Saints at the River Essay – Prompt 1 Saints at the River, a Ron Rash novel, involves the Kowalsky family, an American family on vacation in South Carolina, and the locals of this region fighting for ethics and justice surrounding a tragic accident and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1978. While wading in the Tamassee River near Wolf Cliff Falls, Ruth Kowalsky gets swept away by the rushing current and becomes trapped in a deep hydraulic which she cannot free from and eventually drowns. Her body is attempted to be removed by her parents and then the Tamassee Search and Rescue Squad led by twins Randy and Ronny Moseley. Eventually a heated deliberation over whether installing a temporary dam, made by Peter Brennon, an Indiana man, violates the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1978. When Maggie Glenn, an upstate South Carolina photographer, takes an almost propagandist picture of Mr. Kowalsky looking sad staring at the river of where his passed daughter rests this story picks up fire and politicians from the surrounding area get involved to help get this man’s daughter out of the river, which maddens the locals who would not like to see the only free flowing river in the state be tampered with.
In his epic collection of short stories, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien moves past the physical atrocities of the Vietnam War to assess with sensitivity the psychological transformations of his many characters. Throughout each story, we are introduced to a number of individual soldiers from the Alpha Company, each with their unique qualities and traits that they “carry” with them through the ambiguous fields of war. As they become confronted by the “garden of evil” that is “Nam,” each man and woman is irrevocably changed by their experiences. We see soldiers expose their inner animal instincts as a result of their yearning to survive, as well as leadership qualities drawn out of young and immature individuals. Overall, O’Brien gives us a glimpse of the mental side of war as we witness the immense changes to young soldiers brought to Vietnam to fight for their country.
this very discontent feeling would further add to the very isolation the Glaspell is trying to portray. How is anyone to feel connected when they much live with a foul personality? “He was a hard man” (Glaspell 181); “Like a raw wind that gets to the bone” (Glaspell 181). He gave his wife a dispirited sense of being. She probably felt smothered by his bleak nature and with the fact that the farmhouse was too isolated for anyone to want to visit, Mrs. Wright was left alone.
They killed us with land mines and booby traps; they disappeared in the night, or into the tunnels, or into the elephant grass and bamboo” (199n21). At the time the Vietnam war seemed unforgiving and mysterious, in ways that it made most soldiers naturally evil who in which portrayed enormous grief upon the enemy. It was a time where in every soldier's head they carried a motto, “kill or be killed.” In the novel, In The Lake Of The Woods, small and simple footnotes are attached at the end of important chapters and they give the reader clues concerning the story or they expresses symbolic twists that make the novel somewhat unpredictable. The Footnote I have chosen runs on the back of chapter 20. The small passage explains related truth on the Vietnam War, symbolizes what John Wade, the protagonists, has witnessed, and finally how it portrays the rest of the novel.
Not only does the book create this perspective, but it creates the idea of a never-ending circle of repetitive contradictory actions that make it almost impossible not to conform. On the fictitious island of Pianosa, a small Army Air Corps. base serves as a basis of the war taking place around it. It is here where a system called “catch-22” is established and is followed by all soldiers. It is kept alive through a repetitive circle of contradictory regulations that keep the men trapped.
Mary Anne was Mark Fossie’s girlfriend, one of the soldiers in O’Brien’s platoon. Mark flew Mary Anne out to Vietnam to visit him. The transformation of Mary Anne was not only extreme, but also bone-chillingly eye opening. Mary Anne Bell represents the outsider, someone who does not belong where she is. The story of Mary Anne emphasizes what happens when someone's surroundings affect her.
There Tim O'Brien tells the story of Curt Lemon's death at least four times and shows the following feeling of soldiers in Rat Kiley's letter and shooting of baby buffalo . The stories of Curt Lemon's death turn out to be completely paradoxical, because it is obvious how versions contradict one another “when he died it was almost beautiful”, the gore was horrible and stays with me” and also with black humor "Dave Jensen … singing ‘Lemon Tree’ as we threw down the parts" and then, from "it all happen" to "every goddamn detail …. None of it happened. None of it". This may confuse the reader, but Tim O'Brien adds his comments and instructions, repeats them between the storytelling, explaining his approach to express the exact truth of feeling.
For example, “Old Colonel Matterson thinks he’s still in World War I, Billy Bibbit suffered a breakdown in ROTC training when he couldn’t answer the drill officer’s command without stuttering, and McMurphy, who received a dishonorable discharge in the Korean War for insubordination” (American Dreams). In conclusion Kesey was well influenced during his time writing the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. During the 1960’s the world was well impacted by drug usage and challenging authority to find peace, harmony and liberation. Over all according to the novel Ken used McMurphy to represent someone who wants to bring peace harmony and liberation to
The polluted world is shown through the panning shots of the streets portraying a dismal world with the no sign of the natural world. It is constantly raining possibly representing the depressed emotional disposition of the people who are trapped in this urban jungle. The inhabitants are always wearing coats and umbrellas which are used as a symbol of protection of the environment. These dismal settings and unnatural ways highlight the negative consequences that occur when humanity ignore their responsibility to the unnatural world and the environment. Scott shows his growing concern that this will be the future of humanity if we continue thriving on consumerism and economical growth and neglect the natural world.
In the book War O’Byrne suffers from the Kornegal valley every day. He can barely function or do his day to day routines. Similarly in “Hurt Locker” William has trouble liking to do anything but war the only place where he can function is during war. During the My Lai Lieutenant Calley’s thought process was in terms of war. Thus the natural state of society is war.