Dehumanization In The Things They Carried

Men often died on the front for the hollow meaning behind excessive pride which led them to perform inhumane acts. The war no longer became about protecting or expanding a country’s land, but protecting a country’s soldiers from death. After being enlisted, the men lost their identities as individual, “coins of different provinces,” and became, “melted down, all to bear the same stamp” (272), of war life. These nationalistic forces targeted and tortured one another, losing sight of the similarities between all men. Advanced nations had, “so many airmen… so sure of themselves they would give chase to single individuals as though they were hares” (286). Remarque commonly portrayed the soldiers’ fight as a losing race against annihilation. Even recently, in February 2017, two Indian men were shot in a bar by an American, yelling, “Get out of my country!” This xenophobic American shot two Indian individuals in the name of his country. Nationalism, sometimes expressed as fanatic patriotism, is apparent through this inhuman act. He thought that the United Sates, his own country, was too good to share with others (Gowen and Lakshmi). Throughout the novel, increasing popularity of nationalism provoked soldiers to demonstrate the inhumanity of mankind’s

During the early formation of our nation, many great authors were putting their thoughts and feelings down on paper. These early American writers were the foundation upon which the literary culture of America was founded. Among these are the early writings of John Smith, Anne Bradstreet and Thomas Jefferson. Their writings were completed during a time of exploration and colonization characterized by many historical political and cultural transitions, and their literature accurately describes the events of that period. The literary works of these important authors convey the hardships that they experienced in a new land, as well as the evolution of the government and culture.

Tim O’Brien’s book “The Things They Carried” epitomizes the degradation of morals that war produces. This interpretation is personified in the characters who gradually blur the line dividing right and wrong as the motives for war itself become unclear. The morality of soldiers and the purpose of war are tied also to the truth the soldiers must tell themselves in order to participate in the gruesome and random killing which is falsely justified by the U.S government. The lack of purpose in the Vietnam War permanently altered the soldier’s perspective of how to react to situations and in most cases they turned to violence to express their frustration.

description of native life are described in such a way as to emphasize some of

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.

The text, ‘The Things They Carried', is an excellent example which reveals how individuals are changed for the worse through their first hand experience of war. Following the lives of the men both during and after the war in a series of short stories, the impact of the war is accurately portrayed, and provides a rare insight into the guilt stricken minds of soldiers. ‘The Things They Carried' shows the impact of the war in its many forms: the suicide of an ex-soldier upon his return home; the lessening sanity of a medic as the constant death surrounds him; the trauma and guilt of all the soldiers after seeing their friends die, and feeling as if they could have saved them; and the deaths of the soldiers, the most negative impact a war

Winston Churchill always said, “You ask: what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, no matter how long and hard the world may be; for without victory, there is no survival.” In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, victory is seen as the only option. The soldiers in the novel do whatever it takes like acting before thinking or ignoring any possible consequences in order to emerge victorious. Paul and his comrades are exposed constantly to violence, jumpstarting a dehumanizing process that forces them to rely on animal instinct. This necessary instinct is the only thing

During the late years of the 17th century, the Native Americans and Puritan settlers had struggled to get along. Due to their clashing views on political and cultural issues, neither faction regarded the other as a respectable group. Cotton Mather displays a totally antagonistic view towards the Native Americans. Mather proves a negative relationship between the natives and the settlers by displaying the barbarous behavior or violent actions of those whom they consider to be culpable of wickedness. I believe when Benjamin Franklin was writing

in a war to be noble but for most of the soldiers it was anything but noble.

Through the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, novelist Erich Maria Remarque provides a commentary on the dehumanizing tendencies of warfare. Remarque continuously references the soldiers at war losing all sense of humanity. The soldiers enter the war levelheaded, but upon reaching the front, their mentality changes drastically: “[they] march up, moody or good tempered soldiers – [they] reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals” (Remarque 56). This animal instinct is essential to their survival. When in warfare, the soldiers’ minds must adapt to the environment and begin to think of the enemy as objects rather than human beings. It is this defensive mechanism that allows the soldiers to save

Throughout time humanity has relentlessly found a reason to tear itself apart. The slaughter of man is read about almost every day and one never thinks twice about it; however, when the lackluster conditions of others’ lives throughout time is conveyed via a novel or movie, we are forced to delve into the lives of those who fought tirelessly for their beliefs – even if “their beliefs” are not correlated to their own. Prime exemplum of soldiers fighting for differing causes is and attempting to save the sliver of humanity remaining is demonstrated by Paul Bäumer in “All Quiet on the Western Front,” by Erich Maria Remarque and Lieutenant Hans von Witzland in Stalingrad. While both protagonists die in the end of their works and suffer brutal warfare, their attempts to transcend the dehumanization of war may be one of the few reasons that the characters survived as long as they did.

During American colonial times, the native peoples of the new world clashed often with the English settlers who encroached upon their lifestyle. Many horror stories and clichés arose about the natives from the settlers. As one might read in Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative, often these disputes would turn to violence. To maintain the process of the extermination of the natives alongside Christian moral beliefs, one of the main tenets of colonial life was the belief that the natives were “savages”; that they were morally and mentally inferior to the English that settled there. As is the case with many societies, certain voices of dissent began to spin. These voices questioned the assertions

In the “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” Benjamin Franklin writes about the Native American people and their way of life. In Benjamin Franklin’s essay he shows that the Native American people are far from savages. He explains how they are indeed civilized people. He says “perhaps, if we examine the manners of different nations with the impartiality, we should find no people so rude, as not to have some remains of rudeness.” The reason the Native Americans were called “savages” was because their rules of common civility, religion, laws and culture were different from the American culture and being that we were just socializing we did not understand their way of life.

Many works written at the time of settling America, depict Native Americans poorly. They are referred to as savages and are driven from the lands owned by their forefathers. In Benjamin Franklin's "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America", the reader is shown a new viewpoint of Native Americans. Franklin writes "If a white man, in traveling through our country, enters one of our cabins, we all treat him as I treat you;" (247), by saying

Tim O’Brien tells the story of him and his platoon in Vietnam as well as a little about what each had experienced before and after the war. He tells each story in different way to elaborate on different things that happened around the same time. This complicated method emphasizes how he and each of his platoon member felt together while in Nam.It may jump from tale to tale in the stroy, but it has a clear message. In the story The Things They Carried O’Brien explains in different ways about being away from home can cause dramatic changes to someone in an alienating or a beneficial way.