Hurt Locker Culture

Periods of conflict often conjure a variety of texts with contradictory representations of war to either propagandise involvement or highlight its traumatic effects. Dalton Trumbo’s novel, Johnny Got His Gun and Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Mental Cases” serve to illustrate the harsh realities of war and its ramifications which are generally excluded from more modern thrillers such as Pearl Harbour (2001). Often impacted by personal experiences or the cultural and societal views of the time, creators’ individual attitudes towards war are commonly reflected in their works through the deliberate implementation of various cinematic or literary techniques that aid in the communication of specific messages to the audience.

The Vietnam war was an absolutely brutal time in American history. The war lasted for the majority of the 1960s and left many young men dead. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam give us just a glance into the war by giving using the three themes of fear, pressures, and blame/guilt to embody the concept of war and how it absolutely changes a person. War not only destroys countries, but it destroys people.

Walter Dean Myers touches on a subject that give thought to war in general in his book Sunrise Over Fallujah. Sunrise Over Fallujah focuses on the Iraq war after 9/11 and a young man’s experiences while there. The Historical significance of sunrise Over Fallujah is that the young man, Robin “Birdy” Perry, realizes shortly after arriving in Iraq that this war will not end quickly, and that he doesn’t even really understand why he is there, or why his country, for that matter is there. There is a lot from Sunrise Over Fallujah that relates to real life occurrences and thoughts in and about the war in Iraq.

Society’s perception on war is often clouded by popular media. Action packed movies with fictional war heroes, and video games set in past wars, are examples of such hyperbole. It is outlets like these that raise society’s expectations of soldiers into unrealistic ideas. While it may seem as black and white as killing the bad guy, majority of the population does not consider the long term effects war may have on soldiers. Most movies portray soldiers as emotionless killing machines and leave out the lifelong psychological effects war can have on a person. Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried is a look into the mind of a soldier in the middle of war. In the book, we learn of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, a soldier who is carrying the guilt

Over the past few decades, the war changed everyone’s perspective. According to NCBI, 61% civilians suffer from psychological disorders caused by wars. Specifically, two books, Night and Persepolis, talks about the author experiences during the war and their struggles. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, documents his childhood when he was maltreated by the Nazis, and Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, share her experiences during the Iraq-Iran war of how it change her. War changes childhood because of near-death experiences, family departure, and witness horrific acts of violence.

The reader can interpret that the war depicts these kids as adult soldiers who are responsible for the safety of many people. However, the O’ Brien depicts the soldiers in this book as kids. The reader can see that these soldiers are just kids because of how they love playing pranks and blowing things up. Also, this quote gives the reader a sense of human perspective on the war because it still shows how innocent these kids are and that these kids have still not seen the affect war has on someone. In conclusion, the book liberates us from facts and statistics and it provides us with a much broader and more human perspective on the war because of how the soldiers write about their fear and it shows that they are still human and have feelings and not pure soldiers.

War is something that is hard to forget. War can change someone forever. In a war, people see each other die and that is hard to forget. A literary example of a story that demonstrates the effects of war is "The Things They Carried" by Tim O' Brien. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is busy looking at a picture of Martha and one of his men dies because of him. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross burns everything that is related to Martha and tries to lead his men to survival. Based on the use of characterization and symbolism in "The Things They Carried", Tim O' Brien argues that war forces people to abandon their attachment to people they care about in order to survive.

The collection of poems “Theater”, “Water”, and “Safe House” by Solmaz Sharif shows the varied viewpoints of how war affects the speakers and how death is all too common in the midst of warfare. The author uses a spectrum of literary techniques to enhance the experience of the reader, so we can fully grasp the severity of each speaker’s plight. All of Sharif’s poems differ in form with the use of white space and indentations in “Theater”, colons in “Water”, and a style of abecedarian using the letter S in “Safe House”. While her diverse use of forms generate different emotions from the reader, they share the same notion of how violence is problematic. Each poem has a unique outlook to the sight of war: “Theater” being in the position of a victim and an assailant of war, “Water” explaining a war mission and fatalities in terse terms, and “Safe House” as an observer of an activist against war. Sharif’s strategy to exemplify the effects of how war affects the victim and the civilian is particularly critical because mass media tends to hide the collateral damage of war and only illustrates why we should attack the “enemy”. Another approach the author uses to critique the speakers central conflicts is by arranging words from the US Department of Defense 's Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, to concur with the message of the several ways war influences the lives of those who are unwillingly encompassed by it. Sharif uses poetry as an outlet to show the underlying tone

“The Hurt Locker” by film maker Kathryn Bigelow conveys the theme of the movie at the very beginning. The theme is a simple quote by Chris Hedges which states, “The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” (Hedges)The film 's greatest achievement is its ability to communicate the underlying truth of this quote consistently throughout the movie. Sergeant First Class William James, played by James Renner, captures this message through his job description, dialogue, and demeanor, as well as his obstinate/erratic behaviors. The creative selective style of slow motion effects, instability of camera movement, and the intense sound/visual effects clearly evokes the chaos and confusion that is associated with any drug/addiction. The location, scenery and lighting contribute to the feel of realism.

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.

In the film, the soldiers fought very hard. They went through a lot in this war. They had to defend themselves and their territory. Often times they ran low on food and water. A ton of men died everyday when they were fighting. The soldiers had to deal with orders that were not necessarily smart orders. They had to protect themselves against Germany.

John F. Kennedy quoted “Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” It affects people more than they think. These stories show how the war hits closer to home. The effects of the war are more deadly than people can imagine. It affects their lives to where death is something they are not afraid of. “Thunder and Roses” and “Chippoke Na Gomi” are examples that show how people lives are affected.

The Hurt Locker can give almost anybody the nerves with its numerous suspenseful moments. But what lies inside all the tension filled scenes is a much deeper meaning. Kathryn Bigelow stresses an important message in this Oscar-winning epic. Although the film depicts the gruesome horrors of war, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker is not an anti-war film. The Hurt Locker is a film about James’s addiction to war because it shows his desire tension risk filled scenes, his lack of resentment for the war, and his inability to integrate himself back into “normal society”

“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” This quote is the first thing that flashes across the screen as viewers begin their journey into The Hurt Locker, a critically acclaimed war movie written by Mark Boal and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt). The quote was written by former New York Times war correspondent, Chris Hedges and it perfectly sets the stage for a story that depicts just how potent and addicting war can be (Corliss). The 2008 movie won six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role (“Nominees & Winners”). The Hurt Locker is an exceptional movie that contains everything one would expect from an award-winning film:

“The effective war film is often the one in which the action begins after the war, when there is nothing but ruins and desolation everywhere…”