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Carolyn Nordstrom's 'Shadows Of War'

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Throughout Chapter five of her book Shadows of War, Carolyn Nordstrom shares her views on war in terms of social, physical and mental goals and punishes of such violence. To begin, one of the first goals of war as defined by Nordstrom is a direct result of a threat of loss of control. She explains that it is common for one military to feel the need to destroy another when their control over a certain (land area owned or controlled by someone) is under threat (56). An interesting point that Nordstrom makes is relating to/about (community of people/all good people in the world)'s do not tell the difference between the existence of different violences.

As stated by Nordstrom, most people will naturally tell/show the difference between different wars; however, very few tell/show the difference between the experience of violence throughout such wars (57). According to Nordstrom, violence takes on (more than two, but not a lot of) different forms, which should be admitted/recognized/responded to (64). Nordstrom goes on to explain the (something that continues from one extreme to the other) on which violence is placed to measure it's (seriousness/ level). To often than not, harm towards people not in the military during wars, which has increased throughout the years, is not seen as extreme, but rather a (sudden unplanned bad event/crash); where as, harm among soldiers is far more concerning (58). …show more content…

Nordstrom's explanation of the mental effects of war violence outlines the idea that what most fear is not the actual fact of death or pain but rather the emotional aspect: the feeling of death (59). According to Nordstrom, violence "feels" like "(having to do with human existence) serious problem, like hopelessness, like the loss of the future" (59). Fear is another feeling created by such violence, which Nordstrom defines as a possible cause of

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