The Golden Kite The Silver Wind Analysis

There is a quote that Plato once said to his students; “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” (Plato, goodreads.com). This quote tells us that there are always sacrifices to be made in war. People suffer and die, and that is a shameless fact. It is, however, unbefitting of someone to die or suffer because of someone else’s actions. In fact, the story “The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind” just so happens to be a metaphor for the Cold War, which took place between 1947 and 1991 when America and Russia collided. This caused their people to endure a massive amount of stress and tension, which lasted approximately 50 years. In this essay, we will follow the story “The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind” and discuss how war always has consequences. If

Well now they’ve decided to play with C4s and Defcon-2 style ballistic missiles. On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was created in America, and tested at Alamogordo, New Mexico at a site called ‘Trinity’. There were two objectives that the bomb had; a quick end to World War II and US control of foreign policy. As President Truman authorized the Truman Doctrine to stop the spread of communism, Russia had obtained the original blueprints for the atomic bomb in secret. As the Soviet Union launched its first atomic bomb on the 29th of August, 1949, the supremacy the United States held in the foreign policy business came to an end, spurring on the Cold war. One bomb after the other, the United States and the Soviet Union were head to head as they wanted supremacy over the other. In “The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind”, the constant changing of the walls reflects just that. When Kwan Si was built like a pig, the Mandarin told his stonemasons to build “our walls into a club which may beat the pig and drive it off!” (Bradbury, 397). However, this does little to help the un-named city, as the next day the messenger arrives and reports that “They (Kwan Si) have built their walls like a great bonfire to burn our stick!” (Bradbury, 398). After receiving the news of Kwan Si’s changed wall, the Mandarin orders for the stone masons “to build our walls into the shape of a shining

In fact, it’s such a daily occurrence that people find it normal and do not bother paying any attention to them. When countries get involved though, things go from DefCon 5 to DefCon 1 in a matter of seconds. In “The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind”, we see things escalate quickly between the two villages as both try to triumph over the other. As soon as the un-named village changes the walls into the shape of a club, it is in vain as the next day, the messenger reports to the Mandarin that Kwan Si had “built their city’s walls like a great bonfire to burn our stick!” (Bradbury, 398). Even though the Mandarin orders for the wall to be re-shaped, Kwan Si immediately retaliates by reshaping their walls. Because they refuse to give up, they are now stuck in an endless cycle of re-building walls and cannot stop, needing help. Even countries like America and the USSR had their advisors stopping them from creating a nuclear war happening because both representatives refused to let their arms down. They were not fully prepared, yet they dived into the problem without thinking of any of the consequences. In both scenarios, the higher-ups do not think to ask what the people would really want, and yet again, the people pay the price with their