlaw hero lives more of a fantasy life that we all wish to have.
Irving uses imagery to help readers imagine the past and also impact the theme of supernatural. Irving writes, “The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; star shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head” (Irving 3-4). Once again, Irving makes a reference to the hessian soldier, the Headless Horseman, which brings back the past of the revolutionary war, he does this by using imagery in explaining what he looks like.