On Friday, October 2nd, I visited the Wittliff art collection at Texas State University. I was very excited at how much art I was going to see as I made my way to the 7th floor of the Alkek Library, which is where the Wittliff art collection is located in. Sadly, with all of the artwork that was displayed, I was having trouble deciding on which art pieces to write this critique on. However, two certain 2-D pieces caught my eye. Out of all of the displays in the art collection, I ended up choosing Keith Carter’s photograph and Kate Breakey’s painted photograph.
The older man 's behavior contrasts with that of the persona who is young and has barely experienced life. Whereas the speaker is eager to discover life and have new experiences to escape her reality, the older man avoids his truth by focusing on mundane details of his experience in the Vietnam War. Furthermore, the older man was once a young man himself, surely eager to have new experiences, as he enrolled in the army. Instead of having these desires fulfilled, his memories of the war have caused his view of the world to greatly deviate from that of the persona and
He entered the war because he thought he could be a hero, due to the large amounts of propaganda, and the fact that he thought it was going to be a quick war. He was wrong. Philip Caputo illustrates the unique experience of war. The author shows what the soldiers go through physically and mentally by evolving them as a person, while shaping their morals and values of life. Caputo joined the Marines in 1960, because he was tired of the dullness that Westchester Illinois brought to him.
“To Catch a Bombmaker” by Clay Dillow appeared in Popular Science in October 2015. Catching a Bombmaker does not come easy; you must have intelligence, surveillance, and knowledge behind the science of a bomb. In “To Catch a Bombmaker” these three things led to a terrorist being caught in the action. Mr. Dillow’s purpose for writing this piece is to inform. Dillow is very professional in his writing.
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
The narrator faces two main obstacles, in the call to adventure stage of his hero’s journey. At only twenty-one years old the narrator is drafted into War. For him this is an obstacle because he is “too good for this war. Too smart. Too compassionate.”
Present throughout the book is the theme of disillusionment. In the school, they’ve been told by their schoolmasters and parents that unless they join the war, they would remain cowards. They see propaganda after propaganda, all alluding towards the glory of battle and warfare. Out on the front, they realize that nothing was further from the truth. Their dreams of being heroes shattered, like when they compare themselves to the soldier on a poster in chapter 7.
The word “truth” can be interpreted numerous ways regarding different situations and also the person that is telling the story. In the book, “ The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien wrote about his experience in the Vietnam War and how the war had impacted him and his fellow soldiers. Throughout the story, O’Brien begins to doubt himself and the accuracy of the story that he was telling. “ And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed” (O’Brien 54). Knowing that everything might not be what it seemed, O’Brien began to realize that “fact” and “truth” are two different items.
Although he has no way of knowing anything about the man’s life, O’Brien attempts to humanize the soldier by creating a story for him, and memorializing it in order to place meaning on the man’s life. It is interesting to note that parts of O’Brien’s description of the soldier’s life reflect his own feelings. For example, while speaking about the man’s recruitment to the army, O’Brien tells, “…secretly… [the war] frightened him. He was not a fighter.”
Uglies by Scott Westerfield is a dystopia in which Westerfield tries to bring attention to the major issues in our society today. One is our fixation on perfection in appearance that could lead to the loss of individuality, the second being our ignorance towards science and the harmful effects we have on the world. Societies beauty standards and obsession with perfection must change or we will all lose our identity and uniqueness. In this scene, Tally and Shay are at the Ruins and Shay explains to Tally how their society is brainwashing everyone into believing a certain beauty standard, since there is nothing natural about what they perceive as beautiful.
Art Spiegelman offers a very unique point of view in his two narratives, Maus I and Maus II. In these two books, Spiegelman takes us through the life of his father Vladek and his journey during World War II in Europe. Spiegleman also confronts how post-memory has effected him through the years, even when he was growing up. These two books reflect perfectly on a survivors story using symbolism and analogy.
How it was shaped: Tim allowed the draft of the Vietnam war and societal pressures get to the best of him and he slowly tore himself apart, he started off as a confident incorrigible man. His morals later then became corrupted, he gave into the pressures, his self proclaimed Lone Ranger status had been infected and debunked by his end decision of serving in the Vietnam war. Thesis: In the story, On the Rainy River, the author, Tim O’Brien demonstrates that an individual allows societal pressures and expectations to override their core values, morals, and beliefs; peer pressure forces individuals to put their beliefs aside so they can fit in with everyone else. The narrator, Tim O’Brien faces a similar situation when he get’s drafted for the Vietnam War.
How he hated being drafted and how badly he wanted to run away. He tells how he took time to himself to decide whether or not he was going to run away and risk being caught and imprisoned or go join the army and risk dying over in Vietnam. He states at the end, “ I passed through twins with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward.
Although in the Pacific battlefield Desmond dawes has never been any record honor kill the enemy, but without any weapon in the battle of multiple rescue of the injured, make many
The short story “On the Rainy River”, by Tim O’Brien is an exploration of how guilt and the pressures of society can shape one’s decision making. O’Brien feels guilty about going to war in Vietnam which contradicts his principles and his dream of becoming a writer. In the story, O’Brien admits, “I was a coward, I went to war” (O’Brien 80); he feared how the people of his community, and the rest of society would view him if he ran away. He feared the external embarrassment he would face if he dodged his draft notice instead of serving in the war; the fear of being judged by society was too unbearable for him to face. During O’Brien’s encounter with Elroy Berdahl, he is influenced to adhere to a decision, however, he chose to conform to the expectations of society.
