Males face many challenges in today's world due to their gender. Males have a standard that is set by society and are pressured to follow in these foot steps. For the males that don’t fit the role of society’s “standards”, they are ridiculed and looked down upon. In the story of the “War Prayer”, we see these exact same problems. As the young soldiers are leaving for war, the town is gathering around them for support. A few males that were against the war in the story, faced a lot of hatred from other people. The story states, “The half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight …show more content…
and offended no more in that way”. The men that were going into war got all of the glory and that was the expectation of all men at the time. If you didn’t participate in the war you were a coward and not a respected person. In the story of “Editha”, we see the same image for men about war. Editha is up in arms that her husband George is a conscientious objector. Editha refused to be with George until he enlisted, “I shall always love you, and therefore I shall never marry anyone else. But the man I marry must love his country first of all”. George is stuck in a situation, because he has to face the “standards” of being a man. Just like in the previous story of the “War Prayer”, if you don’t go into war, you aren’t a man.
A person should be loved for who they are and everyone should have the opportunity to be themselves. Another poem, “The Wound-Dresser”, goes against the two first stories that I picked. This poem talks about a medic in the war and you get a sense of how gruesome war really is. This medic is just as important to the men carrying guns. The man recalled his horrific memories of seeing these injured soldiers and how hard it was. I believe that this man understands that being a soldier isn’t the only way to be a hero. That being a man doesn’t mean you have to physically strong and go into battle. That you can be a man others way, and to be your true self. The final story I am going to analyze is the story of “In the Trenches”. This story shows the struggle of men in the war. This idea of you can’t show pain, fear, etc. As a man in the story, Fry, is struggling with his feet. As Fry sits down to rest his feet the captain walks over. The captain looks at Fry and says, “Here, sergeant, stick a bayonet up his behind, that’ll make him move”. It seems common for men to endure these brutal remarks. In reality, people don’t understand the lasting impact that people’s words
have. These men were scared to be in war, and one actually defecated in his pants out of fear. Men are pushed to this idea of being manly, and that emotions are not okay. If you didn’t go to war in this era, you weren’t a real man. All of these speculations on how to be a man are false. There is no correct way to be a man, and everybody should drop the expectations. Albert Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid”. I believe that this quote works perfectly with the stereotypes of being a man. These men are ridiculed for not being a “man” and start to believe that there is something wrong with them. Everybody should have the freedom to express themselves freely and to live life without judgment from society. As we saw the struggles that males went through during the war era, these struggles are still relevant in society today.
Currently in the United States, many of us are afraid of the future. There have been many recent events that have stirred up fear in this country, especially tensions regarding human rights. In Carolyn Forché’s “The Colonel,” the speaker tells us her story of when she had to deal with the mistreatment of others. The speaker is telling us her story of meeting the colonel to show us the horrible things that have happened in the fight for justice and to encourage us to speak up. She tells us this story because she does not want others to end up the way that the ears did. The speaker wants us to stay strong and fight for justice when we begin to live in a state of constant fear.
The War Against Boys is the story of our cultural attack on the modern male. Twenty-first century men are looked down-upon, laughed at, and many times emasculated in our day-to-day lives. In her book, Christina Hoff Sommers does an excellent job reminding us that men are responsible for a lot of good in the world: “This book tells the story of how it has become fashionable to attribute pathology to millions of healthy male children. It is a story of how we are turning against boys and forgetting a simple truth: that the energy, competitiveness, and corporal daring of normal, decent males is responsible for much of what is right in the word.” Our culture has promoted a skewed view; most people believe that women are treated unfairly, that
Without the use of stereotypical behaviours or even language is known universally, the naming of certain places in, but not really known to, Australia in ‘Drifters’ and ‘Reverie of a Swimmer’ convoluted with the overall message of the poems. The story of ‘Drifters’ looks at a family that moves around so much, that they feel as though they don’t belong. By utilising metaphors of planting in a ‘“vegetable-patch”, Dawe is referring to the family making roots, or settling down somewhere, which the audience assumes doesn’t occur, as the “green tomatoes are picked by off the vine”. The idea of feeling secure and settling down can be applied to any country and isn’t a stereotypical Australian behaviour - unless it is, in fact, referring to the continental
I believe people lack respect for the flag and what it stands for. Although most people are proud to be an American, some don’t understand what it truly means to be an American. The flag has a history, and should be respected because of that history. Although most believe that respect should be earned, our flag has earned this many times over. And I believe that our flag is taken for granted.
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
...he shows us her character, not by how she gives herself respect, but by the continued respect that she gives to others: even her tormenters. Her secret shame was kept inside, and it was an impossible burden to bear. She was brave.
We have all had those memorable moments that send us back in time; a song on the radio, the smell of cookies baking, driving in the car. They make you think of good times passed. But Billy Collins’s poem, “The Lanyard”, is not only a recollection of the past, but a personal insight to about the things his mother has done for him and what he has done in return.
...ing them how they should behave, and what they should feel. A sense of self is bigger than what one person or group of people can tell you; it is found from within. Salinger, Plath, and Heller capture ambiguity on a personal level; their characters must look within themselves and beyond the ambiguity to discover who they are. They could easily accept what society tells them, but they would be embarking on a journey of misery. They must be strong enough to resist what others tell them about war, themselves, and everyone else. The experiences are truly unique, even if they are painful. They reveal the journey of self.
These cadet’s moral issues against women and them self’s steamed from the oppression that they suffered at the hands of the college’s relentless ego shattering and extreme hazing that would come from the seniors to the knobs. Right from the start of their schooling these men are subjected to horrendous prolonged unjust treat meant where they are told that masculinity is now a way of life. Treatment that was so unforgiving that these men could not even walk away with a clear really of who they were any more instead they would pay attention to the social cues around them and as a result they conform, and obey there male dominating leaders. Then with some hope of regaining some control in their lives they lash out to other class mates this motivational treatment affects any one around them regardless of gender as long as they were seen as weaker. These men were forced to not only play the role of the female, but also that of male causing gender confusion for many of these cadets. By forcing these young men to not only shower together in non-stalled showers and to relay on each other to dress each other with the proper shirt tuck and do all the domestic house work it at times even being dresses as women during etiquette-training, created a highly dysfunctional reality for these young men that they should
Brian Turner's "The Hurt Locker" captures his personal and painful experiences during his time spent in war and furthermore, express the tragic events he witnessed. Brian Turner's poem is miraculously able to gather multiple first hand accounts of tragic, gory, and devastating moments inside a war zone and project them on to a piece of paper for all to read. He allows the audience of his work to partially understand what hell he himself and all combat veterans have endured. Although heartbreaking, it is a privilege to be taken inside "The Hurt Locker" of a man who saw too many things that should not ever be witnessed by anybody. Turner's words bring to life what many have buried deep inside them which subsequently is one of the major underlying problems facing combat veterans today. Reading this poem, I could not help but wonder what the long term effects of war are on a human being, if it is worth the pain, and how does a combat veteran function properly in a society that is unfamiliar with their experiences?
“Fire is catching and if we burn, then you burn with us!” A powerful quote from a popular book series and movie Mockingjay that sums up the meaning of this poem quite nicely if you think about it. The spread of this powerful emotion is going fast if our hearts burn then yours will too once we are all connected and able to feel for each other.“I’ll bleed so much you’ll be bleeding, all of us bleeding in and out like it’s breathing” An interesting concept, by bleeding you can cause others to bleed. By feeling pain you can cause others to feel pain. Through examining diction, appeal, tone, and other literary figures it is clear that Carmen Giménez Smith is trying to help people become more compassionate towards one another using her poem “Bleeding
“A Story about the Body”, a prose poem by Robert Hass, is literally about a man who supposedly loves a woman but then finds out about her health conditions and then changes his mind. This poem, when I read it, was more like a short story than a poem. The poem uses imagery and a variety of adjectives which allow the reader to put themselves in the story as if they were watching it happen.
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
The Lanyard written by Billy Collin’s describes a memory of childhood gift made, while he was at camp. Also shows mother’s unconditional love for their kids. It is an interesting poem. Mom’s play main role in our life. There are two opinions in this poem. One is that an adult opinion and the other is a child opinion.
This type of writing interests me because it was used as a tool to open people’s eyes to the brutality of war. In a way it protested and spoke up against this injustice and most importantly gave a voice to the people who became the biggest victims of war – the soldiers themselves.