The book that is going to discussed in this essay is The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. It is about a boy named Holling and his teacher named Mrs. Baker. This is going on during The Vietnam war. Holling thinks that Mrs. Baker is a mean teacher, but he has to stay with her every wednesday, because he is Presbyterian and everyone in his class goes to Catholic or Hebrew school. Here is the two questions will be discussed in the essay are How do the plays Holling reads with Mrs. Baker mirror events in the book?
The Wednesday Wars, is a historical fiction novel written by Gary D. Schmidt. The novel talks about a boy named Holling, and he just started 7th grade. His teacher’s name is Mrs. Baker, and he knows that “she hated my guts.” This explained why she bores Holling to death reading Shakesphere every Wednesday afternoon.
In “A Revolutionary People at War”, Charles Royster has developed a complex and in-depth thesis regarding the American Revolution. The book dives into the minds of the American people as it conveys the American character displayed throughout the Revolution. His book is multi-faceted, focusing on a number of themes that are beautifully intertwined. He discusses the prevailing American character during the American Revolution. The book studies the ideals of the American people during the revolution and how those ideals impacted the way the Continental Army was organized and how the Revolution was fought.
Life is strange when everything you know one minute is suddenly different from the next. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt shows how important it is to find people who support you while showing kindness as you persevere through hardships. Holling starts off thinking everyone hates him, but I think it's just his perspective. The next thing he knows is how everyone is growing up with him. Holling grows as a person with the help of Meryl Lee, Heather, and Mrs. Baker.
In the 1950s, Texas was at the forefront of two major, but very different civil rights movements—the African-American movement and the Mexican-American movement. Fighting Their Own Battles by Brian Behnken describes and compares the separate battles for rights of the two movements. People in Texas knew what was happening and newspapers reported about the different events that occurred throughout the 1950s. In hindsight, and with the help of Behnken’s book, one is able to see the subtle influences of both civil rights movements in the Texas newspapers. At the time however, these differences in strategy between the African-American and Mexican-American movements were not so easily understood.
Jill Lepore used quotes and images from English colonists and portraits to show how colonists wrote about their experiences during King Philip’s War and how the narrative of the war has changed throughout the centuries. It also sets how colonists will narrate wars for future centuries. She spoked about how their writings of the war had a consequence of temporally silencing the Native Americans version on the war and how people have forgotten or even have any knowledge of the war. She uses a Boston merchant, Nathaniel Saltonstall account tilted “A true but brief account of our losses since this cruel and mischievous war begun” written in July 1676 year after the war had begun. He lists towns such as Narragansett, Warwick, Seekonk and Springfield
It is sometimes difficult for individuals to settle the discrepancy between truth and illusion, and consequently they drive others away, by shutting down. Mrs. Ross, in The Wars by Timothy Findley, is seen as brittle while she is attending church, and cannot deal with the cruel reality of the war and therefore segregates herself from the truth by blacking it out. As a result, she loses her eyesight, and never gets to solve the clash between her awareness of reality and the actuality of the world. She hides behind a veil, and her glasses to distance herself from reality. Mrs. Davenport has to wheel her around in Rowena’s chair to keep her awake, so she doesn’t harbour up subconscious feeling within her dreams, which she is unable to deal with.
Beginning early in life, people establish different values and beliefs through personal experience, leading them to commit to preserving certain ethics and ideals. These commitments serve as the cornerstone of one’s identity and heavily influence the life decisions one makes. In Timothy Findley’s The Wars, the protagonist, Robert Ross has a clear commitment to preserving the purity of life and innocence. Thrown into the hectic environment of World War 1, Robert struggles against all odds to preserve the integrity of his own humanity.
War Without Mercy “Ultimately, it brought about a revolution in racial consciousness throughout the world that continues to the present day.” (Dower 4). During World War II, besides morbid deaths, racism was one of the ultimate factors which sparked this tragic period of time. With the use of propaganda such as cartoons, films, and several other media induced strategies, the extreme hatred between the Americans and Japanese was increasing.
A Psychoanalysis on The Wars In human history, war has greatly affected the lives of people in an extremely detrimental way which can be understood in Timothy Findley’s novel The Wars through a psychoanalytic approach in character development and their deterioration; the readers are able to identify the loss of innocence intertwined between characters, the search for self-identity in the symbolic and metaphorical aspect, as well as the essence of life. Those that are not able to overcome these mental challenges may develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Rape trauma Syndrome, and sadly, some resort to suicide as the last option to escape their insecurities. However, soldiers are not the only ones affected by war; family members also face
Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent, has a memory overflowing with the horrors of many battlefields and the helplessness of those trapped within them. He applies this memory to write War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, where he tutors us in the misery of war. To accomplish this goal, Hedges uses impactful imagery, appeals to other dissidents of war and classic writers, and powerful exemplification. Throughout his book, Hedges batters the readers with painful and grotesque, often first-hand, imagery from wars around the globe. He begins the book with his experience in Sarajevo, 1995.
War, something that sounds so cliché yet endeavours a greater meaning; a meaning of finding your true self within yourself, and seeing your natural, brave or mediocre side. The concept of bravery and heroic men is often the label associated with war; however, in Timothy Findley’s The Wars, it is in fact the exact opposite. The Wars is an anachronistic example of what one goes through both physically and mentally. Findley accurately portrays the protagonist, Robert Ross, as a naïve nineteen year old who wishes to escape his excruciating feelings of reality for being held accountable for Rowena’s death by enlisting into war, as well as to adhere to societal norms. Robert is an incompetent young boy that achieves most of his knowledge of war from
The Constitution, a document written and signed in 1787 by the Philadelphia Convention, was created after many of the country's leaders at the time had become dissatisfied with the structure of government created by the Articles of Confederation. The intention of the Constitution was so it could withstand the drastic changes of the forever improving U.S. Government. Throughout Richard Stengel’s work, “One Document, Under Siege”, there is a common theme stating that the Constitution is a living document that could withstand conflict and opposition. For a start, Richard Stengel uses many examples throughout his work to prove his point, that the Constitution was a living, breathing document, and that it was the intentions of our Founders to
In ”On War and Redemption”, posted in New York Times, Timothy Kudo tells his trag-ic story about his war experiences in Afghanistan and how it affected him when he got home to America. Throughout the opinion article he describes his relation to the war and how he ended up, at home, feeling morally injured. Detailed and comprehensive, he describes his feelings, his story, his journey: and especially one episode takes up most of the room; a killing of two civilian men. The article is not a usual non-fiction text, where the author has a strong political agenda, in which she/he argues for and therefore tries to convince his/hers audience – it’s more like a personal acknowledgement, a per-sonal comment on the feelings war contributes to. Throughout the story and throughout his thoughts, he realizes that war is
Stephen Crane writes about how bad war is, he just does it discreetly. He does this to show his emotion on how he doesn’t like war. In Stephen Cranes “War is Kind,” and “A Mystery of Heroism,” he writes about how everyone involved in war including family members and loved ones are affected by war, also to show readers that people in the war have different experiences, some people loved the war and wouldn’t have it any other way, but also how some people hated the war and would have chosen any other way. Stephen Crane shows irony through “War is Kind,” and “A Mystery of Heroism,” to show how the people who are involved in the war are affected and how it affects readers’ emotional appeal, and to show that people experience war differently.
