The True Experience Of War

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

We have all seen or read about the political and social upheavals caused by war. Some may have even experienced it first-hand. Throughout history war has had negative psychological implications on those effected. However, there is no greater negative impact of war than the psychological and emotional turmoil that it causes individual soldiers.

Wars are often glorified in tone to give praise and respect for those on the battlefields. There is an overall understanding that there are sacrifices needed in order to accomplish a larger goal. Excluded from this understanding is the realization that the effects of war

Wars are a difficult place to be. “THE VIETNAM WAR transformed a generation” (Roberts 1). With all that happened during the war such as exposure to

From the earliest times, war has existed as a painful reality. Stories are passed down from generation to generation about brave men fighting epic battles in ancient civilizations. Occasionally a different type of legend emerges: the homefront hero. Leaders in Ancient Greece and Rome are documented preventing panic and raising supplies for their distant armies. From then on through history, those left behind, from the leaders of countries tested in resolve and commitment by wars to the ordinary citizens who rise above their routines to serve their countries, are powerful forces behind victories. World War II was no exception. While the soldiers abroad were undoubtedly true heroes of the war, the parents, siblings, and children they left behind also assisted in the war effort. No one remained truly unaffected by the war. Without the labors of women, the efforts of schoolchildren, and the institution of rationing, World War II could not have been won.

There is no doubt that when war occurs, every single human being is affected by it even if it is just a little. In the novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front” written by Erich Maria Remarque, a group of teenage men, who also appear to by classmates, are in the German army of World War I because they have chosen to leave their adolescence at home and school for grown up work at the army. Throughout this fictional novel, they face many challenges that result in them not seeing each other ever again because of death. War affects individuals by leaving behind necessities such as education or jobs, not being able to watch over others such as their health, and injuries that soldiers receive while they are at war.

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 psychologist Sigmund Freud once said, “Because every man has a right over his own life and war destroys lives that were full of promise; it forces the individual into situations that shame his manhood, obliging him to murder fellow men, against his will.” He initially stated this when he was corresponding with Albert Einstein via letter. This quote is also a great explanation of the events that take place during war that people chose to not recognise. War is terrible, and no matter how hard we try, nothing will change that. Erich Maria Remarque shows us that soldiers have endured dreadfully throughout World War I in his book “All Quiet on the Western Front”. The character in the book, Paul Baumer, endures through the tragedies of war with some of his old schoolmates as well as new comrades that he meets along the way. They survive through all of the tragedies together, but in the end, the war made them lose their friendships as well as their lives. The reality is that war comes with consequences while it destroys people, and there is nothing that will ever be able to change that. The book “All Quiet on the Western Front” shows how war comes destroys people's lives with its consequences through three of its themes: the importance of comradery, the loss of innocence, and the horrors and brutality of war.

Families were affected by the trauma and exposure of the wars, causing mental illnesses such as depression. Young children had been exposed to the trauma of the wars. A great deal of pressure was put on the older children because they had to take care of the household and their younger siblings. Injuries and mental health left soldiers unemployed, which led to financial difficulty to provide for the children, this forced families to change their standard of living in some cases (“Impact on soldiers and their families”). Nonetheless, children were also able to help during the wars through services such as knitting sweaters and making bandages for soldiers overseas. Sufficiently the topic of the wars was also beginning to appear in curricular in early 1914. Patriotic teachers encouraged students to help convince adult males or older brothers to enlist in the wars. Countless children remember the wars as an economic hardship, grinding tragedy and unbearable grief (“The Children’s War”).

War may seem like a heroic ideal, but the mountain is very steep. George Washington had us settle at Valley Forge in December 1777. Washington had mostly six and nine-month men that are debating to not reenlist. Reenlisting means to stay at Valley Forge and fight in the war, but I am considering to not reenlist. I will not reenlist due to the amount of deaths, lack of money, and the amount of exposure to the harsh elements.

War, no matter how long or brief, can have a tremendous impact upon a person’s

“The Tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst” wise words from Henry Fosdick. When it comes down to the time where an individual hits rock bottom, a man either do its best or do its worst. Although, Man can do its best and do its worst at the same time. There are many reasons how man’s best can result to man’s worst. Henry Fosdick statement is both true and false.

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.

“War is Hell. Hollywood fantasizes about it and makes it look good… War sucks!” ~ Chris Kyle. This essay will go into depth with the three major themes of war, and be discussing examples from popular movies and novels. WW1 literature focuses mainly on the themes of betrayal, horror, and friendship.

|Explain how R.C Sherriff conveys the horrors of war to the audience of “Journey’s End” |