This photograph, taken in 1967 in the heart of the Vietnam War Protests, depicts different ideologies about how problems can be solved. In the picture, which narrowly missed winning the Pulitzer Prize, a teen is seen poking carnations into the barrels of guns held by members of the US National Guard. This moment, captured by photographer Bernie Boston symbolizes the flower power movement. Flower power is a phrase that referred to the hippie notion of “make love not war”, and the idea that love and nonviolence, such as the growing of flowers, was a better way to heal the world than continued focus on capitalism and wars. The photograph can be analyzed through the elements of image as defined by ‘The Little Brown Handbook’ on page 86. There are a total of nine elements that contribute to the communicative quality of an image. The message that this particular image tries to convey is the strong sense of way that conflict should be handled; by way of guns or by way of flowers. The ‘way of guns’ is violence and excessive force which heavily contradicts the ‘way of flowers’ which is a more peaceful and diplomatic way of handling conflict or disagreement. This photograph depicts these ideologies through its use of emphasis, narration,point of view, arrangement, color, characterization, context and tension. This photograph depicts the Vietnam War Protests and the counter culture movement in America. The emphasis of this photograph is the young man placing flowers in the gun barrels; however, the National Guardsmen that holds the carnations also draws attention. It seems that the guardsman is taking the flowers out of the gun barrel, which adds an element of tension and intrigue to the photograph. This photograph is titled ‘Flower Pow... ... middle of paper ... ... in a common effort that contributed to protest activities. The photograph also uses tension to portray the two conflicting ideologies. There is visible tension between the guardsmen and the protestors; the guns represent war and violence while the flowers represent peace, love and nature. The National Guardsmen also look very uneasy while the protestors look content and comfortable. The union of the two creates tension in this photograph because they are so meaningful alone, making this photograph a very iconic image of the time. This image uses the elements of image that are described in ‘The Little Brown Handbook’ to depict the two conflicting ideologies about solving conflict. The ‘way of guns’ which relies on violence and force to suppress the opposition and the ‘way of flowers’ which attempts to influence change through nonviolence and peaceful measures.
When discussing the truths that were revealed to Kerry through his experience at Vietnam he states, “We learned the meaning of free-fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and we watched while America placed a cheapness on the lives of Orientals.” Here Kerry shows the dehumanization that occurred as a result of the Vietnam war. By showing they were simply “shooting anything that moves” shows the how war sent these men to a thoughtless and barbaric state. He ultimately shows the loss of humanity. Kerry also gives insight into the many atrocities these men committed such as how they “cut off heads” and have “blown up bodies”. Through these graphics, Kerry takes a very distant war and makes it personal to his audience. He does not sugarcoat or dance around the barbarity of the war. Rather Kerry faces it head on and these descriptions create a truly barbaric
A fresh recruit to a discarded system is Mr. Jaime Escalante. In the film, Stand and Deliver, he had to adapt in his environment in James A. Garfield High School when, without prior notice, he was assigned to teach Mathematics instead of Computer. Quickly, as he set foot in the classroom, he had, most probably, a better discernment in human behavior. The reality of the high school he was employed in, he understood and tried to completely remove the universal gap between a traditional teacher and a disregarded student.
The Vietnam War has become a focal point of the Sixties. Known as the first televised war, American citizens quickly became consumed with every aspect of the war. In a sense, they could not simply “turn off” the war. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo is a firsthand account of this horrific war that tore our nation apart. Throughout this autobiography, there were several sections that grabbed my attention. I found Caputo’s use of stark comparisons and vivid imagery, particularly captivating in that, those scenes forced me to reflect on my own feelings about the war. These scenes also caused me to look at the Vietnam War from the perspective of a soldier, which is not a perspective I had previously considered. In particular, Caputo’s account of
The 1960’s was a time society fantasized of a better world. However, the horrors of the Vietnam War soon became evident; the mass amounts of death occurring because of the war became a reality. It created a “movement”, especially in American colleges, in order to stand up for what they believed to be “right”. By 1970, many Americans believed sending troops to Vietnam was a mistake, however there were also various individuals becoming increasingly critical of the student antiwar movement
...Veterans Memorial is not primary focus. Louis Torres points out Fredrick's Hart's sculptor "Three Soldiers" and Glenna Goodacre's "Vietnam Women's Memorial" as significant works of art. The articles shows the unjust and tainted opinion of the New York Times author, Daniel Orkrent's commentary. This argument was one primary ideas to contrast the positive and negative impact of the memorial.
Vivid imagery is one way with which writers protest war. Crane uses imagery to glorify, and shortly thereafter demean and undercut war, through the use of imagery, by placing positive and negative images of war close to eachother. “Blazing flag of the regiment,” and “the great battle God,” are placed before “A field where a thousand corpses lie.” (A) These lines’ purposes are to put images into the reader’s head, of how great war may appear, and then displaying that there are too many casualties involved with it. In Dulce Et Decorum Est, a man is described dyin...
...ainting symbolize the need for patriotism and unity in a country during war on and off the battlefront. These two prominent texts support each other’s points of fighting for human’s unalienable rights and liberties through writing and visualization. The connection between the to conclude that war may not be just but it is the act of physical force or even any action that can bring together a country and achieve the liberties they deserve. This is a message that can apply to any human today, when someone infringes on another’s liberties then they need to stand up and fight back in order to stop the other from doing it again.
In a political cartoon, “You Peaceniks Burn Me Up!” which was published in the Issues of our Times in Cartoon (1995), Marlette asserts that the Vietnam War has caused unnecessary destruction and death for the Vietnamese and Americans, destroying buildings, families, and individual wills. The artist supports the claim through satire in the cartoon’s title – the text is spoken by the man on the couch who is burning with harmless anger towards the young man protesting against the Vietnam War while the Vietnamese civilians are in danger of literally burning up due to napalm attacks – and the contrast between the plush, well-cushioned couch the scolding, plump man sits on and the skeleton-thin person behind him demonstrates how the war is causing
“War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead,” (80). In the fiction novel The Things They Carried, the author Tim O’Brien reminisces fighting in the Vietnam War and the aftermath of the war with his platoon mates through short stories and memories. He goes in depth about the emotional trauma and physical battles they face, what they carry, and how Vietnam and war has changed them forever. O’Brien’s stories describe the harsh nature of the Vietnam War, and how it causes soldiers to lose their innocence, to become guilt-ridden and regretful, and to transform into a paranoid shell of who they were before the war.
...ness and emotional destructiveness of war. War is an unnatural thing, so The Thin Red Line, consequently, does not portray war in the “normal” fashion.
There are several significant, as well as less significant, themes that are put forth by the author. Some themes that are not as meticulously elaborated on, but still contribute to the book, include the idea that war can corrupt the government and it’s actions, police brutality was part of the norm of the 1960s, and the word “power” had more than one meaning during the civil rights era. All these themes are important to take into consideration upon reading this book; however th...
In the midst of the Vietnam war, songs arose about much more threatening subjects. These songs reflect this generation’s increasingly likelihood of being critical of both the war and the government as compared to past generations. The first sign of...
The theme of emotional weight and its effect on soldiers in the Vietnam conflict is one that O'Brien tackles. By placing physical items next to intangible things like emotions in a list format, O'Brien forces his reader to acknowledge the weight and effect of both of these things on the person who carries them. Lt. Jimmy Cross' inner fear that he was the cause of Ted Lavender's death was symbolized by Martha's pebble and letters. He felt that when he burned the pictures he was conquering his fear, even though no one can simply burn their emotions away. To a certain extent, these men are defined by the things that they carry, "And for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry," (O'Brien, 16).
“Photographs like the one that made the front page of the most newspapers in the world in 1972- a naked South Vietnamese child just sprayed by american napalm, running down a highway toward the cameras, her arms open, screaming with pain-- probably did more to increase the public revulsion against the war than a hundred hours of televised barbarities”(476)
War has always been inevitable throughout the history of the world. The outcomes can differ greatly; it’s usually either a win or a loss. Wins or losses are just definite statements, but photos can represent these statements. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square” shows an American sailor kissing a young woman right in the middle of Times Square, despite their surroundings. This iconic photo was taken after the U.S. declared victory over Japan in World War II, and was published in Life magazine a week later. John Gap’s (III) photo shows a young girl being consoled at a soldier’s funeral in a local high school gymnasium, later to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This humble photo was taken during the war still raging in Afghanistan, showing that these types of losses happen quite often, as there are no iconic photos for Afghanistan compared to the photo shot after the win over World War II. Unlike its counterpart, this photo was published only at a local level on a website. Both these photos show a soldier being dismissed to go home from war. Although the two photos share that common factor, the scenario in which the soldier comes home differs greatly. Through these photos, Albert Eisenstaedt and John Gaps III help evoke pathos and give the observer a sense of the pride and the devastation felt of a home coming from war using photographic elements such as framing, focus, and angles.