It is undeniable that human struggle is relative. It is relative to one’s background, life experiences, and strength- and at some point everyone is faced with an obstacle that they feel incapable of overcoming. In Surviving Hell written by Leo Thorsness, the author is captured after a mid-flight ejection in the Vietnam War. He spent years undergoing torture and solitary confinement, not knowing if he would make it out alive. Physically shattered, his spirits remained strong. Several events take place throughout the novel that ultimately kept Leo afloat. The significance of the church service, walking home, and Mike’s flag lies outside of their surface meaning, but in the mental battles won that propelled Leo and the other soldiers to do more
He and his cellmates created a tape measure on the drawstring of their pants using a 35 millimeter film scrap. They found that their cell was 23.4 feet and Leo began questioning how far they could walk in a day. His mind began churning, “I knew that Vietnam was 10,000 miles from the United States and began thinking about this distance that separated me from freedom and the people I loved,” (Thorsness 57). Thorsness committed himself to walking all 10,000 miles in his cell. While he only completed 3,000 before being moved to solitary confinement, he was euphoric. He believed he was that much closer to attaining freedom than before. Not only did this task keep him physically mobile, but it kept him mentally focused. Rather than ponder the harsh realities he was facing, he actively worked to achieve mental
While washing off one day, Mike and Leo spotted a tattered grey cloth on the ground and snuck it back into their cell. Using soap, Mike cleaned it off to the best of his ability and went to work crushing up red roof tile and blue pills to smear on. He was even able to stitch on little stars using bamboo and thread. When the flag finished and he showed the men, they all saluted it and many began to cry. When the guards came across Mike’s treasure, he was beaten bloody. But remarkably, “He recovered in a couple of weeks and immediately started looking for another piece of cloth,” (Thorsness 109). This event is a clear demonstration of the pride each and every soldier felt for America. It demonstrated their ever growing desire for freedom. This event was significant because it reminded the men of what they were fighting for, personally and as a whole. It would be all too easy to give in, but reminders such as these kept the men
In his novel The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis depicts two settings: one of a grey town where whatever you want is provided for you and another of grand pasture. These settings, in the book, represent Heaven in Hell in a way, depending on which character's perspective the places are viewed from. However, the places that the main character visits and the journey that he takes is one that can be used to model the journey of our spiritual walk. Similar to how the protagonist starts in a bleak town then travels through a beautiful but harsh pasture towards the mountains, our lives start in the darkness of sin, but then we travel through the treacherous but worthwhile journey of faith towards eternity with God.
Just like these two World War II survivors, Louie Zamperini from Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand demonstrates the will power and determination it takes to survive and overcome life-threatening obstacles. Louie’s life was a constant battle; he endured 47 days stranded on a raft and endless nights as a prisoner in Japanese camps (Laura Hillenbrand). He had every reason to break down, but with all those challenges, he rose to the occasion. Hillenbrand states that “without dignity, identity is erased” meaning that without all the battles that Louie went through, he wouldn’t be the person he is today (Hillenbrand 182). All the hardships throughout someone’s life build them into a stronger person, not defining them, but impacting them to do better. It is safe to say that many Americans have faced countless number of problems and inspire everyday people like myself to keep
These two literary works, 40 Hours in Hell by Katherine Finkelstein and Third World by Dexter Filkins, both present diverse perspectives on what occurred during the World Trade Center attack. Although both texts approach the coverage of this attack differently, as reporters, they both base their news using normative theory. Normative theory is the consideration of what is morally correct or incorrect. In relation to normative theory is the Social Responsibility Theory. This theory deals with how an individual must complete their civic duty, since they are apart of the press, as well as their actions must benefit society. Nonetheless, of these two texts, 40 Hours in Hell best fulfills the requisites of the Social Responsibility Theory.
The average person wants one thing more than anything else, and that thing is to belong. Usha, a young girl from Calcutta, is no different. Already trying the find her place in the world, Usha must now assimilate into cultural society within the United States. Usha’s uncle, Pranab Kaku, came from Calcutta as well having first come to America, his experiences start off worse than Usha’s, which causes him to join the family in an act of social grouping. With the Old World trying to pull them back and the New World just out of reach, both must overcome tradition and develop their own personal values.
While I read Dante’s Inferno, I caught myself reading an underlying message. It wasn’t about the Christian faith, or the soul’s road to salvation. It was Dante’s own political views. While the book may have been written for the religious message, I believe that Dante added his take on politics as well. I believe Dante uses religious principles to punish his political opponents.
If you take note of something detrimental is bound to happen to an individual, would you act on it? Every person has experienced the “bystander effect” at least once in their lifetime, making decisions on whether or not is it worth it to get involved in other people’s business. In the story entitled Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, it becomes known to everyone in town, except the victim himself, Santiago Nasar, that there’s going to be a murder taking place. However, no one tries to intervene with the Vicario brothers, who wants retribution for their sister’s honor. Santiago’s death could’ve been prevented by Colonel Lázaro Aponte, but he didn’t comprehend the matter to be important, and by Davina Flor since she was
Hell, it isn 't a place where anyone really wants to end up, well permanently that is. Dante Alighieri however really enjoys taking a “trip” to hell to teach us and enlighten us on the ins and outs and where exactly all the sinners end up. Alighieri tackles this daunting task of making all of hell fit into a small pocket-able, yet very enjoyable story by using a variety of literary styles and devices. However, let’s take a look at one specifically, symbolism. This is one of the most prevalent and obvious device, but it is the most important because it not only makes the story easier for the reader to understand, as well as make the book as enjoyable as it was.
The term “Jerusalem Syndrome” refers to when a visitor to the city leaves with a full fledged belief that they are the messiah, an angel or the devil himself. Rebecca Kozak, a 17 year old Writing student based in Victoria can be said to have developed both San Francisco Syndrome and New York Syndrome in her travels. She takes herself as a Frisco Beatnik poet and a New York rocker girl all at once. The surprising thing is that she is correct on both counts! The Frisco side of her is an eccentric intellectual who can quote whole chunks from Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell, then segue into a spiel about the “Brechtian films of our times,” with references to Jim Jarmusch and Harmony Korine. This Kozak will make grandiose statements such as: “At
“Salvation” is one’s saving grace; something that keeps someone from utter destruction. Tim O’Brien’s stories are his salvation, they are what is keeping him alive when he relives the memories of the Vietnam War and of traumatic experiences through his life.
In the book Maus, by Art Spiegelman, Spiegelman’s images and dark artistic style have a strong connection to the past based on how he has drawn himself, especially in his short story, “Prisoner on the Hell Planet.” In Spiegelman’s short story, he depicts himself as a guilt-ridden, deformed being, and these depictions intertwine with his past emotions, which correlate strongly to his mother’s suicide. Spiegelman portrays himself as a person with droopy eyes, an altered perspective, and an uneven visage. These particular characteristics form his grotesque physical features and disfigured facial expressions. The manner in which Spiegelman depicts himself conveys the message that his mother’s suicide detrimentally affected him, which his grim physical
There are many differences and similarities between “Sinners in the Hand of Angry God” by Johnathan Edwards and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. However, Hawthorne wasn’t as effective in his message as Edwards.
What happens when a rich white woman from Georgia is taken hostage by a native group that has never seen a person with skin color that contrasts theirs? The aftermath is the death of a baby in the womb and a power struggle that would haunt the land of New Guinea for many years to come. In Outlaw by Ted Dekker, Julian Carter’s hope of starting a new life with her newborn baby, Stephen, is cut short when her boat is destroyed in a storm and she is abducted by an unknown group of natives known as the Tulim. Now surrounded by people who treat her as if she weren’t even human, Julian has to focus on her one and only chance of escaping the valley: to convince the natives that she can give them a child that will rise to be the warrior that they have
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, many of the characters suffer from the tolls of sin, but none as horribly as Hester's daughter Pearl. She alone suffers from sin that is not hers, but rather that of her mother's. From the day she is conceived, Pearl is portrayed as an offspring of vice. She is introduced into the discerning, pitiless domain of the Puritan religion from inside a jail; a place untouched by light, as is the depth of her mother's sin. The austere Puritan ways punish Hester through banishment from the community and the church, simultaneously punishing Pearl in the process. This isolation leads to an unspoken detachment and animosity between her and the other Puritan children. Thus we see how Pearl is conceived through sin, and how she suffers when her mother and the community situate this deed upon her like the scarlet letter on her mother's bosom.
In Dante’s Inferno, the punishment for a sin is the representation and reflection of the sin itself. The law of Dante’s Hell is symbolic retribution, which means that the specific attributes of the sin--how it was committed, by whom, and its effects--are concretely embodied in the specific nature of the punishment. This paper will attempt to show, by going through the geography of Dante’s Hell, how the sins in Dante’s Inferno are related to their punishments.
The Things They Carried, by author Tim O’Brien, is set during the Vietnam War; the story follows several American soldiers, and their struggles with identity. In the novel, O’Brien illustrates the personal and mental costs of enduring the horrific events of the war; which are capable of changing a person’s character. O’Brien chronicles the items carried by each serviceman and the ways in which the items provide solace during the war. The common survival essentials carried by each man could be used as a means to depict the traditional concept of “uniformity” within a military unit; items like lighters, can openers, wristwatches, pocket knives and canteens of water1 are all a basic means for physical survival. Tim O’Brien demonstrates that simple items like photographs, letters, the Bible, and a diary can help soldiers preserve their humanity: the person they once were.