The Devastating Impact of Weapons of Mass Destruction
A burning ball was so bright and vivid overhead. Confusion arose when they realized that it was 8:15 a.m., and that the sun had already risen that day. The people of Hiroshima remember that day as "the day the sun rose twice" (Motro). They ran in a state of panic as the images of people's shadows were burned into the cement. This mayhem happened all because of the use of a weapon of mass destruction.
The definition of a weapon of mass destruction is "a device, object, or substance that a person intends to use to cause multiple human deaths (Vernon). According to this definition, things like nuclear, biological and chemical bombs fall into this category. Many people think that, "such acts deserve universal condemnation"(biological weapons). The use of weapons of mass destruction is wrong. They are illegal, morally wrong, mentally disturbing, and the effects of the impact last forever.
As far back as documented history can tell humans were using weapons to kill each other (Ali). When humans first started to make arrows, they were dipping them into animal waste so that the waste would act like poison. Rebehn M.D. writes, "The weapon of choice against a civilian enemy became biological, then chemical and nuclear, as soon as scientific advancement and technological development made them available."
After World War II, the Hague convention was signed. This made it illegal to use weapons of mass destruction. The Geneva Convention, another official document, was signed in London, Moscow, and Washington on April 10, 1972. This particular Convention prohibited the use and production of chemical and biological weapons. While this particular document makes it illegal, most countries are still accused of making such weapons. Everyone was fearful that the Japanese and Germans were developing such weapons (Ali).
In the society that Americans live in, it is not acceptable to kill another human being. By using biological or chemical agents, people are doing just that. Innocent people found themselves caught up in a military struggle for power. The chemical or biological weapons used do not distinguish between soldiers and civilians. Think about little babies with open sores all over them or becoming so sick that they suffer and eventually die. The use of a regular bomb would eliminate the suffering that usually occurs after an attack. Furthermore, bombs would not be dropped on civilians anyway.
The day nuclear war started marked the day when hundreds of major United States cites, such as Orlando, Tampa, Omaha, Washington, and countless others, were destroyed. This day “was known simply as The Day. That was sufficient (Frank123).” “People… inclined to split time split time into two periods, before The Day, and after The Day, the time off, what then seem...
As we move into the Twentieth Century the similarities are almost identical. The First World War has shaped not only modern warfare but even produced global attention to the brutal and inhumane death toll of the war. As stated in the Geneva Protocol, which prohibited the use of chemical weapons in warfare, which was signed in 1925? While this was a welcomed step, the Protocol had a number of significant short comings, including the fact that it did not prohibit the development, production or stockpiling of chemical weapons.
The comparison of Moi, un Noir and La Pyramide Humaine portrays a very different reality of Abidjah, Treuichville. The question of authority, who's version is more "true", to me, does not arise because in neither film were the subjects being filmed attempting to "speak for" the city. They speak for themselves, and their lives. In Moi, un Noir, they speak of the different cities based on class/economic difference and in La Pyramide humaine is all about exploring the different cities between what they call the European students and the African students.
Though chemical warfare was proven effective and easily produced, the world council decided that it was inhumane to use. In 1972, chemical warfare was ban at the Biological Weapons Convention. At this convention, many country’s leaders voted that it was not right to use these weapons as a way to kill people. The leaders felt that a biological weapon was too dangerous to release. (opbw.org)
Thesis: In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood characterizes Handmaids, as women with expectations to obey the society’s hierarchy, as reproducers, symbolizing how inferior the Handmaid class is to others within Gilead; the class marginalization of Handmaids reveals the use of hierarchical control exerted to eliminate societal flaws among citizens.
After 1945 the US made thousand of atomic bombs and a wide range of small size nuclear weapons like, land mines, missiles, and grenades. By 1965 the larger countries of the world had also developed atomic weapons.
First, the government used a dangerous literal interpretation of a Biblical passage as justification for adultery under the guise of reproduction. Second, the state constantly reinforced its falsified morality by saturating daily routines with religious expressions. Lastly, the regime altered Biblical references to further its political goals, and then prohibited language to prevent exposing its duplicity. Although Gilead rather effectively erased women’s values to construct a hyper-patriarchy, The Handmaid’s Tale provides a voice for this silenced population.
Many texts that were published from different authors have introduced topics that can be related in today’s society, but Margaret Atwood’s creation called, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, gives voice to the thoughts and revolves around the narrator Offred, a woman whose rights have been deprived due to political issues. However, the information shared by Offred to the reader to the text is not reliable for the reason that she only touches upon her own perspective. Through the text, Atwood depicted what the United States of America would be in the future based on the actions of humanity during 1980’s. The text is set up in an androcentric and totalitarian country called Gilead, where the government attempts to create a utopian society. Thus, in order to attain this society, the authorities generated their legislation from the teachings of the Holy Bible in an attempt to control humanity. The governing
Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement were to fail. Atwood envisions a society of extreme changes in governmental, social, and mental oppression to make her point.
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel in which Atwood creates a world which seems absurd and near impossible. Women being kept in slavery only to create babies, cult like religious control over the population, and the deportation of an entire race, these things all seem like fiction. However Atwood's novel is closer to fact than fiction; all the events which take place in the story have a base in the real world as well as a historical precedent. Atwood establishes the world of Gilead on historical events as well as the social and political trends which were taking place during her life time in the 1980's. Atwood shows her audience through political and historical reference that Gilead was and is closer than most people realize.
In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, women are subjected to unthinkable oppression. Practically every aspect of their life is controlled, and they are taught to believe that their only purpose is to bear children for their commander. These “handmaids” are not allowed to read, write or speak freely. Any type of expression would be dangerous to the order of the Gilead’s strict society. They are conditioned to believe that they are safer in this new society. Women are supposedly no longer exploited or disrespected (pornography, rape, etc.) as they once were. Romantic relationships are strongly prohibited because involving emotion would defeat the handmaid’s sole purpose of reproducing. Of course not all women who were taken into Gilead believed right what was happening to their way of life. Through the process of storytelling, remembering, and rebellion, Offred and other handmaids cease to completely submit to Gilead’s repressive culture.
According the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s webpage, Weapons of Mass Destruction are defined under the United States of America Law as:
In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood creates a society of oppression in which she redefines oppression in common culture. Gilead is a society characterized by highly regulated systems of social control and extreme regulation of the female body. The instinctive need to “protect and preserve” the female body is driven by the innate biological desires of the men. The manipulation of language, commodification, and attire, enhances the theme of oppression and highlights the imbalance of power in the Gilead society.
The Handmaid's Tale presents an extreme example of sexism and misogyny by featuring the complete objectification of women in the society of Gilead. Yet by also highlighting the mistreatment of women in the cultures that precede and follow the Gileadean era, Margaret Atwood is suggesting that sexism and misogyny are deeply embedded in any society and that serious and deliberate attention must be given to these forms of discrimination in order to eliminate them.
In 1945, when the Americans bombed Hiroshima, Japan, approximately 140,000 men and women were instantly killed by the effects of American nuclear defense. With such extreme brutality and force how many people must die for one to finally realize the strengths of nuclear bombs and what damage they can cause. Nuclear weapons should be outlawed because they kill thousands of innocent humans at a time, destroy the environment, and inviolate human’s right to moral and personal freedoms.