The Forgetting Theme

Hillenbrand, L. (2010). Unbroken: A World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption. New York: Random House.

Automatically, the reader knows that serious issues are about to be discussed and that the outcome may not be positive. This novel challenges the material ideology discussed above. It does this by bringing the issues to the forefront and reporting on them in a fictitious yet realistic manner. The reader is not led to believe that the ending will be happy, he is supposed to expect the consider the harsh realities of the world throughout the piece.

When the author’s father passed away, Wes was in shock, he said, “everything around you vanishes, all you hear is wind filling your ear, all you feel is the wind on your skin.... Your mind all but empties.” (Moore, 14) He couldn’t think or do anything. He was lost.

Out of the Past is definitely an interesting movie with a lot of things to talk about. I will touch briefly upon two main things I have noticed during the screen: the film noire genre and the image of the femme fatale.

In the book, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini was majorly obsessed with vengeance throughout the end of the book that his life was consumed by the quest for it. Louie felt as if the Bird had stolen his dignity at the POW campsites, where he was beaten, humiliated, starved, and stripped of his powers of self-defense. Louie was overwhelmed with his anger that the only objective he sought was to get revenge on the Bird. In other words, Louie was angered about his loss of dignity at the POW campsite, he wanted to get revenge on the Bird by killing him, and how Louie eventually forgives the Bird for what he did to him. These three reasons show how Louie’s loss of self-dignity in the POW camp was pursued.

With the power of words, that causes the destruction of Germany and the world, Liesel’s uses that same power to deal with the terror of death that looms over them, allowing her to give power and hope, to those that need it, especially in the midst of the chaos of World War II. Where the German forces were deteriorating, and the Allies only grew stronger with each bomb that they drop, Liesel and her neighbors hide within one of the basements, in attempt to survive the onslaught of attacks, fearfully and anxious. The only things that were with them was each other, and their most precious items, and for Liesel, it was her books. All they could do was wait for sirens, and because of this uncertainty, Liesel took it upon herself to ease her distress.

The Second World War, lasting from 1939-1945 has had a lasting impact on the world. For some, more negative than others, it is simply a marvel how such a horrific event can potentially lead to equally bright new happenings. In the book Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, the main character and narrator, Jakob, was serendipitously physically saved from the way by the Greek scientist Athos Roussos. Over time, Jakob grew into a person who could only be defined through true silence, which was seen in his relationship with Athos, his romantic links, and his connection with geographic locations and languages. It is in these ties of Jakob’s life the only language he is fluent in is evident: silence.

Forgetfulness can be seen in many different lights; it can be seen a bad thing, or a good thing. In the poem “Forgetfulness” by Hart Crane, the speaker utilizes similes and metaphors to convey ideas about forgetfulness in order to develop the theme; in the poem by Billy Collins with the same name, the speaker utilizes personification and irony to convey ideas about forgetfulness to develop the theme.

“Madeline,” I hear through my endless solitude. It was quiet enough that I could have imagined it. I must have wanted to hear it so bad that I thought it was there. Thwarted by my realization, I close my eyes and try to fall asleep. “Madeline” it says again. I open my eyes to find that same sunny ceiling, in an entirely empty room. “Madeline.” It

Forgetting is how some people cope with their traumatic events in life. Something that would be hard to unsee is this traumatic because it would definitely make me feel extremely bad. This was a terrible start to chapter 5 because these are real world problems. ”But somehow while the baby’s grandmother wasn't looking, the little boy crawled under the truck and got caught between the rear

Writers often employ recurring events to show significance. In Joy Kogawa’s, Obasan, a novel about the Japanese persecution during World War 2, silence is used repeatedly to show protection. The silence of events in the book serves as a portrayal of love and protection from whatever it may be that is kept a secret. The silence in the novel shapes Naomi’s life in that it leads her to question the silence and suppress it.

Mabel had known there would be silence. That was the point, after all. No infants cooing or wailing. No neighbor children playfully hollering down the lane. No pad of small feet on wooden stairs worn smooth by generations, or clackety-clack of toys along the kitchen floor. All those sounds of her failure and regret would be left behind, and in their place there would be silence.4

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the article, “The Undergirding Factor is POWER , Toward an Understanding of Prejudice and Racism” both share a common theme: Ignorance can be a strategy to make people remain unequal in racial standards. Douglass claims in the text, “I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell his birthday… white children could” and continues with, “I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.” (Douglass 1) Here Frederick is explaining how slaves were unequal and their ignorance was the key. In the text it shows that these slaves were kept unaware and were constantly dehumanized. They didn’t even know the day

Memory is defined as "the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information." Our memory can be compared to a computer's information processing system. To remember an event we need to get information into our brain which is encoding, store the information and then be able to retrieve it. The three-stage processing model of Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin suggests that we record information that we want to remember first as a fleeting sensory memory and then it is processed into a short term memory bin where we encode it ( pay attention to encode important or novel stimuli) for long-term memory and later retrieval. The premise for the three step process is that we are unable to focus on too much

The only sound that filled my ears was my keyboard clicking as my fingers raced across it. I had been procrastinating from finishing this assignment all evening, but I knew I needed to get it done. The burning sunset was shining through the windows as I was finishing up. It was a peaceful silence, until I heard the soft whispers of my parents that ignited my sense of curiosity. I was concentrating hard; doing my best trying to make out the hushed words that were being spoken.