Short Story : The 5th Wave

On a cold winter, rainy night while driving from one duty station to the next was where my vehicle spun around, flipping, tossing and causing my life to unfold and facing a loss like no other. The turmoil of life hit me hard just from this single tragedy alone. My vehicle was totaled, I loss conscious and was rushed to the hospital. Never expected such an incident to occur so abruptly and rob me of all my self-worth. I’ve became someone, someone incapacitated, not able to function like I normally should.

It’s a struggle to get out of bed sometimes, I often just sit there struggling to comprehend the sequence of events which have taken place over the past year. I mean, I’m used to this now, its normal to me, but the fact that this has happened and that I am now ‘disabled’ as people would put it is hard to get my head around. And every time I look down I’m reminded of the pain and the struggle I faced, it’s a physical scar which links me to my grueling past, a physical and emotional journey.

I still remember it as if it was yesterday, waking up with a throbbing left ankle that I had broken while snowboarding not 2 and half months earlier. Hobbling out the door in the snow as I went to the car, thinking that I should be on leave and enjoying the snow, but instead I was going to work. We were conducting a military deployment exercise, and I didn’t want to be at work. I was a gorgeous day outside; the sun was shining, no wind to speak of, and it was a breathtaking day. Nonetheless, there was an eerie calm, despite being in a mock deployment line all day.

In the book The 5th Wave, Cassie sullivan is surviving during what would be considered ‘the end of the world’. In the beginning of the novel, a large alien ship appears in the sky and begins to cause catastrophes known as ‘waves’. Over the course of only a few months, most of the human race has been eliminated. The ‘waves’ range from electromagnetic pulses to wipe out human technology, to deadly disease. Cassie, her father, and her younger brother Sam have decided to leave their home and look for refuge somewhere else. They find a camp of survivors, and her and her father are being questioned separately by the leaders of the camp. I chose to annotate page 59 because it gives important information on Cassie’s personality and the overall theme

Many people these days take their health and body for granted. Imagine losing the ability to walk suddenly due to an accident or a disease. This is exactly what had happened to Nancy Mairs, author of the essay “On Being a Cripple.” She herself had lost her ability to walk normally when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis or MS, a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system. Her essay talks about her life and dealing with MS. The purpose of the essay is to show how being crippled affects your life and how to stay positive and deal with it.

The fear of the POW prison camps still lurks in Louie’s mind and every prisoner returning home. To sooth their war-torn minds and souls many veterans turned to alcohol for comfort;in fact, Louie was one of those who turned to alcohol to ease his mind. Drinking made Louie violent and full of rage and if life is going to get any better something had to change. Louie’s determination like a presidential race pushed him to overcome insurmountable obstacles and refused to admit defeat. One night Louie attended a sermon and something clicked in Louie reminding him of a promise he made to God:”If you will save me, I will serve you forever”(382). That night when Louie arrived home,”He carried the bottles to the kitchen sink, opened them, and poured their contents into the drain”(383), this was the beginning of the new and improved Louie. Later Louie created a camp to help young boys who’ve gone through the same experiences as him, such as getting into fist fights or creating trouble with the law. When Louie wasn’t with boys at camp he gave speeches of his experiences. As years passed Louie was still climbing, running, and taking on new activities like skateboarding: “‘When I get old,’ he said as he tossed a football on the Kwajalein beach,”’I’ll let you know’”(392). If Louie could stand he was moving. The determination Louie possessed to help others, do what he loved, and persevere through the hardships of if never escaped

During my junior year of high school, my father made the difficult decision to go live at the Veterans’ Home. For thirty-five years he had lived with Multiple Sclerosis, a debilitating disease characterized by the destruction of the myelin sheath insulating the nerve cells. This degradation affects all movement by slowing or altogether halting nerve impulses to the muscles. As a result, my father became permanently wheelchair-bound around the time I started kindergarten. By my junior year of high school, he struggled with even simple tasks such as writing, dressing, grooming, and eating. It reached the point where he could no longer live at home without round-the-clock care. This revelation was earth-shattering but not a shock. It was yet another natural progression of the disease. Still, this did not prepare me for the emotions I experienced.

These lies that Cassie’s dad told her are all proof that Cassie's father’s love for his children resulted in him lying to them in order to keep them safe, and ultimately his death. Finally, love driving people to go beyond their limits is such an important theme in The 5th Wave

I will use this as a resource to understand how a veteran will feel like about the post war and their experiences in my essay. This source provides information such as what is require to be done, in order to care for a veteran. I will use this source as an introduction to how a veteran might feel like as being a patient and the perspective of the nurses who care for veterans. For example, in this journal there have been 3 case studies that the author had written about 3 different veterans. The case studies talked about the veteran’s life back into the society after the war after losing different body parts. In “Disable”, the context of the poem was similar to the first case study; therefore, I will relate how this source and poem are related to the society

War is an experience that is difficult to understand and describe. Imagine coming back from war and not having the love, comfort, or support from your loved ones to help you move on with your life. How would one feel in that situation? According to the way Tim O’Brien told the stories of the soldiers in The Things They Carried, they either knew how to cope or didn’t.

The writer of “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs, describes her life as difficult, but not entirely worth the cure. The writer struggles with multiple sclerosis, a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system, in which had weakened the left side of her body into wearing a cane. She experiences society pressures, false interactions, and many hard situations of having a body that hardly works. However, she carefully names herself as a “cripple”, and remains proud with being just that. The author never had any control over receiving this disease, however she had enough control in order to keep living with it.

Developing a desire to give back to our nation’s heroes led me to become involved with a Disabled American Veterans program that aids local veterans by offering them an opportunity to seek assistance for everyday tasks. Creating connections with a few of the veterans prompted an invitation to participate in their monthly chapter meetings where I discovered that our conversations left a lasting impact on me; hearing their life stories of successes and struggles is eye opening. Although a majority of group members has a disability from their service to our country, they remain the most humble individuals one will ever meet. Additionally, my time with these heroes wills me to become more intrinsically motivated in finding ways to continue to

How would people act or feel if their body is slowly weakening? Nancy Mairs, The author in the story “On Being A Cripple” shows that being a cripple does not make you different than anyone else. She also shows the reader that discriminating yourself will not just make it worse but it will be a disaster. To her she is a normal person but to others they see a “disabled” or “handicapped”.By using her experience on being a cripple, Mairs effectively draws the audience into her argument and shows them the good and the bad side of her condition. She uses many strategies that will make it easy for the readers to understand her essay. Mairs uses vivid descriptions, experience and her emotion to describe her life as

The Others, or aliens, attack in the forms of waves. Cassie’s parents died during the earlier attacks, and they left Cassie on her own to take care of Sam. “‘Don’t let them get me, Cassie. Don’t let me die.’ ‘You’re not going to die, Sams.’ ‘Promise?’ I promised” (Yancey 69). When Cassie loses her parents, she is forced to become a “parent” and take care of Sam. This experience helps Cassie become more adultlike. As Cassie continues to watch out for her younger brother, they get separated and Cassie continues to try taking care of him. Sammy is taken away to a camp and Cassie still wants to keep him safe. “‘I'll protect him, I'll watch him, I won't let anything happen to him’ I pleaded" (Yancey 81). Cassie starts to stand up for Sammy and tries to keep him from going on the bus. She feels the need to take care of him although she knows it may get her hurt. Later on in the book, Cassie is willing to sacrifice herself for her brother which shows that she is growing and maturing as a person. “He nods. 'It's the only possible way-but just because something is possible doesn't mean it's suicidal.’ [...] I insist” (Yancey 367). Cassie’s character develops when she begins to fight for Sammy in the death camp. When people go through tough times in life, they have to accept the problems in order to grow as a person. One must learn to accept a

During an afternoon bike ride she was struck by a car, leaving her paralyzed. She was rushed to the hospital where she was nursed back to health before beginning her next life challenge. “…a bike accident left her paralyzed from the chest down. Downing threw herself into rehab and--on top of learning how to care for herself--mastered the challenge of using a handcycle and a racing chair” (Balmain). Downing did not allow an accident to stop her. After being treated at the hospital she began rehab to get back up and start tackling challenges. She began to work towards athletic training with handcycles and racing wheelchairs. She overcame these very different types of sports that she has had no experience with and became a pro at them. Downing is not a person that will give up, no matter how tragic of a place she is