The Valley of Elah

The idea that war changes a person is a commonplace belief. Considering the recent studies depicting the correlation between war and PTSD along with the emergence of many books and films that portray the realities of war, those who have not experienced the violence and anxiety commonly associated with such an experience are able to develop some idea of what life on the battlefield might be like. Platoon, directed by Oliver Stone, is one such film that sets out to portray the life-changing and often devastating effects war places upon soldiers by depicting the loss of innocence of the film’s main character, Chris Taylor.

The rambunctious behavior of the soldier’s triumphant victory is a strong message visually for the viewer. These soldiers struggle to find their identity and once the war ends, the identity they’ve build at war vanishes, (McCutcheon, 2007). As a result, they essentially lose a part of them selves, (McCutcheon, 2007). When they return home, many soldiers struggle with psychological issues that prevent them from resuming their once regular lives, (McCutcheon, 2007). The images of soldiers celebrating at the end of war give the viewer a taste of this problem. This also allows the viewer insight to the deeper issues surrounding an American soldier’s mental stability and mentality. Through this image, along with many others throughout the film, the viewer is able to dig deeper and truly analyze what they are seeing.

In this summary, Mike has his eyes opened to the world, and he explains his feelings and emotions. He wants to make the point that, no matter the struggle, if people only keep pushing for what they want, they will achieve excellence. Going to school was something big for both Mike and Anthony, and both learned some very important lessons from their experiences during their enrollment. Also, there is a lesson that Mike also learned about how people are not going to use their minds, unless they try to experience the lives of others. People in everyday life are more distracted than they lead on to be. They need to open their eyes, and see what is right in front of them

There are two types of people that fight in wars; those who consider their patriotic duty an honor and those who entered the war by force. In 1990, twenty years after returning from the Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien published The Things They Carried, a disturbing and remorseful collection of short stories that gives detailed, yet fictional, accounts of the horrific events that occurred during the war. Later in 2012, after his tour of duty, Chris Kyle released American Sniper, a humble and passionate memoir that describes what Kyle had to face during his tour. While The Things They Carried utilizes symbolism and similes to inform the reader about the horrors of war, American Sniper uses flashbacks and imagery to demonstrate that some people “come alive” during the war.

The returning of a dramatic event disables a soldier to adapt accordingly to everyday life. Ones conscious of reality is infringed upon Posttraumatic experiences of warfare, which unleashes an outbreak of inhumane actions directed towards existence and significant others. As the short story progresses after the event of the Vietnam War, the narrator says referring to Henry that:

For the seventeen Soldiers portrayed in “The Things We Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the physical pain was very minimal weight to carry compared to the emotional scars that they will carry throughout their entire life. This story does an amazing job portraying full human emotion that anyone put into a situation would feel, such as heavy guilt, sadness, anger, lack of motivation, perseverance, horror, and false security. All of these are notorious feelings that every soldier back in history, and now still feel when they are on a mission. “The Things They carried” shows a deep vulnerability of everyday human’s thought process during times of great stress, that before, wasn’t considered by the general public and media when speaking about what it

When most people of think of war, they generally think of the glorified aspects. Love and violence. Or perhaps their minds are drawn to an image of a soldier’s homecoming: A father embracing his son, crying tears of joy, all while the solider relays his experiences of the war among celebratory decorations. He is now considered a hero. But what difficulties has he faced to get there? This is the side of war that many of us don’t recognize. In the memoir, A Long Way Gone, author and protagonist, Ishmael Beah, experiences civil war and its effects first hand when he is forced into becoming a child soldier in the poor third world country of Sierra Leone. As the novel progresses, Ishmael becomes increasingly addicted to drugs,

As an illustration, the author describes the scenery of the battlefield, “The most vivid images of the war show soldiers facing the hardships and terrors of battle. Some confronted the enemy in well-defined battles in the highlands. Others cut their way through the jungle, where they heard but seldom saw the enemy. Still others waded through rice paddies and searched rural villages for guerrillas… They were rarely safe. Enemy rockets and mortars could--and did--strike anywhere” (Boyer 2). By using descriptive language, the author illustrates the soldiers surroundings and evoke the reader’s sense of terror. With this in mind, this gives the readers a better understanding of how inhumane war is and how the severity of war torments soldiers by them through physiological traumatizing experiences. Furthermore, the author quotes a nurse recalling her experiences in a field hospital, “We really saw the worse of it, because the nurses never saw any of the victories...I remember one boy who was brought in missing two legs and an arm, and his eyes were bandaged. A general came in later and pinned a Purple Heart on the boy’s hospital gown, and the horror of it all was so amazing that it just took my breath away. You thought, was this supposed to be an even trade?” (Boyer 2). By using imagery, the author cites a nurse who describes the boy’s injuries in detail and appeals

“Holy shit we’re not ready for this” Aaron HijarTim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger 2010 award -winning documentary film Restrepo: One Platoon, One Valley, One Year, chronicle one year of the Second Platoon, Battle Company branch of the United States Army ; during their station at the Korangal Valley and the impact it had on them. The film opens with a bunch of joyful soldiers a week before deployment and attitudes within the plane are ecstatic and full of youthful naivety and optimism but as the film progresses and as we are introduced to the Korangal Valley, those bright smiles are soon replaced with frowns. This is the effects of war, the one that is not often talked about nor acknowledge.“Nobody going to help you, you’re in no man land” JonesThe films itself was difficult to watch, because you read so much about the war in both print and digital media but at the end of the day it’s all words. Hollywood depiction of “war” is often over-glamorized, and doesn’t show the real nitty-gritty and the emotional strain that soldiers face. This film was brutally honest and refreshing because it was shot from the POV of soldiers as they went about their daily life. The film is candid and doesn’t pull its punches it showcases real footage of soldiers handling automatic weapons, quasi-problem solving and just lying around relaxing. It isn’t a thriller that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat nor is meant to be. Its real life and sometimes it can be disturbing, amusing and violent. The films also address the language and culture barrier that exist that often time isn’t present in literature or Hollywood movies. There are a few subtitles shown throughout the film , and there isn’t any Hollywood makeup artist on standby to smear dirt on the faces of the troops to give them a more “harden” look; this is real and it’s unsettling. It forces us to analyze the impact of war on an individual and the necessity of war and our definition of “security threat”, if we apply that definition too haphazardly we risk turning friend into a foe and increasing underlying animosity but if we loosen our definition it’s a sure death.“I’m going to die here” CortezThe most poignant scene in the documentary was “Operation Rock Avalanche” which

“War is Hell!” These three words have stood the test of time and numerous wars. These words uttered by General William Sherman, a unionist Civil War Veteran, perfectly describe the hardships faced by all soldiers, from the American Revolutionist to the modern day soldier in Afghanistan. Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam Conflict from 1968 to 1970, (O’Brien 1131) during some of the most intense fighting known as the Tet Offensive (Durkin). During the conflict 58,202 Americans were killed in action (Durkin) and hundreds of thousands, more were left with not only the physical scars of war but the emotional ones too. In the short story “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien uses symbolism and conflict to show that soldiers often carry more weight than what is on their backs.

Phil Klay is a United States Marine Corps veteran. In January of 2007 to February 2008, Klay served as Public Affairs Officer in Iraq’s Anbar Province. (“Bio | Phil Klay” para. 1). In addition, in 2014, Klay’s book Redeployment won the National Book Award for Fiction. Redeployment is a collection of short stories that portray the reality of the combats in Iraq and Afghanistan, specifically the traumatic experience that a soldier faces during the war as well as the aftershock. (“Bio | Phil Klay” para. 2).In “Redeployment,” readers get the opportunity to learn about a soldier who returns home from combat. The soldier’s state-of-mind is no longer the same. For instance, the readers learn that the soldier has just returned home from Fallujah and

The article “Generation Kill” is written by Ewan Wright in 2004 and the author follows a platoon of US Marines in their advance through the Iraq war. Through the text there is given a characterization of the soldiers and how they respond to unaccustomed episodes that war brings.

In his story “Reporting War in Tunisia,” Ernie Pyle also illustrates how difficult and stressful homecoming actually is for soldiers. As it is obvious, most of the issues soldiers have while readapting to normally live are originated by the horrific realities soldiers have to deal during war—those sad moments of seeing a teammate die, and seeing innocent people die, especially children. Nevertheless, Ernie Pyle states “Our men cannot make this change from civilians into warriors and remain the same people. Even if they are away from you this long under normal circumstances, the mere process of maturing would change them” (171). But we cannot expect less, these soldiers have experience the worst is life and Ernie Pyle reflects this in his story.

Mike also shows us that we should believe in ourselves and do what we want to do, despite of what people say. Another life lesson the movie gives us is all actions come with a price. It’s the final round of the Scare Games and it’s up to Mike to win the competition for the team by going into a human’s room and scare them according to their fears. So the night before the games, Sully rigs Mike’s score panel, just in case if Mike results are low, the outcome will be high. But, in spite of doing this, Mike and Sully were both expelled from Monsters University. Mike gets really hurt and sadly tells Sully,”You said you believed in me....” (Scanlon, x;xx) This demonstrates that you should always think before you do. That you should think about other people’s feelings before involving them with the situation. For Sully and Mike, they got kicked out of the school because a small mistake Sully made thinking it would help

Valley of the Temples- The city of Agrigento on the southern coast of Sicily was a city of great importance in Ancient Greece. Just outside the city lies the Valley of the Temples where a series of 5th-century Doric temples stand on a ridge facing the sea. Of these, the temples attributed to the goddesses Concordia and Juno Lacinia in the eastern section are the best-preserved. The western section features the unfinished Temple of Zeus, the largest Doric temple ever discovered.