An Analysis Of Lawrence's 'Ordinary Life'

The fairytale, “Hansel and Gretel” by the Grimm Brothers, is about two children who are left in the woods by their parents. While looking for a way back home, Hansel and Gretel stumble upon a house made of candy. That house is owned by a witch who eats children. Before being eaten, they outsmart the witch and escape, eventually finding their way back home. In the article, “ Habits of Highly Successful Survivors” by Laurence Gonzales, the author describes the 10 habits of highly successful survivors. In the fairytale, there is one character that is an effective survivor. That character is Hansel. He shows the survivor traits “take action” to trick the witch and to find the way back home and the “stay calm” trait to help comfort Gretel.

Christopher R. Browning’s book, Ordinary Men, is a microhistory of the Holocaust that focuses in on the Reserve Police Battalion 101. The books main purpose is to persuade the reader how ordinary middle-aged men could become the professional killers leading to horrible massacres. In the preface to his book, Browning makes the following comment about the men of the Reserve Police Battalion 101, “Never before had I encountered the issue of choice so dramatically framed by the course of events” (Browning, xvi.). This statement helps label some of Browning’s finding in his book. Although the men were given a choice to opt out of the killings during the Holocaust, the overwhelming majority chose to follow orders and commit crimes against

The expression "riddled with guilt" is a good way to describe the main character's life, Amir, in the book The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner is a story about an Afghan boy, Amir, who has many hardships throughout his life as he grows from a boy living in war-torn Afghanistan, to a successful writer living in America. Amir experiences many events that caused him to carry a great amount of guilt throughout his life. So much guilt that it even turned him into an insomniac. He needed to find a way to make amends which would allow him to forgive himself and hopefully, one day, be able to sleep soundly again.

“ For you, a thousand times over”. This one sentence sums up the immense love, loyalty and friendship Hassan had for Amir.

survive. The man from On Willow Creek appreciated nature so much that he went out in the

The book written by Christopher R. Browning titled Ordinary Men is an interesting, engaging, anomaly in the genre of non-fiction books pertaining to the topic of World War Two and the Holocaust. Browning’s analysis of what possessed ordinary German men, who’s ideas where non pertinent in relation to Nazism is one worthy of academic study and discourse. Browning is delving into the intricacies of what specifically pushed “ordinary” men in the Reserve Police Battalions 101 of Nazi Germany to perpetrate the action of moving thousands of Polish Jewry into box cars, and sequentially taking part in perhaps the worst enormity in human history. Browning’s argument is an ever unsettling one, an argument that reveals to the reader what “normal” people

work which explores this question is ‘Ordinary Men’ by Christopher Browning, in which he investigates particularly the Reserve Police Battalion, which was active from 6th May 1940. This was a Nazi German paramilitary formation of Ordnungspolizei (Order Police), who were commanded by, and were serving under the control of the SS by law. Of these men, several were from Hamburg and many were ‘Reserve’ policemen as they were too old to join the army. The others were from a wide range of occupational backgrounds including factory workers, waiters, tailors, teachers, etc. The study of this group is used by Browning to support the idea that the men, particularly the ones in the Reserve Police Battalion, were in fact ‘ordinary’ as, by Browning’s terms, the word ‘ordinary’ can be defined as the everyday German people, some of whom were in the Reserve Police Battalion and they were simply unexceptional men, who found themselves in the unusual situation that they were required to kill. By defining them as such, he exemplifies how the ideas held by those who participated were not intrinsic; but rather were accumulated through ideals and beliefs taught by those of higher status.

When I lived in Los Angeles during high school, me and my neighbor Brandon would frequently take the Metro train to get to school. While we waited on the platform for the train to come, we would occasionally hear the automated intercom announcement say, “In case of an emergency, do not hesitate to locate the nearest emergency phones or Metro sheriff.” This recurring message was often ignored by not only us. Who seemed to also disregard the monotone voice were other passengers who either were occupied with other things or had earphones in and simply did not hear it. The problem with this is, if an emergency or disaster happened at that moment, how many of us would know the right way to react? If there was a fire, we wouldn’t know how to properly engage in saving ourselves. Unfortunately, the only warning us everyday citizens were given was to call officials. There were no specific instructions on what we could do in case an emergency arises at the train station. In Amanda Ripley’s The Unthinkable, she covers disasters when they happen and how humans that are involved respond to them. Ripley argues that when someone is involved in a disaster, they experience human responses such as being in denial or delaying proper reactions. Because we can not control the brain and our irrational thoughts tend to obscure us, we should raise more awareness of likely disasters and train regular citizens accordingly.

Christopher Browning is an American historian whose research mainly focuses on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Browning has been teaching about this specific field for thirty years, since 1974. He has published many different notable books in regards to Nazi Germany and the events that occurred during the time of the Holocaust. Some of the books written by Browning are, Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave Labor Camp (2010), The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office (1978), and Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers (2000). Browning is best known for his publication of his book, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Ordinary Men admired all around the world by many individuals and gives a detailed story about the reserve police battalion during the 1940s.

"There are no extraordinary men... just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are faced to deal with" (William Halsey). The same can be said about volatile men. This is the quote Christopher R. Browning thought of when he named this book. The men of the 101st battalion were rarely faced with decisions. Even if it had been proposed by Trapp the morning of Jozefow that "any of the older men who did not feel up to the task that lay before them could step out" (Browning, chapter 7, pg. 57), he didn't actually allow them any time to truly think about it. He brought it up moments before they were about to go out to the slaughter. They were blind-sided and the men who didn't want to risk the future of their jobs as policemen or the men

“How did a battalion of middle-aged reserve policemen find themselves facing the task of shooting some 1,500 Jews in the Polish village of Josefow in the summer of 1942” (Browning, 3)? This question is asked in the beginning of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 written by Christopher Browning, a historian and famous author. This compelling book tells the real story of the German Order Police throughout the two world wars, specifically World War Two. However, he mainly focuses on one particular group, the Reserve Police Battalion 101. In this group contained lower to middle class middle aged men who were too old to be helpful to the German Army so were put into the Order Police (Browning, 1). He uses this particular battalion to prove his thesis correct. By using the word ordinary,

In the book “Ordinary Men” by Christopher R. Browning, he shows a different side of the Germans during the Final Solution, and how not every last one was a terrible person, by explaining how some men would hide from killing, opt out altogether, or say they were just following orders. Though there were still some who embraced their newly found jobs, this book argues there was still a sense of morality, but does not excuse the acts that took place. However, as much as the perpetrators were emotionally scarred, and this book does show us that, there are still some flaws in the content used to write this book.

Unfortunately when trying to return to his campsite it got dark and he no longer knew his way back to the campsite “For one California man, what began as a day fishing trip quickly turned into a five-day fight for survival. ”(Figalora). The man in London’s story went out for a hike for pleasure as well it just didn't work out for him as well. The California man who got lost was lucky enough to have a helicopter spot him and come to his rescue he tried making signals and even spelled the word help out towards the sky that way he could be spotted easier. Human survival is the strongest will there is “After ten to fifteen minutes I decided no.

Characters in literature are often endured by their tragic flaw and try to overcome it. In The Kite Runner Amir is confronted by his most tragic flaw, cowardice, which synthesizes his emotional and logical struggle throughout the book. Eventually, Amir can overcome his past flaw as an adult and set out to rescue his nephew, Sohrab, in Afghanistan and relieve his guilty conscience. In the novel, Amir is driven by his guilty conscience of the past.

“A kite needs to be tied down in order to fly. I learned how important restrictions can sometimes be in order to experience freedom,” Damien Rice. Throughout the novel kites are constantly shown throughout the scenes involving Amir. The kites lead to Hassan's rape, the guilt of Amir, and the cutting of kite strings relate to the conflict and fighting in Afghanistan. In the The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the theme of violence and betrayal using the motif of kites.