In times of war, death and darkness, sacrifice becomes the best method of moving into better times. For the men and women who see the sacrifices, they can go home to friends and family, they can go home to a nice dinner or go back to work like they used to and all is well. Unfortunately though, for those who make the sacrifices, they cannot. Instead they get to go home a broken mind, loss of self or just not go home at all. APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India once said, “Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.” In this, he is not referring to just giving up our lives but our personal comfort, our morals or anything else it takes to ensure that those after us live a peaceful life. …show more content…
These people, who make sacrifices are to be honored and respected because, they offer everyone else a chance at freedom and having a future. In the novel the green Mile**, the film Saving Private Ryan and the episodic short Band of brothers**, there is many examples of sacrifices that are made for others freedom, future and happiness that should be honoured. These people gave up their physical comfort and abilities for the better of the group and society. They also gave up their morals, going against what they believed to get things done. By far the biggest sacrifice made is that of their lives. Sacrifice for society is the greatest gift we can be given and is to be honoured at the highest degree. The most common sacrifice made is that of one’s physical and mental state and ability.
Losing one’s ability to do certain things often occurs from a change in physical form or mental state. This occurs quite often when making sacrifices and is should be honoured by society. In the novel, The Green Mile, written by Stephen King, one of the main characters gives up his physical comfort to help save the lives of those around him. ON two occasions, inmate John Coffey uses a special gift he has to take the illness from others and bring it into himself. The first occasion he does this is with Paul Edgecomb who at the time had a severe urinary infection. To cure the urinary infection that had taken over Paul Edgecomb, Coffey had to touch Edgecomb and to suck the illness out of him. The sacrifice is made when you realize that it actually makes him sick. As Paul recollects on what actually happened that day he states that,
“Coffey was bent over his forward own lap with his face working and his throat bulging. His eyes were bulging too. He looked like a man with a chicken bone caught in his throat… He hitched under my hand than made an unpleasant gagging, retching sound. His mouth opened the way horse’s mouth sometimes do to allow the bit- reluctantly, with the lips peeling back from the teeth in a kind of desperate sneer. Then his teeth parted too” (King, 184).
In this passage you can clearly tell that by taking the infection away from Edgecomb, John Coffey was willingly taking it on himself.
At one point he even asked for Paul to come for help, saying, “You got to come in here… I just want to help” (King, 182). This voluntary act of kindness and the sacrifice of well-being by Coffey is a perfect example of the type of s sacrifices people make that should be honoured. Another example of a sacrifice somebody made for others that inhibits his mental being occurred in an episodic short called Band of Brothers, In this scene we see a Sergeant with the US military during the second World war begin to slowly lose his sanity on the front line. “Buck” Compton as he is known was one of the most well respected and hard-nosed soldiers in the war but after witnessing his two best friends get hit by a mortar and each lose a leg, he changes. He volunteered to stay back and fight even after being shot and in doing so, was present to see the near death of two of his closest friends. By sacrificing his opportunity to go home, Buck ultimately gave up on his mental stability, which led to him being sent back to the US with a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that left him incapable of speaking, feeding or dressing himself and for that he deserves endless recognition. This leads to another example of the many sacrifices that go unrecognized. The two best friends of Buck Compton, Joseph Toye and Will Guarnere both lost a leg during a …show more content…
German mortar attack. This is another example of the sacrifices made those to help society in the future. Both these men were willing to lose limbs and even die if it meant the freedom of all other Americans. In the movie saving Private Ryan, Sergeant Horvath, was one of the 7 men tasked with finding Private Ryan. He also met the worst death. In the final attack of the movie, Horvath was shot and wounded but continued to fight. Despite being barely able to walk he carried on with the fighting. On three separate occasions he was shot and each time he was slowed down even more but somehow he managed to stay alive. He sacrificed his safety with the final shot that hit him by running in front of a fellow soldier and taking the bullet for him. Claiming “he was just winded,” Horvath urged everybody to keep fighting. This self-sacrifice and ability to keep fighting even after being left basically immobile shows the respect that people deserve. These examples show just what they are willing to put their body and minds through for the rest of society and for this they should be forever recognized and honoured. Another sacrifice people often make is that of their morals. Morals are ones principles on what actions and behaviour is and are not appropriate. They are often the leading factors in one’s decision making. Sometimes however, people must go against everything they feel is right and sacrifice their morals for the freedom of others. In Saving Private Ryan, Corporal Upham does something he never thought he would do. Throughout the movie, Upham spends his day following the others without taking part in their vulgar talks and violent behaviour. Even through the war he maintains his innocence. At one point he even befriends a German POW who killed one of his fellow Americans, stopping the others for beating him and saying “it isn’t right.” In the final battle, Upham sees the former German POW with rifle in hand, attempting to shoot Captain Miller who was his leader in combat. Instead of staying with his morals and walking away however, after showing himself to the German soldiers who immediately drop their weapons and raise their hands, Upham points his gun and murders a surrendered enemy. This blatant act of anger shows the sacrifice of Upham’s ability to tell between right and wrong for the benefit of others. He knows that if he lets this man live, many others will die. The most emotional example of one giving up on his morals is when Paul Edgecomb orders the execution of John Coffey. Once Coffey is sat in the seat of the electric chair and prepared to be executed, he asks not to be masked for his fear of the dark to which Edgecomb obliges. As they step back to finish the deed, Brutal and Paul have a moment where they both let go of their morals. The exchange starts with Paul claiming that, “for the first time he [Brutal] was pale, too – pasty white, on the verge of passing out” (King, 509). He goes on to say that he remembered brutal saying, “for the first time he was in danger of going to Hell, because we were killing a gift of God” (King, 509). This shows the sacrifice made by Brutal and all the prison guards at the time. They had all experienced things with Coffey that proved his innocence and yet, instead of fighting for him to survive, they gave him his last wish to die. To be free from his curse and to be free from the society that rejected him. Instead of doing what they believed was right, they went against their morals and gave him his freedom by carrying out the execution. The biggest sacrifice you will see anybody make however is that in which somebody gives their life. The ultimate sacrifice is when somebody gives up their life for the good of others.
Despite being something that is exaggerated and overdone in Hollywood, it is something that actually happens and that deserves the respect of everybody and not just those directly affected. In Saving Private Ryan, there were many men who sacrificed their lives in hopes of finding Ryan and giving him the opportunity to do something with his life. These men were all willing to give up their lives for another person with hopes he would earn the honor bestowed upon him. In the film, Captain Miller’s final words were, in a mumbled, struggling tone, “earn this.” This shows that those men who died just wanted to make sure that the next generation of youth had the opportunity to achieve something in peaceful times that they could not. Another example of this is in The Green Mile. At the end of the book, John Coffey tells the guards that it is okay that they have to kill him. He says that, “I know you and the other bosses been worryin’ but you ought to quit now, because I want to go Boss” (King, 491). It is at this point where he gives up his life but what happens next is when he truly gives himself up. As he continues to speak with Paul Edgecomb, he touches his hand and in doing so, gives him the powers he had been in control of for so long. Paul realizes something is different and asks Coffey what he did to him, to which he replies, “Ain’t much I reckon, you’ll be feelin’ like regular soon” (King,
493). By not only giving up his power to somebody else, he gives away everything he truly is, not only in body but also in soul as a gift from God. This is truly when Coffey gave up his life.