War, By Sebastian Junger

The American Revolution, the effects it had on those who served and their families, the death, the unapologetic rawness, and what it left behind; all of these aspects demand to be felt in Joseph Wright’s The Dead Soldier. Wright, called Joseph Wright of Derby, a European artist of the eighteenth century, who is best known for his beautiful portraiture, scientific scenes, and sensationally lit landscapes, steps outside of his norm and composes a sorrowful piece expressing the misery and loss the war had on the people of the time. With his use of chiascurro, draping lines, and contrasting color palette, Wright evokes an immense amount of sentiment in the viewer while highlighting the dark misery of the American Revolution, which is rarely

An expectation that is shattered on his very first night when during the operation he ends up killing two Taliban gunmen. He tells the story of that night, and then the next, and then goes on to tell stories of the more complex operations that he ended up being involved with throughout the deployment. Each of the stories is told from a very personal point of view which is what makes this book work and work very well. We are told of his feelings towards his comrades, his attitude and approach to the others, and those little anecdotes of daily life that are either humorous or poignant. He experiences his comrade’s deaths as well as various injuries and he also experiences plans that go awry and situations where nothing happens. I think that the author sat down with his co-author and relived each event in his own words. These recordings (probably) ended up being transcribed and then arranged and edited into this book. This approach works very well in this case. Because of the "war story" nature of the narratives and the naturalness of the writing, this book is a very quick read across its 310

“War stories” are shared by people all over the world, describing exhilarating experiences one encompasses during a war. However, these stories have been known for hyperbolizing details of the story, deeming it a “lie.” Tim O’Brien, the author of “How to Tell a True War Story,” examines the complex relationship between war experience and storytelling. The tale is told partly from O’Brien’s role as a soldier, as a reprise of several Vietnam stories, and half of his role as a storyteller, as a discussion on the art of storytelling. O’Brien provides detailed commentary on storytelling and blurs the division between truth and fiction through a series of paradoxical commentaries.

The non-fiction article, “Children of War” by Arthur Brice is about four children who were forced to flee war and relocate to the U.S. First off, children in warzones are not a big part of what caused the wars, but are still heavily, negatively affected. For many, life was great and jolly for children before times of war, but when war came about it changed their lives, they lived in fear and terror. They lost family, money, and most devastating, their homes. So they were forced to flee, to many countries around the world, but ultimately they came to the United States. At first life was tricky in the U.S, they struggled with language, culture, and homesickness. Although these teens are living in the U.S today, they hope to go back to their

According to Brandon Mull, the New York Times bestselling author of the Beyonoders series, “…heroism means doing the right thing regardless of the consequence” (Mull 39). In The Wars by Timothy Findley, the protagonist, Robert Ross, displays key characteristics of heroism throughout his struggle to maintain his morality. In the novel, Robert displays an admiration for the sanctity of life, a desire to achieve the greatest good, and a virtuous moral conscience which all contribute to him achieving heroism in the face of adversity.

The novel War, written by Sebastian Junger, records the events in Korengal, Afghanistan with the American Army from a journal’s perspective. Throughout the book, he retells his experiences of fire fights, the emotional trauma of losing a fellow fighter, the undeniably strong bond between soldiers, and the consequences combat has on family members. While this novel has some detailed and brutally honest components regarding the war in Afghanistan, I found the insight provided by Junger on combat to be interesting. Once I started reading this novel, putting down the book was nearly impossible as I was finding myself entranced within this world of war. The insight into the world of combat, although brief, permitted me to better understand a soldier’s experience in war zones. My previous knowledge regarding the novel’s context, as well as personal experiences, transformed my mindset from thinking critically about the novel to becoming emotionally connected to the soldiers’ success. I found that the more I read this novel, the more my life experiences influenced my attitude towards the individuals and experiences as described by Junger.

War is physically and mentally exhausting on all parties involved. This notion is made evident in Stephen Crane’s “Red Badge of Courage” and Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Camouflaging the Chimera” Although different genres, one being a novel excerpt and the latter being a poem. Both pieces of literature explore the day-to-day life and psyche of the soldier. “Red Badge of Courage” is told by “the youth” Henry Fleming. As he looks on to groups of soldiers and wonders why they are so eager to die as he thinks of his own death and the peace that comes with it. “Camouflaging the Chimera” is narrated by a soldier who is more connected to his fellow soldiers as he describes the endless waiting in ditches and how nature is involved in war. In both works, the

Sebastian Junger’s “Combat High” first appeared in Newsweek magazine in 2010. In this essay adapted from the author’s book War, Junger aims to convince readers how society’s decisions affect the many men and women fighting for our country and how soldiers all become one. In “Combat High”, Sebastian Junger apprise us about his involvement in Konrengal outpost in the Valley of Afghanistan (KOP). In his journey he perceives war in distinctive eyes, the eyes of a soldier.

In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.

English Professor Carol Burke’s interest in military culture led her to research the prevalence of superstitious charms in the military through a series of interviews; she published these findings in “The Things They Bring to War.” In Humanities Core lecture, she further analyzed military culture through the lens of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), which explores how military training psychologically wounds many soldiers. Our most recent Humanities Core project is the Literary Journalism assignment, in which we have to interview someone who has experienced war—such as a veteran or someone who was displaced due to war—and write a story that recreates their experience. Since I

To begin, in Art of War by Sun Tzu, he refers to war as a designed strategy. He claims, ‘To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy is the acme of skill.’ (Tzu, 1943, p. 79). This means that a well-designed strategy is to initiate the fuse with the enemy with a non-violent stunt like giving urine to the enemy instead of wine (Tzu, 1943, p. 79). This enrages them causing recklessly thinking and they make the first move to attack and the defendant can be prepared to weaken the attack and defence systems by eliminating the forces. Their defence is weakened and the enemy becomes easy to conquer and overthrow without any more physical acts.

In the article, “Why It’s So Hard to Come Home From War” an interview with filmmaker Sebastian Junger by Helen Walters, writes about what war is like for America’s veterans in Afghanistan from Sebastian’s perspective revisiting the location. My response to the article is that every individual who gets the chance to visit Afghanistan to capture every moment of what he or she may think that happens in war was like. I think that someone who visit the place may have a strange feeling of being worried or scared to stand in the exact same place where war was taken before. Or Sebastian enhancing a chance of experiencing this environment where he feels that he is the luckiest man on earth but also too lucky that he still cannot believe it.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a classic work of military science fiction depicting a war between the human race and an unfamiliar alien entity known as the Taurans. The overall plot line follows a fairly typical path, but Haldeman’s real genius is realized through the interactions that take place between the protagonist, William Mandella, and the Earth he returns to between military operations. Developing beneath the ever-present war of the two species lies a much subtler conflict between generations of human thought and culture. Brought about by the way troops are transported in space, time dilation creates an interesting dichotomy between the early soldiers of the war and the rapid evolution of human society and culture remaining on Earth. The Forever War questions the stability of human nature by creating a scenario where its fluidity is exposed through an invariable link to time. The expression of human nature changes as cultural and personal identities adapt to new situations; viewing these changes through Mandella, we begin to see how different expressions of human nature can impact human nature itself.

RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN’S LITTLE AMERICA: THE WAR WITHIN THE WAR FOR AFGHANISTAN is about NATO’s counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan since 2009. Published in 2012.

While flipping through a historical magazine, a viewer observes the pictures of destroyed villages, fields covered in debris or bodies, and survivors walking around shocked by what they just experienced. Then one picture catches the eye. There is a screaming, naked girl running towards the camera. The girl is young, thin and helpless. She is running from the bombs and the black smoke in the background. There are soldiers on the sidelines walking with their heads down. Viewers cannot exactly pinpoint what the photo is telling them, but the image lingers in their minds for a little while pondering how something so awful could have happened to that girl or why events, like this one, take place. In both the photograph, Trang Bang, and the Poem, War, by Kate Daniels, there are many ideas to think about. One idea is the distribution of power. Many times the idea of power is elusive and can lead readers to misinterpret the art piece’s true intentions. In the photograph and the poem readers observe that the running naked child seems to be powerless over the situation she is experiencing. Even though the readers may imagine themselves as powerless as well, they are not actually powerless; they are powerful. Through the poem, readers begin to see their role, as readers, that they play in the event and the power that they encompass to be able to read and live in a world where they do have these capabilities. By recognizing the power that readers can act and make decisions, they