The Sublime In The Good Soldiers

“It was a typical of being in the war. Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control over anything, We had yet to learn these things and implement survival tactics, which was what it came down to.” Beah pg.29

Through the distress of a single man, Jarrell is able to depict the fears of a lonely soldier in an extremely vulnerable position, and invites us into the heinous reality of war which forces us to question our impressions of soldiers having no fear yet not questioning their bravery. War can produce gruesome situations that can cause even the bravest men to face their fears, but it is how they deal with this fear that is the important part. Ball turret gunners were courageous warriors. They were fully aware of how susceptible to death they were, nevertheless, they would continue to fight time after time. WWII was a dreadful episode in human history that killed millions of people, and its bloodshed is described by the UN Charter as a scourge that “has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. Jarrell had served in the military himself, thus he knew - at least to some extent -

A. Austria-Hungary created World War I in the year of 1914 when they announced war on Serbia. This seemingly small conflict between the two countries soon spread immediately. Germany, Russia, Great Britain, and France all participated in the war, mostly since they were obligated to defend their treaties. B. How have the two authors, Wilfred Owen and Edgar Guest treated the subject of World War I differently throughout their poems?C. The Things That Make A Soldier Great by Guest and Dulce et Decorum Est by Owen differ from the perspectives of the authors. Guest encourages the soldiers to go sacrifice their lives and go to war, unlike Owen, where he explains how war is not necessary and horrifying. However, they both target points of comparison

He was injured in his leg so the medics had no choice but to amputate it. It states, “ Kemmerich has lost his foot. The leg is amputated. He looks ghastly, yellow and wan.” (Remarque, 14). As a result of World War I’s technological deficiency many soldiers died from the incapability of finding fast and sufficient cures. Kemmerich personifies many other soldiers whose life becomes worn out and drained because of the war. It states, “ In his face there are already the strained lines that we know so well, we have seen them hundreds of times. They are not so much lines as marks. Under the skin the life no longer pulses, it has already pressed out the boundaries of the body.” (Remarque, 14). Kemmerich’s death mainly affects Baumer because it is the first time he had seen a dear friend traumatized by the effects of the war. He is concerned about Kemmerich but the nurses and orderlies don’t seem to care too much about the patients as they just want to clear Kemmerich’s bed for another wounded soldier. It states, “Hospital-orderlies go to and fro with bottles and pails. One of them comes up, casts a glance at Kemmerich and goes away again. You can see he is waiting, apparently, he wants the bed.” (Remarque, 30). This emphasizes the unprofessionalism and how unequipped the army was in tending to the needs of the

This statement includes the line, “It [the novel] will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped the shells, were destroyed by the war” (Remarque 1). As the novel trods on, the reader begins to realize the psychological effects of war on the entire army. Bäumer makes a similar realization and claims, “Two years of shells and bombs—a man won’t peel that off as easy as a sock” (Remarque 87). Even though this is a testimonial of an individual, one realizes that millions of young people are being shaped from the consequences of their times and the changes being made to these men at such a pivotal time in their lives are irreparable. In fact, one of the army grunts says, “We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces” (Remarque 87-88). After war, it seems like there are many ways to deal with the horror. Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist in Slaughterhouse Five chooses to become unstuck in time while many others devise their own ways of escape. The above quote shows that the war left its mark on an entire generation and how they felt about the world around them. Once again, the reader comes to realize how horrible war really is despite all of the popular common misconceptions spread through propaganda.

All bullets were counted, beds made, uniforms cleaned, this occurred until suddenly 03:45 arrived. “Men, the time is nearly here,” my words choked as self-hatred flooded my body, “What we do here today will be remembered for generations to come, we fight today not only for ourselves, but all who we know. All our mates and family who live back home!” A faint cheer followed my speech as I steadied myself for what was to come. “We charge in 5 minutes. We charge not only for our freedom but for the freedom of our country. For the freedom of the world!” Spit filled the air from the cheer which erupted from my unit this time. A unity formed over the men, a cold malevolent sweat captured me. Who was I to send these boys to their death? A resolve set inside me, I would fight alongside my men, their lives are worth the same as mine. 04:00 “THIS IS IT MEN! WE FIGHT FOR THE WORLD!” I screamed as I led the charge. Vaulting out of the trench I saw no man’s land clearly for the first time. Death was everywhere, flies swarming the pools of blood. The land so barren of life no greenery was seen. A cold resolution set over me, it was the Germans fault, they caused

Starting with boot camp in Parris Island, the young man, still reeling from the recent attack on his country, was soon transformed into a marine. With this transformation came the thoughts and feelings that accompanied this gruesome way of life. For instance, following an intense battle on the Tenaru River, Leckie and his fellow men were forced to hear the names of the fallen. Here it is shown just how much a man’s thoughts and feelings can change once going into battle. “It is not always or immediately saddening to hear “who got it.” Except for one’s close buddies, it is difficult to feel deep, wracking grief for the dead, and now, hearing the lieutenant tolling off the names, I had to force my face into a mask of mourning, deliberately adorn my heart with black, as it were, for I was shocked to gaze inward and see no sorrow there” (Leckie, 72). Before the life of a soldier, Robert Leckie presumably would have felt remorse for the men that died in the battle but something in him had changed. After seeing so much loss and pain, the death taking place around him soon became a normal occurrence and as a result, he found his heart hardening to death. This passage shows just how quickly war can change a man and the thoughts hidden within himself. Following this battle, Leckie continued to fight and morph into a man, though changes to his personality and demeanor became

The date is July 6, 1944. A young Solider in his early 20’s armed with a pair of wire cutters, a rifle, and explosives makes his way through Omaha Beach, through countless obstacles (Kennedy, 2012). This young Solider has a very important job. Behind him are thousands of infantrymen, desperately fighting their way up a hill; it is up to him to clear the way. However, In front of him are rows of mines, hedgehogs, wire obstacles, and barricades. He must complete these tasks all while receiving heavy fire. You see he is no ordinary Soldier, he is a Combat Engineer, and what he does here today will change the tides of the war forever (Kennedy, 2012). This engineer is well trained and comes from a long line of warriors who have paved the way for him, laying down the groundwork for what he must accomplish here today.

Once the outskirts were cleared out and no one was found there we continued down that road towards the town center and that church. As we closed in on the town we heard sporadic gun fire to the east. You could even hear the distinct sound of the Germans dreadful MG-42, which we have nicknamed “Hitler’s Buzz saw.” Once we heard that our Captain who leads our platoon yells for us to hurry to assist 6th platoon to our east.

Everyone becomes one with each other sunk into the mud, water and blood. The conditions have stripped men of their spirit and life and dissolved it so that it runs and mixes with the blood of the victims and fallen comrades. They no longer have individuality, they are mixed in a miserable swamp of the other soldiers blood and life, “[their] hands are earth, [their] bodies clay and [their] eyes pools of rain. ”(9) This physical description of the soldiers is comparable to their mental state as well.

The mind is the most complex but fascinating feature of human beings. Although our minds are the primary source of love, care, and goodness, our minds are also capable of perpetuating hate, abuse, and evil towards others. Abu Ghraib, a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, is notoriously known for the horrific incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers in 2004. Although the events happened 10 years ago, the events continue to ponder our minds as we question, "How were they capable of doing those things?" There are many theories in regards to the cause of the Abu Ghraib incident. After analyzing the arguments, theories, and explanations of Robert Tolmach Lakoff, Dianne Benscoter, Tara Mcklevy, and Phillip

The quest for the ideal is a phenomenon that many people attempt to achieve. As we all know, the quest for the ideal is difficult and complicated by personal experience. The poems, “The Story” by Karen Connelly and the “The Love Song of J.Aflred Prufrock”, by T.S Elliot, as well as the essay “Kant’s Beauty and the Sublime” by Maureen Rousseau explore the peril inherent in the quest for the ideal, which is that in our search for beauty we risk encountering the sublime. The danger of the sublime is that we cannot comprehend the magnitude of the realms of things that are sublime. We ask ourselves why someone would want to risk encountering the sublime. Well, with great risk comes great reward and that is the beauty we

Soldiers are trained in military bases, where they learn the craft of warfare before being sent to combat. They are prepared physically and mentally, but nothing compares to the real situations in battle. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien says “ It was my fourth day [...] I felt a moist sickness rise up in my throat. I sat down beside the pigpen, closed my eyes, put my head between knees,” (O’Brien, 214). This quote demonstrates how O’Brien is unable to deal with death, even though he was prepared to confront it. O’Brien mental state starts to deteriorate and he seems to have an emotional breakdown. For example, “ The young soldier stood off by himself at the center of the field [...] the boy’s face was impossible to make out. The filth seemed to erase identities,” (O’Brien, 156). In this moment,

The form of ‘God’s Grandeur’ is an Italian sonnet, but with some alteration. Even though Hopkins does not use sprung rhythm here, he varies his sonnet structure from the traditional iambic pentameter. Typically, a sonnet contains 3 quatrains (4 lines) and a couplet (2 lines); the Italian sonnet is characterized by having 1 octave (8 lines) and 1 sestet (6 lines). In ‘God’s Grandeur’ a similar pattern is followed, however, Hopkins presents a technique he often employs in other works as well, that of using the octet to present a personal or a sensory experience and the octet in order to provide some reflection on the topic (Gardner 221).

“The excellence of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeable evaporate, from their being in close relationship with beauty and truth…I had not dispute but a disquisition with Dilke, on various subjects. Several things dovetailed in my mind, and at once it struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously. I mean negative capability; that is, when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half-knowledge. This pursued through volumes would perhaps take us no further than this: that with a great poet the sense of beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration.”