I have since heard the book and its message described as fascistic, provocative, irresponsible, unpalatable. This it may well be. Yet I found reading his book to be an amazingly sobering and dispiriting affair. One can really drink up the spirit of a man in reading his prose, and I fear Heinlein to be not someone with whom I want to share a beer or be friends. I read later that he was a career military officer who developed tuberculosis and was invalided out of the fleet to a literary career. There hangs about this book a severe and cynical air of wounded world-weariness, as if life is a dreary and dangerous affair requiring toughness and discipline to survive. He nearly models Sparta in his apotheosis of rigorous military training as …show more content…
But what about the heroes of the mind and the spirit? What about those heroes who give inspiration to fallible persons prone to despair? What about the battle between good and evil which rages inside everyone of us everyday? The struggle to find meaning in a life worth living? I would argue they are at least as important to a society worth living in. Who among us in the dark of a long night has not contemplated suicide? Who will make the argument in Heinlein's world not to do so? In my opinion, Heinlein's world is one in which I daresay not many people would like to live - where suicide might even be understandable! Our world - for all its barbarity, "decadence," hatred, chaos - is also one with art, love, and, most importantly, hope. We might live in a "hard cold world" where "life sucks and then you die," as one hears cynically stated in the streets. But that is not all that it is! Not by a long shot! And I would argue that point until I am blue in the face! Of all the evils - disease, cruelty, poverty, death - which Zeus placed in Pandora's box, he did place one good thing lastly without which life is unbearable: hope.
I dare to hope my descendents will not be hopping around hostile planets in powered suits dropping thermonuclear weapons onto alien creatures; that homo sapiens will be as cruel and violent a species in the future as they are presently is a concept almost enough to kill hope. I would kill if I have to; but I will live for my fellow
It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.
Starship Troopers may be a satire of a fascist state or an apology for fascist ideology or neither (I don’t pretend to know which). In any case, it is a depiction of a possible state of affairs that could theoretically arise out of a futuristic fascist regime. The ideology advocated by this state, and for the most part by its subjects, is one that treats
It is obvious from the opening chapter that this novel will center on the war and the effects it has on a young group of soldiers, none of them more than twenty years of age. They are all friends and former classmates of Paul Baumer, the narrator and protagonist of the book; they have enlisted in the German infantry because their teacher, Kantorek, had painted for them a glorious picture of fighting and saving the homeland from destruction during World War I. In this first chapter, Baumer and his friends are away from the front lines, relaxing a bit after two weeks of fierce fighting. As each of the young men is introduced, it is apparent that they are tired, hungry, angry, and disillusioned over the war.
At this point in the book, Malle has succesfully introduced to the reader a controversial theme which demands a lot of thought and consideration, as we are made aware that not all German soldiers had the same principles.
Not only should this book be recommended to other A.P. US History students, it should be read by people regardless of their age. It allows the reader to fully visualize what the soldiers saw, heard, experienced, and felt. While reading, an atmosphere is created in which the reader is transported to that specific moment in time and can envision themselves on the
The creator and director of Star Wars, George Lucas, was incredibly successful for his movie series, but even more successful for its overall purpose: to sell toys to ten-year old boys. The use of ethos, pathos, and logos are very abundant in this movie. Ethos, Greek for “character”, is anything referring to or relying on the author’s credibility. Pathos, Greek for “emotional”, is anything that makes you feel emotion. Logos, Greek for “word”, is anything that makes you think. By using these he was able to persuade the audience into thinking, feeling, and loving Star Wars, making the audience want to purchase figurines.
The Novum presented in Starship Troopers is the rule of the Veterans and the resulting primacy of the military. This Novum sets the novel up as a utopic pandering to a readership demographic that the author himself is a member of. This is a normative sci-fi construction. Starship Troopers deviates in that the true target readership is the young man who has not yet been given a chance to join up. He is meant to gain a favorable understanding of the military man by sharing in his dream. The dream then - the world created – is the persuasive device.
In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the picture of World War I to the reader. This book is the story of Paul Baumer, who with his classmates recruits in the German Army of World War I. This anti-war novel is an excellent book because through the experiences of Paul Baumer, I am able to actually feel like I'm in the war. It is a very useful piece of literature, which increases the readers' knowledge on how the war affected the people at the time setting. By reading this book, one is drawn into the actual events of the war, and can feel the abyss of death. I believe this piece is very well written. It is entirely simple, lacking any bias
Critics Nibir Ghosh, Leon Seltzer, and Sanford Pinsker argue that human behavior is corrupted and confused by fighting in wars, and that the oppressive military system is what defiles the morality of the soldiers. The three critics similarly reflect on how Heller’s satirical writing style adds to the confusion and how the rigid military structure pushes men to insanity. Ghosh and Seltzer both analyze how each man’s struggle to remain sane and alive opposes the military bureaucracy’s ideas and systems of power. Pinsker’s ideas differ slightly, because he instead analyzes how the public views the corruption and absurdity of the military after Catch 22 was written.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is final chapter in an epic story of good versus evil. The script was written by George Lucas and was released in theatres on May 25, 1983 (IMDb.com). It was the third film released in the Star Wars saga, following Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (IMDb.com). At the time, Episode VI concluded the story of Luke Skywalker and his Rebel friends fighting against Darth Vader and the evil Empire.
Star Wars: A New Hope, brought forth a diversification in the industry of not just a science fiction film, but a contemporary aspect of film in the late 1900’s. On the 25th of May 1977 George Lucas released a two hour journey through a dreamlike universe in which this exceptional exploration takes place. Star Wars fabricated the start of the science fiction film era. Science fiction provides an incogitable world that alters the thoughts of general world, and offers a chance for the reader or viewer to relate the altered world to their world. Star Wars offered this to dreamers of that time and bestowed a escape from reality on its viewers. This is illustrated when ¨Luke¨ played by Mark Hamill takes his first steps into a truly legendary expedition across the galactic universe. Luke is not alone on his dangersome journey along the way he finds his Mentor ¨Obi-Wan Kenobi¨ played by the ingenious actor Alec Guinness. Luke´s journey across the galaxy is distinctly related to The Hero Cycle, composed by Joseph Campbell. The Hero Cycle explains the events in which a character grows into a hero and fights their way through a fatal battle all to obtain elixir or experience. In this essay I will illustrate how Star Wars: A New Hope relates to The Hero Cycle.
Combining all these serious themes into a very entertaining book should attract many readers. However, there was some confusion with the story line. Since this book is a collection of interviews, it wasn’t a conventional story. When I first started the book, I wasn’t sure why I was jumping from country to country and why each story was completely different. As I continued to read the book, I was able to understand that these were a collection of eyewitness accounts of the war. Also, Max Brooks uses a rife amount of vulgar language which I think could have been kept out. However, it made it real and that’s what this book is about.
Colonization has always been present throughout the ages, and has certainly psychologically impacted those of the colonized region. Cultural confusion caused by colonization has resulted in the bafflement and unsureness of their cultural and political viewpoints. In the film “Empire of the Sun”, we see Jamie Graham, being born in China and having no knowledge of his place of heritage, England, while admiring Japan, the country attacking his homeland, China, which is the result of having cultural confusion resulted from colonization. We see his admiration of the Japanese, his nativeness towards the Chinese and his disregards of the English through his words when talking about the War. This results with a differed viewpoint of the war, with his Chinese nativeness, English disregards, and Japanese admiration, than his parents (who have a different viewpoint due to their birthplace. England). His cultural beliefs are quite confusing (hence “Cultural Confusion”) because in states in the beginning that the war (or so he thinks) is between the British/Japanese against the Chinese, but the British say that China aren’t even an enemy, the Japanese are. Thus, due to his cultural confusion, Jamie Graham’s standpoint on the three countries involved in the war, Japan, China, and England, has resulted in the complexity of his stance and thoughts towards the war.
When I was a kid, my favorite Star Wars movie was Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. To be more accurate, my favorite sequence in any Star wars film was the battle of Geonosis. The years between this film and its sequel were spent reenacting the battle with my action figures. Despite my love for that fight, even at my young age I realized the rest of the film wasn’t as good as the climax. The same holds true now, as Attack of the Clones is only marginally better than its predecessor.
The history of life has shown it to evolve towards progression. But, let's be intellectually honest with ourselves here, as a species modern man is only about 195,000 years old (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/recent.html#omo). Who knows maybe due to science and the ability to reason our species will continue to actively influence evolution, and speed up the process. It's possible it won't take another 195,000 years for us to evolve beyond our refined parasitic means of survival. It is otherwise idealistic to not at least acknowledge Statism and wars themselves will be with us for the foreseeable future. However, we may see the day come in our lifetime when genocide remains in the museum, and the occurrence of people dying from starvation or poverty is eradicated. Now that would be something worth being proud