While the effort of America was important in winning the war, there was a lot of discrimination and prejudice against blacks, Native Americans, women, and homosexuals within the military. The men who fought in the war saw terrible conditions and many had mental breakdowns. This chapter in the book explains the deaths that many soldiers witnessed and how many men became separated from humanity. This caused many soldiers to become insane. The final two chapters in the book talk about changes in the American society throughout the war and the results from the war.
All they had prior to the war was just school and hobbies. But beyond that their life did not extend. And of that nothing's remains.[6]It simply crumbled under the war. What happens to these young men who only see violence, despair, death, torture, the suffering of trench warfare and the gruesome detailed image of limbs and bodies dissemble; as described in the novel. They are Broken, burnt out, rootless and without hope.
The Boys War, by Jim Murphy, shows how boys were affected for the worse in the war. This is for various reasons. These two reasons, amputation and dying alone, provide evidence of how the war affected them for the worse. A reason that shows how the war affected boy soldiers for the worse is amputation.
Ishmael and other soldiers weren’t normal boys and “a change of environment wouldn’t immediately make us normal boys.”(164). The withdrawal period was very tough, Ishmael “craved cocaine and marijuana so badly”(167) that he had started to fight for no reason. Ishmael and his friends “beat up people from the neighborhood”(168) and sometimes even “threw stones at them.”(168). Ever since the war, Ishmael had lost his innocence and though he was in rehab, he was getting worse before getting better. The child soldiers have been ruthless and hate the civilians, who have no idea how bad the war has been and though innocent, the boys “kicked him relentlessly and left him lying on the floor bleeding and unconscious.”(169).
The war can be seen in many different aspects, sometimes good most times not so good. The war past, present and future can be a hard topic for most. War novels, writing about the war, or even talking about the war can be very difficult for most people to talk and share their experiences. People are affected by the war in many different ways, and tend to deal with the affects differently. The effects on war not only affects the person who experienced the war hands on but also the people around them also.
Characters previously unconcerned with the war are now consumed by it, and let it control their day to day lives. Some characters such as Leper were affected much greater by the war than others. On page 114 Gene states that “…I didn't care what i said to him now; It was myself i was worried about. For if Leper was psycho it was the army which had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army.” (Knowles).
The clear lack of experience and training from the boy shows that in World War one the cruel practice of sending young boys to fight in a grown man's war is utilized, which in turn leads to ghastly injuries. Another example showcasing this cruel practice zooms in on the trauma experienced by young boys in war. During the shellings, one of the new recruits, “ has a fit. I have been watching him for a long time, grinding his teeth and opening and shutting his fists,” (109), according to Paul. As Kropp utters, “two years of shells and bombs-a man won’t peel that off as easy as a sock,” (87).
The reality of the situation and the gore involved with war is a scary thing for children to deal with, especially when faced with the possibility that they will most likely be drafted right into it within a matter of years. As Mr. Patch-Withers stated, the war matured the boys by at least two years past their age. And lastly, the strains put on adults by the war sometimes caused them to put pressure on the children. They expect them to grow up quicker and be more mature to adult subjects, even if they expect these things subconsciously. The boys have to mature to effectively adapt to these expectations.
War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath. Some people cave under the pressure when put in a situation where there is minimal hope or optimism. Two characters that experience
The Lasting Effect of War It is impossible to undo the changes caused by war. People often go into war as one person and return a completely new one. Not only does war have extreme physical effects on a person, but greater effects on the mind and mental state of the people involved. The traumatic and life changing effects of war are evident in The Things They Carried and are especially noticeable in the characters of Mary Anne Bell, Tim O’Brien, and Rat Kiley and the lives they live.
Traumatic experiences in life can cause any person to lose hope. In addition, it can affect someone to lose trust and determination. After being affected by something dramatic, going home is not something to look forward to. All a person wishes is that the experience never happened because now they have to suffer for the rest of their life. In the war novel, All Quiet on The Western Front, by Eric Remarque, Eric exemplifies how the war has affected himself and his loved ones.
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.
War has a profound and lasting impact on individuals and society. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he tells different stories of before, during and after war and how it affects the soldiers, mentally and physically. In these stories Tim O’Brien illustrates these traumas and the long-lasting effects and impact that the war will always have on these men. Even though all the men didn’t survive the ones that did continue to have traumatic flashbacks. War has a lasting impact on individuals and society, affecting not only the physical but the mental and emotional well-being of those involved.
I think the first time I read the chapter I didn’t think abou the ages of these boys; they are really boys not yet men. They are eighteen and nineteen years old. That is my age. I am not a soldier. I cannot even pick a college to go to and boys my age were fighting a war.
Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.
