The Emotional Impacts Of War

The fly, much like The Boss, experienced uncontrollable life changing distress that will alter the way it continues to live. After several attempts to save itself, the fly could no longer continue fighting and was left with no other choice but to die. “Nothing happened or was likely to happen. The fly was dead.” (278) In both situations

Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel that is a personal view of the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese soldier. Like the American novel “The things they carried”, this novel brings about the effects of war on people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for things such as love and hope. Bao Ninh offers this realistic picture of the Vietnam War’s impact on the individual Vietnamese soldier through use of a series of reminiscences or flashbacks, jumping backwards and forwards in time between the events most salient in memory, events which take on a different theme each time they are examined. His main protagonist Kien, who is basically Bao himself, looks back not just at his ten years at

The wartime lives of the soldiers who fought in the war were in a state of mind of mixed feelings. Happiness and devastating are two adjectives that can describe the soldier’s feelings in the war because at one second they can be happy that they succeeded on a mission, but on the other hand, it can be very devastating because one of their own soldiers could have been killed during the war. Aside from physical danger losing one of your own soldiers or having your family worry about you every day and night are some negatives and unpleasant parts about fighting in a war. For example, soldiers loved ones worried each day, and hoped that they would not get a knock on their door by someone who was going to tell them that their fathers, husbands, sons, or brothers have died in the war.

When he heard the noise, it interrupted the calm air surrounding himself. The stillness had been like the instances of pause between heaves in a storm, suggesting that the death experience was not pleasant to begin with, and the fly’s appearance just made it worse. The speaker saw that the people around himself were crying their eyes out, and they were “wrung dry.” The people around him were also breathing rapidly, gathering their breaths into an area, giving the atmosphere an almost frantic feeling. This frantic feeling is also, in part, due to the last “onset”, or ‘beginning of something unpleasant’, when the “king” will ‘display’ his powers in this situation- meaning that the “king”, is death, and his power would be taking the life/soul of the deceased person in question, i.e., the speaker. The speaker moves on to say they have signed all of their earthly keepsakes away in their will, and they are interrupted by the interposition of the fly. The fly is unexpected, and it interrupts the speaker’s thoughts about the world and its’ affairs. In this case, the fly effectively cuts off the speaker’s thoughts about the world, and pushes him towards thoughts of the afterlife/otherworld. With this idea in play, the fly can be considered as an evil entity heralding him to the beginning of the afterlife outside of worldly events. The speaker then begins to

He overwhelms his son by taking control of his future and planning out his life. The boss’s plan for his son is to take over the business which gives the son no other choices or opportunities concerning his future. “Ever since his birth, the boss has worked at building up his business for him; it had no other meaning if it was not for the boy” (Mansfield 508). It seems as though the physical action of the boss smothering the fly is associated with the sufferings that his son has experienced. Both the boss’s son and the fly go through similar yet different forms of suffering throughout their lives. Interestingly, while the fly is struggling to live, the boss utters, “Come on, Look Sharp” (Mansfield 509), just as he would say to his suffering son. Both the fly and victims of wartime fighting (his son) are innocently killed by cruel forces over which they have no control (Schoenberg).

It can be hard to fully comprehend the effects the Vietnam War had on not just the veterans, but the nation as a whole. The violent battles and acts of war became all too common during the long years of the conflict. The war warped the soldiers and civilians characters and desensitized their mentalities to the cruelty seen on the battlefield. Bao Ninh and Tim O’Brien, both veterans of the war, narrate their experiences of the war and use the loss of love as a metaphor for the detrimental effects of the years of fighting.

I can tell that Winston is distraught at this moment because he realizes a lot of monumental things involving his life. I could not imagine being involved in a war and having all my decisions controlled for me. But I can relate to him because he knew he had the chance at happiness, but by the time happiness is in reach their life will be over. In my life I can relate because, when my dad returns back to the United States and lives near me, I will already be away at college and will be too late.

How does war affect people? War affects people, by what they have to see. They see people dying, and struggling. “The giggles were caught in his throat, drowning him in his own laughter: scared to death like Billy Boy” (O’Brien 203). They have to deal with the physical damage that it causes them, the loud sounds, and if they were to get shot or lose any ligaments. They also would have to deal with the emotional damage it would cause them, they have seen gruesome things that not many others see, the image imprinted in their minds, always there to remember.

In the short story The Fly, readers are introduced to the world of grief and coping through a snapshot into the life of a grieving father. It raises the question as to whether it is better to forget and let go or hold on to the precious memories we have with loved ones no matter the hurt. Traditionally strong emotions and grief are associated with female characters. However the boss gives readers an opportunity to delve into the masculine emotions that are often times hidden. This journey through emotion and longing also demonstrates how as humans we sometimes find joy in our pain. To let go of grief and pain means to let go of pieces of ourselves. The selfishness that encompasses this realization is present throughout.

When asked how he felt about the deaths of 9 /11, Pablo Sequera , a 22 year old US army soldier in Iraq said "I wanted to bomb the fuck out of every single one of them towel heads". Now fighting in Iraq he says he has grown more sympathy and understanding toward Middle Eastern people. "Actually being up close, watching how they live every day in violence, has given me even more ambition to help them gain freedom" said Sequera. War will always change a person whether it's physically or mentally, a soldier never leaves the way he came in. The smells of gunfire, the loud ping of bullets bouncing off of metal, the vibrations of grenades exploding nearby, and the taste of their own fear climbing up into their throat will always remain close to

The emotionless boss would show his grief through the torturing of a fly as an antidepressant to relieve the inferred pain he is having for his deceased son. The short story inferred that the setting was post Second World War and his son had most likely died fighting in the war while the boss had major plans for him when he returned. When Woodifield left, the boss wanted sometime to himself and did not want any disturbance as soon as he was alone, “... the fat body plumped down in the spring chair, and leaning forward, the boss covered his face with his hands. He wanted, he intended, he had arranged to weep....”. The boss was probably anticipating that his son would come back, inherit and take over his business when he retires… six years ago. The boss might have also have not had the best relationship with his son and might even had a disagreement before going to war and now his guilt is taking over him and for him to forget his grief, he decided to play with a fly’s life. That fly could be represented as the son who died in the battlefield where he might have been tortured mercilessly before being killed. Sometimes grief and despair does not have a time frame as the boss has been mourning for six years and people tend to keep themselves busy in order to forget the pain which is probably the reason why the boss is still alive even though his spirit is at its breaking point. The boss does not realize he had a hand in his son’s death as the author described his actions towards the fly and how he took advantage of it and not seeing that what he does slowly killed his son and probably goes for his environment as well because the boss does not have friends except for Woodifield.

In World War I many soldiers lost their lives fighting for their country. Significant and lasting damage occurs not only on the battlefield. In “The Fly” Kathrine Mansfield examines the trauma which especially family members experience. She introduces the boss as a strong and successful character who is in control during the conversation with his friend Mr. Woodifield. This changes when the latter addresses the boss’s son’s early death: The boss committed himself to building a basis for his only child’s success in business which became useless. Having lost his purpose in life drives the boss into a, for the reader unexpected, stage of grief and powerlessness. A struggle to overcome this lack of relevance and power is constantly visible in the

Katherine Mansfield's short story, "The Fly," is about a man, who's life has was devastated six years earlier when his son was killed in World 1. The man, referred to only to as, "the boss," has been left a shell of a man since the day Macey gave him the telegram informing the boss of his son's unexpected death. The boss remembers the day as one that "brought the whole place crashing about his head." The boss left that day "a broken man, with his life in ruins." Instead of going through the painful grieving process, the boss instead uses unhealthy copping mechanisms to deal with the devastation of his loss. Shopping, drinking, and overworking are all ways the boss is using to cope with his grief. Using those

It is important to mention that the only way the boss is able to process his son’s death is through crying but one day he fails to cry, starting the inevitable road to his spiritual death (cf. Boyle 183). More indications of the relation between the failure of the boss and that of the fly are found on page 164: “Nothing happened or was likely to happen” (Mansfield 164). This can be seen as a reference to the tears the boss ceases to cry and is most likely not going to be able to cry ever again. The aspect of failure also becomes obvious when looking at the way the fly is described throughout the last two pages: “It was ready for life again” (Mansfield 163). This shows not only the fly’s victory of surviving the fall into the inkpot but also the new hope the boss finds in observing the fly and testing its limits. This hope, however, dies when the fly dies.

Grief is what the boss has dealt with for years and what seemed that he could not get rid of. The fly does not die right away as he keeps coming back after the boss hits it with an ink pen "The horrible danger was over; it had escaped; it was ready for life again." Grief is what is ready for life again as the boss can escape it for a little while it abruptly comes back over time, just as the fly comes keep coming back to the boss. Therefore, grief must not last forever just like the flying dying. Mansfield illustrates that killing the fly is an example of the boss killing his own grief. By throwing the fly away symbolizes the boss overcoming his grief, Mansfield states, "The boss lifted the corpse on the end of the paper-knife and flung it into the waste-paper basket. But such a grinding feeling of wretchedness seized him that he felt positively frightened." With that being stated, as feeling positively frightened that he was happy not to have grief for his son anymore but was frightened that he will not share the same feelings for him again as he concludes. The boss asks for some "fresh blotting-paper" to continue his work day, and as he tries to remember what he was thinking about, "For the life of him he could not