Having no other place to go, he joins the army. The war experience changes him and he loses his naivety, but keeps his determination and gains insight into the nature of humanity. Richi is a very bright, talented and ambitious boy, who had set on a career as a writer. Unfortunately, he is doomed by poverty. College takes a great deal of money, and he did not have the money.
When his mother brings up God having something for everyone to do, Krebs replies, “I’m not in His Kingdom” (Hemingway 75). Krebs openly admits not having God in his life. Pre-war society was very pious and one had to have God in his or her life to be a better person and live with good morals. Because Krebs does not feel God with him, he does not strive to live a good life. He hurts his mom after telling her he does not love her and “felt sorry for his mother and she made him lie.
Many 18-year-old boys are drafted off to fight for their country-when most had never picked up a gun. These young men are not ready to deal with war or with death. In lives so young, death is a topic that goes untouched. Erdrich, in the beginning, describes a close relationship between two young brothers, Henry and Lyman. She looks at two chapters in the lives of these boys: before Henry went to Vietnam,
That night when Kiowa got wasted, I sort of sank down into the sewage with him… Feels like I’m still deep shit.”(Page 150) Bowker is also intelligent and is well supported by his parents, but he did not see any meaning in getting a job or even going to school. He does not have the words to explain what he went through or how he feels and he tries to hide it. Norman really wants his story told, so he sent a letter to Tim O’ Brien and ask Tim to write itfor him. He believes that Tim can express how he feels or get the right words out, but the story did not satisfy Norman and he commits suicide 8 months later in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown. Norman’s role in this book is to help Tim to go from being a storyteller, or writer, to being a soldier.
Chris was always critical of his parents and their lifestyle, but that criticism turned to outright anger when Chris learned that his father had lived a double life with another family for a time. Chris saw his father as a liar and a hypocrite and he was never able to forgive his father. A recurrent theme in Chris' journal was a search for "truth", and he linked that search to the lack of truth he perceived in his family life. After graduating from college Chris felt the need to flee from his family and their expectations in order to seek the truth that he felt he had never experienced. To say that I grew up in a broken home growing up would be a gross misstatement.
His parents’ marriage started to fall apart and that’s when things started to change. His mother felt that Dave was to blame for it and that’s when the abuse began. At first, Mother made him do every chore possible and didn’t let him talk to anyone but her. Mother
The glass castle by Jeannette Walls is a story of a dysfunctional family which does not conform to the norm of society. And through this their children suffer due to their unconventional methods “Mom and Dad liked to make a big point about never surrendering to fear or to prejudice or to the narrow-minded conformist sticks-in-the-mud who tried to tell everyone else what was proper" Jeannetee's parents always thought the "normal" was an unacceptable way to live. They stressed this idea and it applies to their lives throughout the entire book. The adult used this idea as an excuse for whenever they did not have a home or food to eat. But it is through this that we can the maturity and desire the children show to rise above from their problems.
Pilgrim has a hard time adjusting after he gets home from the war. He marries for comfort and security, with no true feelings of love. He follows in his father-in-laws footsteps as an optometrist because the road to success in that field was paved with ease for him. His father-in-law put in most of the effort for him to be successful. Billy Pilgrim is traumatized, stressed and seems to be a very pathetic individual.
Fitzgerald illustrates how “money can’t buy happiness” through the relationships in The Great Gatsby. Obviously, in Tom’s marriage he feels he’s unhappy, considering he and his wife are both having affairs, which causes a divide in their marriage. Tom's unhappiness is probably related to him not being able to play football. In the first chapter, Tom talks about how he loved football and how happy he was when he played it. He doesn't play it anymore and nothing seems to satisfy him; not even his wife.
Even though he was in a club that was against wars, but he only stayed in theory and had no experiences about any of them. So when he received the draft to require him to join the army and fight in Vietnam War, he was lost, he couldn’t figure out what he should do. In that summer, he worked in a meatpacking store. Even thought it was not a war field, but it was similar to it—bloody with dead bodies everywhere everyday. He felt exhausted and sick living in this kind of environment and he thought he was too good to be a soldier, he said “certain blood was shredded for uncertain reason.” He wanted to take some time off.