The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our heart. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war” (87-88). Paul was living life as a civilian for eighteen years, not knowing the horrors of the world, and as a young adult in the war, he witnessed his first horror, such as his first bombing, his first explosion, first exposure to numerous of dead bodies etc, which will traumatize him in future civilian life since one does not simply forget the first raw, gory images. The age of eighteen can be considered the age of a young adult that is still growing and experiencing life, and when teengaers are thrown into the abyss of war, it prevents young soldiers from striving and progressing; as being an adult is heavily weighed on an adolescent
Ted Lavender was shot in his head on his way back from peeing. Lieutenant cross blamed himself because he was fantasizing about the girl instead of worrying about the safety of his men. I think this incident brought Jimmy the realization that”he loved Martha more then he loved his men” and realized she did not love him. Jimmy burnt her pictures and letters and decided to change the way he was running things. It took the death of one of the Lieutenants men for him to re-examine the importance of his love for Martha and realize he wasn’t focusing on what should have been his first priority the war and safety of his
Baba, betrays Ali by sleeping with his wife and consequently took away his “naang” and “namoos” (honour and pride), an unacceptable act in Afghan culture where all a man had was his pride. This new information also affects Amir’s relationship with his father and builds on the recurring theme of father-son relationships “Fifteen years after I’d buried him, I was learning that Baba had been a thief” which makes Amir think of Baba as less of the ideal Afghan man he imagined his father to be. These findings also shock the reader and affect our relationship with Baba as we see him in a different light, we remember with Amir as we have been told the stories from his childhood perspective, we know revisit them but with Amir’s new perception and understanding of the events, the signs that Baba was Hassan’s real father become
The very first way the theme is brought to light is by the flames of the fire that engulfs Thomas-Builds-The-Fire’s parents in 1976.The story has no mention about this fierceful fire. This fire was an accident; and unfortunately Victor’s father was responsible for it; due to this guilt he abandons his family. Victor learns about this fact of the fire in the end of the movie and realizes the sufferings of his father, and also the reason behind their alienation and his father’s incapability of being an adequate father to him. The second theme is brought forward in the final scene. Victor finally release his father’s ashes into the river, during this special moment of release, Thomas’s words are heard and his message of forgiveness.
Sadly Nathan’s inability to provide his family with more right then wrong began when he was a soldier during World War II. There, Nathan escaped the Battaan Death March, and almost faced the death it brought. Because he escaped the fate of death the rest of his battalion, he views himself as a coward who is despised by God. He vows never to be a coward again and he devotes his life to saving as many souls as he can, through his missionary work. It becomes increasingly clear as the novel progresses, that Nathan is not brave but cowardly, and not a man selflessly devoted to a cause but a man devoted to nothing and no one but himself.
Andrew Gaudioso has to write a postcard every week to a family because he killed their son. The man killed a 2 tour veteran in the war of Iraq named Thomas Towers who was a United States soldier. I don’t find the punishment to be enough because he killed a man that was risking his life for our country. Also, I say the punishment isn’t enough because every week he reminds the family of what he has done and also there is no certainty that he is meaning what he is writing. For example the father doesn’t believe that what he is writing is true.
In the story “Stones”, by Timothy Findley, a relationship between David Max and his son Ben is estranged by the effect of war. David Max is an ordinary man who owns a flower shop with his wife, and three children. David joins the army to protect his children, so in the future they would not have to join. When David returns from the war he is destroyed; his guilt ate away at him from the inside and out and he never returns to the father he once was. David becomes unrecognizable to his friends and family.
It is this narrowness from a changed world no longer structured by the values that had sent young men to war. It is entirely reasonable that he would be negatively affected by the events of that summer: the death of a woman he met briefly and indirectly, who was having an affair with his cousin's husband and whose death leads to the death of his next-door neighbour. His decision to return home to that place that he had so recently destined for its narrow-mindedness, makes one wonder what Nick was doing during the war. If the extent and the pointlessness of death and destruction during the war had left him feeling he is outgrown the comfort and security of the West, why has the armory he acquired from the war abandoned him after this one summer's events? Nick runs away from his experience in the East in much the same way that he has run away from that "tangle back home" to whom he writes letters and signs "with love", but clearly doesn't genuinely offer.
Amir felt the reason Baba was always distant and seemed cut off, was because he was torn inside after the death of his beloved wife, which Amir had killed at delivery. “It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...” This evidence shows how the one event at twelve years old has molded his entire life. “I became what I am today at the age of twelve.” At twelve years old Amir witnessed the rape of his childhood friend and brother Hassan. This example shows that Amir felt his entire life was shaped by the memory of the rape that happened at twelve years old. Amir lived the rest of his life trying to deal with the guilt and hide from the memory of that horrific
They were both 19. At 19 years of age Rat had watched his buddy die in front of his eyes. In the beginning of the story Rat has written a letter to his buddy’s sister and really “poured his heart out in it” ( 287-288).The “cooze” ( 288) never writes back. Many soldiers, male and female, are young, when they are sent to war. They are forever changed and their way of talk is just one thing that is altered.