Denis Cooper 's The War

Symbols are often proposed to help get the audience to question themselves and the way they think. An example of a Symbolism what do you consider to be the value of life and how they present it in a story? Many people will say life is greater than anything else on Earth, but then why do people go around smashing bugs or destroying trees or getting abortions? “Scholars would talk about symbolism in writing, but no one had asked the writers.” At any state, many other people are forced to consider that their view on the subject is. Stephen Crane most definitely plays with rhetorical questions and the symbols that follow those questions, especially in The Red Badge of Courage and An Episode of War.

The novel War, written by Sebastian Junger, records the events in Korengal, Afghanistan with the American Army from a journal’s perspective. Throughout the book, he retells his experiences of fire fights, the emotional trauma of losing a fellow fighter, the undeniably strong bond between soldiers, and the consequences combat has on family members. While this novel has some detailed and brutally honest components regarding the war in Afghanistan, I found the insight provided by Junger on combat to be interesting. Once I started reading this novel, putting down the book was nearly impossible as I was finding myself entranced within this world of war. The insight into the world of combat, although brief, permitted me to better understand a soldier’s experience in war zones. My previous knowledge regarding the novel’s context, as well as personal experiences, transformed my mindset from thinking critically about the novel to becoming emotionally connected to the soldiers’ success. I found that the more I read this novel, the more my life experiences influenced my attitude towards the individuals and experiences as described by Junger.

Ryan Smithson wrote Ghost of War ( The true story of a 19-year-old GI). In 2009, Ghost of war was published. Smithson joined the United States army reserve at age 17 as a Heavy Equipment Operator (HEO) in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.At age 19, Smithson was deployed to Iraq (Smithson, 2004, p.58). Ghost of war describes the author's eventual pride for serving his country in Iraq.

Ryan Smithson’s Ghost of War is the perfect example of the need to break away from the ur-war story without completely losing the benefits it produces for war authors. When compared to Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds the difference between the typical ur-war story and what Smithson has written becomes obvious. The major issue with war literature is that the everyday civilian has no problem reading it however they are unable to connect to it. Typical war literature is to inform but the information is lost along the way with the abundance of bloody battles and psychological break downs. Powers has written war literature made to draw in the reader and keep his/her attention. However with Ghosts of War Smithson has given the reader a book that they can connect to while telling a true war story.

“He stood at the window of the empty café and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they’d have no heart to start at all” ("All the Pretty Horses"). World War One was the first war that used the media and propaganda to target the public (“Propaganda in World War I”). Much of the propaganda used was targeted towards young men. The media emphasized the patriotism and heroism one would show for their country by enlisting in the army. More than 250,000of these young men were under the age of 19 ("The teenage soldiers of World War One"). These boys were susceptible to

Before he became a soldier, James Gooding worked as a whaler in Massachusetts. He received almost the same pay as a white man, sometimes making up to $20 per month. After Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, Gooding enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first African American regiments in the Union. He was promised equal pay as white soldiers, which was $13 per month, but instead received $7 per month.

For quite a while, American warriors watched out for a movement of stations in what was perhaps the most opposing corner in all of Afghanistan. The spot was the Korengal Valley, which opens out underneath the terraced edges of Kunar Province around 25 miles from the periphery with Pakistan. The contemplation was to put Americans on the ground to catch Taliban warriors who were traveling through in order to fight in diverse parts of the country. “War” by Sebastian Junger, not only brings to life the scenarios of war and its effects, but also reveals the camaraderie between soldiers.

Tim O’Brien is a famous ‘war’ writer. He is the author of “How to Tell a True War Story.” The study of this short story provides a profound insight into why he wrote the book. The study of his background reveals insights into the actual purpose of this story (Kenison). In particular, his background explains why the book was written in an ambiguous manner. The ambiguity of the story is clearly seen in the choice of characters, the tone, as well as the irony. After reading this story, it becomes clear that the characters, tone, and irony all relate to the author’s personal experience in Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien was one of the American soldiers who participated in the prolonged Vietnam War. He used his experienced after the war to write this story in an ambiguous form.

After reading The Dangerous Game excerpt in the textbook and viewing the motion picture of the story, I came to the conclusion that the story is better than the movie. I say this because the book version of the story did a great job at build up suspense and not straying from the plot of the story. The author, Richard Connell, used vivid wording throughout the story to describe moments that would have been plainly imagined in a reader’s head. For example, instead of saying Rainsford fell off his yacht, the story says, “… he had reached too far and lost his balance. The cry was pinched of was pinched off short as the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean sea closed over his head.” Descriptions like the previous statement allow the readers to come

To Tell or Not to Tell a War Story Phil Klay and Tim O’Brien are two very distinct war authors. Klay was a marine in the Iraq war, and O’Brien was an infantryman in the Vietnam. Even though the wars they were in are very different, they each have a story that focuses on the act of telling stories: O’Brien’s story is “How to Tell a True War Story” from The Things They Carried, and Klay’s story is “War Stories” from Redeployment.

The “Image of War” written by Antony Lee reflects on the works of Gardner's “Photographic Sketch Book” as a way to give people a reality checks on politics. During the Civil War the North fought the South over the freedom of slavery to create a society where everyone has equal opportunities. Gardner uses landscape photos to expose the evil of politics and how it affects people throughout the causalities of war. For example “The Home of A Rebel Sharpshooter Gettysburg” shows the result of bad politics by turning fellow Americans against each other. The photo has a grayish coloring off to the distance which gives the photo a sinister appearance. However, the body lying on the ground looking up at the heavens implements viewers with the idea

The Modern world is divided up by self-determining, different states; often defined by their military forces. Before the sixteen-seventieth century the idea of states wasn’t like it is now. The world was unconnected by rulers, and no major states of authority. Many believe the concept of the Military Revolution that refers to a radical change in military strategy that altered a change in the government. According to Jeremy Black, in Beyond the Military Revolution, suggest the reason for an advance in military warfare was due to the development of the independent state. He tells how in the independent state the leader shows gloire to provide, build and protect. War and expansion appeared necessary and successful throughout this era.

Like mentioned before, context is everything when evaluating a piece. Slaughterhouse Five was first released around the time of the Vietnam war, even having one of its phrases, “So it Goes”, become a mantra against the war. (Rigney) While Vonnegut might muse that the book isn’t an anti-war novel, even saying it would be as productive to write an anti-glacier novel. (Vonnegut 4) In reality, the entire structure of the novel is meant to scream out that it is an anti-war book, or at very least contains an anti-war message. So many portions of the book point to a higher message than the one which is presented at face value, it is shocking people could assume that the book is anything besides a scathing message regarding the true nature of war. Vonnegut uses many different tactics throughout his book to prod at his message of peace, but evidently one of the biggest tactics which he uses is through the utter emasculation he subjects

The entire battalion is miserable; their location had been compromised by a enemy planes the night before, and they were forced to undergo an emergency evacuation. It doesn’t help that with every minute, the temperature seems to drop another degree, and the icy drizzle that’s been falling since morning won’t relent.

Many war novels are either written for or against the war. Throughout this class we have read many novels that were seen as anti-war but we also have read a novel that was pro war. There were many similarities and differences when it came to the different books. Such as the last book we read by Heidi Squier Kraft, Rule Number Two: Lessons I learned in a Combat Hospital, were quite different from the first 6 books we have read. This book was the only book we read that was for the war. All the others six books for against the war such as All Quiet on the Western Front, A Farewell to Arms, Goodbye, Darkness ,Slaughterhouse 5, The Things They Carried, and Redeployment. In these books readers can see that theses novels shared common perspectives and characteristics. Some book were memoirs and some were stories but all these books had one main purpose which was the war. Wars dating back to World war I to the recent Iraq war. These authors share their experiences and memories the best that they could in through these books. While reading these different war novels, these novels have expressed how the war made an impact not only through the people connected within the war but everyone else around them.