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In “On the Sidewalk, Bleeding” (Evan Hunter) the main character Andy, is stabbed by a rival gang member and left to die in an alleyway. As a result, it would be assumed that the member of the Guardians would face a gruesome consequence. Yet, if looked at in closer detail, it can be inferred that he will not face any kind of comeuppance. One indicator of this theory is how Andy states: “That was a fierce rumble. They got me good that time,” (Hunter 1) right after his stabbing. This is concerning as his first reaction is not one of sadness or surprise, but congratulation to the enemy. To put into other words, his reaction shows that he is familiar with these situations, or more specifically a part of them. But, if that is the case, why is he
We were the lords of all creation. As for andy he spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer." This quote shows how little things teh prisoners get can make them happy.Another example would be when he used the hammer to escape from prison. It started when he asked Red to get him a rok hammer, which he said he would use to shape rocks. He calms Red's conscious as he tells it would take him a thousand years to break out of prison with a rosk hammer.When he received the rosk hammer he started to shape rocks as soon as he could and hidden that hole with a poster.After he had the hole big enough to crawl throught, he asked Heywood for a six-foot piece of rope.
...form to the street below, I accidentally bump hard into somebody. I offer an apology to this fellow and stick my hand out in good will. He responds with a vile grunt and an ice-cold stare and mumbles, "Fuck off," before hurriedly scurrying away. Predictable, like a hackneyed cliche from the tobacco-chewing mouth of a vociferous Texas football coach in a half-time motivational talk with his players, is the behavior of this rough-hewn New Yorker.
After more time and experience O’Brien never fully gets used to the humor but understands that jokes are other soldiers’ way of coping as dreams and stories are used by O’Brien to cope with his own personal experiences. It wasn’t long into his first days in Vietnam that the memory of Linda would resurface. This memory resurfaces after being with his platoon for just four days. O’Brien and his group encounter a small amount of sniper fire and even though no one was hurt, an air strike was called and soon after O’Brien had his next experience with mortality.
His nose was bleeding and he felt like his ribs were broken but he pushed through the beating just to prove that he was tough. Later that night he and his friends robbed an older gentlemen as he was walking to the store around the corner from his home. They really did not need the money but decided to use it to buy drugs and brew for the night. Tonight was the night they were going to celebrate their arrival into one of the cult gangs. After nnamabia joined the cult gang he began to be in and out of prison. The first time he was arrested was at a local bar where some of the cult members drank and watched the games. Nnamabia and some of the crew members had robbed a liquor store a couple days prior to his arrest. The policemen were hot around town because of all the gang violence and crimes being committed. However, of course nnamabia was getting drunk at a bar when the town was swarming with cops. With drinking and watching the game came drunk men and arguments and Nnamabia let his temper get the best of him that night. He had bet one hundred dollars on the game between him and a rival team fan. When his team lost he was furious, and the rival team fan was not making it any
On the edge of North Beach, across the street from where the myriad of little shops in the wharf which sell Alcatraz t-shirts and miniature Cable Cars begin, two human outlines made of white paint adorn the ground in front of a union hall. These are passed by hundreds of tourists daily, as well as many residents, yet few stop to ponder the curious shapes or the crude text painted in red: “SHOT BY POLICE JULY 5, 1934.” Though this spot does not mark where the original incident occurred, for the men died in front of the original Longshoremen’s Hall on the corner of Mission and Steuart streets, when the new hall opened here on the edge of North Beach these outlines were placed to remember the event. That event, “Bloody Thursday,” became the climax of the waterfront strike in 1934 and a turning point for Employer and Union relations in San Francisco—and the rest of the nation.
The reactions that Cross and his troop have to the death of Lavender are very indicative of the psychological trauma that death in war can have on soldiers. Kiowa, a member of the troop, frequently refers to Lavender 's death with "boom, down" or "zapped while zipping" (108). Although, he is not the only soldier who utters these two phrases. Rat Kiley, can only express the phrase "the guys dead" (106) over and over again. The reactions these soldiers have are neither out of the ordinary, nor normal for an environment and profession ravaged by death constantly. To make joke or light of the death may seem as cruel and insensitive, yet it is a way of coping with death so that one does not become consumed by it, like Cross does. Not only does he forgo love because of Lavender 's death he also relives the death constantly. O 'Brien makes this very apparent in the way he present 's Lavenders death to the reader. He never tells Cross ' story in order from start to finish. Yet he intertwines the happenings before and after the occurrence of Lavender 's death with the actual day he dies. In this way the story can be viewed in the present and past. It can be read as if the events are happening as they are told, or as if Cross is reliving these memories years after the Vietnam war in a night terror or flashback. Death can have such a lasting impact that it permanently scars you mentally, so much that it
Some people procure a tough time getting over the fact that they actually killed a human being. That would be hard for anyone, especially just starting out at war. Tim O’ Brien was obviously torn up when telling about his experience of taking someone’s life in his speech. Tim had to realize that the guy he killed would have done the same thing to him if the situation had been switched around. His speech unveiled that he lived in constant fear during his first few days at war.
So he did the right thing and fought back to show Noah and every bully that they shouldn't mess with anyone (GO GET THEM JIMMY!!!). In his mind Jimmy remembered all the action movies and video games that the hero always won and the bad guys always lost (Geak). So Jimmy went for a super uppercut to Chomp, Noah’s Right man. He ended up missing and hitting Tom in the eye and knocking him out cold. Then Chomp kicked Tom out of the way and grabbed Jimmy from the head and kneed him in the head so hard his head started to bleed but Jimmy did not fall. Jimmy looked at Tom and saw his shirt was ripped and he did not have any shoes, he was bleeding from his nose, coughing blood and one eye completely close and one closing because of Jimmy. Then he knew that to win and not go to the hospital would be to fight dirty and quick so they don’t get
Bigger Thomas’s way of thinking is unlike anybody else’s. He thinks the only way to let go of anger is through harming others. “He stooped again and placed the knife at Gus’s throat. Gus did not move and his large black eyes looking pleadingly. Bigger was not satisfied ;”(pg. 38) When he is afraid of something he puts himself in a position where he has to harm people and make himself feel in control. In order for him not to reveal how he truly feels, he covers up his emotions by trying to make someone else sense his feelings.
This story, unlike “The Man I Killed,” focus on how O’Brien killed the man and not the body after it had died. Although the content was slightly different, the writing style that O’Brien uses to recall this episode of the war was similar to “The Man I Killed.” O’Brien writes in close detail and keeps a minute to minute account of what happened at that time. If the two stories are pieced together, the reader gets a detailed knowledge of what exactly happened with the dead Vietnamese man O’Brien encounters. Like the first episode, O’Brien feels guilty about killing the man; he was “almost [certain] the young man would have passed me by” (127). O’Brien seems to keep this story close to him because he was able to see a face with all the deaths. He is able to see the man he killed and although he doesn’t know much about the victim, he is guilt ridden because he believed he took the life or an innocent
Throughout the chapter O’Brien uses a technique known as point of view. The point of views in the novel comes from three characters- Azar, Kiowa, and Tim O’Brien himself. The three characters perspectives on war are interpreted entirely different. Tim O’Brien is illustrated as the most sensitive solider 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. Tim allows the readers to see that he has remorse about how he took action to stop the Viet Cong solider as he thinks repetitively about the repugnant attack. Tim is also shown as the character that never really talks and is very quite which in turn shows that he is guilty and ashamed. Azar happens to be the solider that is there to complete his job and does not show any sorrow for any actions that may occur. “Oh, man, you fuckin’ trashed the fucker” (125). In the novel, Azar shows that he actually enjoys the work of war and it does not really seem to bother him. Kiowa is more sensible in realizing and understanding what Tim is experiencing. “Tim it’s a war. The guy wasn’t Heidi—he had a weapon, right? It’s a tough thing, for sure but you got to cut out that staring” (126). He knows that what Tim is feeling is really hard for him to grasp because of the astonishment “Take it slow. Just go wherever the spirit takes you.” (126). It is shown that Kiowa has an understanding of Tim but he knows how to deal with the situation at hand.
“He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole.” ( O’brien, 1990, pg.144) This quotation describe thoroughly about the young Vietnamese soldier killed with a hand grenade. In the chapter The Man I Killed, the narration is from a third person point of view, which shows the unconnected observations about the dead soldiers. O’brien describe the incident very bluntly in these moment to reveal the shock that he felt committing the unthinkable. O’brien description of the body show that the death of the soldier is still fresh in his mind. Many soldiers felt a great of amount of guilt killing others because it makes them feel like they’re losing their sense of humanity that caused them to have flashbacks that triggered
One of the earliest lessons he ever learned was from his mother. She told all four of her boys to never let people think they were afraid and that they were never to become victims. This is shown with each word that Canada uses in his title. The first phase of his life consisted of “Fist”. He recalls the time when he first moved to Union Ave and he was trapped inside his apartment because he hadn’t established himself in the neighborhood. He would sit up in his 3rd floor apartment and jealously looked on, as all the other kids would play in the streets. One day his older brother John had enough and walked outside to face his fate. The rest of his brothers followed and eventually each got beat up as a pass to the streets. None of them showed their fears or their pain, a lesson that they first learned from their mother. This was only one of many steps/ factors in becoming an established individual not to be reckoned with. Age was the other factor to be considered. The older you were, the more respect you got from others. There were the young adults, who were the biggest and badest on the block. They weren’t usually around to defend their turf because they all belonged to a gang, however everyone knew they ruled all. Next were the mid-teen boys who were the “real rulers of Union Ave (18)” They were the ones who enforced the rules. The lower categories were the early teens and the pre teens. The early teens were just learning the rules whereas the pre teens couldn’t go off of the sidewalk. Geoffrey belonged to the lowest rung, the sidewalk group. As time wen...
When O’Brien first arrives to Vietnam, the men of the platoon show him how the grief of war can be covered up by humor. As the men were patrolling near a village off the South China Sea they suddenly started to encounter sniper fire. The firefight only lasted a few minutes but Lt. Cross decided to order an airstrike on the village anyways. After the strike was over, the platoon proceeded to the smoldering village to find nothing but “…an old man who lay face up near a pigpen at the center of the village. His right arm was gone. At his face there were already many flies and gnats.”(). To many, this image of a destroyed village and the mutilated old man would cause horror and plight. Instead of that normal reaction, “Dave Jensen went over and shook the old man’s hand. “How-dee-doo,” he said.”(). The other men of the platoon also went up to the dead man’s body and shook his hand while adding a comment. This disturbing response the men have to the dead old man isn’t one of disrespect, it is their coping mechanism for realizing what they just did. Because O’Brien was new to Vietnam he had yet to understand why the men were all doing this. He was awestruck by the actions...
One person’s action can change everything. Andy was affected by Norton’s self centeredness because he was not going to leave Shawshank as long as he was saving the warden tons of money, all free of charge. Norton’s personality trait of cruelty also had an effect on Andy. If Andy were to disobey the warden’s directions he could get a harder punishment then the rest of the cons. Andy was also affected by Norton’s short temper because the smallest mistake could put Andy in solitary for a month. Norton knows what Andy’s prize possessions and will take them away. One persons problem can be another person’s solution.