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What Every Soldier Should Know Brian Turner Analysis

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In the poem, “What Every Soldier Should Know”, Brian Turner, details the ever-present threat of death in a war zone. This poem expesses not only the terror of the American soldiers, but also exemplifies the emotions that the Middle Eastern soldiers feel towards the American soldiers. The soldiers are experiencing death, chaos, and disorder, but for some of the middle eastern people, they experience that every day. A lot of Middle Eastern people are normal people, defending their home land, their family, and their country. In the introduction to the poem, the author begins with a quote by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “To yield force to is an act of necessity, not of will; it is at best an act of prudence.” The Middle Eastern people have to yield …show more content…

The next lines read, “To hear gunfire on a Thursday afternoon, it could be for a wedding, or it could be for you / Always enter a home with your right foot, the left is for cemeteries and unclean places” (1-4). Meaning, that the Middle Eastern natives still go about their daily lives in this war zone. There are some couples getting married, living their life, no matter if there are gun shots disrupting the fresh air. These common occurances in the Middle East are not ones thart American soldiers are acustomed to in their everyday lives. The soldiers are foreigners coming into their land, disrupting their sacred practices. Turner makes a point that soldiers have to learn to respect the culture in order to …show more content…

The same saying could be interperated in this situation for the American soldiers. “Small children who will play with you, old men with their talk, women who offer chai- / and any one of them may dance over your body tomorrow” (25-28). This quote shows that even though some people may seem innocent and easy to befriend, it is incognizant if they will rejoice over their death tomorrow. In the war zone, it is unkown. Soldiers are unaware of what could happen, or what the Midde Eastern people are going to do. The American soldiers should always be aware and on guard, but remain

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