Personal Narrative: Valley Forge

He portrays many of his own views on war through Paul's character. Thus allowing the reader to be more engaged and connected to the experiences Paul's going through. He shows his readers that in order for a soldier to survive he must lose his sense of innocence. "I nod. We stick out our chests, shave in the open, shove our hands in our pockets, inspect the recruits and feel ourselves to be stone-age veterans" (35).

The book, Diary of a Dead Officer, contains the diary of a British officer and war poet in World War 1, Arthur Graeme West. In West’s diary he describes his time in the war, in which he develops an intense abhorrence to army life. West was born in 1891, enlisted into a battalion in 1915, and died in 1917. West writes down his feelings when he starts to question some of his core beliefs about patriotism, religion and the reason for war in the first place. West believes he is the smarter man in his group, in just about every passage he questions his beliefs, or someone else 's beliefs.

Cover one, Cover all. The poem that I wanted to respond to is “Grass” by Carl Sandburg because it has the deepest emotional connection to the reader out of all the other poems in the book. Sandburg starts off by highlighting the importance to keep all of the people in mind that are sent off to war and their lives are taken. Many people today take all the freedom that Americans have for grated, not only do they think that there is a place that is more free than America they don’t respect all the lives that were taken to have this great place we live in today.

“It is well that war is so terrible-- otherwise we would grow too fond of it,” were the words once said by the Confederate General, Robert E. Lee. Indeed, even opposing nations can agree that war is full of destruction and devastation. Despite this, there are those who believe that war is glorious. Too often, movies and literature depict war as a virtuous endeavor.

The third and final type of thing the soldiers in this book, and war, carry, is the mental weight of war. One of the more obvious portrayals of this is when Rat Kiley started to lose his head a little, but there are much more than just this once specific part. This part of the book shows how much pressure the war is on their heads, and some men, just cannot withstand the pressure. There is also the part where Mitchell Sanders, on page 13, gives Norman Bowker a boys thumb as a gift. This shows how the war has almost started to dehumanize the soldiers.

Baldwin’s friends turned to these habits because they were constantly oppressed, and had begun to seek outlets for their problems. His friends were now “…busy, as they put it, ‘fighting the man.’ ... unable to say what it was that oppressed them, except that they knew it was ‘the man’—the white man. ”(Baldwin 18). What solution is the following paragraph proposing? And to what problem?

Many graphic designers were stricken with guilt after the war and one of the most memorable is the one who created the “I want YOU” poster, namely James Montgomery Flagg, who stated: ’A number of us who were too old or too scared to fight prostituted our talents by making posters inciting a large mob of young men who had never done anything to us to hop over and get shot at. . . We sold the war to youth.’ However at the time it had seemed perfectly logically justified for these men to sell the war to the youth and use their talents to enlist men in a war which was being fought for the people in power. This shows the extent and poisonous seeping of the brainwashing into the public of the people to the extent that even those who were performing the brainwashing, were themselves

The first theme discussed in this paper is Dunbar’s theory of time and how each soldier wants to live his life. He believes that life becomes longer when a person spends his time in unpleasant situations. Clevinger asks him why anyone would want to exist in such terrible conditions. Dunbar’s response is bone chilling and creates a sense of worthlessness in life. He replies, “What else is there?”

What’s more, readers can also feel of the sadness of author, for he loses his best friend. In addition, author expresses the hate to the war. Last but not least, the line “The torch; be yours to hold it high.” also attracts readers. “Torch” means “hope”.

The other eleven men that came with Beowulf gather around the body, and I condemned them for their failure of duty and declared that he will order them exiled. Such cowardice reveals a national weakness and is an invitation for their enemies to attack. I sent a messenger to tell the other Geats what has happened. When the Geats have gathered, I addressed them, mourning Beowulf 's death and expressing dismay at the bleak future of the Geats without Beowulf to guard them. I demonstrated how to be a good warrior and the importance of heroism to our society and the importance of loyalty.

I was astonished to discover that men were getting rapped in the military. A person usually decides to serve his country because of a sense of unity and pride. I find it very disheartening that the pride and unity one felt being a U.S. soldier or sailor has been robbed from them, by someone with the same beliefs. The most important sentence in the article was,” One of the doctors said to me afterward, ‘ son, men don’t get raped’”(Penn). This is an extremely powerful sentence because it shows the misconception that is widely accepted in society about rape.

Meanwhile, in a short period of time, I dreamt relevant to the one I had yesterday. Captured rebel troops hung on the ropes, staring and cursing at me, as I pled for their mercy. "It 's all my fault. I could not save you, my fellows, the only thing I could do was to just...."

Thomas Paine tries to persuade his readers into action by penning pamphlets that speak to the common man in a plainly written fashion against the tyranny of the British government, particularly against the monarchy. He is careful to not mention the word revolution in any of his writings. Instead he inspires the readers by focusing on the rights every colonist has to freedom and equality, and the need for a self-governing country. Paine utilizes the themes of God, justice, glory and honor, patriotism, and sacrifice in “The Crisis, No.1”. Words that glorify the revolutionary cause are “conquer”, “triumph”, and “glorious” (Paine 331); they fill the reader’s imagination with visions of a successful endeavor in which they and their future generations will freely prosper.