The quote, by Moira de Swardt, emphasises the psychological damage inflicted by war, not only upon the soldiers, but also the civilians connected to the soldiers and anyone who is human enough to care. The South African Border War left psychological wounds on soldiers which could never be repaired and metaphorical scars on those who watched their loved ones suffer, unfortunately in vain for an ideological warfare crafted by a corrupt government. In the play ‘Somewhere on the Border’, by Anthony Akerman, one can witness the psychological damage as a result of war by analysing the characters Bombardier Kotze, Doug Campbell, David Levitt, Paul Marais, Hennie Badenhorst and Trevor Mowbray.
The character Bombardier Kotze possess military authority throughout the play as he has been in the army for fifteen years. Kotze has forgotten what it is like to be a civilian, “Because I hate civilians” (51), due to living the armies way of life for so long. Through his authority, Kotze inflicts psychological damage onto the young soldiers, by creating a
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Once at the military barracks he is still determined to not lose himself and his morals and therefore is often getting himself and the other young soldiers into trouble, “Kammel wants you to run round the shithouse” (40). Kotze slowly but surely breaks Campbell down until his only instinct is to survive and get out of this war alive, “within myself I’ve got principles… but like here we’ve just got to survive” (61). Campbell by the end of the play is so psychologically damaged by the war and the military training that eventually he betrays himself and shoots the already injured Black
In the story, the audience, is immersed in a typical Germans soldiers life when going to the front, waiting to go to the front, injured, and when on leave. The audience is shown the terrible experiences the soldiers experience and the emotions that they feel in many
To many people take the toll of war,to many lives have been taken from the toll of war. Families have been ripped apart by the toll of war and the stress that it puts on a family and others that live near it or in it. It has ripped apart famly bonds too. War is a heart smasher in this book My Brother Sam Is Dead.
English essay The story Walking The Boundaries written by Jackie French starts as Martin, a young boy going to his grandfathers house. Martin comes to walk the boundaries of the farm that has been in his family for generations. It sounds easy especially because he’ll own the land when he gets back. Along martins journey he meets two characters from past generations, Meg and Wulamudulla.
Men went through so many tasks during the Vietnam War physically and mentally. The beginning chapters focus on training for war and being prepared for the worst. For example, when there is a sergeant in a room with the marines. The sergeant walks to the chalk board and writes “AMBUSHES ARE MURDER AND MURDER IS FUN” (36-37). The
Millions of people have gone through life-altering experiences in their time in World War I. In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer, a 19-year-old German soldier, narrates his personal memoirs of this war. He describes the mental change and suffering he goes through as he is forced to mature from a young boy to a soldier in order to survive, leaving him permanently scarred from the throes of war. By employing juxtaposition to contrast Paul’s mindset, before and after the war, Remarque demonstrates how the mental health of the World War I soldiers is damaged because of the abrupt loss of their youth, leaving them in a state of survival and mental instability.
This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.
The novella Generals Die in Bed was written by Charles Yale Harrison who was born in Philadelphia and raised in Montreal. Harrison fought in World War 1 with the Canadian army and later became a writer in New York City. Generals Die in Bed is a fictional novella based on Harrison’s personal experience with the army that mostly takes place in France from the early part of the war until 1918. The story follows a private throughout his time on active duty that offers a brutally honest depiction of the war trenches during World War 1. As the novella progresses, we gradually see the narrator’s growing hatred for war.
We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight. John Lennon. Based on his own reading and reflection, Bruce Dawe constructs his attitudes towards war in his poems, Homecoming and Weapons Training, believing it to be lacking sense historically and ultimately futile. By specifically addressing an Australian cultural context, the poet exposes a universal appeal in that the insensitivity and anonymity are common attitudes towards soldiers during war. Dawe clearly expresses his ‘anti-war sentiment’ through his use of language and imagery as he examines the dehumanising aspects of war and its brutal reality.
War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.
Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.
War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath. Some people cave under the pressure when put in a situation where there is minimal hope or optimism. Two characters that experience
War is the graveyard of innocence for boys who become men through the loss of humanity. The book “Fallen Angels,” by Walter Dean Myers, is a story about Richard Perry, a young man who mistakenly joins the Vietnam War to avoid the shame of not going to college. As the book goes on Perry discovers his mistake and in the process, not only loses his innocence, but also his humanity. Wars will always be the dark parts of our history and no war is devoid of horrors that can strip anyone of everything they are, and in war soldiers must use coping mechanisms to deal with these very apparent horrors.
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.
Erich Maria Remarque was a man who had lived through the terrors of war, serving since he was eighteen. His first-hand experience shines through the text in his famous war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which tells the life of young Paul Bäumer as he serves during World War 1. The book was, and still is, praised to be universal. The blatant show of brutality, and the characters’ questioning of politics and their own self often reaches into the hearts of the readers, regardless of who or where they are. Brutality and images of war are abundant in this book, giving the story a feeling of reality.
By manipulating the war setting and language of the novel Heller is able to depict society as dark and twisted. Heller demonstrates his thoughts of society through the depicted war. In the novel, the loss of personal identity in the soldiers lives. Furthermore, The idea is that supports how much value is placed upon a human life and shows the evils and cruelty of war is related The Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell, in which a soldier who spends his entire life in war only to die the same position he came into the war “fetal” state; just to be disregarded and buried in a whole.