Walter Van Tilburg Clark illustrates in painstaking detail the harsh and violent conditions that that the four men, who sat inside the bank, braved. Thoroughly, he describes the war stricken prairie and the frost that enveloped the earth. In the story, Clark concentrates on two specific characters. Focusing first on Dr. Jenkins, “An old man, his long matted beard and hair gray to nearly white. The shadows made his brows and cheekbones appear gnarled, his eyes and cheeks deeply sunken. His big hands, rough with frost and swollen by rheumatism were awkward, but gentle at their task,” (Paragraph 4) and then on the sick, young musician, “He sat in the shadow farthest from the fire, and his body jerked in its rags from the cold. Although he was still young, he was sick, and coughed often.”(Paragraph 11) Converging on these two men and how they responded to the setting, adjusted to the physical conditions, and the after effects of the war made the story spectacular. In response to the setting, the characters feelings appeared to contradict one another. The young musician was ill, and …show more content…
Dr. Jenkins appeared content and satisfied with the uncomfortable and appalling conditions that surrounded them, but the young musician desired desperately to return home. As previously discussed their living environment was unbearable. The frost had taken over the desolate land that surrounded them, with no possibly sign of making it out alive. Finally, were the lasting effects of the war. Obviously, the effect of the war varies for the men. Dr. Jenkins has lost any desire of a homecoming, whereas a return is all that the young musician dreams of. In conclusion, both men were doing their best to survive. The doctor desired to grasp at every piece of humanity that was slowly fading away, while at the same time the musician held on to every memory he had to continue
As he immerses his audience into combat with the soldiers, Shaara demonstrates the more emotional aspects of war by highlighting the personal lives of the men fighting. For example, when Shaara reveals the pasts of James Longstreet and Lewis Armistead’s, I started to picture them as the men that they were and not as soldiers out for blood. After suffering a devastating loss of three of his children to fever, Longstreet is tossed into battle. In Armistead’s case, he not only suffered the loss of his wife, but also of a friend fighting on the Union side, General Winfield Scott Hancock. Shaara saves his readers a front row seat to the inner turmoil of General Chamberlain regarding his hindering duty as a soldier clashes with his duty to family as he strived to serve the Union as well as protec...
Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying. All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times goes by. This is similar to what war is like. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair. There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of the novel they are enthusiastic about going into the war. After they see what war is really like, they do not feel the same way about it. During the war the men experience many feelings especially the loss of loved ones. These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.
...is interactions with his wife are filled with tension and he is saddened when he reflects upon the men lost during war and the death of his brother.
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.
This affects each soldier when the war is finished. When a soldier returns back to his home after the war, he is unable to escape his primitive feelings of survival.
"Reader Responses to Soldier's Home." Literature and Composition. 10 Feb.,2003. David Toth. 14 Feb., 2003. .
Burton makes several significant moves that modify the basics of Irving’s tale, frequently at the cost of the folk elements of Irving’s version. The frame narrative of Irving’s story—the tale, part of a series titled “The Sketch Book,” begins with the preface “Found among the papers of the Late Diedrich Knickerbocker—is completely done away with (Irving 41). What is more, t...
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.
his life is morally wrong. This contributes to the theme or themes of the play
... could not help themselves, they were not going to be helped. If struggle were encountered, men had personalized ways to reconnect with the real world, and if a tragedy were encountered which affected the entire company, they also found a combined way to cope with this pressure. The priorities of men during the war shifted greatly toward emotional connections to people and events other than the war, and it was these connections that helped them survive and return home. Coping with the stress and burden of war is not an easy task for anyone, yet in The Things they Carried, O'Brien depicts men dealing and coping as much as they can, using only their primeval resources. They learn how to cope with the barest necessities in life, and they learn how to make use of the smallest opportunities to obtain the most relief and joy from every moment in life.
“Rip Van Winkle”, a short story written by Washington Irving, is known for being a tale that illustrates multiple aspects of life before and after the American Revolution. After spending twenty years in the forest asleep, Rip Van Wrinkle returns to his quaint village to find his home transformed into a bustling town. By the end of the story, he has become a local historian; telling the townspeople what the village was like in days before the revolution. The events of “Rip Van Winkle” occurred due to the actions of Rip Van Winkle’s wife: Dame Van Winkle. Dame Van Winkle can be viewed as the main antagonist in “Rip Van Winkle”, as well as a symbol of Great Britain before and after the American Revolution.
Inspired by his days of service in the Ambulance Corps during the First World War, Hemingway utilizes his experience to tell the story of a soldier’s struggle to get back home both physically and mentally in his short story “Soldier’s Home”. Hemingway captivates his readers in a tale of a soldier’s (Harold Krebs) late return home from World War I. Upon his return, Krebs discovers that the life he once knew changed. In fact, his life had changed so drastically that upon his return, Krebs’ life no longer fit in its former place. Ernest Hemingway is often noted for writing stories that seem flat and lifeless but his unadorned prose style nevertheless manages to be extremely suggestive and effective in its plainness. Hemingway manages to give depth to his writing and give it hidden meaning. Hemingway gives his readers the responsibility of interpreting and making a personal connection through a gloomy tone and ironic setting to the story as they get farther and farther into Krebs' world of despair and the emotions that he is struggling with; allowing readers to go on a more personal journey along with Krebs in discovering his new post war society and the role that he plays in it.
In this story, the author gives us an overall view on a life of a village in the Kaatskill mountains area. Rip Van Winkle is the central character of this story. Irving Washington builds Rip with a quite strange characteristic that makes people hard to understand. He is nice and kind in the eyes of the villages. He is not a lazy fellow; he is unafraid of hard work, he is always ready to assist everyone in his village but his own. Actually, he is really irresponsible to his family and in his wife's eyes he is the lazy and useless man.
Along the reaches of the Hudson River, not far from the Catskill Mountains, there is a small, Dutch town. The mountains overshadow the town, and there are times when the good Dutch burghers can see a hood of clouds hanging over the crests of the hills. In this small town lives a man named Rip Van Winkle. He is beloved by all his neighbors, by children, and by animals, but his life at home is made miserable by his shrewish wife. Though he is willing to help anyone else at any odd job that might be necessary, he is incapable of keeping his own house and farm in repair. He is descended from an old and good Dutch family, but he has none of the fine Dutch traits of thrift and energy.
I could not find Wolf, so I took the gun and headed home. I didn’t anyone I saw in the village. They wore peculiar clothes. I was just going to have to face Dame Van Winkle.When I got to my house, it was ruined! I was happy Wolf was there. I called him, and the dog snarled at me. How had Wolf forgotten me? The town inn had changed. Instead of a picture of King George, it had a picture of a man called General Washington. Who was he? I asked if anyone knew Rip Van Winkle. Apparently he was leaning against a nearby tree. I went over. He was the picture- perfect image of who I used to be. A woman with a baby caught my eye. Her name was Judith Gardenier. Her father was Rip Van Winkle. I asked her about Dame Van Winkle. She had died not too long ago. I was a little bit happy about that. When people hear thunderstorms, they say those men are playing ninepins in the mountains. There is nothing more to say about me. Let’s turn to Wolfert Webber’s story, written by Washington Irving. I’m Wolfert Webber. I live in New York City. I think that the city is getting too big. Those pesky neighbor kids always break into my yard to steal cabbages. When I came to New York, I brought Europe’s best cabbages and I am famous for them. I give my