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Effects of war on society essay
Essays about the civil war
Essays about the civil war
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of war on society essay
Essays about the civil war
Essays about the civil war
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Recommended: Effects of war on society essay
In chapter one of What They Fought For, I learned about the letters and diaries of the Confederate soldiers. The themes of the letters were home-sickness, lack of peace, and the defense of home against their invading enemy. The thought of soldiers fighting for their homes and being threatened by invaders, made them stronger when facing adversity. Many men expressed that they would rather die fighting for a cause, than dying without trying and this commitment showed patriotism. Throughout the letters, soldiers claimed their reason for fighting, was for the principles of Constitutional liberty and self-government.
The United States Civil War is possible one of the most meaningful, bloodstained and controversial war fought in American history. Northern Americans against Southern Americans fought against one another for a variety of motives. These motives aroused from a wide range of ideologies that stirred around the states. In James M. McPherson’s What they fought for: 1861-1865, he analyzes the Union and Confederate soldier’s morale and ideological components through the letters they wrote to love ones while at war. While, John WhiteClay Chambers and G. Kurt Piehler depict Civil War soldiers through their letters detailing the agonizing battles of war in Major Problems in American Military History.
“But American reunion was built on a comfortable narrative that made enslavement into benevolence… kind of sport in which one could conclude that both sides conducted their affairs with courage, honor, and élan. This lie of the Civil War is the lie of innocence, is the Dream” (Coates 102). He explains how the Civil War is thought of where things occurred naturally and innocently. The fact is, it’s not. America is built on lies, trying to make enslavement as a thing of kindness, where mass slaughter on both sides is thought of something done with honor.
While reading the 5 fiction short stories there became a common pattern between 3 stories and the characters in them. These stories are “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen, and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. Every character has the mindset to possibly fulfill their goals to better and/or change their lives. “The Rocking Horse Winner” is about a boy named Paul who wants to win his mother’s love and attention. By giving her the life she always wanted.
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" begins with the capture of the protagonist Peyton Farquhar, a plantation and slave owner. Bierce paints a vivid picture of the surroundings around Farquhar as he awaits to be hanged. It then flashes back to the days leading up to the hanging. Where Farquhar was deceived by a federal spy claiming to be a confederate soldier. In the end, we see Farquhar escape from reality as he is serving his sentence to finally his demise.
The living legacy of the United States Civil War is a complicated time in American history one finds difficult to describe. The ramification of the war prior, during and after still haunt the current citizens who call The States their home. Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War looks at the wide gap of discontent that still looms in the late 1990s. For some southerners, the Confederacy still lives on through reenactments, stories and beliefs. For others in the South, reminders the land was dedicated to the Confederacy spark hatred and spite.
How do you cope with the reality of day to day life? I would like to think I handle the reality of day to day life moderately well like everyone else. However, I began to question myself once again as I read Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” This story, with its unexpected ending, had me rereading it several times to pull out key details that led me down the wrong path the first time.
Not many believed that The Civil War would be more deadly than all the world wars put together. After The First Battle of Bull Run, in the summer of 1861, things became serious and the U.S was about to experience the deadliest war in U.S history. “This Republic of Suffering” goes deep into the effect of the Civil War on the soldiers and their families. The author Drew Gilpin Faust wanted to show the world a side of the war that Americans have never seen in details. Faust showed the death of the soldiers, and the effect that the war had in their families, appealing to the emotions of the readers.
Women, Soldiers, African Americans and many other people had big parts in the Civil War. The tensions of the 1860’s show the “human” side of the War in many harsh ways. Without these struggles we wouldn 't be where we are today. Many soldiers were young, they had fears that included false identity when dead and never seeing family again.
“An army’s bravest men are it’s cowards, the death they would not meet at the hands of the enemy they will meet at the hands of their officers, with never a flinching.” While describing a field hospital Bierce does not paint a pretty picture of the dead being mourned rather his picture is one of a processing facility where the dead are handled like objects and the living are only waiting their turn outside. “These tents were constantly receiving the wounded, yet were never full; they were constantly ejecting the dead, yet were never empty. It was if all the helplessness had been carried in an murdered, that they might not hamper those whose business it was to fall to-morrow.” Bierce strikes the reader with a grim, uncomfortable look into the reality of the war alongside the story of Union success at
Life for the Union Soldier was not only brutal on the battlefield, but the camp life for a Union soldier was just as cruel. With the lack of personal hygiene, unsavory and repugnant food, and the shortage of clothing made living, a very difficult thing to do. Growth in the number of people with diseases was also a contributing factor to the massive amounts of death within the camp and as well as the post-battle wounds that often left either a man with one less limb or put in a mental institution. A Union Soldier’s life during the Civil War was cruel and horrific during their stay at the camps.
In the story it talks about
War is best described from the words of Harry Patch who was the last surviving soldier of WWI “War Is Organized Murder, And Nothing Else”. These words coming from a person who experienced what it means to be fighting in a war, not knowing if he will live another second speaks volumes. This idea of just how gruesome and costly war truly is, exemplified with pieces of writing like Chickamauga by Ambrose Bierce, “To His Love” by Ivor Gurney, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’brien. The Civil war the deadliest war in American History.
No matter what the cause, war and the killing of another human being cannot be justified. Twain shows how war can and has been justified by patriotism: “the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism” (Twain). The very essence of the people’s pride blinds them into becoming murderers, for their patriotism is their pride. Twain expresses this arrogance as a burning fuel to go to war. Twain exemplifies the irony of the people’s happiness towards the soldiers: “The proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion” (Twain).
During the Civil War, it is said that almost 180,000 Black Soldiers served in the Union Army. The families of these soldiers would camp in nearby makeshift villages to be near their husbands, sons and fathers. The soldiers assisted them the best they could by share food and clothing from their military rations. Nearly 40,000 Black Soldiers died during the course of the war with 30,000 due to infections and diseases. Although Blacks were giving the chance to fight for their freedom, they were still not looked as equals.