A. B Facey A Fortunate Life

Albert depicts how the “doughboys” lived at the front what they ate, what the average soldier carried in his pack, and combines such general accounts with details of particular battles

There are some children, like the Indian boy in the short story that will simply not be given a chance to learn how to read and must adapt quickly to survive. Alexie took his fate into his own hands at an early age. Although the author never states the age of the boy, we are to imagine he is grade school age. Alexie states that the boy’s father had an extensive book collection from which he had taught himself how to read, but never mentions if the father had helped his son to learn to read. I imagine the father was too busy trying to support his family by working minimum wage jobs and finding work where he could find it. Needless to say, Alexie adapted well given his situation. These experiences give him accreditation with the reader,

Alexie spoke of his path of becoming a writer from his childhood that there were blockades he had to overcome against Indians while showing how easy it is to give up as with those around him, yet he then speaks to all youths, both Indian and non-Indian about their power to become whatever they want yet how society at the same time has already crushed the spirits of some. King, on the other hand, persuades aspiring writers that a lot of reading is necessary and time must always somehow be made to do so, yet he then talks about his son Owen who aspired to become a saxophone player but even with all the time and effort, he was not joyful given that he only put necessary time towards his lessons and practice. The basic idea is that we should do things that we love as that is necessary in life and the things we love will not make us feel stressed or be

He even explains this when he says, “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well” (Alexie 279). Alexie’s upbringing shows the reader that he was not wealthy, but he was still able to be exposed to massive amounts of literature and therefore could contribute to his education. His family’s wealth could be attributed to less opportunity in life, but in this case, it was not.

While Alexie states his voice by using metaphor, he emphasizes the meaning of reading repeatedly in his essay. He stresses how he strives to read variety of books, and he records that,” I read the books my father brought home from the pawnshops and secondhand. I read the books I borrowed from the library. I read the backs of cereal boxes… I read magazines. I read anything that had words and paragraphs” (18). Alexie lists out all the material he has read with the same sentence structure, yet he does not conclude all these things in one sentence. He exemplifies his passion to reading, for he tries to save his life. Due to his parallel repetition, Alexie impresses the audience by these

99) Along with other narrators, Bromberg has “little to report about the next phase [1932 through the beginning of World War II] until they are directly affected by the war through military conscription or Allied bombing raids on their home town” (Bessel, p. 101). Herbert’s recurring theme is that “’Quiet’, ‘normal’ times, then, clearly leave behind few experiences that are imprinted on the memory and recalled in the narratives; ‘disturbed’, ‘bad’ times are filled with unique and extraordinary experiences, and come up at corresponding length in the life stories” (Bessel, p. 101).

As the text progresses into the middle of the story, Alexie talks about how he finds knowledge as a step toward success rather than a burden by using a didactic tone. Alexie talks about how he was advanced in reading at a young age while his other classmates were struggling. You learn this when he said “...little Indian boy teaches himself how to read at an early age... when other children are struggling through...”(Alexie). This shows that he was steps closer to success than them. Later on, Alexie says, “We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. Most lived up to those expectations...”(Alexie). Alexie starts to explain as to what path was provided for these Indian children. Although there was this certain path for these Indian children, Alexie refuses to set himself up for failure. This can be seen when he says, “...we were expected to fail...I refused to fail. I was smart...I was lucky...I loved...books...I also knew love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life...”(Alexie). He knew he could exceed their expectations and create his own path. Alexie refused to follow the crowd and waste his gift of knowledge.

As he grew up to become a writer, we see pain in the story he tells. “I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life” (pg.18). Alexie wanted to be someone greater than what others expected him to be. People would put him down constantly, but he fought back just as much. He tried to save himself from the stereotypes of being just another dumb Indian. He had more determination to prove others wrong when it came too exceeding in reading to further excel in his daily life.

To improve literary skills, lower class citizens should take the initiative outside of the education system to increase the likelihood of breaking through their class’ economic barrier. In the essay, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, Alexie says that he grew up as a part of the lower class on a Native American reservation. His parents often had to find different jobs that only paid minimum wage, which made it difficult for his family to live comfortably. Even though his family was part of the lower class, his father continuously read books. Alexie began reading to follow his father’s passion. He looked at novels and eventually understood their composition. Alexie’s firsthand experience allowed him to learn how to read in a much more efficient manner than if he learned through the reservation’s mediocre schooling system. Outside reading also motivated him to learn more. Alexie loved the feeling of gaining more information on how to have a positive impact on society. If he did not dedicate time for reading outside of his

Memoirs of war often reflect the positive or negative experiences endured throughout battle. Considered by many to be one of the best memoirs of World War I, Hervey Allen’s “Toward the Flame”, recalls his own experiences of battle. His recollection of events shows that he had a negative image of war and that there was nothing glorious about it. What started out looking like a man’s greatest adventure turned into a shell-shocking reality that war is actually horrible and trying. Allen’s experiences with consistent hunger, mustard gas, and artillery shellings led to his disillusionment with war, and left him with a permanent hatred of battle.

In the first part of the essay he recounts his early childhood with a sense of ease; however, after walking the reader through the details of teaching himself to read his perspective changes to the third-person, it seems he becomes painfully aware of the reality of his story: “If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on a reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity. He grows into a man who speaks of his childhood in the third-person, as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more modest about his talents.”(Alexie, 29) From that point on, Alexie writes with a tone of arrogance and a sense of urgency; it seems that approach is a metaphor for his determination to succeed.

They would make him stay quiet in class because most of them did not like to speak during class with their non-Indian teacher. Even though at home they would talk nonstop about anything. These kids did not grow up to have opportunities they could have had because they were not given a proper education. The non-Indian teachers did not push the kids to learn and they did not care about their student's education. The kids knew that they were expected to fail with their education, and they grew up knowing it was okay to fail because they were Indian. However, Alexie did not accept that. He knew he could pass and that he was smart, so he challenged himself to learn out of the classroom. Reading became the center of his education; he read late into the night, at recess, during lunch, after class, and whenever he could make time to. As a boy he read everything he could find with words on it including all the books his dad had at home, newspapers, library books, cereal boxes, posters, manuals. Even though he loved books he knew reading saved his education and his entire life. His future was opened up to new opportunities because he was educated.

He lists of all the reading he did, and how much time he spent on it. It seems almost absurd to me that someone could read that much. But his love for books only had one purpose, and that was to save his life (Alexie, 1998, p. 3). He used them as an outlet to garner the knowledge to get out of that lifestyle, to find a job he was passionate about, and to make a comfortable living in the process. He wasn’t going to let social norms dictate his life. He felt a higher calling than what his society was accustomed to, and he was going to chase it, by any means necessary.

In the opening remarks of the first chapter, Ernst Junger describes the idealistic origins of many of the soldiers called to action. Most of the soldiers drafted into the war were students and factory workers, all of whom lived a fairly sheltered life beforehand. Being drafted was seen as the adventure of a lifetime. They “shared a yearning for danger, for the experience of the extraordinary.” Much like his comrades, Junger had the same sense of adventure, seeing the war as merely a new challenge to conquer. After his first real experience with war however, his enthusiasm is quickly dashed. The harsh reality set in that this war was not, in fact, an adventure. Junger and the former schoolboys and craftsmen quickly learned that life in the trenches was a challenge of endurance. As the war persists, reality slowly sets in and Junger learns the true violent nature of the war and the constant threat of imminent danger through which he must persevere. Ernst Junger’s accounts in the memoir Storm of Steel show the reality of a soldier in World War I and the taxation of enduring such great trauma.

his father’s death, eventually the true measure of his character comes forth (Book I: 11).