There are many ways to learn about horrific events in a country’s history. One is to read firsthand accounts of what happened. This is more personal and gives a more honest account of what it would have been like to live through this event. Another is to watch an interpretation of the events in a movie or documentary. Films give a broader understanding of an event with more characters who tell their own story instead of from just one person’s perspective of the event. The movie Paloma de Papel, directed by Fabrizio Aguilar, tells the fictional story of a child soldier in Peru who fought for Sendero Luminoso, the communist military. While the book When Rains Became Floods: A Child Soldier’s Story was written by an actual former Peruvian child …show more content…
As a young boy he did not know any better, so his blind faith in the horrible things they were doing made more sense with these added details. The peasant’s and villagers’ acceptance of communism and their willingness to help the guerrillas is understandable considering the circumstances in which they lived. This was the opposite of how the main character, Juan, joined the guerillas in the movie. He was kidnapped by the guerillas because he discovered his step-father, Fermin, was one of them and they did not want him to reveal the members (Aguilar, 32:25-32:48). Juan did not willingly join them as Gavilan Sanchez had and his understanding and view of the guerrillas was much different than what was seen in the book. The movie shows them as being dangerous and secretive from the beginning, while the book is more humanizing. During one of the training sessions, he attempts to run away but is stopped and threatened by one of the older guerrillas. She threatens to kill his mother if he decides to run away, which scares him into staying and doing as they say (Aguilar, 46:35-47:11). The options he has are not real ones because no matter what he chooses, it will lead to either him or his mother
...teenth century in South America. His articulation of the disastrous and catastrophic event was detailed, strong, and emotionally invoking. It compelled me to think about how things could have been. What if the viceroy had fully succeeded? What if he had never tried to change Lima’s political, social, or architectural structure? And how might that have affected such a cultural epicenter of that time period? He gives the audience an opportunity to nearly relive the event, but also experience a part of the event aside from the natural disasters that were just as effective to the people of Lima, their future, and the future of their city.
War is cruel. The Vietnam War, which lasted for 21 years from 1954 to 1975, was a horrific and tragic event in human history. The Second World War was as frightening and tragic even though it lasted for only 6 years from 1939 to 1945 comparing with the longer-lasting war in Vietnam. During both wars, thousands of millions of soldiers and civilians had been killed. Especially during the Second World War, numerous innocent people were sent into concentration camps, or some places as internment camps for no specific reasons told. Some of these people came out sound after the war, but others were never heard of again. After both wars, people that were alive experienced not only the physical damages, but also the psychic trauma by seeing the deaths and injuries of family members, friends or even just strangers. In the short story “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh about the Vietnam War, and the documentary film Barbed Wire and Mandolins directed by Nicola Zavaglia with a background of the Second World War, they both explore and convey the trauma of war. However, the short story “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” is more effective in conveying the trauma of war than the film Barbed Wire and Mandolins because of its well-developed plot with well-illustrated details, and its ability to raise emotional responses from its readers.
Capturing the realities of war is not everyone's cup of tea. One has to be feel the emotions that inspire vivid imagery in words. True war stories can be written based off of true events that have occurred and bring out emotions in the poets who witness them. Brian Turner, author of 2000 lbs, stated in an interview that while in Iraq, he felt “very isolated from the relevance of what felt like a prior life”(poemoftheweek.com). Its seems like a split from life at home to a warzone with conflicting feelings. He began capturing his experiences of the war in the form of poetry. Brian Turner turned his Iraq war experience and his masters degree in literature and poetry into an opportunity to oppose the resolution of conflict through war. Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam Warr veteran who struggled with PTSD and Turner’s opinions in his story, “2000 lbs,” share similarities with “How To Tell A True War Story”. Turner’s poem 2000 lbs describes a suicide
A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.
One’s beliefs are a powerful, while they can achieve some things, they can also get one killed. Juan Martinez’s beliefs are what drive him to do what he does throughout the story. These actions define him as both a hero and a fool. Though they do not prevail and do not achieve what he hoped for, he makes a valiant effort to do so. This effort can make him seem as a fool. He stands up to a government and to the law that controls the country and does not back down to citizens that demand change. His sacrifice of his family and himself is an action that can go both ways, it can fuel change in his country or leaves his death in
World War I, also known as the Great War, lasted from the summer of 1914 until the late fall of 1918. The war was fought between the Allies, which consisted mainly of the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire, and the Central Powers, which consisted mainly of the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria (Alliances - Entente and Central Powers). In total, it is estimated that twelve million civilians and nine million combatants died during this horrific and devastating war (DeGroot 1). When the war first began in 1914, many people thought that it would be a war of movement that would quickly be over. However, that changed when the Germans, who were trying to reach and capture the city of Paris in France, were forced to retreat during the Battle of the Marne in September 1914 (Ellis 10). German General von Falkenhayn, who felt that his troops must at all cost hold onto the parts of France and Belgium that they had overtaken, ordered his men to dig in and form defensive trench lines (Ellis 10). The Allies could not break through the enemies lines and were forced to create trenches of their own (Ellis 10). This was only the beginning of trench warfare. A war of movement had quickly come to a standstill on the Western Front. A massive trench line, 475 miles long, quickly spread and extended from the North Sea to the Swiss Frontier (Ellis 10). With neither side budging, soldiers were forced to live in the most miserable of conditions. Simply put, life in the trenches was a living hell. A lieutenant of the 2nd Scottish rifles wrote, “No one who was not there can fully appreciate the excruciating agonies and misery through which the men had to go [through] in those da...
In the novel All quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque one of the major themes he illustrates is the effects of war on a soldier 's humanity. Paul the protagonist is a German soldier who is forced into war with his comrades that go through dehumanizing violence. War is a very horrid situation that causes soldiers like Paul to lose their innocence by stripping them from happiness and joy in life. The symbols Remarque uses to enhance this theme is Paul 's books and the potato pancakes to depict the great scar war has seared on him taking all his connections to life. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books represent the shadow war that is casted upon Paul and his loss of innocence. This symbol helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. The last symbol that helps the theme are the potato pancakes. The potato pancakes symbolize love and sacrifice by Paul’s mother that reveal Paul emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.
Although Pancho Villa is known to be a rebel and a bandit, he wasn’t born into a life of crime. Due to an awful circumstance, in which a wealthy man attempted to rape his young sister, Pancho Villa killed the transgressor. Pancho Villa had no choice but to change his name, hide in the mountains, and live as an outlaw. Over the years he gained the public’s attention for being sneaky and cunning towards the wealthy, and generous amongst the poor. His popularity as a modern day Robin Hood caught the attention of Francisco Madero who promised change to the lower class if they fought alongside him. Azuela recounts some of the problems the poor people faced “…Government people who've declared war to the death on us, on all the poor.”(p7). Many soldiers were w...
Tim O’Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, is still undecided of whether to doge the draft and lose the respect of his family and friends, or go to the Vietnam War and lose his life, in the chapter “On The Rainy River”. Elroy’s actions reveal his good qualities that help Tim make this important decision, without any words of judgment or criticism. Elroy’s actions reveal heroic qualities. He is a silent Observer who helps Tim overcome his fears.
In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Beah tells of his past in Sierra Leone as a boy soldier. As a child in the war, Beah and his fellow soldiers committed many acts of violence, including murder. This raises the question as to whether or not child soldiers should be held accountable for their actions. The answer to this question is no, they should not be, because as children, they are easier to manipulate, and their minds have become addled by much exposure to drug use and sleep deprivation.
Again, this is not a particularly positive book. Sometimes this is a result of their rather uncouth personalities, but their actions speak much more loudly about how repugnant they can be. It should be noted that this is not a story of corruption; characters show disconcerting behavior very early on in the book, when they still have relatively little power. When Luis Cervantes first defects, Macías decides to test his innocence by threatening to kill him and having one of his men rob a priest to steal his clothing so as to trick Luis into confessing if his defection is genuine . Macías is under no duress when he makes this decision, has no limit on the amount of time to think and could have made any number of other decisions but instead chooses immediately resort to crime to solve his problems. One of his later companions in the revolution, Towhead Margarito, is portrayed as criminally insane. He captures a random government solider with the intent of using him as a personal slave and tortures him by dragging him by a noose across a desert and eventually killing him by refusing to give him food or water . Azuela uses Macías and Margarito to show how many of the participants in the Mexican revolution where ultimately little more than bandits using the revolution for their own amusement. Even Luis Cervantes, who supposedly joined the revolution for purely ideological reasons, is shown to take
Children exposed to violence within their communities are left with emotions of hopelessness, insecurity, and doubt. Historical events such as the war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tragic events of September 11th have had a detrimental effect on the entire nation, including the children. Although every child is not directly affected by the aspects of war, it somehow has an emotional effect on all. The involvement of a nation with war affects every individual differently, whether it is out of fear, anger, doubt, hope, or love. In the short novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, he narrates the story by telling his own involvement in the Civil War in Sierra Leone as young boy and the many issues he faces while living in horror. Also, author Garbarino points out in his book Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment in the chapter involving the security of children that:
Many people question if Guy Sajer, author of The Forgotten Soldier, is an actual person or only a fictitious character. In fact, Guy Sajer in not a nom de plume. He was born as Guy Monminoux in Paris on 13 January 1927. At the ripe young age of 16, while living in Alsace, he joined the German army. Hoping to conceal his French descent, Guy enlisted under his mother's maiden name-Sajer. After the war Guy returned to France where he became a well known cartoonist, publishing comic books on World War II under the pen name Dimitri.
But after he joined the censors, he got so devoted to the job that in the end, he censored his own letter without thinking and got himself executed the next day (Valenzuela 92). In this short story, we learn that people tend to forget their initial goal after putting all their efforts into something. Juan got so into his job that he forgot what he was trying to do in the first place, thus getting himself executed. This supports my argument because if you devoted all of your time to fighting and demanding for freedom, you might in the end forget what you are fighting for and never get what you want.
It can be hard to fully comprehend the effects the Vietnam War had on not just the veterans, but the nation as a whole. The violent battles and acts of war became all too common during the long years of the conflict. The war warped the soldiers and civilians characters and desensitized their mentalities to the cruelty seen on the battlefield. Bao Ninh and Tim O’Brien, both veterans of the war, narrate their experiences of the war and use the loss of love as a metaphor for the detrimental effects of the years of fighting.