...The Inner Depression of Beckmann’s Characterization after the War “The Man Outside” is a play by Borchert that portrays the dark aftermath of the war that has greatly affected the physical and mental health of Beckmann, a soldier who fought in the war. The depression and guilt that plagued Beckmann for the rest of his life was the result of losing too many people that he loved and the horrified situation of the war has been haunting him forever. The first instance that shows Beckmann was depressed appears in the first dream scene. Beckmann says, “I want to sleep – to be dead… to sleep in peace at last” (Borchert 86). Even though Beckmann has survived the war and has a chance to live again, his mind refuses to let go of the past and so he cannot find peace of mind. He chooses to die instead of living his life despite his peaceful surroundings after the war. It shows us that the situation of the war is imprinted in Beckmann’s mind; he cannot forget. It appears as a nightmare to him and haunts him forever, making him suffer and fall into depression all over again, repeatedly. Beckmann finds out that his family, the ones he thought he could go home to, do not care about him after all. This intensifies his depression greatly as he has no one else to turn to. “The woman used to be my wife – just called me Beckmann, … and the other fellow who was with her … and then these ruins... and somewhere underneath lies my boy … He was just one year old… I couldn’t bear it” (Borchert...
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...Tim O’Brien and The Effects of The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a horrific war that changed many people forever. Young men between eighteen and twenty-three years old were shipped off to a foreign land to fight in a war that they didn’t fully understand. Over the years, there have been many literary works about the Vietnam War, but none compare to the accuracy and brutal reality of Tim O’Brien’s works. Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” explores the hardships of the Vietnam War during combat, and his short stories “Speaking of Courage” and “Field Trip” show the after effects of the Vietnam War and how it changed people forever. Tim O’Brien is considered one of the only authors who portrays the Vietnam War exactly how it was. Through the use of tone and characterization, Tim O’Brien demonstrates a soldier’s constant fear of impending death, and the emotional toll of war. Tim O’Brien uses tone throughout is stories to show what the Vietnam War was like, and how it affected people. The tone in O’Brien’s short story, “Field Trip”, emphasizes the meaning of the trip and why the field is important. The whole purpose of the narrator’s trip to Vietnam is to get closure about Kiowa’s death. The narrator said, “I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d finally worked my way out” (Field Trip 736). By visiting the site where Kiowa died, some of the burden of his death is taken off the narrator’s conscience. The tone of the passage is shown when the...
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...After its defeat in the First World War, Germany was left in a dismal state; there was a massive shortage of resources and thousands of German people had died. Many artists, including the creators of the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, were forever changed after witnessing the horrors that war had caused. The effects of the war caused them to turn inward and seek ways to try and verbalize their emotional states. German citizens wanted a retreat from their bleak reality. This need to express their emotions led German artist to create a movement of expression that is known as German Expressionism. German Expressionism manifested the German people’s state of mind in cinema through the use of distorted sets, dark, compelling stories, and exaggerated performances. Expressionism was an artistic way to visually represent the inward anxieties felt by the German society after the war. One way this was achieved in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was through director, Robert Wiene’s use of set designs. The sets were jagged, angled, and gave the viewer feelings of being disoriented and unbalanced. These sets represent the uneasiness people felt about the future of their society....
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...Many people hear of the Korean War, or the Vietnam War, but to them wars seem just a part of history, something of a nation’s past, something to be remembered. When people think of war, they do not think of the blood and carnage and sounds of dying men; they think of it as a word, not an experience, and if they do think of the experience of war, it seems muted, not able to touch them. In the time of the Civil War, people think it is going to be a fun adventure, over quickly with few deaths. Charley, the main character of Gary Paulsen’s Soldier’s Heart, believes the same as everyone else, and he doesn’t believe he can come back with soldier’s heart, the mental issues of the men who come back from war scarred from their experiences. A young,...
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...Principals and conscience in conflict before going to the Vietnam War has led to lifelong shame through the moral confusion in a lot of American soldier’s mind. In Tim O’ Brien’s story “On the Rainy River”, the author himself had a hard time deciding whether to go to the war or not. Feeling more ashamed and embarrassed than ever, he had experienced this moral confusion of going to the Vietnam War as an American soldier. Like any other American soldier, going to the Vietnam War is a heroic yet cowardly act. Tim O’ Brien did not know whether to go take part in the war or not, he felt fear in a numerous things about war: “I feared losing the respect of my parents. I feared the law. I feared ridicule and censure.” (3) From this one can see how Tim is aware of how his parents and...
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...In the poem “Dulce et Decorum est,” the author Wilfred Owen describes how war is hell. Men are pushed savagely across wildernesses to battle against their greatest fears. During the progressive era of World War I the use of barbaric tools of destruction were used in the midst of the war. Chemical Warfare was introduced and new mechanical demands were developed to destroy men’s hopes of freedom. Men feared each other because of the deeds they would perform to survive. Wilfred Owen transmits in words the emotions that men felt as death rained down upon them. Through Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum est,” he argues that men’s ethics had to be destroyed because of the will to conquer and survive, he portrays the logic behind a soldiers’ minds...
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...Brainwashing MIND CONTROL 10/9/14 7 pages Ryan Manuel CFB 3333 Fall 2014 Mind Control or brainwashing is a theory or claim that was ultimately discovered by Edward Hunter in the 1950’s within the time of the Cold War. By using the term "hsi-nao" the Chinese people and officials meant certain different techniques in dealing with adversaries, troops or platoons and the training of officials within the time of the Korean War. To the Western usage the term "brainwashing" spread in the 1950s through several publications depicting the treatment of American soldiers at Chinese prison camp during the Korean War 1950-1953. Mind control can also be described or defined as thought reform, thought control, or coercive persuasion. Mind Control can be defined also as a theoretical indoctrination process that results in a person’s inability to think on their own, and disrupt the beliefs and affiliations a person has with a certain religion or person. There are various different theories within the idea of brainwashing, but the main idea or reason behind the tactic of brainwashing is to be used within the field of battle. Mind control occurs when people ultimately have their minds controlled by a certain action wanted to take place or controlled by a certain group of people of higher being or higher stature whom are trying to conquer a certain object or rule a certain person. Mind control is a claim that has been tested and tested...
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...When examining history, it is a common occurrence that mankind plagues itself with war and needless fighting. As a result of this disposition, war ushers forward a sort of calamity that effects the emotions and physical endurance of all parties involved. With that in mind, a short story that perfectly captured this concept is “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. This is so because it deals with the destructive properties of war, and more importantly, how war effects the physical and emotional endurance of the people involved. Further, it can be said that there are several aspects of war, within this tale, that proves that war negatively effects the emotions and physical endurance of everyone within its realm of influence. Therefore, war itself must be held accountable within “The Things They Carried” and be exposed for its monstrous acts, for it is a...
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...WAR LITERATURE ASSIGNMENT ON PAUL BAUMER’S CHARACTER AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ‘LOST GENERATION’ IN REMARQUE’S NOVEL, ALL QUIET ON THE WEATERN FRONT All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The novel is about the experiences of ordinary German soldiers during the war. It is based on Remarque’s own experiences at war which enabled him to capture the realism and authenticity needed to exemplify the feelings of a soldier. Through the novel he was able to capture the feeling of seclusion and loneliness among the soldiers. In 1916, he was drafted into the German army to fight in World War I, in which he was badly wounded. In 1926, after the war ended, he published Im Westen Nichts Neues which he later translated into English as All Quiet on the Western Front. The novel has been heralded by critics throughout the world as the greatest war novel of all time. It helped capture every thought that went through a soldier’s mind who belonged to the "lost generation". War changes life. Conditioned by the aggression and lifestyle of being a soldier, young adult Paul Baumer in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, over the course of four years, changed from a naive high school graduate to a mature but disillusioned adult. The violence and trauma in the trenches of World War I exposed Paul to the horrors of injuries and infections, the fragile state of life, the terrors of death...
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...his regret and uncertainty to a war memory in which he instinctively kills an enemy soldier (MS 7). O’Brien recounts a night when his platoon moves into an ambush site shortly after midnight. Around dawn O’Brien recalls the moment a young enemy soldier emerges out of the morning fog. Without thinking O’Brien pulls the pin on a grenade and throws without aim. Seeing the grenade, the enemy soldier drops his weapon and begins to run, with a puff of smoke the grenade explodes and the soldier falls to the ground. O’Brien continues, explaining the regret and uncertainty the act of killing the enemy soldier elicits and the way the soldier ambushes his mind for the rest of his life. O’Brien includes imagery,...
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...personal experience at war is reflected in his poetry, depicting the brutality of war and conflict. He portrays his perspective about human conflicts in his poetry and effectively conveys the truth about the agony of war in his war poems, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ (Dulce) and ‘Mental Cases’. To portray his attitudes towards war, Owen uses a diversity of poetic devices to shock and emotionally stir his readers. As a semi-autobiographical recount, Owen criticises the suffering and psychological scarring of soldiers in ‘Mental Cases’. He depicts the aftermath and trauma experienced by soldiers through anecdotal experience. He begins the poem with a bombardment of rhetorical questions, ‘Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?’ to create an interrogative tone which demand an explanation regarding why the soldiers have been so tortured with misery. He further portrays their dehumanised state through religious diction, ‘Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows’ to create a visual of soldiers rocking back and forth, trying to shake off their mental torment. This image is enhanced in the metaphorical hellish existence, ‘purgatory shadows’ to exemplify their eternal suffering. He portrays the soldiers losing their bodily functions and resembling animals in the rhetorical simile ‘baring teeth that leers like skulls wicked?’ This allows Owen to effectively show the audience the agony of war. He portrays the living hell of war that these soldiers relive day after day through personification...
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...Veterans Relating to Odysseus Have you ever realized the similarity of Odysseus to a veteran? Well the Odyssey in how Homer describes it, is just a soldier’s extensive journey returning home from a war that lasted continues ten plus years. Just like a veteran, Odysseus experience back home does not always go according to his plans, Odysseus finds himself stranded in a place that he once called home. Returning to somewhere which you lived all your life, after not witnessing it for ten years can seem like you have never seen it before. Veterans have similar mindsets, their small town, their home, and even their families sometimes become unfamiliar after so many years away from everything. The minds of the veterans returning home were similar to Odysseus; kill everything in my path, protect what’s mine, and solve every problem with violence, therefore Odysseus did not discard the violence and brutality experienced during the war...
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...The Dichotomy of War According to Freud our life is played out in two different, opposing forces. One of them, Eros, is the drive for sex, love, and self-preservation, whereas the other is known as Thanatos, the drive for death and self-destruction. It is the yin and yang of motivations and urges. Put simply, Eros wants us to live and struggle through and with pain and suffering; Thanatos prefers to end it all with death, the equalizer, the dark force, the state of constant peace, calm and rest. My father, a 66 year old retired plumber, is a Vietnam vet seeking treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the first time in his life. He has two purple hearts and a plethora of mal-adaptive coping skills which have come rather pronounced in his golden years. He lives on a 117 acre ranch in Ellensburg, Washington. His home is off-grid meaning he is not connected to any public utilities and produces his own energy and his home is completely self-sufficient. Most would say this is a remote way of living. Some would say it’s a form of isolation. With all of this privacy at his fingertips, my father still chooses to venture out into the wilderness for days at a time by himself, with his rifle. There is no question in my mind that war gave my father purpose and meaning that is still a part of his identity today but in ways he still doesn’t fully comprehend. As a result of his war experience, he felt pulled in both directions of Eros and Thanatos; the will to survive and the...
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...depicts Harold Krebs return home from World War I and the problems he faces when dealing with his homecoming and transition back towards a normal life. After the fighting overseas commenced, it took Krebs a year to finally leave Europe and return to his family in Oklahoma. Once home, he found it hard to talk about all he had seen in his tour of duty overseas, which should be attributed to the fact that he saw action in some of the bloodiest, most crucial battles towards the culmination of the war. Therefore, Krebs difficulty in acknowledging his past is because he was indeed a “good soldier” (139), whose efforts in order to survive “The Great War,” were not recognized by his country, town and even worse, his own Family. After his late return from the war, Krebs moved back to the home of his family in Oklahoma. Although this seems common to what most soldiers would do after war, Krebs stay away from his family had been an elongated one. This is not just because of his leisure time at the Rhine with German prostitutes after the war had ended, but also because he went to the war direct from a “Methodist College in Kansas” (136). With that information, we can deduce that Krebs had not lived with his family for more than two years, but most likely between four and six. This must have put a serious strain on his relationship with his family members, who in his own mind, obviously lived in a different world than he did. Before the war, his father did not even trust him with responsibility...
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...PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS QUOTES If your opponent is of choleric temper, try to irritate him. If he is arrogant try to encourage his egotism. (If the enemy troops are well prepared after reorganization, try to wear them down. If they are united, try to sow dissension among them. General Tao Hanzhang, translated by Yuan Shibing, Sun Tzu's The Art Of War To capture the enemy's entire army is better than to destroy it; to take intact a regiment, a company, or a squad is better than to destroy them. For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the supreme of excellence. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence. Sun Tzu "The first casualty of war is truth. Rudyard Kipling One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage. Sun Tzu There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind. Napoleon Bonaparte In War, the moral is to the material as three is to one. Napoleon Bonaparte We were as hypnotized by the enemy's propaganda as a rabbit is by a snake. General Eric Von Ludendorf, German General Staff, 1918 The British bombarded our front not only with drum-fire of shells, but also with a drum-fire of printed paper. Besides bombs which kill the body, they drop from the air leaflets which are intended to kill the soul. Fieldmarshall Hindenberg, 1918 All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level...
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