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The Bridge Over The River Kwai Analysis

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Prisoner of war camps are where soldiers who are captured by the enemy go until the war is over. Whether it is purposeful or not, the conditions of these camps are terrible. The prisoners lack the necessities of life needed to survive the long period of time that they are held captive at these prison camps. Both in King Rat and The Bridge over the River Kwai, the prisoners are faced with uninhabitable conditions. King Rat takes place during World War II where the American, King, his fellow soldiers, and other soldiers from other countries are held captive in Changi by the Japanese. King survives through the nightmare which is the camp rather well by using his advanced trading skills to make money and using it to gain power. In the camp, the prisoners have to survive without adequate clothes, good …show more content…

Moreover, with the high rate of prisoners getting sick with that disease, quinine has to be authorized by doctors only. Nevertheless, these lack of supplies doesn’t stop the japanese from continuing to make the prisoners do backbreaking work. In the Changi camp, there are groups of prisoners who go out to cut down trees in the forest. Other than it being back-breaking work, it can also become fatal. One of King’s close friends, Peter Marlowe, gets his arm caught between a tree stump and a trailer. Iron-hard barbs of wood rip into his skin and the weight of the stump almost crushes his bones. The wound he gets becomes infected and because of the lack of medical supplies needed to clean and heal the wound, it has to be amputated. Fortunately, King is able to use his money and power to buy the proper medicine and pay someone to clean the wound. Another glaring problem of the camp are the meager rations. A prisoner only receives 4 ounces of rice daily with miniscule sides of beef, dried fish, gula malacca, salt and pepper, peppercorns,

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