The Land of the Sad Orange

A man and his son travelling alone amidst the ruins of a previously prosperous nation; a young man venturing into a treacherous land to tie up the loose ends in his life; a broken ranch hand that suspects he had a conversation with death: in the most desolate and uncertain environments, the surrounding world can lend a bleak and lifeless perspective to one’s struggle to survive. In lands without accompaniment from other humans, the will to live can be as difficult to muster as shelter for the night or the first meal in days. Cormac McCarthy explores the difficulties of survival under the tension of barren landscapes and youthful inexperience and their effects on the loss of innocence. Gained maturity enables humans to persist and stay hopeful, even in the least hopeful situations. These environments and mindsets play an important role in the messages of three novels by Cormac McCarthy: The Road, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain.

In the story “The Ascent,” Ron Rash begins the story with vivid imagery to set the calm, yet slightly unsettling scene of a young boy playing with his imaginary friend(s). Jared initially can be perceived as the average curious boy searching for the one thing no one else could find, a missing airplane. His imagination and situational aspects led to his decisions in the story. Jared was lost not physically, but mentally; he had no one to comfortably confide in and trust. His life was not an easy one as he dealt with both peer pressure and seclusion from home and school; he only felt safe behind the barriers of his mind and the misplaced airplane. Jared’s drug addicted parents had a negative effect on Jared’s mental and physical livelihood, resulting

For ages the Jewish population did not have a place to call home. They had been wandering around deserts, were once slaves in Egypt, but didn’t have any land to their name. Following the Holocaust, after many Jews had been persecuted by Hitler and the Nazis, a good portion of the overall amount of Jews in the world let alone Europe had been exterminated. As a result, Harry Truman and the UN suggested Israel, a homeland for the Jews. Tensions had been growing throughout the beginning of the 20th Century regarding the Palestinian area in the Middle East. This area was off to the side of Asia, near Africa. When the Jews and Arabs were offered part of this land, war broke out and still continues today. Even though a war happened as a result

As I walked, the air of this haunted, dreadful and sorrowful land had sucked the life out of everything and roared as humanity began to disappear. As I carried on walking, I noticed that the small fraction of light was getting smaller and smaller, until it had been engulfed into a think black ash like smoke. Aggressively, the wind walked past the building with its cruddy feeling, blowing away all signs of life. Deeper and deeper into the land was a burning car door. The fire roared and crackled. The roaring and crackling of the burning car door merged with the aggressive air and created the loudest sounds ever heard on land. Growing darker, the skies made me feel nauseous. The fear of not waking up if a human fell asleep towered

Chapter three of Eyal Press’ Beautiful Souls follows Avner Wishnitzer, an Israeli combat soldier serving in the occupied territories during the Second Intifada. In the 6-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and has since kept the land under an Israeli military occupation. In 1987 to 1991, a Palestinian uprising involving resistance and civil disobedience, known as the First Intifada, occurred in the occupied territories. Consequently, Israel deployed many soldiers into the occupied territories, and an estimated 1,674 people were killed in total. The Second Intifada, a much more violent Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, transpired from 2000 until 2005. In response, Israel enacted Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale military operation, in 2002 to stop the terrorist attacks and suicide bombings of the Second Intifada. An approximate 4,426 people were killed in the Second Intifada. Avner Wishnitzer’s public refusal to serve in the occupied territories was worth getting kicked out of Sayeret Matkal and being disgraced by Israeli society because it made people question the occupation and the treatment towards Palestinians. Even if Avner had been my father, I would have condoned his choices because I could create my own reputation in the military. Additionally, the current controversy over the Israeli occupation legitimizes his stance and actions for many Israeli citizens.

Once Usama returns, he is disgusted to find streets filled with complacent Arabs who have accepted the Israeli rule and “workers who bought things greedily, ate well, dressed well.” ‘Greedy’ is an important and interesting adjective the author uses to describe the people of Palestine, as it carries a very negative connotation that describes the people with a naked and selfish ambition along with a voracious lust for riches and wealth. Through this integration of ‘greedy,’ as the audience we are averse to the Palestinian people and empathize with Usama as he paints himself as the lone hero that will save Palestine. Through this crude description of the Palestinians, we can see that in his eyes, they have traded and

The narrator finds himself confronted with different forms of suffering that encompass both light and dark mechanisms of survival. Upon seeing Sonny for the first time in many years, “He looked very unlike my baby brother. Yet, when he smiled… the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like

Throughout the story “Samuel,” Grace Paley uses language to generate a healthy dialogue about the fragility of life by comparing the thoughts and reactions of all the characters in the story leading up to and following Samuel’s tragic death. The text leads the reader through four young boys’ adventures on a train. The story chronicles the thoughts of the passengers on the train in New York City, and their actions leading up to and following the unfortunate death of the main character, Samuel.

In the beginning, Jews thought they were being sent away for only a little time. Soon to realize this new world, one where death could happen anytime right next to your side and you wouldn’t have a second thought about, for it happened all day, life was nonexistent in so many ways, death: by starvation, a little cut that led to infection, being sent to the gas chamber to suffocate, by a bullet, or an oven where you were burned to death. Families separated, loved ones gone forever, brother against brother, father against son.

It is these extreme behaviours, which challenge and contradict the values that most individuals have been taught from the very beginning. The values the boy must carry into the future. After the mother’s death, all that stands between him and death is his father’s light. It is this light at the end of the tunnel, which allows the man to continue his quest. Despite all the wrong deeds occurring around the world, the boy progresses through his quest whilst also upholding his values such as dignity, perseverance, justice and faith. But it is a greater story of survival, it is the story of the world surviving with the morals, beliefs and laws that are at risk of losing. This concept of the story profoundly confronts my values and how others reject them for their own survival at any cost. Having experienced the environments of a refugee camp, if people were to abandon their values and beliefs just as the characters in The Road, then there would be no hope or future left for them to look forward to.

Edward Said “States” refutes the view Western journalists, writers, and scholars have created in order to represent Eastern cultures as mysterious, dangerous, unchanging, and inferior. According to Said, who was born in Jerusalem at that time Palestine, the way westerners represent eastern people impacts the way they interact with the global community. All of this adds to, Palestinians having to endure unfair challenges such as eviction, misrepresentation, and marginalization that have forced them to spread allover the world. By narrating the story of his country Palestine, and his fellow countrymen from their own perspective Said is able to humanize Palestinians to the reader. “States” makes the reader feel the importance of having a

Uncle Joseph sought asylum in the nation but instead he faced more hardship. With his death, he was forced to be “the dead prisoner of the same government that had been occupying his country when he was born” (250). The family filled with hope, were unable to see their uncle again after his unexpected death. Their lives changed in that moment, their took with him some of the families

As Gibreel and Burnat walk alongside the barrier, the scenes of dead bodies and pools of blood leave Gibreel extremely unphased. Any toddler, seeing such devastation and horror would normally be shaken, however, for Gibreel this is nothing new. Being born in this conflict has impacted his life, it has hardened him at such a young age. Burnat wants his audience to see the horrific scenes that Palestinian youth encounter on a daily basis as a result of this conflict, something that I hope few children should ever be exposed to during their

The sister prepares the evening meal, making her contribution to the family; and calls on the boy to come and eat. The saw in the boy?s hands was still running and when he took his attention away from his work, and that split second of carelessness cost him an extremity. His instincts raised his arm upward to keep all the blood from spilling out immediately. When he realized what was happening, the boy finally realized he was to young to be doing a man?s work. The boy ?saw all spoiled,? and now knew his whole childhood had vanished and it was impossible to get it back. The boy frantically called out to his sister to make the doctor keep his hand on. The boy?s body must have instantly gone into shock and not felt the absence of the hand. When the doctor arrived he gave him some ether to make him go to sleep. The little boy began to lose his pulse and soon he was a stranger to the world. The people surrounding the boy never expected the loss of his hand to tragically end the little boy?s life. Frost?s almost appalling casual description of death shocks the reader enough to make them think. ?Since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs,? describes the environment of the survivors. They are forced to move on with their life and keep working because they cannot afford to stop and mourn.

In a desolate world ravaged by fire, a boy and his father trudge across the countryside. They encounter people in their most desperate times where their motives are unpredictable and noone can be trusted. The boy and his father try to maintain their morality while facing starvation and having to deal with unpredictable people they encounter on the road. Cormac McCarthy in his novel The Road, uses the theme of hope to demonstrate the human trait that purpose is essential to survival.