...Neil.L Guernica American has been through many wars throughout the years. You can hear and learn about wars through textbooks, libraries, classrooms, and websites; but what about pictures and the art museums. A picture is worth a thousand words, and that is exactly what Pablo Picasso did with his painting Guernica. Guernica is a painting by famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. It was painted as a reaction to the aerial bombing of Guernica, Spain by German and Italian forces during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. The Spanish Republic, government of Spain, appointed Picasso to paint a large mural about the bombing to display at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. Guernica show the anguish, horror and pain inflicted on humanity and the innocent. It shows the destructions of war and the awareness for others to remember and never forget. Guernica is a powerful painting, considered a “Masterpiece” by Pablo Picasso and has become an anti-war icon. Guernica became a very powerful art work for many reasons but, most importantly for its usage of colors and of imagery depicting the emotions the characters are showing in the painting. Guernica consists of shades of blacks, grays and whites, representing sadness, and dark emotions for the characters and the event of the bombing. It shows the pains of the innocent, a woman wailing over a dead child in her hands, a horse ripped open, tragic events with images of soldier, flames painted to signify the town on fire and people...
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...idea that was really worth learning about in the short stories, ‘On the Sidewalk Bleeding’ by Evan Hunter and ‘The Sniper’ by Liam O’Flaherty, was about making choices and having to face the consequences for them. This idea was worth learning about as we face the consequences we realize if the choice we made was good or bad and it helps us to learn how to think before we act. The idea of choices in ‘On the Sidewalk Bleeding’ is shown first by Andy’s choice of joining a gang. ‘That was when he’d first joined the Royals… He was a Royal. There had been meaning to the title.’ He joined because he thought he would find an identity, he would be known as somebody – a Royal. But he realizes too late that it was that name that killed him. Andy wonders if the Guardian had only stabbed the jacket, not him as an individual. ‘Had they known that he was Andy or had they dimply known he was a Royal wearing a purple silk jacket?’ The young couple, Freddie and Angela, who came by Andy, had to choose between helping Andy and not being found out by the Guardians. ‘We help him, and the Guardians will be down on our necks.’ In the end Freddie gets overcome by fear, and doesn’t want to face the consequences of getting mixed up in gang fights, so he leaves. Andy was similar to teenagers today in wanting to be part of the biggest, most popular groups. This teaches me that it is not always the best choice and could end in very serious consequences. On the other hand, Freddie thought before he acted and...
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...“Soldier’s Home” and Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” have a lot of similarities and differences between the two characters; Krebs, and Bartleby. Throughout the short stories each relate to each other in some way. Krebs just has returned from Europe while fighting in WWI and Bartleby a hired Wall Street scrivener, each struggle in fitting in with present day society but each struggle comes with a different background. According to Merriam – Webster’s definition for ‘post – traumatic stress disorder’ is, “medical: a mental condition that can affect a person who has had a very shocking or difficult experience (such as fighting in a war) and that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, etc.”. In World War I times it was known as “shell shock”. All throughout Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” we get the idea that Krebs is diagnosed with that disorder but back then they had no idea what this was. In the quote “He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences. Besides he did not really need a girl. The army taught him that.” (Hemingway, 188). My perspective on this quote is that Krebs seems sexist. Basically, he is saying that he does not need a woman because they carry on too much baggage. A very disturbing scene comes up in the story as Krebs is awfully rude to his mother; “yes don’t you love your mother dear boy?” “No” Krebs said. His mother looked at him across the table. Her eyes were shiny. She...
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...Setting in Soilder’s Home In the story ‘Soldier’s Home’ by Ernest Hemingway, the setting throughout the story helps us better understand the main character and why he acts the way he does. In stories the setting helps us build a frame around the characters about the environment they live in and what they go through in their life. “In most stories they also serve as more than backgrounds and furnishings. If we are sensitive to the contexts provided by the setting, we are better able to understand the behavior of the characters and the significance of their actions (Meyer131).” In this story, the author gives us glimpses of Harold, the main character, and what he is going through in his life once he returns home from war. After the earlier wars, many soldiers would return home to no good welcomes, and people would scold them for going and fighting for their country. Many of the soldiers had very hard times getting back to reality when they came back. They had hard times getting work and being able to do things normally because of the horror they faced at war. In this story, the opening scene talks of Harold, also referred to as ‘Krebs’, going to war after being a student at a Methodist college in Kansas. It talks about a picture of him in a fraternity, with all his fraternity brothers being the same height and wearing the same kind of collared shirt. Opening the story in this setting tells us that before the war, Krebs was just a normal college student who had many friends...
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...the person’s feelings or action, to tell a person how one may feel about something or someone. In both stories the author's style of writing creates a tone, that gives the reader insight to the characters feelings. Which makes the characters act and say what's really on their minds. They show this by explaining why they act the way that they do throughout the stories. The character's feelings are shown within their minds, it shows how they are changing throughout the story. In “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, the main characters’ words and actions help the reader understand the plot and theme clearly. The main character of this story has a journal in which she records how she is feeling during her “sickness.”One can conclude from her journal especially as one reads further and further into the story, that she is going out of her mind, from this yellow wallpaper.In the story it states,“The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight... I’m really getting fond of the big room, all but that horrid paper”(649). The main character is giving us insight to the fact that she is becoming angry with this yellow wallpaper that is haunting her in her room. It gets to point where she starts seeing shadows and figures in the wallpaper staring at her through the night. Another example from the story, “ I tried to lift and push it until I was lame and then I got so angry I bit off a little piece at one...
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...Gray-Hernandez 1302.005 Prof C J Arevalo 17 April 2013 Research Essay The Lost One “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway is a story of a young man, Harold Krebs, who returns home in the summer of 1919 after fighting in Germany during World War I. After being away at war for two years, Krebs returns to his hometown in Oklahoma but does not get the welcome that he was expecting. As he attempts to readjust to society he embellishes his war stories in an attempt to make them more interesting, but grows tired and nauseated by them instead. At home things are not as they had been; his sisters see him as a hero and his parents see him as a man that needs to move on with his life yet they still treat him like a child. Although Krebs has been to war and has aged he does not share his family’s outlook regarding himself; instead he feels lost and cold, detached from the life he once knew. Hemingway illustrates how a soldier returning from war returns to a life and a family they no longer know and to a world they no longer recognize. Hemingway expresses the difficulties of adapting back into civilian life after being away at war and the effects on a soldier as well as a soldiers family. When a soldier returns home, the welcome they receive often helps them to reconnect to the civilian world. The townspeople had previously greeted soldiers upon returning from the war, but when Harold Krebs arrives he quickly realizes that the “greeting of heroes was over” (Hemingway 253). He returns home...
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...Over the course of history, a recurring theme of American literature authors utilizing their stories as “moral purifiers” has manifested. These authors use their works of literature to attempt to draw attention to and reform ideals and occurrences that they deem wrong or immoral within their time period. Three stories that efficiently display this concept are “A New England Nun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin, and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce. One prevalent example of an attempt at moral purification by an American literature author is “A New England Nun” written by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. In this short story, Freeman denounces the societal ideal of the 1900’s that a woman is...
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...Blue 3 Individualism has clashed with the demands of the society for many years. There has not been such a thing as peace between personal and societal beliefs in the world yet. This crisis is an inevitable problem that will never be resolved until man does not walk the earth. In Timothy Kudo’s article, that is found on the Washington Post, he explains his views on war and how they differ from the society. As a soldier fighting at war, he sees killing as a very immoral action to carry out, but still very necessary at certain times. Still this fact does not give him any relief from the stress that has come from thinking about the people he has killed. The people whose lives have been cut short because of his actions. Now the exact opposite from his beliefs is what the society asks of from him. People expect him to come...
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...the story through the painful memory of himself as well as his fellow comrades; before, in, and after the Vietnam war. “He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead.” Here, through this memory of Jimmy Cross that he took along with him to the war, the theme [Guilt and Shame] that basically gives the story more than half of its meaning as a whole was portrayed. He blamed himself for the death of Lavender; he thought that him just loving Martha causes his distraction which causes Lavender’s death, which to me , is a partial truth. Now, he would have to carry the guilt “like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war,” and probably for the test of his life. Another theme portrayed in this story is ‘Respect and Reputation.’ The soldiers at war are not there because they want to, but “rather, they were too frightened to be cowards”[pg 77]. Sometimes, the soldiers have to do things they will normally not do because they do not want to be seen as being weak by their friends and family and particularly by themselves. Such is the case of...
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...In the story, the lottery seems to be an event which is practiced and celebrated in the community. A lottery is more of a game of chances where the luckiest person is rewarded. This game of lottery does not symbolize a competition but rather it is more of a death plot. Moreover, the winner of the lottery is being killed despite the fact that he has won. In any competition, the winner is supposed to be congratulated. This should be by being given gifts or other good prizes. However, in the story, the winner of the lottery is rewarded by being stoned to death. This does not seem to be a reward. It is more of a punishment than a reward. On the other hand, Mrs. Hutchinson should have also criticized the barbaric culture earlier if she was truly...
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...Analysis and interpretation - Wood Grouse on a High Promontory Overlooking Canada The text “Wood Grouse on a High Promontory Overlooking Canada”, 1996, is an American short story. In the short story we hear about the relationship between two brothers, the brother Bud and the older military brother Gary. The theme in this short story is brotherhood. These two brothers reconnect after spending time apart, and they grow to appreciate each other. Bud is a boy who is 15 years old. Bud is a bit naive. We can see that when he throws the rock at a bird. Gary asks him why and he replies, “I didn’t mean to hit one, Gary” p. 4 l. 46. This shows that he is a bit naive, and he is not thinking about the consequences of his actions. Another example is when he asks, “I was young and I didn’t know any better. So instead I asked him about the thing on my mind: “Did you kill anyone in Vietnam?” p. 4 l. 70-71 This also shows that Bud is naive when he asked without thinking about Gary’s feelings. After Bud asked this question he could see that it was hard for Gary to talk about and he therefore felt ashamed “And then I couldn’t fall asleep that night; I felt ashamed of myself.” p. 3 l.92. You can say that he acts, and then thinks about the consequences later. Gary is an adult who have been in war in Vietnam. Gary keeps on mentioning the beautiful things he is seeing around him, which is a big contrast from what he came from down there. “They’re beautiful” Gary said “Just...
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...The effect of a civil war has a variety of emotions on the soldiers involved. In the short story “The Sniper”, written by Liam O’Flaherty, takes place during the Irish Civil War. The Irish Civil War took place during 1921 and lasted until 1922. The treaty of Anglo-Irish Treaty was the foremost cause that led to the civil war. The treaty provided the Irish Free-State with a tremendous amount of independence and separated the power the IRA had in war. The protagonist’s, an unknown IRA sniper, mission is to take out an enemy Free-State sniper. Throughout the story he is face with war like challenges that he has to embark on. The short story “The Sniper” is about an experienced sniper and the lasting effects that the civil war is having...
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...Brianna Harden English 214.05 Baldwin April 12th, 2013 Emotional Consequences Faced By Veterans and Their Families Many books, articles, or even essays that are read throughout one’s life, can at times be slightly unclear about what precisely the main idea is or what the authors true purpose is for writing that text. Most people do not understand that every writer uses rhetorical strategies throughout their writing to make their text clear and understandable for the reader. These rhetorical strategies are particularly important because they help with the clarity of complex ideas and assist the writer in getting their point across. In doing so, writers are able to make their text more effective for a wider range of people to read. In the article “Iraq, Afghanistan War Veterans Struggle With Combat Trauma,” by David Wood, and in the short story, “Gold Star,” by Siobhan Fallon, the authors use numerous amounts of rhetorical tools to help guide the reader through the text. While “Gold Star” is a short story about a wife who has lost her husband due to the war and “Iraq, Afghanistan War Veterans Struggle With Combat Trauma,” is an informative newspaper article about how the war can have severe consequences on not only the soldiers themselves but their loved ones back at home too, both text use emotive appeals that aim to inform the general public of the various emotional and psychological tolls faced by veterans and their families today. Furthermore, throughout both texts...
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...addition, personal background also helps authors to grasp themes or prospects better so that their stories are more plausible and readable even though they are fictional. Frank O'Connor is a writer who did this. “Guests of the Nation” is definitely a story based on his own experience. Frank O'Connor puts his personal thoughts and experiences to arrange the characters in order to talks about the relationship between personal duty and humanity during the war, which also implies the relationship between political conflicts and the hope of peaceful life for humans. Though out history, at the beginning Ireland was a British colony, the economic depressed and had a time of hardship. By 1900, the Irish Civil War loomed. In the summer of 1913, Dublin workers went on strike for 5 months, indicating that the proletariat had become the Irish independent political force. During World War I in 1914, the Irish national fighting moved to further. Easter Rising broke out in April 1916. In 1919, the Sinn Fein refused to attend the British Parliament, but held their own in the Dublin parliament and the creation of army. In 1921, the Irish Civil War occurred; the Irish people started fighting for national independence, autonomy for land rights, and the struggle to recover. The Republic of Ireland was established (Lambert). O'Connor's background change strongly related to the history of the Irish Civil War. He experienced a difficult childhood. On the main page of New World Encyclopedia states that...
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...Soldiers are often idolized in society for their bravery. While this is positive because they courageously risk their lives to protect others, the trauma soldiers face is rarely addressed. Often the stories one is told will not be used to incite fear, but to encourage a person to enlist, similar to the many others soldiers who have patriotically fought before them. In Luigi Pirandello’s War and Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, they criticize society’s use of patriotism as a means to manipulate people into suffering in service of their country. The author’s take different approaches to conveying this message, resulting in the texts having different tones. Patriotism as a rationale may convince a person to do something, but it is not enough...
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