The Punchline to the Joke Is Screaming “Somebody Help Us”
“Every breath that has been exhaled and inhaled, every amount of blood that is spilled must be regulated, there is no such things as mistakes as we concoct perfection. Our uniform may be stained with the blood of rage against the enemy, but also spilt the enemies blood, reminiscent of a mask of victory upon our very flesh. We are victorious, a total sun, which rays burn the enemy, and light the less fortunate. I know everything, that is my blessing, that is my curse, but follow me and I will make you perfect, all of us perfect as well. Never forget that”, announced Sir Marshall. Sir Marshall is in lead command for his country. His voice is projected like a megaphone and his words drop like atom bombs and seep like poison gas, intoxicating the mind. He went back to the door of the balcony but seemed to disappear like a shadow going from sunset to night. In homes and in dreams thoughts can wander more freely within our hearts and minds. Sir Marshall, our leader, is an enigma. That’s what I thought at first at least. Look at a calendar, todays date is parade day, no numbers. During this Marshall stands high in the middle of the parade like a sun coming out of black clouds. At the end of the parade people return orderly like the marches of the parade themselves. Masses of people walk into their cars at the same time, open their doors at the same time, go down the streets at the same speed, and go into their spherical houses. But two people decided not to. Skies were muddy, but my best friend, the last heart I have in a world plagued with early death, Red101 ,and I Black5 decided to go to a bar ...
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...ing and with laughter. And I sighed in another successful act of duplicity. And I thought about Black. I know what he felt deep inside. The hopelessness, the resentment, the agony of going insane. I bet deep inside he was thinking what most people here think in this dystopia of relentless rules. When they reach their demise they’d think “ The punchline to the joke is screaming “Somebody help us”. I looked over back again to that crowd. Took my scripted paper and crumpled it up. I don’t want that. No. I looked into the mirror and saw so many faces I couldn't find the one I saw as my own again. I wanted to see my own again. Before the mass death. Before the darkness. These people don’t need this after everything that happened. So I went back to that crowd and decided to make a change in me, this country, and for these people. You decide if that worked out.
His idea was basically is just to forget it. He looked at his mother growing up who left his father and married someone moved into a white community and totally disregarded her whole heritage. So he grew up not caring almost. Except when he gets thrown in the hole for the first time for a long period time he had sometime to think about his past. During this time he comes in peace with his culture. This is because he just sat there and thought and he realized that he's got all his emotions and feelings from his culture. He then sat down and wrote the poem “Immigrants in Our Own Land”. In this poem he speaks about the hardship the mexicans go through to get citizenship in this country. They come to this country for a better life, “we are born with dreams in our hearts, looking for better days ahead” (“Immigrants”). In his memoir Baca explains how his young life has prepared him for prison in the long run. He explains how he learned how to develop a stare that would intimidate other inmate. Also how to join a group and think of himself as against others. The exact quote would be "It was at the detention center that I first learned how to intimidate others with my stare, how to lie to the
"when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go the public amusement park that has just been adverted on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing cloud of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people." "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you."
Where Men Win Glory is an ironic euphemism for war. The title is ironic because there is nothing glorious about war or the way it ended Pat Tillman’s beautiful life. Jon Krakauer orchestrates this masterpiece with his diligently, articulated descriptions and with a timeline sewn together from the threads of two worlds. The author’s style can best be characterized by his challenging, precise diction and his ability to fluently intervene pertinent quotes and facts that further persuade the reader toward his cause. Throughout the book, the author’s tone harnesses resentment towards the militant hierarchy; for through its ingenuousness, deceit, and manipulation, the military uses Pat’s death as propaganda to bolster the war’s support. Furthermore, the military covers up the fact that Tillman was a victim of fratricide, and it deceives the nation into believing Tillman’s end was a valiant fight against insurgents. When the truth is exposed and pursued by Dannie - Pat’s mother - the army destroys evidence and pleads guilty to ignorance as a rebuttal. This book is molded by three prodigious aspects that help to illustrate Pat’s life story. The carelessness of war, importance of family, and enhancement through change were all important ingredients that created a virtuous life. Each theme, in addition, challenges me personally to reassess the facts I have been fed and the reality that I have been presented. By doing so, I can achieve a sound base of knowledge and an intellectual prowess capable of challenging all facts presented.
These men are transformed into guilt-laden soldiers in less than a day, as they all grapple for a way to come to terms with the pain of losing a comrade. In an isolated situation, removed from the stressors, anxieties, and uncertainties of war, perhaps they may have come to a more rational conclusion as to who is deserving of blame. But tragically, they cannot come to forgive themselves for something for which they are not even guilty. As Norman Bowker so insightfully put it prior to his unfortunate demise, war is “Nobody’s fault, everybody’s” (197).
Erich Maria Remarque's classic war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, deals with the many ways in which World War I affected people's lives, both the lives of soldiers on the front lines and the lives of people on the homefront. One of the most profound effects the war had was the way it made the soldiers see human life. Constant killing and death became a part of a soldier's daily life, and soldiers fighting on all sides of the war became accustomed to it. The atrocities and frequent deaths that the soldiers dealt with desensitized them to the reality of the vast quantities of people dying daily. The title character of the novel, Paul Bäumer, and his friends experience the devaluation of human life firsthand, and from these experiences they become stronger and learn to live as if every day were their last.
By the time Kurt Jr. was in the 3rd grade, the depression had made his family penniless. He would be pulled from his private school and sent to a public school for the remainder of his education. Yet the world around him, especially technology-wise, would continued to go on “ The time was long past when one nation could seem more glorious than another by hurling some h...
Have you ever thought about what it was like to live during World War 1, or what it was like to fight at war? At first glance of any war piece, you might think the author would try to portray the soldiers as mentally tough and have a smashing conscience. Many would think that fighting in a war shows how devoted you are to your country, however, that is not true. According to All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the reality of a soldier's life is despondency, carnage and eradication at every bombardment. Living every day is not knowing if they will eat, see their families, or even if they will awaken the next day. Demeaning themselves from heroes to barely men without their military garment or identity. Remarque conveyed how
...of two marines, to perform a code red on Santiago, the learner. Although no harm was intended, the life of an ailing soldier was brutally taken due to the respect of an order. From Fromm’s outlook on the situation, obedience may sometimes be right, but unfortunately might lead to an unwanted outcome, similar to the circumstances portrayed in A Few Good Men. A person with hateful and self conceited characteristics is someone that most people don’t want to be around. This can impact society by causing less appreciation among people.
For the great lesson which history imprints on the mind…is the tragic certainty that all wars gain their ultimate ends, whether great or petty, by the violation of personality, by the destruction of homes, by the paralysis of art and industry and letters…even wars entered on from high motives must rouse greed, cupidity, and blind hatred; that even in defensive warfare a people can defend its rights only by inflicting new wrongs; and that chivalrous no less than self-seeking war entails relentless destruction.
It is apparent that the topic of war is difficult to discuss among active duty soldiers and civilians. Often times, citizens are unable to understand the mental, physical, and physiological burden service members experience. In Phil Klay’s Ten Kliks South, the narrator struggles to cope with the idea that his artillery team has killed enemy forces. In the early stages of the story, the narrator is clearly confused. He understands that he did his part in firing off the artillery rounds, yet he cannot admit to killing the opposition. In order to suppress his guilt and uncertainty, our narrator searches for guidance and reassurance of his actions. He meets with an old gunnery sergeant and during their conversation, our narrator’s innocence
Norman Schwarzkof once said, “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of the men to go into battle”. As young adults, many of us have a preconceived notion that being a hero is in some way the same as being a leader. In times of war, being a leader defines ones as a superior that others look to for guidance and direction in predicaments; not necessarily a hero. The true heroes are not always the ones calling the shots, but the soldiers who courageously leave their comforts behind to fight on the fronts for their country, even if it results in their death. In All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, describes the journey of a young man named Paul and the struggles he endures as an effect of the declaration of World War One by his elders. Remarque develops the theme of how older men’s decisions of declaring war effects the younger generation by elaborating on how this declaration effects the younger soldiers’ physical physique and their mental wellbeing.
The highest price paid during time of war is the life of an individual. Many do not understand the amount of courage it takes to sacrifice life for the freedom of others. In the movie We Were Soldiers, Colonel Hal Moore when referring to the men who lost th...
“Everytime I think about it I feel like somebody’s poking a red-hot iron down my throat…We live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we ain’t. They do things and we can’t…I feel like I’m on the outside the world peeping in through a knot-hole in the fence…” (20).
“Who was the most racist in that situation? Was it the white man who was too terrified to confront his black neighbors on their rudeness? Was it the black folks who abandoned their mattress on their curb? … Or was it all of us, black and white, passively revealing that, despite our surface friendliness, we didn’t really care about one another?” He never blames the black neighbors for their disregard of the mattress because their black, but sounds aware of the stereotyping and how he comes off addressing it. He also knows how much he stands out in the community as a minority, wondering what the cops would say to him, “ ‘Buddy,’ the cops would say. ‘You don’t fit the profile of the neighborhood.” Despite his pride in his actions of disposing of the mattress, the mistreatment by his black neighbors comes off as an unfortunate, but expected, consequence, “I knew the entire block would shun me. I felt pale and lost, like an American explorer in the
interpret this as the day being fair in victory but foul in the lives that were lost and how the