In the Ghost Road, one of the main characters, Billy Prior, is the one who crossing multiple boundaries in this novel. He is born in working class but, with his effort, he services as an officer. He has a complicated view toward the war: He thinks the war is “bullshit”, but he still willing to go back to the front. Also, he is engaged with Sarah Lumb, but at the same time, he is highly promiscuous. Besides, he is a bisexual. Therefore, sex scene seems appear frequently in the Ghost Road. When speaking of sex, it is common accompany with love, connection and passion. However, in the Ghost Road, sex is rarely related to those characteristics. What Pat Barker presents us in the Ghost Road is sex is like a function, with no emotional tie between both parties involved. Meanwhile, the background of the Ghost Road is the World War I. The cruelty of the war is presented to us by the end of the book when Billy Prior dies at the several days before the World War I ends. In the Ghost Road, Pat Barker shows us that sex with no connection can be seemed as a metaphor of war: there is no emotion in it; it is a link with death; but during the process, that unemotional excitement and satisfaction within Billy Prior is all he is looking for.
The sex in the Ghost Road is without any passion in it, but Billy Prior still continues to have sex with people to find that pleasure without affection. During the Prior’s sexual intercourse with the prostitute Neille, he “groped around in his mind for the appropriate feeling of disgust, and found excitement instead, no, more than that, the sober certainty of power” (Barker 40). Billy Prior is like sadism, looking for pleasure while causing pain. Pat Barker portrayals Prior in using sex as a punishment to pe...
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...f the story, his mission has accomplished. The country involved in World War I is like Manning and the Prostitute Neille, being abused and exploited by Billy Prior. Just like when Prior and his men take over the French village, shortly after Germen vacated it, he has sex with a young man who trade his body for cigarette very recently (Barker 246 - 248). The young man can be seemed as France, being abused and exploited by first the Germany and then the Great Britain. Only when they both left can it be able to find its own identity.
Works Cited
Barker, Pat. The Ghost Road. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.
Reusch, Wera. "A Backdoor into the Present." LOLApress. Trans. Heather Batchelor. Web. 26 June 2011. .
James, David. The Ghost Road. London: Philip Allan Update, 2009. Print. AS/A- Level Student Text Guide.
In a deep, muddy trench, a lone soldier lies, a silver bullet embedded in his abdomen. He clutches his side, screaming in pain, crying for help -- but no one is listening. The sky slowly darkens, and his voice becomes no more than a faint rasping, until it fades into nothingness. Millions of soldiers found themselves in similar situations during World War I, also known as the Great War, which involved multiple European powers; most notably, Germany, France, Britain, and Russia. Written from the perspective of Paul Baumer, a 19-year-old German soldier, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque follows his journey as he is thrown into the chaos of World War I. At the warfront, Paul witnesses countless horrors that
In the history of modern western civilization, there have been few incidents of war, famine, and other calamities that severely affected the modern European society. The First World War was one such incident which served as a reflection of modern European society in its industrial age, altering mankind’s perception of war into catastrophic levels of carnage and violence. As a transition to modern warfare, the experiences of the Great War were entirely new and unfamiliar. In this anomalous environment, a range of first hand accounts have emerged, detailing the events and experiences of the authors. For instance, both the works of Ernst Junger and Erich Maria Remarque emphasize the frightening and inhumane nature of war to some degree – more explicit in Jünger’s than in Remarque’s – but the sense of glorification, heroism, and nationalism in Jünger’s The Storm of Steel is absent in Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead, they are replaced by psychological damage caused by the war – the internalization of loss and pain, coupled with a sense of helplessness and disconnectedness with the past and the future. As such, the accounts of Jünger and Remarque reveal the similar experiences of extreme violence and danger of World War I shared by soldiers but draw from their experiences differing ideologies and perception of war.
Sex is more than just a physical act. It's a beautiful way to express love. When people have sex just to fulfill a physical need, as the poet believes sex outside of love-based relationship only harms and cheapens sex. In the beginning of the poem, Olds brilliantly describe the beauty of sex, and then in the second half of the poem, she continues reference to the cold and aloneness which clearly shows her opinions about causal sex. Through this poem, Sharon Olds, has expressed her complete disrespect for those who would participate in casual sex.
All Quiet On the Western Front is a war story that features a young man who is serving in World War 1. It describes what he had witnessed during his portion of time spent there, and what happened around him. The author’s purpose in writing this book is to notify the readers of the hardships and miseries of World War 1. He attempts to inform the readers of what the lives of the men serving as soldiers during the war was like during that time. Erich Remarque, the author, gives a great deal of details and stories to style the sufferings and miseries of the way. He does a great job at getting his point across to enlighten the readers about it. The historical context of this book is World War 1 in Germany. Many people describe the book as “The Greatest War Novel of All Time”, so he did a great job describing the war.
Many of our today as “normal” considered values are everything but self-evident. One of the most striking aspects in the novel is time; and our relationship towards it. “ We yearned for the future. How did we learn it that talent for insatiability. ” In this particu...
World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.
In “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Erich Maria Remarque tells the a story of six young German men who volunteer as soldiers in World War I. Remarque himself fought in World War I, but because of injuries that he sustained in battle, he was forced to withdraw from the war zone. He spent the rest of the war in the hospital, where he reflected upon the true nature of war. The novel is told from the viewpoint of one young soldier named Paul Baumer. Through the character of Baumer, Remarque portrays his innocence, childhood, and glory; it also portrays his horror, fears, and experiences in the war.
Thoumin, Richard, General. The First World War: A major New History of the Wreat of
“What is it good for, absolutely nothing, huh, war” (Edwin Starr). The Horror of war, effects of war on the soldier, and nationalism are all themes in “ All Quiet on the Western Front”. World War 1 , is basically about the war that started over the killing of the archduke Franz Ferdinand.The war then escalated between 28 countries. The novel is about a guy named Paul and his school friends who were all persuaded to enlist to fight in World War 1. Paul and his company no nothing about what war is really like. They know nothing about the horrors of war.
The novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque describes the psychological and physical battles of young soldiers such as the main character Paul Baumer who was pressured by the spirit of nationalism and his school master into joining the German army during World War I. In the beginning the young students are glowing with enthusiasm with the honor to be trusted with serving their nation in a time of crisis. The inexperienced soldiers soon loose their innocence and eagerness as they watch the new technological capabilities of the twentieth century painfully kill their comrades one by one and in the end become weary, burnt out, rootless, and hopeless. Over time the young soldiers, through experience, begin to realize their years of schooling are completely useless in a society filled with war. They were taught the basics of the world of work, duty, culture, and progress when the only knowledge they need is how to survive. The author, through his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, attempts to portray the vivid horrors and the raw nature of war and to change the popular belief of war as an idealistic and romantic character. This is evident through the barriers placed between Paul and the relationship with his parents and the rest of society who still view war as glamorous and cherish his war stories as though he were telling them a fairy tale. The novel also attempts to explain the purposes of war and its uselessness in society. The ultimate question that Erich Remarque raises in his novel is what did a whole generation give up their lives and precious innocence to accomplish. All Quiet on the Western Front is a story not of Germans, but of men, who even though “they frequently escape shells, are destroyed by the war”. This novel have could easily been transformed into the tale of a Frenchmen, an Englishmen, or an American fighting in World War I.
Barbara Tuchman's Pulitzer prize-winning book about the start of World War I is a fascinating and detailed work that delivers the thoughts and actions of the belligerents and their previously mysterious leaders to life on every page. This military history of the first month of the war is written in a way as to keep the reader interested because of the great detail. The author also manages to write about the events in such a manor as the reader sees them as they happened. Despite any previous knowledge about the historical events of the war, the book manages to keep you wondering if the Germans will succeed in its aims.
One of the ways Billy shows his ineffective ways of dealing with death is by using Risa Walker as sexual escape from his daily life. For example he shows himself using Risa Walker for pleasure when he admits, “So, instead, we said, “I love you,”, and let it go at that” (Banks 40). Spending time with Risa is daily escape for Billy. It is the one time of the day where he completely forgets about the bad things that have happened in his life and focusses on Risa. Billy does not really like her but is using her for his sexual pleasure after his wife is dead. It is not like they love each other it is more like they need each other because they are both burdened with stron...
From going for married woman, gay club, and threesome relationship, Brandon reaches for the indiscriminating options for his sexual addiction. In one of the crucial scene, He was having sex with a prostitute but the entire shot was a close up of his facial expression. Painful, helpless, and the guilty shameful look on his face imply the parasitism of monstrosity. There is no trace of pleasure on his face yet he cannot stop. He has to indulge himself in sex restlessly even when his mind refutes the sex. Halberstam explains it as “Parasitism, especially with regards to the vampire, represents bad or pathological sexuality, non-reproductive sexuality, a sexuality that exhausts and wastes and exits prior to and outside of the marriage contract” (Halberstam 17). His exhaustion on the face and craving for sex while at the same time resentful to the idea of marriage is an embodiment of parasitism. His sexual activity can be interpreted as a way to escape his complicated feelings with Sissy. Furthermore, he would not even engage in relationship with any woman, because his intention is to lose himself to the world of no limitations. He carries his addiction as a conscious weight on his shoulder. One after another, his connection with woman is purely based on sex and the pursuit of sex. In addition, Freudian suggest
The book is very sexual, it has many sexual terms with the likes of “cunt”, “pussy” and “cock” being a few. I first see this play off in page 59 when Valeska comes over to the Miller household to take care of Henry’s daughter while his wife is at the doctors getting ready to go into the surgery room for an abortion. Miller who stays with Valeska to watch his daughter soon have sex while the kid sleeps. Instead of focusing on Valseska and their sex he remembers his grandfather sitting on the bench warning his mother Henry was reading too much, he also thought of the attack on San Juan Hill by the Rough Riders and even a trip to the Navy Yard accompanied by his father when he was a kid. The fact that he thought of all these memories as he had an affair with the woman he was supposedly “crazy” about is astonishing. It lead me to believe that Henry thought much more of sexual intercourse than we regular people did. He continues to have his affairs including a one night stand with Pauline, a minor who happened to be Jewish and homeless and also an Egyptian colleague who also happened to be of Jewish descent. I believe Henry views sex as a way to connect himself to the world spiritually. He explains that most of what surrounds him is in the midst of chaos. The world was tearing apart, he was surrounded by failure and that he too would fail in life because of it. After living with these thoughts his whole life even as a kid, Miller was able to view sexual intercourse as the portal from which he abandons the physical world and floats toward spirituality in search to find the true meaning of life, the true meaning of
For many years, the well-known novelist, H.G. Wells has captivated the minds and imaginations of readers with his multiple best-selling books; The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The War of the Worlds. These selections however are not Wells’ most controversial novel. The Time Machine, written in 1895, is Wells’ most talked about work. Multiple different themes and various sides are seen to be taken within this novel, one of these main themes being the separation of classes. While the Morlock’s and the Eloi, in H.G. Wells’ novel; The Time Machine, play an extremely important role in distinguishing the future for this book, one has reason to believe that there is a broader underlying meaning for these two types of civilization. In fact, this underlying meaning is believed to relate back to Wells’ own personal life during the Victorian Period, in which the working and higher classes were at extreme differences towards each other, and where Wells, being a part of the middle class, felt and experienced firsthand; the clashing of these two divisions in Victorian society.