Preview

Summary Of Returning Soldiers By W. E. B. Dubois

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
201 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of Returning Soldiers By W. E. B. Dubois
I asked one of my classmates after class about one of my many favorite poems that we went over during the semester, which is a poem by W.E.B Dubois entitled “Returning Soldiers”. I asked my classmate how the poem made her feel and what were her thoughts on it and I learned that her opinion was the same as my opinion on the poem. In Returning Soldiers, W.E.B Dubois expressed his feelings of frustration and exhaustion about the way the soldiers were being treated. They were being sent to fight a war and defend a land in which they were not free as African American people. When reading his poem, I was able to feel his frustration through his words and in my own interpretation, I felt as if the soldiers had just returned home from fighting, to
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analyzing Owens's 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'
    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analyzing Owens's 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'

    The beginning of the poem starts out very depressing, the soldier talks as if they are old men on their death beds. ""Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge"(2), this line implies how miserable the soldier 's are, their sick, weak, and enduring unbearable conditions. They are walking toward their camp, which the poem tells us is quite a distance away. But they are so tired they are sleeping as they walk toward the camp. These men don 't even have sufficient clothing, some have lost their boots and most are covered in blood. "Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots / Of tried, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind"(6-7). This line tells us that these men are so exhausted they have become numb to the war and blood-shed around them. The soldier 's have become numb to the 5.9 inch caliber shells flying by their heads, the bombs bursting behind them, and their fallen comrades body 's lying next to them.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Long Way Gone: Memoirs A Boy Soldier
    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page

    A Long Way Gone: Memoirs A Boy Soldier

    The violence found and experienced in war is an entity so vigorously potent and robust that it can easily consume and ruin even the most capable human beings, let alone children who are still developing their own minds. In Ishmael Beah’s novel A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, the retrospection of a boy’s attempt to survive and flee from a war in Sierra Leone expresses the consequences of extreme violence and war that influence the physical, psychological and social characteristics of a person. Certainly, Ishmael’s many violent experiences teach a lot about the intended consequences or repercussions of acts of violence. In the novel, the transformation of Ishmael from an innocent boy to a mindless killing machine due to exposure to…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    “Homecoming” by Bruce Dawe and “Beach burial” by Kenneth Slessor Comparison
    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Homecoming” by Bruce Dawe and “Beach burial” by Kenneth Slessor Comparison

    The themes of these two poems relate to the effects war has on soldiers, whether they are friendly or enemy. “Whether as enemies they fought, or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together.” This quote from “Beach burial” shows how pointless war is, and how whether they fight with or against each other, they are equal. “Homecoming” broadcasts this idea through the entire poem, using a wide range of poetic techniques as a backbone.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier
    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier

    The privilege of being a child is only a lost dream to children in places like Sierra Leone where they are forced into joining rebel and militia groups. The children in those groups learn how to shoot guns when instead they should be learning how to ride a bicycle. In Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone he speaks about his time during the war and being recruited as a child soldier. Ishmael goes through numerous life changing events and commits awful things during his time in fighting in the war. Ishmael however is able to leave his horrible lifestyle behind, obtain his humanity back and start a new beginning along with the rest of society. Beah manages to withstand the effect of the horrors of war by accepting the loss of his family, and beginning new relationships with people such as his newly found uncle and Esther the nurse from his rehabilitation center.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Unrecognized Soldier Home Essay
    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Unrecognized Soldier Home Essay

    In the beginning of the short story “Soldier Home,” by Ernest Hemingway, the main character, Harold Krebs is introduced as a young, religious, college frat boy who joins the Army along with some of his fellow peers. He spent 2 years in the Rhine and even took a photo with 2 unattractive German Ladies. When Krebs returns home to an almost unnatural world he feels unfit and unwelcome due to the lack of compassion and notoriety from his home town of Oklahoma. Hemingway says, this may be due to Krebs returning home “much too late” (187). “People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over” (187). In my opinion, any normal person that experiences this lack of compassion and understanding for the sacrifices they made in war would feel a sense of rejection by the people. This type of rejection would cause any normal person to fall into a state of depression.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    All Armies Are The Same And The Stone Fleet Comparison
    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages

    All Armies Are The Same And The Stone Fleet Comparison

    These poems were authored during the First World War and the American civil war. I will be in a position to demonstrate that despite the lethalness of the wars which involved great loss of human life and massive property destruction, the lack of an objective…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

    This paper will explore how individuals in the novel, A long way gone: Memoirs of a boy soldier interact at various systems levels. It will also identify how social conflict, oppression, war and poverty affect these relationships. The reader will discuss how the relationships offer members with a sense of identity, strength, resilience and support. The essay will explore how their families, groups, and communities help to address issues of oppression in their lives. The reader will review the NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice. The Reader will determine how Self Awareness, Cross Cultural Knowledge and Service Delivery guide their social work practice in working with the population throughout the novel. The paper will provide information on how the NASW Code of Ethical Standards will assist the client systems described in the assigned book.…

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    responce essay the things they carried
    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    responce essay the things they carried

    In the story these soldiers were effected emotionally in a great way. In story states, "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to." In this quote we can see their fears and their happiness through these things. The way they couldn’t just get over the tragedies and terrors of war, their beliefs, the things that pull them apart and the things that bound them together. It really made me feel how emotional they felt in this troubling time whether it as good or bad.…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dubois Returning Soldiers
    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dubois Returning Soldiers

    W.E.B Dubois thought that African Americans being in the military service would help them eventually claim equal citizenship. He was trying to help African Americans have equal lives when they come home from the wars. In the story “Returning Soldiers”, W.E.B Dubois explained that the soldiers were returning home, to still be treated unequally after the war. The soldiers were African American’s that had been drafted. The soldiers were put in the war to defend France from Germany. When the African American’s soldiers went back to their countries, they were still being treated unequally. In the story Du Bois says, “Yet for fifty years we have lynched two Negroes a week”. He used that technique to explain that this could even happen to African American soldiers. Dubois says many words such as lynches, disfranchises, ignorance, steals and insults to give us an image of what was going on in the country at the time. He is using the words to talk about America. The word “it “, was used to show that…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier
    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier

    Ishmael Beah tells of a county, Serra Leone, torn apart by a civil war. He describes the injustices done upon his people that has been ignored for too long. In his book a long way gone, Ishmael describes the innocence of his youth, the slaughtering of the innocent and his simple will to survive and come back for the atrocities committed to him and by him. In the beginning of the book you read that Ishmael and his friends taught themselves to rap and dance through American television. They were traveling to another village to attend a talent show unaware a war broke out and was almost at their doorsteps. Throughout the book you see the theme of music and how important it was for Ishmael. Music was used for storytelling in his youth, survival after the war broke out and a rehabilitation tool after UNICEF recovered him.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rhyme Scheme Of America By Claude Mckay
    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rhyme Scheme Of America By Claude Mckay

    The original poem impacted my thinking by showing me how although America was slowly killing the narrator, he still loved her and had…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Buffalo Soldiers Museum
    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Buffalo Soldiers Museum

    American history is full of great soldiers who have lost their lives for the greater good. This greater good consisted of freedom for America and other countries we protected. With so many wars in American history (over 16) there is one group of soldiers that have participated in every war America has taken part in. They are called the Buffalo Soldiers. They were one of the most influential groups of soldiers in history. When you think about how the African Americans have been treated and for a race of people who were never wanted, they were always needed.1 The land of the free and the home of the brave haven’t always been true in those aspects to the Buffalo Soldiers. Their experience was documented and is now on display for some Americans to see.…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    American Idealism Analysis
    • 2001 Words
    • 9 Pages

    American Idealism Analysis

    Privileged whites in America were still looking down at the blacks and young black poets writing reflects this. Langston Hughes “Let America Be America again”, tells us of the way the blacks wanted to be treated and how each were promised their America when the civil war ended along with slavery. In the poem the lines 31-35 speak of how black were still being treated, “I am the farmer, the bondsman to the soil, I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-Hungry yet today despite the dream”. (Hughes) This speaks of how the black person felt everybody was still being treated and how each one were continually being treated specially during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s. Unfortunately, today blacks are not treated much better and still have to face prejudice. There is a parallel how the blacks were viewed as subservient, much as the soldiers were in Catch-22. Blacks and the soldiers were both told what to do and did not have the freedom to go wherever without fear of punishment. During slavery, plantation owners’ viewed the slaves as property. The slaves that ran away and were caught were whipped. The soldiers who went AWOL were court marshaled. The treatment of blacks still needs to improve and this will not be an…

    • 2001 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Facing It
    • 1851 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Facing It

    I stood nervously in front of my eighth grade English class praying that nobody would laugh at the poem I was about to read aloud. My peers were used to reading Langston Hughes, Edgar Allen Poe, or Maya Angelou, and I did not want to disappoint them by trying something new. The assignment given to our class was for everybody to choose a poem, read it aloud, and explain why it relates to them. How was I going to explain to a class filled with 13 and 14-year-olds that a poem about the Vietnam War was significant to me? I had no relatives that I knew about who went to war and I myself surely had never been to war. The thought of it didn’t even interest me, but I was eager to let the class know how I felt about this piece because I was attached to it.…

    • 1851 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dear Straight People Denice Fohman Analysis
    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dear Straight People Denice Fohman Analysis

    I remember when I first experienced goosebumps raise on my arms and send a shiver through my body, simply because the words leaving the speaker's lips left such an imprint on me. I didn’t think that a simple sentence could bring tears to my eyes, could cause me to react in any physical way. I didn’t even know the author. Yet, it still amazes me anytime I react to such a poem. The emotions that the author pours into every word and every syllable is astounding. Each pause and breath tell a story on their own. I knew that I had to try. I wanted to make people feel the way like I did when I first heard them, but because it was my words that made them react.…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics