The Naked Citadel
Established in 1842 as a public military college, the Citadel was a college filled with many traditions and full of pride that seemed to discriminate against female applicants. However, the Citadel’s way of accepting and admitting students can be easily challenged and argued. In Susan Faludi’s essay, “The Naked Citadel”, Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “The Power of Context”, and Tim O’Brien’s essay, “How to Tell a True War Story”, the authors came to the same conclusion that the actions of the individual are influenced by their behavior. Gladwell’s theories about the environment and human behaviors helps explain the changes that occurred at the Citadel. The Broken Windows Theory helps explain how the traditions of the Citadel grew and how the tradition
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Females stayed at home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. Because men always played the dominant role, they feel entitled to inflict pain and harm onto women when they do not listen or behave. According to Faludi, it is simply bad habits. Cases of abuse still occurred among cadets, despite the fact that no women was presence at the college. Despite being taught on how to become a men, cadets still feel like they have motherly roles. Therefore by admitting the first female, chaos and disorder occurred at the Citadel. Furthermore, the Citadel’s tradition got in the way of them advancing like other military colleges (i.e. Norwich University) who made an effort to recruit women into their institution. Instead, the Citadel decided to stick with the prejudiced views against women. However the issues arises in what we, the general population, can accept or deny to believe, and whether it is possible for anyone to even properly tell a true war story. As O’Brien describes it: A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue…nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged….you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie (O’Brien 316.) Tim O’Brien’s point is that nobody knows the reality of war except for those who have been there and fought the war or those who have already fought in a war. Fighting a war is a difficult task that takes courage and
Females stayed at home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. Because men always played the dominant role, they feel entitled to inflict pain and harm onto women when they do not listen or behave. According to Faludi, it is simply bad habits. Cases of abuse still occurred among cadets, despite the fact that no women was presence at the college. Despite being taught on how to become a men, cadets still feel like they have motherly roles. Therefore by admitting the first female, chaos and disorder occurred at the Citadel. Furthermore, the Citadel’s tradition got in the way of them advancing like other military colleges (i.e. Norwich University) who made an effort to recruit women into their institution. Instead, the Citadel decided to stick with the prejudiced views against women. However the issues arises in what we, the general population, can accept or deny to believe, and whether it is possible for anyone to even properly tell a true war story. As O’Brien describes it: A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue…nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged….you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie (O’Brien 316.) Tim O’Brien’s point is that nobody knows the reality of war except for those who have been there and fought the war or those who have already fought in a war. Fighting a war is a difficult task that takes courage and