Black Hawk Down Analysis

In every American war combined, about 1.2 million soldiers have died fighting in battle. Many look past the effects and consequences that going to war can lead to and every soldier is assumed to be a hero. Others believe that killing anybody, whether they are innocent or on a battlefield, is in no way honorable. Writers who protest war use imagery, irony, and structure to explain the negative effects of battle.

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

“Nobody asks to be a hero; it just sometimes turns out that way,” SSGT Matt Eversmann said this while explaining to a solider the hardship of trying to explain to civilians the duties of a soldier. There have been many battles fought, and many have been lost. Black Hawk Down is an adaptation of the failed attempt to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid during the Battle of Mogadishu. It started on March 2001 and it was released January 18, 2002. During the real operation there was a dramatic change between it being a simple capture operation to it being a rescue mission that is shown in the movie. Black Hawk Down is historically accurate because the chronological sequence of the operation and rescue mission are correct.

Where innumerous catastrophic events are simultaneously occurring and altering the mental capability of its viewers eternally, war is senseless killing. The participants of war that are ‘fortunate’ enough to survive become emotionally distraught civilians. Regardless of the age of the people entering war, unless one obtains the mental capacity to witness numerous deaths and stay unaffected, he or she is not equipped to enter war. Kurt Vonnegut portrays the horrors of war in Slaughterhouse Five, through the utilization of satire, symbolism, and imagery.

People both today and back then have been traumatized by war’s brutal combat, fallen victim to cruel soldiers, and had war cause sorrow and grief to them. Through characters seeing death, characters that are soldiers, and characters that are not in combat, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See demonstrates that war affects individuals negatively, even if they are extremely

Penned during two distinctly disparate eras in American military history, both Erich Maria Remarque's bleak account of trench warfare during World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Tim O'Brien's haunting elegy for a generation lost in the jungles of Vietnam, The Man I Killed, present readers with a stark reminder that beneath the veneer of glorious battle lies only suffering and death. Both authors imbue their work with a grim severity, presenting the reality of war as it truly exists. Men inflict grievous injuries on one another, breaking bodies and shattering lives, without ever truly knowing for what or whom they are fighting for. With their contributions to the genre of war literature, both Remarque and O'Brien have sought to lift the veil of vanity which, for so many wartime writers, perverts reality with patriotic fervor. In doing so, the authors manage to convey the true sacrifice of the conscripted soldier, the broken innocence which clouds a man's first kill, and the abandonment of one's identity which becomes necessary in order to kill again.

Beginning my love of reading an early age, I was never the type of child who was drawn to fictional stories. As an 8 year-old child in West Virginia, I was recognized by the local library for my love of biographies, autobiographies and recollections of world events. This love has continued throughout my adult life, desiring to read novels such as “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young” by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore rather than watch the major motion picture “We Were Soldiers” starring Mel Gibson. Even though the motion picture received multiple awards, when reading the recollection of Mr. Moore’s accounts, the feeling of loss, distress, anxiety and fear can be felt in each word that he has written while reliving this horrendous war.

Individuals everywhere grimace at war. Images of the strike of the gun, the burst of the bombs, and the clash of the soldiers all elicit a wince and a shiver. Moviegoers close their eyes during gory battle scenes and open them again only once the whine of the bullets stops rattling in their ears. War is hell, as the common aphorism goes, and the pain of war is equally hellish. Most individuals naturally accept this conclusion despite never experiencing war themselves. Without enduring the actual pain of war injuries, individuals still argue the importance war and its miseries. Individuals rely on media and entertainment for education about the suffering and evils of war. Writers provide an acute sense of a soldier’s physical and mental

In David Finkel’s The Good Soldiers, Finklel details different versions of the war in Iraq. Over the years, the image of war portrayed through literature has changed. Looking at non-fiction wartime novels of the past, the image of war was completely different. The novels of the past focused much more on the aftermath of war and the survivors of war, rather than the actual war it’s self like in today’s novels. When novels of the past did feature scenes of war, the details used to describe the scenes were not as vivid as they are today. I attribute this change to the change of style in which narrative pieces of non-fiction are written. After Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood was published in 1966, the landscape of the non-fiction narrative completely changed, thus the wartime books published after this also changed. In addition to that, the advancement in technology has also changed the way wartime novels are written. Today, society can go on YouTube and watch videos of the war. There is also more media present on the battlefield than there was in the past. Having access to actual footage of the ongoing war, the public knows what the war looks like. With that in mind, authors can portray the realities of war because they already know the public has some sense of what the battlefield already looks like.

As an illustration, the author describes the scenery of the battlefield, “The most vivid images of the war show soldiers facing the hardships and terrors of battle. Some confronted the enemy in well-defined battles in the highlands. Others cut their way through the jungle, where they heard but seldom saw the enemy. Still others waded through rice paddies and searched rural villages for guerrillas… They were rarely safe. Enemy rockets and mortars could--and did--strike anywhere” (Boyer 2). By using descriptive language, the author illustrates the soldiers surroundings and evoke the reader’s sense of terror. With this in mind, this gives the readers a better understanding of how inhumane war is and how the severity of war torments soldiers by them through physiological traumatizing experiences. Furthermore, the author quotes a nurse recalling her experiences in a field hospital, “We really saw the worse of it, because the nurses never saw any of the victories...I remember one boy who was brought in missing two legs and an arm, and his eyes were bandaged. A general came in later and pinned a Purple Heart on the boy’s hospital gown, and the horror of it all was so amazing that it just took my breath away. You thought, was this supposed to be an even trade?” (Boyer 2). By using imagery, the author cites a nurse who describes the boy’s injuries in detail and appeals

People who have never experienced the war portray it as “grotesque.” (O’Brien 77) They’ve never truly listened to the soldier's stories, Tim O’Brien is able to find beauty within the “awful majesty of combat.” (O’Brien 77) The metaphor comparing the “trace rounds” to “brilliant red ribbons” illustrate the war in a completely different light. (O’Brien 77) The respect for “the fluid symmetries of troops” shows the organization of the war and the training and preparing that the troops do to serve our country and protect Americans. (O’Brien 77) There is beauty within these individuals and their stories of why they decided to risk their lives to protect us. Tim O’Brien’s simile comparing a “bombing raid” or “artillery barrage” to “a killer forest fire” or “cancer under a microscope” explains the “aesthetic purity” within the war. (O’Brien 77) Tim O’Brien puts the war into an idea that his readers can understand, he proves it’s possible to find beauty even in a

With intricate detail the author explains these events as frightening and overwhelmingly difficult to tolerate. Beah, exposed to combat at age 12, was traumatized by battle and portrays details of the horrifying events through imagery. “When the rebels finally came I was cooking... My heart was beating faster than it ever had. Each gunshot seemed to cling to the beat of my heart.”

“It’s not pretty exactly. It’s astonishing. It fills the eye. It commands you,” (81) is a quote from Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried. This quote shows how war can affect an individual through taking over one’s body and mind. War affects everyone in different ways, but it is impossible to understand how war affects each and every single person. The texts and forms of art communicate different ideas to the viewer. It is through interpreting these texts that humans get a better idea of the overall impact of war. When individuals experience war, they lose their innocence and morality. This will be evident through “How to Tell a True War Story,” “The Wound,” and “Machine Gun.”

“Holy shit we’re not ready for this” Aaron HijarTim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger 2010 award -winning documentary film Restrepo: One Platoon, One Valley, One Year, chronicle one year of the Second Platoon, Battle Company branch of the United States Army ; during their station at the Korangal Valley and the impact it had on them. The film opens with a bunch of joyful soldiers a week before deployment and attitudes within the plane are ecstatic and full of youthful naivety and optimism but as the film progresses and as we are introduced to the Korangal Valley, those bright smiles are soon replaced with frowns. This is the effects of war, the one that is not often talked about nor acknowledge.“Nobody going to help you, you’re in no man land” JonesThe films itself was difficult to watch, because you read so much about the war in both print and digital media but at the end of the day it’s all words. Hollywood depiction of “war” is often over-glamorized, and doesn’t show the real nitty-gritty and the emotional strain that soldiers face. This film was brutally honest and refreshing because it was shot from the POV of soldiers as they went about their daily life. The film is candid and doesn’t pull its punches it showcases real footage of soldiers handling automatic weapons, quasi-problem solving and just lying around relaxing. It isn’t a thriller that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat nor is meant to be. Its real life and sometimes it can be disturbing, amusing and violent. The films also address the language and culture barrier that exist that often time isn’t present in literature or Hollywood movies. There are a few subtitles shown throughout the film , and there isn’t any Hollywood makeup artist on standby to smear dirt on the faces of the troops to give them a more “harden” look; this is real and it’s unsettling. It forces us to analyze the impact of war on an individual and the necessity of war and our definition of “security threat”, if we apply that definition too haphazardly we risk turning friend into a foe and increasing underlying animosity but if we loosen our definition it’s a sure death.“I’m going to die here” CortezThe most poignant scene in the documentary was “Operation Rock Avalanche” which

Not only should this book be recommended to other A.P. US History students, it should be read by people regardless of their age. It allows the reader to fully visualize what the soldiers saw, heard, experienced, and felt. While reading, an atmosphere is created in which the reader is transported to that specific moment in time and can envision themselves on the