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War Story - Original Writing "What will you lack, sonny, what will you lack, When the girls line up the street Shouting their love to the lads to come back From the foe they rushed to beat?" As I sat in English Study, these words kissed upon my juvenile ears. The voice was that of my school friend Albert as he read the first lines of Fall In to my classmates. As I heard more and more of the poem, I felt stronger and stronger about seriously signing up to fight in the Somme. I could imagine all the respect and admiration I would receive when I come back, especially from the girls! After school, I rushed back home to tell my mother about how much I wanted to join Britain in the war. "I don't think you should go," remarked my mother, "many of my friends' husbands have been killed already. Take Janice for example: her Simon got shot in the same month he joined up. I wouldn't want that to happen to you. You're all I've got left after your Pa died. I'd have nothing to live for if you died as well." "But Jim's already left and Patrick's gonna sign up soon. Come on Mum, you've got to let me go. It'd be brilliant when I come back. Everyone would be cheering to me and I'll be proud that I'd did something like this in life. And you get paid for it too. I'll promise I would send some money back. You could get that radio in the shop that you always point out when we go past. Then you could listen to what's happening over in France. That'd be good won't it?" "Yes, I see your point," she replied. "Okay, you can enroll in town after school in town tomorrow. I did exactly what my mother said. After an eager day at school, I rode down to the enlisting office. On the door it said: Join the Accrington Pals! Sign up today to fight in your
Capturing the realities of war is not everyone's cup of tea. One has to be feel the emotions that inspire vivid imagery in words. True war stories can be written based off of true events that have occurred and bring out emotions in the poets who witness them. Brian Turner, author of 2000 lbs, stated in an interview that while in Iraq, he felt “very isolated from the relevance of what felt like a prior life”(poemoftheweek.com). Its seems like a split from life at home to a warzone with conflicting feelings. He began capturing his experiences of the war in the form of poetry. Brian Turner turned his Iraq war experience and his masters degree in literature and poetry into an opportunity to oppose the resolution of conflict through war. Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam Warr veteran who struggled with PTSD and Turner’s opinions in his story, “2000 lbs,” share similarities with “How To Tell A True War Story”. Turner’s poem 2000 lbs describes a suicide
The Tim O’Brian’s short story, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, Mary Anne Bell is a rare illustration of the innocence that is lost. In her attractive sweater, unblemished pants and free spirited attitude, no one could seem more faultless. She was the definition of a true young American teenager or at least that’s what they all assumed at first. In the beginning of the story, she is something noticeable to both the soldiers and the reader: she was expected to be a normal American girl who wanted nothing more than a family. The story of her mutation into something different, a killer, mirrors the transformation of most of the soldiers. It is a well-known fact that war changes people; there is an innocence that is forever lost. They go to war as young men and return from war as thirsty butchers. The sweetheart of the song Tra bong is not about the war or Mary Anne but it is about how Mary Anne embraced and adopted to her surrounding while everyone else ignored every single detail. Although Mary Anne felt at peace with herself and transformation, she was also disconnected from the real world.
Truth has always seemed to be a concrete idea. There’s always a right and wrong answer, what’s true and what’s false. And while there may only be one exact truth, you’ll never find it. In life, things are never completely black and white, true or false. They always fall amongst shades of grey. The truth is much more complex than it’s made out to be and can be quite difficult to tell. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien expresses the difficulties that come from trying to tell a true war story. It’s hard to tell a true war story because, it’s difficult to recall past events and separate fact from fiction, and a true war story will never have an ending or a moral to it which in turn can make it unbelievable.
In the text, “How to Tell a True War Story” Tim O’Brien expresses his thoughts about the true war story and how the war story is changed according to the person who tells it. Jon Krakauer illustrates Chris McCandless’s journey into the Alaskan wilderness and reasons for McCandless’s gruesome death in an isolated place, in his book “Into the Wild.” O’Brien relates introspection and a soldier’s war story by saying that the war story portrays the feelings of a soldier. A soldier’s war story is not the exact war story; it is the illustration of that particular soldier’s perception. Narrating a war story is not like inundating others with facts and numbers however, it is about the introspection of a soldier, because that soldier determines what and how to tell the war story. While he tells the war story, he questions his thoughts and feelings. O’Brien explains that when soldiers ponder the external environment they will contemplate their inner thoughts. Krakauer not only elaborates the journey of McCandless but also expresses his experience of traveling to the Alaskan wilderness. This vicarious act of Krakauer ponders the inner thoughts of McCandless. McCandless embarked the journey to detach himself from the social world in order to explore more about him. Both Krakauer and O’Brien analyze about feelings of individuals who were separated from their comfort zones. Introspection is the practice of self-observing one’s thoughts and feelings. When a person analyzes experiences of another person it just gives peripheral thoughts about that person and about the experience. Although it does not enlighten the complete idea, introspection of that experience gives a clearer perspective of that experience.
Since the beginning of history there has always been conflict and disagreement, which led to battle and confrontation. Ever since these hostilities have emerged, the problems that spark the conflicts and the battle itself have been illustrated in textbooks and plastered all over the internet, yet no one really takes the time to think of the many soldiers and people who risk their lives for our safety and freedom. To gain a tighter grasp on history and what these veterans have done for us, we interviewed army veteran, Christian Werthmuller, who participated in Black Operations, Operation Desert Storm, and the Iraq War.
Tom Brokaw called the people who lived through World War II (WWII) “The Greatest Generation”, where he shares many heroic war stories in The Greatest Generation. The classic character displayed in the book was a decorated war veteran who returned to the United States (US) and developed a prosperous lifestyle. The WWII veterans came to symbolize strength, honor, unity, justice, success, and noble sacrifice. This image was portrayed through literature and film. Books and movies created an image of the WWII veterans which the US would idolize. Popular culture gave the war a romantic appeal. People fell in love with the idea that the US was liberating Europe from the Nazi Hun and the evil Japanese Empire. After the war, men came back to marry their sweethearts and had several children who were called the Baby Boomers. This romanticism continued through television shows like Leave it to Beaver and literary titles similar to Dick and Jane, which dominated popular culture. Though popular culture defined the perfect life, the lifestyle was not typical for the average American.
According to the author, Tim O’Brien many a true war story consists of many factors that are unknown to most people. For instance, Tim describes a true war story as that which is not moral. Tim claims that true war stories are not there to encourage ad that if you feel uplifted at the end of war story then that is not a true war story. He gives the example of a soldier named Rat. Rat’s fellow soldier and best friend died while they were playing in the forest on duty and Rat underwent much devastation and shock. In an attempt to seek solace at the death of his best friend he writes to the deceased’s only sister. The author tells us that rat poured his heart out in that letter and nearly broke down while writing it. He tells us how Rat described
where students had little to no help into getting in college. Indeed I had experienced this in my old high
For some students it is difficult to get a good education. These students live in a poor community and are required to go to schools that have a low graduation rate. These schools have a certain reputation such that other students refer to it as the “ghetto school”, “where the pregnant girls go”, and the “dropout factory”. This
The 30 Year war was a series of multiple battles and wars that lasted in central europe that lasted from 1618 to 1648. It was the longest and most destructive war in European History. Initially there were battles between the protestant and catholic states in the fragmenting Roman Empire it later developed into more larger conflicts involving most of the great powers including the great powers of Europe.
In “How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’Brien, Orwell’s ideas are questioned and the competition between the truth and the underlying meaning of a story is discussed. O’Brien’s story depicts that the truth isn’t always a simple concept; and that not every piece of literature or story told can follow Orwell’s list of rules (Orwell 285). The story is told through an unnamed narrator as he re-encounters memories from his past as a soldier in the Vietnam War. With his recollection of past encounters, the narrator also offers us segments of didactic explanation about what a “true war story” is and the power it has on the human body (O’Brien 65). O’Brien uses fictional literature and the narration of past experiences to raise a question; to what extent should the lack of precision, under all circumstances, be allowed? In reality, no story is ever really truthful, and even if it is, we have no proof of it. The reader never feels secure in what they are being told. The reliability of the source, the author, and the narrator are always being questioned, but the importance of a story isn’t about the truth or the accuracy in which it is told, but about the “sunlight” it carries (O’Brien 81).
Telling a “true” war story is simple. Make it sound exciting, tell it with a straight face, and create an underlying narrative that cannot be called into question. Tim O’Brien in, “How to Tell a True War Story”, views one’s perception of reality and one’s truth as both objective and subjective. Much like Jayanthi and Alicia in Leslie Bell’s article, “Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and The Paradox of Sexual Freedom,” they also tell “ true war stories” of the times when they were raped. However, these girls cope with their traumatic experiences by disassociation and recreating their own perception of reality. And likewise in Azar Nafisi, “Selections From: Reading Lolita in Tehran,” the women in Nafisi’s reading group disassociate from their
We sometimes drop out of the college because of bad friendship. For example, my brother’s friend was just 19 years old and he dropped out of college only because he wanted to fit into a group that was bigger than him. As a result of this, he wanted to be seen as “cool,” but that wasn’t all. Due to this, he used drugs that dropped him out of the college totally. These students don’t want to seem irresponsible, so they make up an excuse, such as the bad friendship.
where every he falls during the war, no matter if it is in a shell
of school. These school aqquaintinces are nice people to talk to , but there is