Central America has seen tragic events happen to their people, but none as the stories in …after… and The Tattooed Soldier have to share. The main characters in the two books share many themes as they both struggle to survive during the war. This is one of the worst times for Guatemala people because they are left in poverty and the individuals are in the middle of everything trying to survive. They share stories looking back at the war and show how they got to where they are now, while others are telling a story as they live through the war. People died because of some form of mark or symbol that they carried with them during the war or because of someone they were, and this led them to their death. During that time two things are connected …show more content…
Facing the fear that they will go after him because of what he and others tried to push for, going to hide under his bed was the only solution for him as Rivera explains. “How stupid. How could I come home for Mama to hide me? There was no other safe place at the time.” This is what ran through his mind because he knew that the soldiers would come looking for him the worst part of it all was that it made him a fugitive in his own home, when he just simply wanted a better life for everyone. Under his bed he recalled many things when he was little and this was his time of reflection as he knew his time would come soon. A very short story called “The Bed” brought many memories from him and his family as a kid but even in this short story, Rivera writes enough to prove how both death and mark making are connected. As the story continues, Rivera writes about how he heard violent knocking on the door and he knew that there would be no escape from that. The mother of the boy tried to protect him as much as she could but soon enough they would get through and would begin to cry, only to be silenced by a riffle. Slowly they would reach for him under the bed and he lay there to reflect one last time as if the mattress was still covering only to know that his time had come. The …show more content…
Years passed and Antonio moved to Los Angeles, but his life was a struggle there because he had nothing left, everything was taken away from him and he wanted to start and build up his life again but it was not easy. Until one day when he was walking through MacArthur Park he notices someone, “The shaved head, the tattoo of the yellow panther. The soldier from San Cristobal right here in MacArthur Park.” For Antonio this was a miracle at first and could not believe that the same person, who once killed his family back from where they lived, is now on the streets of Los Angeles. With time Antonio followed the man and stalked him to know about him and made it his mission to get revenge and kill the man who killed his family. Towards the end of The Tattooed Soldier, Antonio does exactly that and feels accomplished for having done that because Longoria is no longer on the streets. There are two important deaths that happen in this book and they both connect to mark making. The one of Elena is for the reason that she was part of the guerillas trying to go against the government and when they found out who she was, they went after her and killed her for that. So the mark that she was trying to make is what led to her death. For Longoria, it is more of a literal mark because once Antonio saw the tattoo on his arm and his shaved head, he knew right away who Longoria was because that is something he never forgot. Thus it led him to plot out a way
Tattoo’s that are removable are not romantic, and it’s the wuss way to do it. I believe that the main idea of this article is how she got a tattoo that most people would regret because of how much she picked at it, but she didn’t regret it like most people would. In one of the paragraphs she says how even though her tattoo is blurry, scarred, and bad-looking, but she still has no regrets about it unlike 17% of the people in America who have tattoo’s.
It is no secret that the United States has a history of economic and political interventions in countries around the world, especially in Latin America. By comparing the lives of the characters in Tobar’s novel, The Tattooed Soldier, to events that occurred in Latin American history, this paper will focus specifically on how U.S. imperialism, political and economic interventions in the central American countries of Guatemala and El Salvador forced many to flee and immigrate to the United states. Where the newly immigrated Central Americans faced lives of hardships and poverty compared to other Latin communities such as the Cubans who had an easier migration due to their acquisition of the refuge status.
Immigrants’ experience can be describes as being transcultural, meaning their experiences from their country (including cultural signifiers) are translated or transported to the mew country they live in. During the transcultural experience, people can be changed by the new culture, and they also bring some their own traditional culture to the new environment. In 1990s, a lot of Latinos leave their countries to come to the United States because of the civil war. Hector Tobar’s book The Tattooed soldier tells a story of a Guatemalan refugee Antonio who comes to live in Los Angeles. His wife and son were killed by the government army. Antonio has to escape from his country because he could be killed too. After the murder, the sergeant
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Gregory Boyle is one of the most inspirational book I have ever read. The book is comprised of multiple different stories from the life and work of the author himself, which makes this a realistic experience for the reader. These stories are of the Homeboys of Homeboys Industries, an organization founded by Father G, or Greg, in hopes of finding the light for gangs in California.
The violent nature that the soldiers acquired during their tour in Vietnam is one of O'Brien's predominant themes in his novel. By consciously selecting very descriptive details that reveal the drastic change in manner within the men, O'Brien creates within the reader an understanding of the effects of war on its participants. One of the soldiers, "Norman Bowler, otherwise a very gentle person, carried a Thumb. . .The Thumb was dark brown, rubbery to touch. . . It had been cut from a VC corpse, a boy of fifteen or sixteen"(O'Brien 13). Bowler had been a very good-natured person in civilian life, yet war makes him into a very hard-mannered, emotionally devoid soldier, carrying about a severed finger as a trophy, proud of his kill. The transformation shown through Bowler is an excellent indicator of the psychological and emotional change that most of the soldiers undergo. To bring an innocent young man from sensitive to apathetic, from caring to hateful, requires a great force; the war provides this force. However, frequently are the changes more drastic. A soldier named "Ted Lavender adopted an orphaned puppy. . .Azar strapped it to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device"(O'Brien 39). Azar has become demented; to kill a puppy that someone else has adopted is horrible. However, the infliction of violence has become the norm of behavior for these men; the fleeting moment of compassion shown by one man is instantly erased by another, setting order back within the group. O'Brien here shows a hint of sensitivity among the men to set up a startling contrast between the past and the present for these men. The effect produced on the reader by this contrast is one of horror; therefore fulfilling O'Brien's purpose, to convince the reader of war's severely negative effects.
In Hector Tobar’s The Tattooed Soldier, Antonio migrated from Guatemala saw Longoria in the L.A. who killed Elena and Carlitos, who are Antonio’s spouse and son. People lived in Los Angles were frustrated with the government and power system at the time. Consequently, Antonio got revenge against Longoria for Antonio’s family, others who were murdered by Longoria in Guatemala, and his justice. Justice is based on an absolute human right: the right to life, and whatever violates that right is unjust. If the power system is allowed to violate vulnerable people, the weak have a choice to use violence to attempt to reveal the responsibility of those who abused power. However, seeking violent revenge is also unjust because it violates the right to life. Nonviolent resistance can be further power to save the victims without contravening the right to life.
There are many different jobs in this world for young black men my age. They can either choose to be a fireman, a police officer, a writer, or a singer, but that’s not what I want to do. I know of a career that I think that would be great for me to do and that will help me and support me and my dreams. My dreams is to become a tattoo artist because I will gets the chance to meet new people it’s every exciting, and tattoos are fantastic art.
The story uses many motifs, symbols and themes. First the motif is Antonio’s dreams. In the beginning of the book his dreams are about what he will become when he grows up; the choice between priest or a vaquero. Later on his dreams change to more important matters, such as family questions and his duty in life. The second motif regards Antonio’s family. He has many family members such
Unkind employers are exploiting innocent immigrants, and that is one of the leading factors that many immigrants can not achieve the American dream. This particular issue is brought in the Tattooed Soldier, and a great example that the author provides of this issue is when Tobar introduces the character, Jose Juan. Jose Juan is the protagonist’s closest friend, and his name is Antonio, the protagonist of the book. Both are immigrants, and they both came to the U.S. for different reasons. Tobar explains to the reader that an awful boss took advantage of Jose Juan.
No he did not expect the army to be like it is he thought it was somewhere to chill and not really get bothered by anyone, but he never wants to miss out on a good experience, even though he is fifteen years old. He thought that you got good clothes and guns but never think he’d really have to use them often. He didn’t really know what he was fighting for. He would also send mail to his family members when he got a chance to and tell them how it is in the war and telling them he loves the.he didn’t know how the training would be he didn’t know he’d have to wake up early in the morning and be trained he thought he could sleep in, and he didn’t know that you don’t get showers like you
One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind. Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable. Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone. Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off. Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death. His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.” The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.
Trauma—both in its initial occurrence and later retelling—has persistently provided the foundation from which several graphic novels have stemmed. Take, for example, two separate works by Art Spiegelman and Ari Folman. Whereas Spiegelman’s Maus recounts a survivor’s story of the Holocaust, Folman’s Waltz with Bashir instead retraces a soldier’s connection to the Sabra and Shatila massacre after decades of repression. Though stylistically distinguishable in content and presentation, both texts nevertheless approach their material through the same visual medium, juxtaposing historical instances of trauma through graphic representations. In doing so, Spiegelman and Folman have purposefully illustrated their respective narratives through a comic filter, allowing readers to digest the depiction of atrocities with relative ease. The resulting spectatorial distance, however, does not remain untouched by either; rather, it is used to produce a much more profound effect upon readers when they are suddenly forced to look past
Captain William Farnsworth Cook was an honorable man who stuck to his word and defended what he loved as anyone should at any costs. He carried his granddaughter from the middle of nowhere all the way to Bush Hill and stood by her side when she recovered from the deadly yellow fever and protected her to the best of his ability even when at death’s door.
As my friends and I continued to explore the many murals of the crossing between 24th street and Balmy Street, I found a mural that not only connects to the topics we covered in class but also to my own family’s life and our “ancestral” home. On the far end of the alley full of murals, past the depictions of gentrification, aztec pyramids, and mobilized social uprising of the past, there was a fiery image of violence against a mestizo village by what looked as military soldiers of some type of government. From afar, you could not tell the exact event depicted in the mural because after all, Latin American history is plagued with abuses from the government against its indigenous communities, citizens of other nation states and even their own
The world has changed tremendously throughout the years. Through the personal and cultural expression of tattooing oneself most wonder why people today get tattoos. Furthermore, those who think tattoos are just for looks will have to realize that tattoos are a part of ones life. Therefore one might say, “ Tattooing is used in a way to mark important events or people in their lives in a permanent way.”(Milcetich) people today should look in the meaning and value of a tattoo “As a statement carved in ones body” (Milcetich). Along with that meaning in ones body, people’s attitudes towards tattoos have begun to change what one thinks about tattoos.