Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden, Personal Response

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

Many people say that the metal of a man is found in his ability to keep his ideals in spite of anything that life can through at you. If a man is found to have done these things he can be called a hero. Through a lifelong need to accept responsibility for all living things, Robert Ross defines his heroism by keeping faith with his ideals despite the betrayal, despair and tragedy he suffers throughout the course of The Wars by Timothy Findley.

Survival in “Tomorrow When The War Began” is a very important issue. The whole novel is about Ellie and friends learning to become independent and to fend for themselves in a world

Throughout the book I felt connected to one character, that character was George. George and I share similar qualities and our lifestyles can relate. One major characteristic I found in George is his ability

Homer was forced to change the way he handled every situation and his attitude towards everything because of the live event of war. He became the leader of the group when people looked to him for guidance as they relied on him. We see the kind of character Homer was before the war when Ellie is describing all the characters going to Hell. She used spoken thought when she says “Homer was Wild, Outrageous, He didn’t care what he did or what anyone thought”. This gives the reader an insight into how homer was barbaric and confident. Homer developed as a character because his friends relied on him. They needed him to make plans and decisions on how to save lee, one of their friends, and avoid the soldiers. Ellie notices these changes uses the technique of spoken thought when she says “Homer was fast becoming the teachers he despised”. This tells the reader that Homer was becoming organised, he was becoming the advisor, someone that helped everybody which is a big change from his old reckless ways. This is like teenagers in society as they become more mature through the life events they experience.Most teenagers need to change and become more mature as they need to grow up because they need to get a job, meet someone and move on in life. This is learnt from the experiences they have and the events that occur. As we grow older we mature at depending on the circumstances. Just like Homer,

For a novel to appeal to the target audience the characters, setting, point of view and themes have to be relatable. Tomorrow When The War Began (TWTWB) by John Marsden is a relatable text which Australian teenagers can relate to. When Ellie and 7 of her high school friends return to Wirrawee from a trip to Hell before school break is over they suspect something is seriously wrong. Power has been cut, animals are dead or are dying and family members are no where to be found. As Ellie and her friends soon discover, they are at war. Wirrawee has been invaded by an unknown country for unknown reasons. Ellie, along with her friends have to fight for survival. Relationships are tested, trust is built and

In the novel, Tomorrow When the War Began, there is an invasion on a small rural town in Australia. A group of young teens are out camping and manage to avoid capture. The discovery that their friends and families have been captured ignites them on a crusade to do what they can to liberate their town.

The thought of going to war excites many young men that have not experienced or have been a part of one. Individuals want to find a way out of the routine, mundane lifestyle that plagues many suburban households. People that just want some excitement enlist in a military branch that will not benefit them or anyone for that matter. In Philip Caputo’s book titled A Rumor of War, the true side of how war demolishes the human spirit is shown. His nonfiction novel captures the nasty side to war. Philip informs us how the mentality of a young man can change with the constant thought of death and fear as a daily ritual. Men do not think about death occurring to them at a young age. This changes when death is surrounding them on a daily basis during wartime. Caputo intended to inform the young public about the horrible nature of war. Mistakes are doomed to repeat themselves if people are not well informed and Caputo is trying to avoid future mistakes. Death surrounded him and many of his comrades during the Vietnam War. When the life of anyone is on the line, one tends to do drastic and sometimes unthinkable things to cope with the fear of death.

The excerpt The Ending the War: The Push for National Reconciliation by David Blight, edited by Hoffman, Elizabeth Cobbs, Edward Blum and Jon Gjerde, in Major Problems in American History: Documents and Essays (Wadsworth, Cengage Leaning 2012) Blight argues historical memory that holds more importance than that of the Civil War. Like the Revolution, the memory of the Civil War played a role after the conflict. The concurrent issues in American society after the Civil War and against legislation to increase not decrease the racial problem in the South. Newly freed African Americans struggling to assimilate to society and be accepted as equal citizens in the reconstruction of the Union. This excerpt is rhetorically effective with statements on

In my opinion, a significant character in the novel is Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Scout is the protagonist and narrator of the story. She is an intelligent young girl and is what our society would refer to as a "tomboy". Scout seems to have a basic faith in the goodness of the people in her community. Considering Scout is the main character in the story, she will have a large contribution to the

     According to the author Tim O’Brien, people tend to readily accept the ‘facts’ presented of what happened during a war. People do not consider the existence of fallacies regarding the actual stories of what happens in wars, few consider that the ‘facts’ of an incident often change through people’s words. The film ‘Saving the Private Ryan’ by Steven Spielberg features both facts and seemingness part of the war story. Since it is so difficult to fully describe a war using human language, Spielberg ended up revising his stories to make sense out of it. Spielberg included parts that did not occur or exclude parts that did occur in order to make their stories seem more credible. According

Joseph Conrad once observed that “a belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” As a result of the violence that is necessary during wartime, soldiers are permitted to engage in savage behavior that is normally forbidden in society. In The Wars by Timothy Findley, however, soldiers act in violent ways even when they are not actively engaged in battle. The inherently savage nature of humankind is evident when Robert Ross kills the German soldier after the gas attack, when Robert is raped in the baths, and when Robert kills Captain Leather. These violent events that occur outside the direct action of the war demonstrate the evil inherent in

War is a subject that is deeply imbedded in the culture of the United States; this country was founded because of it. The Americans that fight in war are often referred to as heroes and held at a higher social standard than regular civilians. But Chris Hedges has a bleaker view of war and veterans. In his article “War Is Betrayal,” he explains how war is just another way for the elite to prey on the poor and gullible. He argues that rich and powerful do not go into combat, but instead they create an enticing narrative, of honor, experience, and status, that lures weak onto the battlefield. These same people after return from war with mental health problems. While Hedges includes some appeal to credibility in his article, he mainly employs emotional appeals to make his claim.

The most intriguing character for me was Mary. She is married to James and although she really loves him she had to sacrifice her dreams for him. Besides losing her dreams she also struggles with a drug addiction. Normally a reader or a viewer would expect personal growth from a character but with Mary there is little personal growth. She is stuck in pity and anger. The paradoxical factor in het storyline is that if she would really want to quit using morphine she would have to be away from her family, because every time she spends time with her family her addiction comes back in worse

Death; destruction; crawling, bloody men without jaws; and a child in the middle of it is just a glimpse of the grotesque short narrative “Chickamauga” by Ambrose Bierce. Chickamauga Creek is an area near Chattanooga, Tennessee and northwestern Georgia, plagued by war, suffering, and bloodshed from the Civil War (Bohannon). Bierce served in the Union Army during the American Civil War (Campbell). Many Americans then, and today, romanticize war with glory, heroism, and patriotism. Bierce defied literary status quo, creating graphic accounts of war, in an age of sentimentalism and melodrama (Morris). Lesser publicized were the perspectives, thoughts, and realities of the soldiers after serving and surviving in the civil