John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War was mostly influenced by Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, but with a few noticeable differences. Both stories were told from a first person viewpoint. The main characters were of a different age, but were similar in their ultimate goal of military service. With access to advanced technology, both characters were able to serve their military branch above the call of duty. Each story had antagonists bent on world domination, but with different goals. Both stories had ended exactly how they started, but with both characters a little wiser.
Starship Troopers had begun with a narrative provided by Johnny Rico, the antagonist of the book. He was entering into battle against a volatile enemy. The narrative continued throughout the book. Rico described, in detail, his life from rich kid to mobile infantryman. Old Man’s War opened with less minor battlefront. John Perry was fighting through the emotions over the loss of his wife. Through his account, he begun the journey from mere man to military hero. The only
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He was nervous and shaking, but did not stop him from engaging the enemy. As the padre told him, Rico knew his job. He didn’t strive to be the best. In the end, he still got the shakes from nerves, but became the leader that they needed him to be. John Perry started off his military career by meeting with a representative. She had discussed what was expected of him during his term of service. It had been a bland presentation of the options. Perry had tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but it failed. Later, he became a representative of sorts for the CDF. He was sent to different colonies as a recruitment tool. He had told people of the virtues of the CDF and how they were defending the planets. Unlike the representative he had encountered when he signed up, Perry eventually asked for a different position. It was too bittersweet sending new recruits off to possibly
After fighting in several more battles Rico proves that he has what it takes to become an officer. He makes the decision to become a career soldier and so attends the Officer Candidate School, to become a commissioned officer. Before Rico is able to graduate he must pass a field test, in which he performs extremely well, passes and becomes a commissioned officer. In the end Rico commands the special unit and it is renamed Rico’s Roughnecks, as they prepare to make a critical strike to the enemy that could decide the outcome of the war.
As with any genre, all novels termed ‘war stories’ share certain elements in common. The place and time settings of the novels, obviously, take in at least some aspect of at least one war or conflict. The characters tend to either be soldiers or are at least immediately affected by the military. An ever present sense of doom with punctuated moments of peace is almost a standard of the war novel. Beyond the basic similarities, however, each of these battle books stands apart as an individual. Charles Yale Harrison’s World War I novel, Generals Die in Bed is, in essence, quite different than Colin McDougall’s Execution. Coming years earlier,
War is by no means simple. It is not just a battle between men or nations, as there are wars rooted within ourselves. War to many is unknown and painful, showing the dark side of humanity, and to others it is a sign of glory and conquest. Ernest Hemingway shows his view of the realities of war in “Soldier’s Home” by the experiences pinned onto Harold Krebs, a WWI veteran. Krebs' loss of interest and detachment to post-war society alludes that an unattainable reality to fit back into everyday life was placed on veterans by civilians who had romanticized views of war. This marks the need for elaborated war stories to end in order for veterans to be deservingly accepted back into society.
William Barret Travis’s letter from the Alamo was a cry for help. As the Commander at this famous Texan battle and with a short amount of men, Travis knew the odds were not in the favor for these settlers. Nonetheless, Travis stood tall and brave, ready to give his all and die with honor if that was the price to pay for Texas’ freedom from Mexico.
Perry was stationed in New York Yard. He helped advocating the conversion of U.S. sailing ships to steam power, which helped the advancement of the U.S. Navy. He commanded the steam frigate, Fulton, to prove through experiments the development of stem navigation. He also helped developing the curriculum for the U.S. Naval Academy at West Point. During the Mexican War, he commanded naval forces and joined the Home Squadron in the Gulf of Mexico, where he helped General Winfield Scott’s in the capture of Veracruz. In 1846 while in the Home Squadron he conducted several expeditions against the towns of Tabasco and Laguna. In March 1847 he succeeded Commodore Connor in the command of the
Starship Troopers may be a satire of a fascist state or an apology for fascist ideology or neither (I don’t pretend to know which). In any case, it is a depiction of a possible state of affairs that could theoretically arise out of a futuristic fascist regime. The ideology advocated by this state, and for the most part by its subjects, is one that treats
The two books “Soldier’s Heart,” and “The Red Badge of Courage,” have their differences and similarities that take the reader on a wild, emotional journey. The major differences amongst the stories highlights the characters personalities, or traits, and assists in making each book stand apart from
impacts on the soldiers. This novel depicts the life as a soldier in the German Army fighting
During war, many people change physically, mentally, and socially. War itself is disturbing to the mind. In Walter Dean Meyer’s Fallen Angels, the characters undergo many changes as they learn the true meaning of war. Perry, Peewee and Johnson all change in the sense of their personalities and their outlooks on life. In the beginning of the novel all the characters have very distinct characteristics. As the story progresses they start to see how war can have a huge impact on your life.
“A war is not over when a war is over ” Kurt Vonnegut novel Slaughterhouse Five is about Billy Pilgrim a College dropout who joined the army. It is world war two and Billy Pilgrim is deployed in Germany, he is captured and taken as a prisoner of war. Hemingway's short story “soldier's home” is about herald kerb a soldier that is returning home from the vietnam war. During the war billy and krebs were both heros, but when they return home the true trauma of war set in. Transforming them into anti-hero. Both Billy and kerb function as anti-heroes because there heroic qualities are suppressed. Thesis lack courage, do not have any direction, and they suffer from survivor guilt.
In the Original War Of Worlds (1953) is set in California, in a small town. When a fiery blaze meteor hits the earth, it suddenly sends the citizens there into panic. As the aliens start to “invade,” they begin shooting at everything and making everything/ everyone disappear. The director of this movie is Byron Haskin. It was released on August 26th, 1953. The new War of Worlds (2005) is directed by Steven Spielberg on the 29th of June in 2005. During both movies there are many similarities and differences between both alien attacks/invasions. Even with them both being a lot alike, personally I loved the 2005 version.
The authors of “Zero Hour” and “The War of the Worlds” have their own unique ideas of an alien invasion if it ever were to happen. Both texts display the emotions characters must face throughout the invasion. These authors might have had their own style of writing for these stories, but they still the same impact. Both authors display alien invasions that will forever change mankind and the world as they know it.
In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.
When the Sun was A God and With Fire and Sword are two films directed by Jerzy Hoffman, respectively in 2003 and 1999. The films were based on the historical events, illustrating the common matters of individuals’ desire to overpower others with wealth, power, and control in order to take over the throne and land. Both films took place in different settings – Piast dynasty era and Khmelnytsky Uprising era – but they do share some similarities and differences. The reason for why I chose these two films to compare and contrast was due to the fact that they share certain aspects that set the films alike and apart from one another. The aspects are: greed, friendship, loyalty, women, and love.
Many authors have written war stories and about the effects of war on a person. Two of these writers are Tim O'Brian and Ernest Hemingway. O'Brian wrote "How to Tell a True War Story"; and Hemingway wrote a short story called "Soldier's Home". Both of these stories illustrate to the reader just what war can do to an average person and what, during war, made the person change. The stories are alike in many respects due to the fact that both authors served time in the army; O'Brian in the Vietnam War and Hemingway in WWI. However, the stories do have differences due to the slightly different themes and also the different writing techniques of the authors.