How do you think war impacts soldiers? I believe that there are two different effects war can have on a soldier, a psychological and a physical one. One disorder involved with war is Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, in All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer, the narrator, tells of his experiences in World War I and the term associated with soldiers who have been corrupted by the war is “shell-shocked”. In my essay I will talk about the impact war has had on Paul, and how it 's affecting soldiers today.
In the early 20th century no one had any great understanding of a psychological illness and the outcome was the suffering of many ill patients. "Soldiers Home" takes place right after the war in 1919 and shows how the war can effect a man 's perception on life immensely. "The Yellow wallpaper" takes place during the late nineteenth century in a large summer home. This story shows the stereotype of a woman and how they can almost come to insanity. Although Harold Krebs and the narrator from "The Yellow Wallpaper" have different gender roles, both have a form of stress disorder that separates the real world from their fantasy.
Have you a reader ever wondered about the realistic depiction of war: how the war is romanticized and how it can be an awful place to be? The author Walter Dean Myers shows us the depiction of the war in Vietnam the main character in the book Richard Perry a young boy from Harlem being thrown into the war because of his life at home and doesn't want to really deal with people. The book Fallen Angels is a realistic depiction of war. The book shows us some untimely deaths, graphic violence and the main protagonist inner thoughts and doubts. Through the novel Fallen Angels the depiction of war is shoved into the main characters face with graphic violence untimely deaths that occur and the
“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. Over all, this story allows us to observe changes within the mentalities of army officers.
“Soldiers Home” by Ernest Hemingway and “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien both deal with the difficulties of veterans returning home from war. Both of the protagonists, Krebs and Bowker respectively, experience trauma, which leads them on a search for self-discovery and an outlet for their pain. At the end of each story, neither of the characters wants to participate in society anymore. Despite the similarities, Norman Bowker is more forthcoming with his feelings, ultimately making him a more successful character. In addition, the similarities and differences between the authors’ styles accentuate those that occur within the characters of the stories; both authors use symbolism to show the changes in the dynamic characters over the course of the narratives.
The short story “Soldier 's home” is about Krebs who goes to war but afterwards when it is over he feels that everyone has expectations of him so he lies about how the war was and feels guilty about it. Furthermore Krebs has a desire to look
“Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected,” Paul Fussell wrote in “The Great War and Modern Memory,” his classic study of the English literature of the First World War. “But the Great War was more ironic than any before or since.” The ancient verities of honor and glory were still standing in 1914 when England’s soldier-poets marched off to fight in France. Those young men became modern through the experience of trench warfare, if not in the forms they used to describe it. It was Yeats, Pound, Eliot, Joyce, and Lawrence who invented literary modernism while sitting out the war. Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen—who all fought in the trenches and, in the last two cases, died
In Soldier from the War Returning, Thomas Childers writes that “a curious silence lingers over what for many was the last great battle of the war.” This final battle was the soldier’s return home. After World War II, veterans came back to the United States and struggled with stigmatized mental illnesses as well as financial and social issues.
The story “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemmingway depicts the wounding and post-traumatic experience of the First World War of the main character Harold Krebs and his family. Like most soldiers’ experience of the war, upon return to their lives back home, their lives virtually had no more meaning to them. Krebs presents a painful realization in this manner in which he interacts with his mother. She tries to think of her son as a hero and make him feel like one by encouraging him to re-tell his tales from the war. Krebs knows that the impressions his mother is making are not authentic and she, just like the rest of his fellow town folk are tired of hearing and reading the same stories from the war (De Baerdemaeker 24). Hemingway uses the story to painfully highlight the internal conflict that leaves an individual veteran like Krebs questioning his peculiar heroic status after fighting in the war.
The war novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque depicts one protagonist, Paul, as he undergoes a psychological transformation. Paul plays a role as a soldier fighting in World War I. His experiences during the war are not episodes the average person would simply experience. Alternatively, his experiences allow him to develop into a more sophisticated individual. Remarque illustrates these metamorphic experiences to expose his theme of the loss of not only people’s lives but also innocence and tranquility that occurs in war.
His mother provided a needed nurturing feature that he would need to give him the boost to return to the aspects of society. Krebs struggled to find ways to regain his stature in society and his mother felt it was her duty to help him along the way even if he was mean to her without understanding why he was doing such. Krebs would even tell his mother he did not love her, even though he did not mean it (Hemingway 170). His mother would be there to support her son, even after the hurtful comments that Krebs made towards her. It is hurtful in any form to see your children go through any pain and she would make sure that all could be done to get Harold back into the world. Her son would return home with her help and he would be back into society. She would give him the tools to succeed and finally return home. She and his father came up with a plan that Krebs could borrow the car and go out and perform activities so that Krebs would get out of the house and enjoy life, but he must also find a job to which she described it as a place in life (Hemingway 170). Kreb’s mother was providing him with the tools to become a key component for his future. She understood the struggles he went through but wanted to make sure that he would eventually find a way to
Buried in recessed rocks, hear the bullets flying, and then I hear the booming of the cannon and the marching of the troops coming in. I´m trying to find for my survival that all I wanted to do is to get back home safe. Kerbs went to the war from a Methodist college in Kansas he was enlisted in the Marines in 1917(1). After the war was declared over Kerbs stayed at the Rhine until the second division went home in the summer(1). Finally, he returned to his hometown in Oklahoma and the greetings of the heroes were over(3). The short story “Soldier’s Home” made me think about all the soldiers who miss home or have no family to recognize them in their glory in which what they’re doing for our nation.
All Quiet on the Western Front and Soldiers Home both have multiple themes. Both portray the destruction of all soldiers who partake in the war and the atrocities committed on both sides. However, although Hemingway's use of mostly direct characterization is useful in displaying how war impacts soldiers, Remarques use of characterization, word choice, and indirect characterization are better at fully visualizing the loss of humanity in war then Hemingway's uses.
Both “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway use the townspeople as a symbol for how society treats soldiers. The authors show this symbolism by how the townspeople treat the soldiers, how the soldiers treat girls, and how the soldiers treat the townspeople over time. The symbolism in this story gives a message to the reader to treat soldiers with respect, and not just ignore them because their story is boring or uncomfortable.
America’s war heroes all have the same stories to tell but different tales. Prescribed with the same coloring page to fill in, and use their methods and colors to bring the image to life. This is the writing style and tactic used by Tim O’Brien in his novel, “The Things They Carried”. Steven Kaplan’s short story criticism, The Undying Certainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, provides the audience with an understanding of O’Brien’s techniques used to share “true war” stories of the Vietnam War. Kaplan explains the multitude of stories shared in each of the individual characters, narration and concepts derived from their personal experiences while serving active combat duty during the Vietnam War,