I was on my way home from my job, just like any other day. I had nothing with me but the clothes on my back, being that I never work from my house. I was walking down the street, King Street, and I saw a British soldier, standing where he normally stood, minding his own business. A young man, started harassing him all of the sudden, calling the soldier names and making fun of him. I believe he said something about paying bills to someone, I wasn’t paying very much attention.
Also, he is ashamed of allowing his family to see him the way he is. Besides the couple of nurses that take care of him, he has no one and nothing to live for. Joe Bunham, now injured with no limbs, suffered through the pain that no 20 year old should be going through. The war altered his life to a point where one questions the point of living. What happened to him during the war mentally changed his view on what his future should really be.
In his preface to the novel, Remarque maintains that "a generation of men ... were destroyed by the war" (Remarque, All Quiet Preface). Baumer's closest comrades fall one after the other. The conditions in the German army are to harsh, they have no food, ammunition, moral is low they could not keep fighting. An important episode in the novel is when Baumer is issued a period of leave when he visits his home town. This leave is disastrous for Baumer because he realizes that he can not communicate with the people on the home front because of his military experiences and their limited, or nonexistent, understanding of the war.
He is raised to act based upon what he sees and knows. Since the father is dealing with the fact of losing his loved one, it is consequently the same for the son. The father and his son are similar in the fact that they do not know how to react to each others actions. The boy does not even flinch when his father speaks to him about the dirty wig upon his head. The eight year old putting his smooth arms around his father's neck proves that the boy's strange behavior is partially due to the father's behaviors.
Fahrenheit 451 is a novel about a materialistic society that has forgotten social interaction with each other. Bradbury examines the personal response of an individual who is in conflict with the majority in his society and whose occupation is abhorrent to him. Fahrenheit 451 centers upon the personal crisis of Montag, a young fireman whose job consists of burning books. He finds his life increasingly meaningless and eventually comes to reject the too-simple, clichéd values of his environment. He experiences loneliness in a society where people are constantly entertained without time given to reflection and personal development, activities often associated with the reading process.
Artie feels that he will never live up to his parent’s expectations of Richieu, because he was never in the War. An example of this is shown on the last page of the graphic novel, where Vladek turns over to go to sleep and calls Artie, Richieu. “I’m tired from talking, Richieu, and it’s enough stories for now…” The way Spiegleman has represented this in the text suggests to the reader that Vladek never fully loved Artie, as much as he loved his first son Richieu. This has obviously had major impacts on Arties life, and it has all primarily been caused by the Holocaust, because Vladek and Anja never fully healed after the Holocaust. Although ‘The Complete Maus’ is based around the interviews that Spiegleman has conducted with his
Yet these truths are no solace against the kind of alienation that comes of being ever the suspect, a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact. It is not altogether clear to me how I reached the ripe old age of twenty-two without being conscious of the lethality nighttime pedestrians attributed to me. Perhaps it was because in Chester, Pennsylvania, the small, angry industrial town where I came of age in the 1960’s, I was scarcely noticeable against the backdrop of gang warfare, street knifings, and murders. I grew up one of the good boys, had perhaps a half-dozen fist fights. In retrospect, my shyness of combat has clear sources.
Shmuel’s hatred of the soldiers is finally justified, and to Bruno, a boy who idolized soldiers, such as his father, the abusive soldiers were anything but idols. Bruno then comments that he “doesn’t like it here”, to which Shmuel replies “neither do I” (page 208) It is at this point in the story that the reader realizes how innocent Shmuel is. Although Bruno has been shielded by his parents, Shmuel has had to experience hardship and suffering, giving him the image of a child who had forgone his innocence. However, like Bruno, Shmuel is unaware of the situation he is in, which is shown when he
From the beginning of the poem he describes this man as a common poor boy just like every young man who no one ever hears about, he leaves his home and goes out into the world scared and surrounded by strangers. Not having the lavish lifestyle of the upper society he struggles to earn and has to live with commoners. While living the common life he finds himself seeking refuge in what the lower part city has to offer. He finds himself going through the motions of life, and after reflecting through the years he feels that he has not gained an upper hand and life just keeps going on. His life has through struggles, and he will still be a fighter that will continue to work and triumph.
And it exposes all those "troop supporters" who always vote against social programs that would help these veterans. Tonight there are at least 12,700 Iraq/Afghanistan veterans homeless and sleeping on the street. I've never lent a helping hand to one of the many vets I've seen sleeping on the street. I can't bear to look, and I walk past them very quickly. That's called not "supporting the troops," which, I guess, I don't -- and neither do