“In the Shadows of the War”,by Ben Okri, a boy named Omovo is introduced to the characteristics of the Nigerian war in 1959. He lives an ordinary life with his dad in his village, until experiencing traumatic details that come along with war. In “In the Shadows of the War”, the imagery shown throughout the light and dark times of the war creates the meaning of the story.
During the day, the imagery in the beginning of the short story exhibits tranquility and peacefulness. The story begins when “three soldiers came to the village. . .they went to the palm-frond bar and ordered a calabash of palm-wine”. This quote is an example of the village’s calmness during the day. The soldiers did not fight, but instead sit down for a drink. During that time in Omovo’s home, he is listening to the radio, while his father gets ready to go out.
…show more content…
During mid day, Omovo waits for the woman, who always wears a veil and has no shadow, to walk by. He encounters the three soldiers sitting at the bar, and they ask about the women with the veil. Being no help to them, Omovo goes back to his window-sill in his home, and falls asleep. After awakening, he sees that the women has already gone past, and the soldiers are following her. Omovo decides to follow the women also, and comes to a muddied river. He thinks he sees canoes in the river, but then thinks they’re dead animals. As the soldiers began to beat the women and the lights over the forest change, “Omovo saw that the dead animals on the river were in fact the corpses of grown men”. This quote gives a clear example of dark imagery in the story. At first, Omovo does not see dead bodies in the river, but as he’s exposed to characteristics of the war, his perception changes. The forest’s light changing following the activity of the soldiers beating the women, shows that aspects of the war were coming to life as the sky got
in the city of Omelas are forced to walk away because they can not bear to witness the suffering in their society any longer.
...though they were happy” (Le Guin 380) shows the reader that the Omelas were happy with their extravagant life. Le Guin states in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” that the “boys and girls were naked in the bright air” (380). An allusion to the Garden of Eden in biblical times, the nakedness represents the freedom, happiness, and utopian attitude of the people of Omelas.
In "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," Ursula K. LeGuin makes use of colorful descriptions and hypothetical situations to draw us into a surrealistic world that illustrates how unsympathetic society can be. LeGuin's ambiguity of how the story will go is purposeful; she cunningly makes her case that each of us handles the undesirable aspects of the world we live in differently, and that ultimately, happiness is relative.
From sunrise to sunset, day after day, war demolishes men, cities, and hope. War has an effect on soldiers like nothing else, and sticks with them for life. The damage to a generation of men on both sides of the war was inestimable. Both the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” by Alan Seeger, demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men, mentally and physically, in war through diction, repetition, and personification.
Omelas is described as a city in a fairy tale. It is a city towered by sea and encircled by mountains and has a cheerful sweetness of the air. It has beautiful public buildings and spacious private homes with red roof and painted walls, magnificent farmer markets, green parks and avenues of trees. Omelas is a very prosperous city. It has every bit of luxury, comfort and exuberance that it can offer its residents. Even in the text it is urged to imagine Omelas: “O miracle! but I wish I could describe it better. I wish I could convince you. Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all” (Le Guin; Page-2). People from other towns come to Omelas during festivals. It is a centre of attraction to all. The people in Omelas are happy people. They are religious but not dogmatic. They are independent and have freedom to do whatever they want. They do not use swords or keep slaves. They have the sense of victory and celebration of courage. As a whole Omelas is descri...
World War II is one of the most famous historical events and it also contributes to the theme of war in the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles which focuses on that period in time. To emphasise this major theme, Knowles uses techniques such as physical and mental parallel situations and foil characters. For example, readers learn that many of the physical activities the boys at Devon school used to play carry references of war. Also, a more serious side of war is demonstrated by a focus on the war within one’s own mind. Lastly, a minor character serves as a demonstration of the mental and physical side of war and how it can affect a person. War is not only based on physical strength, but also mental stability.
The Ones Who Walk Away from the Omelas Introduction In this science fiction story, LeGuin introduces us to a utopian society that is characterized by mere beauty and a lovely environment that is harmonious. The city is described as a bright tower by the sea. The author emphasizes on its pristine and natural setting, with its great water-meadow and its green field. The existence of its people, both young and old, is that of harmony and peace. The children run around naked, which symbolizes their innocence and that of the city.
War and its ramifications for those who are unfortunately entangled in it, is an issue that has fueled both political discussion and literary exploration throughout the previous century. Underived, authentic accounts of the experience and effects of war, from those who have served in it, can be especially enlightening for the majority of society who have had the fortune of not being intimately familiar with war. Through the examination of poems and stories written by soldiers, who were inspired by their involvement in conflict, one can obtain a greater understanding of this gruesome aspect of life, without having to directly experience it. Similarly, soldier turned poet, Bruce Weigl, has contributed his perspective on war through his literary
The difficult association between the occurrence of war and storytelling is told through the eyes of Tim O’Brien; he explains that a true war story has a supreme adherence to offensiveness that provides a sense of pride and courage commonly found in storytelling. “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and im...
The author’s intention in the beginning of Mahtab’s story is to give the reader a descriptive introduction regarding the feelings and cricumstances of Mahtab’s journey. She uses descriptive language to inform the reader of Mahtab’s feelings of uncertainty as the “fog of darkness” (p.2) closes in on the family as they travel by truck through the Afghani mountains in a search for a better life.
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
...at the world of Omelas is not set in stone. By doing this it allows the story to have more of a fairy-tale aspect, instead of a hard-and-fast solid world. The tone changes sharply to flat, simple descriptions, showing that however the outside is glorious, the inside of this room never changes. It is this place and its horrors that allow the outside utopia to exist. This above all else is the only concrete thing about Omelas; whatever else is "imagined" above, it is dependent on this single moral choice
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.
War is a patriotic act where one seeks the determination to lead their country. It can be viewed noble, cruel, inhumane and can make an individual a hero or a criminal. It effects everyone in a society, hoping their loved one is safe whether fighting in the trenches or waiting at home. It has led to severe individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. Two poems in war literature “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen and “Facing it” by Yusef Komunyakaa, the authors’ different perspectives will be presented. Owen portrays war as a horror battlefield not to be experienced and the glorious feeling to fight for one’s country. Komunyakaa on the other hand shows an African American that serves in Vietnam War and visits the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. The poets’ choice of diction, setting of battlefield and various uses of poetic devices create a desired effect.
To go to war is to engage in a fight with another Nation. Many view war as being an appropriate action that can only solve problems. Others believe that war is a violent action that leads to nothing but casualties. In the article, “Regarding the Torture of Others” Susan Sontag writes about the torture soldiers are inflicting on prisoners. Some torture was done so brutally that the some of the soldiers deem that acts as correct and in the process seem to try to dehumanize the victims. The bush administration considered torture as being mistreatment not evil. The Blog “Military Blog” by Zachary Scott-Singley deals with the day by day life and thoughts of a solider at war. Zachary Scott-Singley is a soldier struggling with the wrong of his actions. At one point, he believes that the killing of Iraqis is okay, but he then believes it is not. He was torn between he believes is right and not. The story “Half of a Yellow Sun” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche is a story about a young girl and her families struggles during the Nigerian civil war of the 1960’s. Her family has pride like much of the people of Biafra. That all changed when her younger brother Obi died, and the family realizes at that point the war was lost. While Sontag still maintained that war was not bad, she still believed that it was the torture of others that made war such a brutal action. On the other hand, Zachery from military blog was lost trying to find out if War was correct or not. The characters from “Half of a Yellow Sun” share a belief that war is necessary to defend their nations honor and pride but as the war progresses and it began to affect them they begin to see that the war was not as productive as they hoped it would be. Looking at pictures of war is like l...