To See, or Not to See. Evil Exists and Grows.

People both today and back then have been traumatized by war’s brutal combat, fallen victim to cruel soldiers, and had war cause sorrow and grief to them. Through characters seeing death, characters that are soldiers, and characters that are not in combat, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See demonstrates that war affects individuals negatively, even if they are extremely

Whether it’s war or terrorism, children who want to grow securely is living amongst the affected nation. War is obliterating those talented individuals in their childhood who can radically transform the world itself. The two disputed countries may also have justifications to protect the welfares of their own people. There can be wealth and nuclear weapons to demolish this world as a whole. However, peacefully negotiated approach is coveted to compromise on each other. No country can rationalize weapons of mass obliteration and debacles. Often, it is a foolish decision of the pioneers of the country, making it a pretext for the combat. It’s the upright soldiers and their families who need to survive the demise and serious injuries from the weapons. For the last centuries, the spontaneous overflow of poetry has portrayed human emotions concerning wide range of universal issues. Both the poets Donald Bruce Dawe and Wilfred Owen exemplify this cataclysm of losing your families and the conditions the soldiers face, through their notable poems Homecoming and Dulce et Decorum Est.

Kurt Vonnegut is able to put a man’s face on war in his short story, “All the King’s Horse ”, and he exemplifies that in a time of war, the most forgotten effect on nations is the amount of innocent lives lost in meaningless battle due to unjust rulers fighting each other against a nation’s will. As Americans, we are oblivious to the fact that we have people fighting every day for our country. In addition, we ignore the fact that we do a lot of collateral damage and hurt innocent people unintentionally in order to get what we want. Vonnegut shows the reader in Pi Ying’s own sadistic way of demonstrating how he feels about war brings attention to the point that war, while unruly and cruel, is nothing

War is a horrible and devastating event that hurts many people in many ways. This something many people have to cope with. Authors are among those who have to cope with war as well. Many people cope different ways but authors cope by protesting war. To do this authors use imagery, irony, and structure.

Human rights activist and Nobel Prize winning author, Elie Wiesel in his mind opening speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” brings to light the indifference had my the masses which allowed a long period of suffering on multiple occasions; which can only be described as “inhumane” and a “sin” (par. 13). He develops his message by illustrating the specific life changing events the author has gone through, such as when he was “Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers…” (par. 2) which makes him credible enough to speak confidently about the subject at hand. In addition, Wiesel also by using the line “When adults wage war, children perish.” he creates a shocking moment of realization and a heavier mood so people realize that being indifferent had great repercussions. Lastly, the author creates awareness to the gravity of not caring about major genocides happening worldwide. “[T]wo world wars, countless civil wars, [and] a senseless chain of assassinations…” (par. 5) are what he touched on and wanted to make a point of. Wiesel’s purpose is to inform government officials of their own indifference so it is prevented in the future in order to make better millenium where people aren’t heedless when relating to a crisis. He establishes a serious, somber, and enlightening tone for readers through the use of ethos, pathos, and the literary device asyndeton in order to develop his message that humans shouldn’t be indifferent towards others. Wiesel’s message about the inhumanity of

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.

In regards to war, Gandhi once commented, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.” In other words, violence masks its potential impairment by seeming innocuous at first; however, the true damage, often permanent, can be seen chronically. The idea reflected by Gandhi’s quote can be proven through an examination of World War I and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Although soldiers and governments in both worlds initially saw honor and security of their countries as valid reasons for going to war, what ultimately came of that conflict were both immediate consequences, such as loss of innocence and development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (often referred to as PTSD) among young soldiers, as well as permanent, long-term consequences, like the hatred the war had spurred in Germans which ultimately ensued to Hitler’s rise to power.

Throughout human history, we have watched many men and women storm into combat to sweat, bleed, and die for a cause that they believe in. War is no secret to mankind, we have seen it hundreds of times, and we are aware of the mental and physical damage it has the capability of causing. We’ve learned of the gruesome damage caused by the first world war, and the numerous amount of lives it claimed. We’ve read the vivid stories authors wrote, using literature as a means to communicate the horrors experienced in war. Even in present day, we’ve seen, or known veterans who have returned from war with mental damage due to the terrible things they witnessed or partook in. Whether or not it is the smartest or most responsible idea, the human race uses

Over the past few decades, the war changed everyone’s perspective. According to NCBI, 61% civilians suffer from psychological disorders caused by wars. Specifically, two books, Night and Persepolis, talks about the author experiences during the war and their struggles. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, documents his childhood when he was maltreated by the Nazis, and Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, share her experiences during the Iraq-Iran war of how it change her. War changes childhood because of near-death experiences, family departure, and witness horrific acts of violence.

Because Wiesel was so young during these traumatic times, he understands what it is like to be a victim of ethnic cleansing and persecution. He reminds the audience of “the children” whose “fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish.” Children do not have the strength, knowledge, or authority to protect themselves from such strong forces. They have to go along with whatever the adults decide is right.

War causes death, poverty, diseases, destruction, and many more devastating and unavoidable consequences. The government drafted men into military service, giving them no choice but to separate them from their daily lives, friends, and families. Soldiers fight in wars while putting their lives on the line and are only rewarded with physical or psychological injuries. Countries wage war against one another in order to resolve disputes and disagreements between them. Individuals, such as nurses, soldiers, and civilians undergo traumatic events when they are caught in the middle of a war. Although some may argue that war does not impact the self the most, based on the informational text, “War Escalates” by Paul Boye, the short story, “Where

When soldiers engage in wars of aggression, attack non-combatants or pursue their enemies beyond what is reasonable, they commit acts of murder (Moseley, 2001, 3. The Principles Of Jus In Bello section, para. 6). This can lead to severe human rights violations, including genocide, torture, and slavery which violate individuals' most basic rights to life and physical safety (Partin, 2008, p. 25). In “The Perils of Indifference”, Wiesel shared his own personal experiences of injustice during the Holocaust. He describes the atrocities being committed by Adolph Hitler and being liberated from the concentration camps by American Troops. One of his heartfelt experiences includes witnessing the “Muselmanner” where he describes the members of the concentration camp as “Wrapped in their torn blankets, they would sit or lie on the ground, staring vacantly into space, unaware of who or where they were, strangers to their surroundings” (Wiesel, 1999, para. 7). Wiesel experienced torment and is aware of the misery of others. Both speaker’s experienced political injustice where their rights were violated. Wiesel was also a victim of war crimes where his life and physical safety was constantly put to the

What is evil? Is it characterized by a desire to cause hurt or harm, “an evil mood”? What causes people to do evil? The strong feelings of hatred and dislike that builds up in all of us or simply that all our emotions are constantly on the dark side for such a long period of time. What is right from wrong when the hate in our hearts makes us all make terrible mistakes and commit evil. The writings of Confucius say, “There is no light without darkness, no positive without negative, no good without evil.” Throughout the history of humanity, humans have committed inconceivable and unthinkable acts of cruelty towards one another. From the brutal wars during the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the modern

As long as there has been war, those involved have managed to get their story out. This can be a method of coping with choices made or a way to deal with atrocities that have been witnessed. It can also be a means of telling the story of war for those that may have a keen interest in it. Regardless of the reason, a few themes have been a reoccurrence throughout. In ‘A Long Way Gone,’ ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ and ‘Novel without a Name,’ three narrators take the readers through their memories of war and destruction ending in survival and revelation. The common revelation of these stories is one of regret. Each of these books begins with the main character as an innocent, patriotic soldier or civilian and ends in either the loss of innocence and regret of choices only to be compensated with as a dire warning to those that may read it. These books are in fact antiwar stories meant not to detest patriotism or pride for one’s country or way of life, but to detest the conditions that lead to one being so simpleminded to kill another for it. The firebombing of Dresden, the mass execution of innocent civilians in Sierra Leone and a generation of people lost to the gruesome and outlandish way of life of communism and Marxism should be enough to convince anyone. These stories serve as another perspective for the not-so-easily convinced.

On a daily basis we often see horrible, evil events unfolding on our evening news channels. Often we ask ourselves, how can a person be so heartless and cruel? We do not understand why people could do these things. From beheadings, neglecting children, killing innocent people, raping young girls, terrorizing innocent people, how can people commit these horrible things? What do they use as justification? Why is so hard for us to understand? Can they be forgiving? Is it a psychological issue or is it an ethical issue? Can it be analyze using a theological perspective? Does a person past or experiences play a role? Is there such a thing as evil? If so, is there a relationship between evil and other moral concepts such as badness and wrongdoing?