In the Foreword, before the battle begins, Shaara starts with a list of the principle players in the upcoming tragic drama of the battle at Gettysburg. Like in a program to a stage play, the armies and the characters are listed before they take the stage. As the curtain opens, the first actor who appears on this stage is the Confederate spy, Harrison, who is actually an actor by profession. Through this solitary and seemingly insignificant man, the reader is taken backstage to witness the drama unfold in person. Upon meeting General Robert E. Lee, "the spy worshipped" (Shaara 14) Lee as he spoke to the General.
The story holds more than a nature - walk or a historical timeline of a solider. It holds the story of a hero and the hardships he faces when seperated from his company, and the force of leaving the handicapped boy behind due to the boy becoming delirious with pneumonia. Soley focused on his return to the rank and file of the 95th foot, Dodd does find company in a group of Portugese irregulars, who as well as Dodd see the horrors committed by the French Army. Setting the bridge in Zezere on fire, he felt no remorse, to live and fight one more day Dodd knew all this was done for the right to return to his company. This tale shows a solider's fight not only for glory, but for the right to fight along the side of his brothers.
This proves that Joseph cares more about tradition than family. His severe steadfastness is not only limited to family, but to higher ranks, as he gets angry at the inspector for allowing the great horses to be used in Waknuk, "He went on boiling with rage for several days…" (38). Joseph is already uneasy thinking about the great horses, and when he sees them, he blows up at the inspector arguing how wrong they are. Although he knows that they are stronger and faster than regular horses, he says they are offences, despite that they are government approved. Joseph is so blind because of his faith that he is willing to lash out on
Captain Miller is given the order to go behind enemy lines in search of a Private James Ryan. Private Ryan's three brothers have all been killed in the opening days of the war, and the government is determined to bring at least one Ryan boy home. The movie follows to the environments and situations presented in WWII very closely. The sounds, guns, and locations used in the movie are historically accurate. Spielberg took extreme care in making sure that the movie was as historically correct as possible in regards to situations and locations.
The narrator protests that Norton ordered him to stop at the cabin. Bledsoe replies that white people constantly give foolish orders and that the narrator, having grown up in the South as a black man, should know how to lie his way out of such situations. Bledsoe says that he will have to investigate the veteran who mocked Norton. He picks up a slave’s leg shackle and informs the narrator that he must be disciplined. The narrator threatens to tell everyone that Bledsoe broke his promise to Norton not to punish him.
It came time for football camp. Coach Boone was tired of the disrespect by all the players; he made each player room with a player of another race. At first it was a disaster, the Captain, Gerry Bertier, was roomed with Julius Campbell.
Captain Miller and his unit, who are part of the 2nd Ranger Battalion of the 29th Infantry Division, set out across France to look for Ryan, a member of the 101st Airborne Division, who may or may not be alive. Along the way we become acquainted with Miller and his men as they all question why the Army is willing to risk their lives to save one man. The movie is possibly the most graphic depiction of the invasion of Normandy that has ever been made.The opening thirty minutes of the movie shows the violent struggle of the American soldiers to take Omaha Beach from the Germans. It is a very vivid and graphic depiction of the actual battle that took place there. Saving Private Ryan was released in 1998, fifty four years after the actual events of D-Day took place.
The sweet patriotic song which says, “America has heard the bugle call / And you know it involves us one and all” combined with the dour faces of the men seek to impose the oppositions of the individual and the group that is so present in films across this genre. We see the expulsion of the individual and hear the song, which reflects how it should be a group effort. The audiences somewhat educated guess into Full Metal Jacket’s genre is rewarded as the film moves into the recruits sleeping area. Again we see the same genre coding consisting of the extremely strict drill-instructor asking the men to, “Sound off like [they] have a pair”, all of the men perfectly lined up and all of them wearing the same green trousers and green shirt. This section shows again how all individuality the men once had has all but left them, the instructor speaks to them as a unit, refers to them as a “weapon”, he even ironically speaks of how the men’s racial background doesn’t matter to him only to find out that to him the men are all “equally worthless”.
They can see how he lived during the time he served and how awful he made it seem. The best way to have a convincing argument is to make the audience see through the eyes of the author, and to make them envision a mental image of what the author has seen. Gurganus tells how he was, “dressed in ugly clothes exactly like 4,000 others, to be called a number, to be stuck among men who will brag and scrap and fight but never admit to any terror, any need” (606). This flashback makes the war sound very unappealing and an experience that most of his readers would not like to experience themselves. Through this detailed description, Gurganus adds to his argument, making the war sound even more horrific.
In "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby," Donald Barthelme tries to show how inhumane man can be by telling an absurd story of a man named Colby who, "had gone too far." (Barthelme, 1973, pg. 19) In the story, Colby's so-called friends decided that they must hang Colby because of his going too far. Barthelme uses this story to illustrate how people can sometimes let their emotions get in the way of their good judgment. Colby's friends had been warning him for some time that they did not like the way Colby had been behaving.