In the middle of the Vietnam War, Kurt Vonnegut published Slaughterhouse-Five. The book is considered a piece of fiction by many, yet there are several parallels between the main character, Billy Pilgrim, and the author himself. Vonnegut enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 and later fought in the Battle of the Bulge (Biography). Vonnegut’s personally experienced the horrors of war leading to him having an anti-war view which brought meaning to his novel.…
World War I began like a summer festival—all billowing skirts and golden epaulets. Millions upon millions cheered from the sidewalks while plumed imperial highnesses, serenities, field marshals and other such fools paraded through the capital cities of Europe at the head of their shining legions. It was a season of generosity; a time for boasts, bands, poems, songs, innocent prayers. It was an August made palpitant and breathless by the pre-nuptial nights of young gentlemen-officers and the girls they left permanently behind them. One of the Highland regiments went over the top in its first battle behind forty kilted bagpipers, skirling away for all they were worth—at machine guns. Nine million corpses later, when the bands stopped and the serenities started running, the wail of bagpipes would never again sound quite the same. It was the last of the romantic wars; and Johnny Got His Gun was probably the last American novel written about it before an entirely different affair called World War II got under way. The book has a weird political history. Written in 1938 when pacifism was anathema to the American left and most of the center, it went to the printers in the spring of 1939 and was published on September third—ten days after the Nazi-Soviet pact, two days after the start of World War II. Shortly thereafter, on the recommendation of Mr. Joseph Wharton Lippincott (who felt it would stimulate sales), serial rights were sold to The Daily Worker of New York City. For months thereafter the book was a rally point for the left. After Pearl Harbor its subject matter seemed as inappropriate to the times as the shriek of bagpipes. Mr. Paul Blanshard, speaking of army censorship in The Right to Read (1955) says, "A few pro-Axis foreign-language magazines had been banned, as well as…
In his meticulously crafted document “The American Crisis”, Thomas Paine, author of multiple important American papers and secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, cleverly articulates and emotionally influences the soldiers and citizens of the American colonies to convince them to keep fighting even through the relentless winter and argues that everyone who wants freedom for themselves should have to join the fight for it. He establishes credibility through recalling personal experiences, as well as comparing ideas that are alike to emotionally persuade the audience, to craft an inescapably compelling piece of literature. Paine establishes his credibility throughout the document by reciting his own personal experiences in the war. Paine recalls the times at Fort Lee when he “marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania”, the time that they “made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack”, and the time that they “stayed four days at Newark”.…
It also came to be thought of as the signature novel of the 1960s and 70s, despite its World War II setting, spurring on Americans to question authority during two decades of hippies, protests and civil rights movements with Catch 22 fitting in perfectly. Its tone is shaped by the events of the 1950s (when it was written) and an attitude toward all wars, not just that one. Looking back, Heller recognized that World War II was a relatively popular' war for most Americans, a factor in some critical rejection of the novel. Catch-22 grew in popularity during the years of the Vietnam War, when the general…
Two major themes of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller are the absurdity of war and the abuse of power. These two themes depend on one another in order to coexist. It is through the power exhibited by senior officers and command staff that the absurdities take place. In this novel, the main character, Yossarian, is a bombardier in a squadron in Pianosa, Italy. He is surrounded by absurdity and power abuse, most notably from Catch-22. Catch-22 is a provision which states that in order for a soldier to be grounded, he must be insane, but in declaring himself insane, he is showing that he is sane and must therefore continue to fly. Yossarian wishes to be grounded because he is so concerned…
Before even reading the book, Readers are easily enticed by the covers bold, and clear book cover, The red backround is daring and prevokes the person in a bookstore to pick the book up, and at least read the back of the book to see what could be so important to have such an eye-catching strong cover. The back cover of the book reveals the content of the book, how Andrew Bacevich the retired war hero, and US Commanding Soldier, believes that the path America is on is leading to a dangerous game, a game called permanent war.…
In Isaiah Berlin’s Agnelli Prize winning essay, “The Pursuit of the Ideal,” the British philosopher claims that, “we are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss.” Berlin’s statement is proven true in The Way the Crow Flies by award winning author Ann-Marie MacDonald. Set in a post-war era, The Way the Crow Flies tells a captivating story of a wing commander, named Jack McCarthy, and his family after they move to a close-knit community called Centralia. Jack’s choices in Centralia eventually place him in a compromising position. His daughter, Madeleine, falls victim to her fourth grade teacher’s horrible abuse after school. These two main plots are then intertwined with the death of a little girl, and an innocent boy named Ricky Froelich is placed on trial for her murder. Now, both Madeleine and her father Jack find themselves doomed to choose secrecy or exposure and find that every choice they make has great consequences. Over the course of The Way the Crow Flies, the theme of choice and its consequences is developed by Cold War chicanery, sexual abuse, and confrontation.…
"Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing anymore. I am so alone and so without hope that I can confront them without fear" War is a political hotbed. Regardless of the warring nations’ reasons or the outcome, in the wake of the battle, the soldier, or country’s hero, actually becomes the victim. Youth is sacrificed, lives are lost, and the survivors are forever altered.…
As individuals who long to have relationships with others, it is vital to consider the underlying character and moral compass that each possess. As evidenced in “The Child by Tiger” and “The Most Dangerous Game,” one realizes the ability for change or controversy of any individuals nature on the service. In Thomas Wolfe’s “The Child by Tiger” and Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” the characters Dick Prosser and General Zaroff differ; however, they both lead lives characterized by contradiction and corruption.…
Aldridge’s essential claim in this article is that even 25 years after publication, Catch 22 has remained relevant and ubiquitous due to its many revelations that come only after reading. One of Aldridge’s main points in this article is that while Catch-22 is known for its satire, it ultimately ends with a realization of the terrors war encompasses. Aldridge makes such an eloquent statement that sums his exclamation up, “as the comedy is finally neutralized by the weightier force of terror and death, the fateful ubiquity of Catch-22 finally eclipses all demands for logic and sanity”. Aldridge ends his article discussing how after 25 years, Catch-22 is a novel that reminds us how much we not only take for granted, but also the madness we ignore in each of our daily lives. In…
In the opening of his journey in the war, Yossarian discovers that he could exploit the hospital by fabricating his sickness to avoid the war. In fact, after Yossarian escapes from the hospital after an encounter with a patriotic Texan, Heller states, “outside the hospital, the war was still going on. Men went mad and were rewarded with medals [...] and [Yossarian] might have stayed in the hospital until doomsday” (Heller 16). Yossarian’s stay at the hospital to desert the army and depart his duty while avoiding patriotism depicts him as eccentric, a behavior stemming from the mental delusion and madness that he possesses. However, Heller’s commentary on the fact that the men fighting in the war might be crazier than Yossarian’s exploits of the hospital illustrates Heller’s notion that war itself is irrational. By characterizing the mass killing of the enemy as mad, and the seemingly cowardly escape of the war as “lucky”, Heller reverses and justifies Yossarian’s madness by placing it in context of the war’s irrationality, further proving that individual lives, or in this case Yossarian’s life, exists on a greater importance than the army and war. Similar to how Yossarian attempts to desert the war through the hospital, Yossarian asks Doc Daneeka if he can desert because of his insanity. Doc Daneeka then informs Yossarian about Catch-22, where the only people who can leave the war are ones who are insane, but people who ask to leave the war are the only ones who are sane. Heller utilizes this paradox is a similar way as the scene at the hospital to prove that Yossarian is in fact sane by his unwillingness to fight and that the perpetrators of war are insane. By casting his “discerning Eye” on the situations of aborting and avoiding…
“Young Man in Vietnam” by Charles Coe goes against the 1980 patriotic views of Vietnam veterans, as he positions readers to be sympathetic towards veterans. Through the use of characterisation and symbolism Coe has positioned readers to be sympathetic towards the young man in Vietnam.…
Some say it’s not what we do but what we don’t do that can truly define who we are. In the tenth chapter, “The Man at the Well”, from Tim O’Brien’s memoir, If I die in a Combat Zone, O’Brien manages to portray one of the most powerful messages throughout his entire journey. It’s about American ignorance, the inability to help those in need, the true meaning of humanity and whether we, as a population, are capable to break down barriers and walls that we, ourselves, have constructed.…
The first essay G.I Joe: Fighting for Home by John Morton Blum and the second essay American Liberals: Fighting for a Better World by Alan Brinkley both 'look at the experience of the war from different vantage points: that of the soldier fighting for his own elemental survival as well as for his country, and that of the society back home.”…
“The world is made up of two classes - the hunters and the huntees.”-Richard Connell. This man is extraordinary; he went through world war 1 as a writer, solider, and editor. He is the author of the short stories " The Most Dangerous Game" and "The Cage Man". His stories are based on his experiences encountered at war and how he sees the world. His moral thoughts on war and the taking of another living creature's life is inflicted in his famous story " The Most Dangerous Game". On the contrary, Connell’s other short story "The Cage Man” is about a man that is viewed as something/someone else than who he actually is. Therefore, in Richard Connell’s short stories “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Cage Man” partake in alike ideas by using complex…