Attaining Liberty
Liberty is one of if not the most highly desired things in this world today and in the past. In many countries people beg and fight for liberty but other places people have it given to them. Throughout history there have been examples of countries resulting to violence and warfare in order to attain the liberties they seek. The United States, in the Revolutionary War, fought for their liberties and their freedom, and the French during the French Revolution fought for theirs as well. Eugene Delacroix painted a well known picture depicting this event called “Liberty Leading the People” showing Lady Liberty leading the French through a battle while raising the French flag in one hand and holding a rifle in the other, uniting her people through war. Over 100 years later, George Orwell wrote a commentary piece during WWII stating how no country should stand aside and be pacifists during war. In order to beat enemies a country cannot just lay down instead they must take action to defeat them, push for peace aggressively, and come together as a country with undivided morals. Both Orwell and Delacroix demonstrated how in order to attain freedom a country cannot be pacifists but must take aggressive action and come together as one to achieve their desired liberties.
In Delacroix’s painting the most prominent figure is Lady Liberty leading the charge of men through battle. The battle looks violent and there are a lot of casualties but everyone seems to be following Liberty as she raises the French flag in her right hand just as if the people of a country would be following what would ensure them freedom, which in this case is war. The painting can be looked at two different ways. One way is Lady Liberty leading the charg...
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...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.
Works Cited
Delacroix, Eugene. Liberty Leading the People. 1830. Louvre, Paris, France.
Orwell, George. "Pacifism and the War." Reading the World: Ideas That Matter. By Michael Austin. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and, 2010. 283-86. Print.
Another unique aspect to this book is the constant change in point of view. This change in point of view emphasizes the disorder associated with war. At some points during the book, it is a first person point of view, and at other times it changes to an outside third person point of view. In the first chapter of the book, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien writes, “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity (2).
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The combination of parallelism and antithesis along with symbolism littered throughout the story help transform the novel from a story of war and defeat to a tale of peace and triumph in romantic literary tradition (McCarron and
The structure of the text is very simple- there are 9 lines in a single paragraph. These lines are to the point and very short. There is a repetition of “This” in almost every line, but there is no sign of what the “this” means or is. There is also a repetition of “This is my weapon” without any reference to any weapon and so creates confusion in the minds of the readers. The motif is of war and fights which can be seen through the various ref...
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