Russell Williams: A Solider With Mental Illness

By telling the story of young men coming of age in a boarding school during the critical early years of World War II, John Knowles reveals several effects of war. In his novel, Separate Peace, Knowles illuminates some of the more commonly known consequences of war, but he also neglects to discuss a few other proven impacts of war. Additionally, Knowles expresses the influence that mental illnesses can have on soldiers, the repercussions of rations on society, the changes in the school system, and the effect on the work force in America. The story artfully details these results of war, while never touching on a few other ramifications of war, like the influence on a family.

Mr. Williams was born in 1971 in Beckley, West Virginia. His mother’s parent lived in Beckley. His family was there because his father was in Vietnam.

Every 98 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. Not only Americans experience assault, multiple people encounter assault. The fact that a country, such as America, with high security makes it more astonishing because imagine how assault must be in countries with low security. The fact that assault exists shows cruelty is a natural human instinct. Although some may try to believe that Humanity is kind, others may disagree because humans discriminate, they abuse, and take the life of others, consciously and unconsciously.

You do not find many good books that deal with mental illness and the psychologically destructive forces of war, nevertheless ones that accomplish this without their author blatantly stating that they are speaking of mental illness. In this book, Kurt Vonnegut is depicting a man (Billy) who has been captured and is being held as a POW in a former slaughterhouse. There are several bombings and he eventually gets “abducted by aliens.” One of these aliens (called Tralfamadorians) told Billy, “’I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by ‘free will’ . . . Only Earth is there any talk of free will.”

The scene described above appears to be quite critical to the plot development in the movie. However, this appears nowhere in the original text. The viewer must ask him/herself why this was added and the consequences of the change.

Last week, the White House released a short, celebrity packed, 60-second public service announcement (PSA) on the topic of sexual assault. 1 is 2 Many addressed those who are in control of preventing sexual assault as its intended audience was those who can put a stop to sexual violence: the perpetrators or would-be offenders. Although this one minute announcement completed the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it failed to encompass the central issues concerning the culture of sexual assault: societal misperceptions, the victims, and the justice system. Sexual assault is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries; the culture of sexual assault is rooted in both legal practices and societal perceptions.

This movie has moments where they do a good job of portraying PTSD, but there are moments where it is not very accurate. An example of an accurate scene was when he was in jail. They were about to shave his

"Not long ago, most therapists who heard a story like Albert Grow's would have thought about what his experience in Vietnam did to his relationship with his family, his community and his sense of self. Few would have given much thought to what it did to his biochemistry. That is about to change. Grow, a policeman in Salem, New Hampshire, came back from Vietnam nearly 30 years ago on a "freezer flight"--a transport plane piled with body bags. At the Boston airport, a woman called him trash and spit in his face. Not long afterward, he punched out two coworkers in a photo lab because they wore black arm bands to honor the Vietnamese dead. After a brief stay on a psychiatric ward, he burned his Marine uniform in his parents' backyard. He avoided

“One in five women are sexually assaulted while in college” (Not Alone, 2014). In our class of twenty women that means that possibly five women have been sexually assaulted. Out of the five women that I stated could have been sexually assaulted they may have known the perpetrator and often will not report what has happened. According to the spring count of students completed by West Chester University, 9,211 of those students were females (“Headcount Enrollment”, 2014). If I go by the statistic mentioned earlier that one in five women is assaulted that would mean that 1,842 women have been sexually assaulted while enrolled at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Out of 1,842 possible assaults only four were reported last year. Two of which the victims knew prior to the assault. Rankin and Associates consulting conducted a Climate Assessment on West Chester University in September of 2010, a section of the results focused on sexual assault on students. According to the report seven people who reported a sexual assault to the university described their reactions to the universities response. Two students shared the way they felt the response was inappropriate or poor. One described that they felt the suspension for one semester was not an appropriate response to an admitted rape, that public safety lost the victims statement, judicial affairs painted the victim offender as innocent, and that the registrar protected the offender putting the victim in harm’s way and everyone

People may claim that they have witness terrible things in there live, but nothing can match the horrors a soldier witnesses on a daily basis in a warzone. One Army soldier that I know in particular, came back from the war in Afghanistan scarred both in body and soul. Mathew is one of many soldiers who suffer from a condition called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD for short). PTSD is a condition that can make a person relive the worst moments of their lives over and over. It tends to lead people such as Mathew, to become shells of their former selves. It can be beaten through time however but it leaves a lasting mark on a person's life. I have watched as Mathew's life and man he was before his time in the war in Afghanistan, was destroyed as he battled his PTSD that left a lasting scar on his mind and soul.

Frustratingly, these days, some people still treat sexual assault as an “okay” thing, making comments such as “she was asking for it” and that she was “equally responsible” for the situation. This is exactly the sort of mindset that is contributing to the startling statistics today.

Sexual violence is sickeningly commonplace. In the United States, federal data suggests a new sexual assault occurs every two minutes. (http://www.wcsap.org/how-often-does-it-happen)

A lot of sexual assault cases are not taken seriously, even though they should be. “At least 94 percent of perpetrators will not go to jail” (rainn.org). That means that the majority of the bad guys get away and can probably commit the same crime over again. Therefore making more victims of this crime. A large percentage of the victims have

When most people hear the phrase sexual abuse we all have a tendency to assume the victim is a female. It is only a myth that males are not sexually assaulted, or that it only happens in while incarcerated. Sexual assaults can happen to anyone no matter their age, sex, orientation, or even identity. In fact, in between 9-10% of all male rape survivors outside of prisons are male and 16% of men have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. These reports are only an estimate because most male survivors of sexual abuse will either never report it or they encounter barriers while trying to report it. (Male Survivors of Sexual Assault, 2015) “The U.S. Department of Justice records an average of greater than 12,000 reported sexual assaults of men annually, and predicts that if unreported assaults are included, the actual number of men who are sexually assaulted in the United States each year is approximately 60,000.” (Male Survivors of Sexual Assault, 2015)

Social Media and local news coverage of high profile famous cases of sexual assault can give a misleading perceptions of the actual cause of the problem. Some of these articles talk about the stereotype with ‘stranger danger’ sexual assault and how it is actually not true.Most people who experience sexual assault are assaulted by someone who they actually