Suleiman's The Time That Remains: A Semi-Autobiographical Film

Against the idea of conquering the enemy, the soldiers are saying, “We have learned who our enemies are – the lice, some of our officers, and Death.” Against the idea of war’s comradeship, a scene in which soldiers fight each other like animals over a crust of bread is created.

Conflict often has harmful effects, including causing death and destruction, so it is usually viewed negatively. However, conflict can also bring out positive traits in people, and the people involved in it may be respected. “Bayonet Charge” imagines a soldier’s experience in battle. “The Charge of The Light Brigade” recounts the story of the charge made by the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava.

War is a serious topic that has been around for as long as anyone can remember. Heller’s novel, is a comedy about soldiers during WWII. Yet, when observed closely, these “comic” scenes are actually quite tragic just as most things related to war are.

As Khalifeh predominantly manifests the Palestinian struggle through the main character of Usama, it gives the reader a very narrow–minded view of the issues faced in Palestine.

Prominently featured in the mission statements of virtually of every medical school and medical institution in the world is the call for empathetic doctors. These institutions wish to train medical professionals that possess qualities of sympathy and compassion, and hospitals wish to employ health professionals that showcase similar qualities. The reality, however, is starkly different, as physicians, jaded by what they have seen in the medical world, lose the qualities that drove them to medicine in the first place. In Frank Huyler’s “The Blood of Strangers,” a collection of short stories from his time as a physician in the emergency room, Huyler uses the literary techniques of irony and imagery to depict the reality of the world of a medical professional. While Huyler provides several examples of both techniques in his accounts, moments from “A Difference of Opinion” and “The Secret” in particular stand out. Huyler uses irony and imagery in these two pieces to describe how medical professionals have lost their sense of compassion and empathy due to being jaded and desensitized by the awful incidents they have witnessed during their careers.

Furthermore, the Israeli occupation of Palestine that the film depicts is a part of the 2000-2005 second intifada between the two nations (Manekin, 2013). Nablus, in Palestine is where Said and Khaled are based, and the mission is to take place in Tel Aviv across the border. A noticeable feature of the movie is the concept of deadness, the two main characters are not suicidal but the life they are trapped in has created a sense of them being dead already (Nashef, 2016) this is represented by the oppression and the lack of opportunity that is present. This theme can be further seen in their town – Nablus. Due to the conflict, the landscape and infrastructure is bleak, destroyed and very much discarded. The depiction of the lifestyle experienced during that period of conflict, highlighted to me potential motivations.

In the next stanza, the poet describes “A figure walking towards cloaked in blue/ Beeping/ Tubes/ Needles.” The poem addresses the routinely and monotonous aspect of being in the hospital for long periods of time. It is a critique of the biomedical model and how the hospital system is created where patients are tended to by multiple doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. The patients and healthcare professionals are unable to form a relationship that consists of what Kleinman describes as “empathetic witnessing” (Kleinman). Therefore, detachment between patient and health workers is developed and established, to which the patient cannot recognize or know the people assisting them. In addition, Grealy discusses this in her earliest accounts and appointments with doctors. She states that there is a layer of “condescension” and is an “endemic in the medical

. . . Like I was losing myself, everything spilling out” (O’Brien 202). Provided with only laconic, expository definitions, an audience cannot truly feel the pains of war. O’Brien utilizes descriptions which evoke all the senses and submerge the audience in the unique and powerful sensations of war. Witnessing war’s pains through the familiar tactile crunch of an ornament or the splash of liquid spilling, the audience can immediately understand the inconceivable pressure placed on the soldier’s injured body. O’Brien continues, “All I could do was scream. . . . I tightened up and squeezed. . . . then I slipped under for a while” (203). His abrupt syntax and terse diction conveys a quickness to these events. Not bothering with extraneous adornment, his raw images transport the audience to the urgency of the moment and the severity of the pain. Now supplied with an eyewitness’s perspective of war’s injuries, the audience can begin to recognize the significance of the suffering. O’Brien tells his audience, “Tinny sounds get heightened and distorted. . . . There was rifle fire somewhere off to my right, and people yelling, except none of it seemed real anymore. I smelled myself dying” (203). In the same frame, O’Brien paints the rumbling chaos of the big war juxtaposed with the slow death of the small individual. His description emphasizes the purposeless discord and confusion of war and seeks to condemn its disorder. He argues that war’s lack of

As an illustration, the author describes the scenery of the battlefield, “The most vivid images of the war show soldiers facing the hardships and terrors of battle. Some confronted the enemy in well-defined battles in the highlands. Others cut their way through the jungle, where they heard but seldom saw the enemy. Still others waded through rice paddies and searched rural villages for guerrillas… They were rarely safe. Enemy rockets and mortars could--and did--strike anywhere” (Boyer 2). By using descriptive language, the author illustrates the soldiers surroundings and evoke the reader’s sense of terror. With this in mind, this gives the readers a better understanding of how inhumane war is and how the severity of war torments soldiers by them through physiological traumatizing experiences. Furthermore, the author quotes a nurse recalling her experiences in a field hospital, “We really saw the worse of it, because the nurses never saw any of the victories...I remember one boy who was brought in missing two legs and an arm, and his eyes were bandaged. A general came in later and pinned a Purple Heart on the boy’s hospital gown, and the horror of it all was so amazing that it just took my breath away. You thought, was this supposed to be an even trade?” (Boyer 2). By using imagery, the author cites a nurse who describes the boy’s injuries in detail and appeals

In the book it says “A hospital alone shows what war is” and in just those seven words, the author is able to trigger the reader's emotions. This emotion is rather different than the two previous emotions, this quotation would make the reader feel small, insignificant. This would make the reader feel that in their lives, their problems are miniscule. In everyday life, nobody would say that a hospital is the perfect way to describe our almost always perfectly peachy lives. Our “problems” are basically nothing. Getting a bad grade, fighting with your best friend, a breakup with your boyfriend, all of those regular people problems, they are all nothing compared to the problems the men and women who fight for our country face every single day. For someone to say that a hospital, full of wounded soldiers is the way to describe their everyday lives, war must be something I could never even imagine. That makes me, the reader, feel insignificant, and rather

Joe Sacco's graphic novel, Palestine, deals with the repercussions of the first intifada in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land. The story follows the author through the many refugee camps and towns around Palestine as he tries to gather information, stories, and pictures to construct his graphic novel. While the book is enjoyable at a face level, there are many underlying themes conveyed throughout its illustrated pages and written text.

The movie begins with Simon Srebnik going back to Chelmno, he is one of the two survivors. He was taken to Chelmno when he was thirteen, his father was killed in front of him, and his mother died in the gas vans. He was known throughout the camp for his agility and his beautiful singing voice. Before abandoning the camp the Nazis shot everyone, including him, in the head. He was left for dead, but was found and survived. Simon went back to tell of the experience he had. He cannot believe what happened as he walks along what is left of the frame of the buildings. He said that 2,000 were burnt per day, but he remembers the camp as being peaceful. No one ever shouted, they just went about their work. He was forced to go up the river, under

The color symbolism of the white hospital room and the red tulips juxtapose the peacefulness of the hospital room with the speaker’s internal conflict regarding their responsibilities.

Prior to traveling together to Africa has been suspended by the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X still decides to go to Africa but Ali refuses to speak to him and respects the Nation of Islam’s decision to suspend him. As Muhammad Ali returned to the United States he is stripped of his heavyweight championship, boxing license, passport suspended and sent to jail for refusal to be drafted during the Vietnam War. Muhammad Ali left the sport of boxing for three years until his conviction was overturned and challenges Joe Frazier to a boxing match so he can regain his heavyweight championship. Joe Frazier defeats Ali and gives him his first loss of his career. Joe Frazier then loses his championship to George Foreman. Ali then challenges Foreman and goes to Zaire to face him for the title. While in Africa Ali has an affair with a woman named Veronica Porsche. Ali’s wife, Belinda Ali, found out and he is unsure about his love for either of the women. During the title fight Ali has been taking a defensive approach and is allowing Foreman to wildly swing at him to get him fatigued quickly. Ali’s strategy was proven successful when he takes advantage of Foreman’s fatigue and goes on the offensive and knocks Foreman out. The movie ends with Muhammad Ali regaining the Heavyweight Championship.

The graphic novel Palestine, published by Maltan journalist Joe Sacco in the early ‘90s, is a journalistic piece that represents his recollections of two months spent talking to and living with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The casual narrative style, which some might say is too shallow for such heavy subject matter, in fact allows Sacco to avoid many of the pit falls that have made Western reporting on non-Western conflicts unhelpful at the very least and more often incredibly damaging.