The first paragraph of this short story begins by giving us and explanation of a first lieutenant solider carrying letter. As the narrator states “ They were not love letters, but lieutenant Cross was hoping”. (1159) He was hoping they were because they would give him strength to keep fighting to make it home alive after the war. The Lieutenant would look forward to read them every night, and picture them together. The other soldiers carried things they needed, but also things that would give them strength to cope with the situation they were in. Ted Lavender was another main character in this short story. He “carried six to seven…
And the faces bent above them, and the gay, heart-breaking mirth. Can I forget the passage from the cool white-bedded Aid Post Past the long sun-blistered coaches of the khaki Red Cross train To the truck train full of wounded, and the weariness and laughter And “Good-bye, and thank you, Sister”, and the empty yards again? Can you recall the parcels that we made them for the railroad, Crammed and bulging parcels held together by their string,…
Without their possessions, they wouldn’t have had hope in another life outside the war. “Almost everyone humped photographs.”(O’Brien , 501) The men saw that it was necessary to carry pictures of their loved ones. Hope was possibly the most important factor to this war time. The men needed to understand that they were fighting for a purpose. That purpose was to protect those back home, but most importantly, to ensure a reminder that they had something to return to back home. They needed to know that the were cared about and needed to fight to live and return. Lieutenant Cross carried the letters of Martha to keep his head away from the gore and let him know that there are better places for him when it’s all…
can grasp his fears, hopes, and his experience as a soldier from his personal letters that traveled…
World War One was a horrific event. The number of known dead has been placed at about 10,000,000 men. The main method of combat during the first world war a.k.a. the Great World War, was trench warfare. Trench warfare was one of the main reasons so many men died. It was a ruthless system of warfare, in which lines and lines of men were repeatedly mowed down, one after the other.…
We arrived in the colony of New South Wales several days ago, but have not docked yet. Our ship still rides to anchor in Port Jackson, off a place called Sydney Cove. At…
Content: For this assignment, you are going to write a postcard/letter home from the perspective of a major character on the war front. Your perspective should include all of the occurrences that happen from Chapter 8 (or 9) and before. You will need to include textual evidence in the form of page numbers, you do not necessarily need to provide direct quotes as long as you cite the page number in which the content/emotion/inspiration you are describing occurs. You will also need to include the psychological defense mechanisms that we discussed in class. Your letter should be no less than 2 complete pages typed and double-spaced. The writing style here should be informative and based on the text, but creative as you are writing from the perspective of a character.…
Based on the email written “American Soldier Letter,” the unnamed soldier is a skeptical and exhausted individual who shows his feelings towards his experiences in Iraq. His attitudes toward his services are shown through his tone in the letter, the sarcastic examples of language to create a sense of humor, and syntax/appeals given to the readers by the speaker.…
Most of the things the characters in this story carried meant a lot to them and they couldn’t live without. Kiowa the Native American carried a bible. Ted Lavender the first casualty of the company. He carried drugs with him to keep him calm. He was described as the “most frightened of the Soldiers.” Jimmy Cross carried pictures, letters and a “good-luck charm,” a pebble from Martha whom he was in love with so deeply in his mind. His constant fantasizing about Martha caused the death of a Soldier. “Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her.” He uses Martha’s love as his escape from war, “His mind wandered. He had difficulty keeping his attention on the war.” ‘He would slip away into daydreams.” On the morning after Ted Lavender’s death Jimmy Cross burns and buries the letters and pictures that he has of Martha. His mental dilemma caused the death of his Soldier. After his death Jimmy Cross was “determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence.” After the war Cross is reminded of Lavender’s death while going through pictures with O’Brien. He’d never forgiven himself for his mistake he hated Martha because he loved her so much and “because he realized she did not love him and never would.” “She signed the letters "Love," but it wasn't love.…
The soldiers just wanted to believe that there was still joy and hope in world, even in such dark times. I believe that they just wanted a sign that the war would be over soon and this was that sign for them the war wasn’t necessarily over but there…
The powerful emotions triggered through watching this film can be acknowledged without question. What I found the most interesting was the use of real news footage from that time period that aired on major news networks, swaying people’s opinions about our justification for being in Vietnam. Being able to view that gave me a 1st hand look into soldiers’ opinions of the war as well as protests and how they differed then. The actors reading the leaders with pure emotion and feeling in order to accurately portray how much these soldiers put into these letters was remarkable because I felt as though I was experiencing that time period as if it were real and the soldiers were scrambling to write as I watched on. The stories they depicted throughout their words definitely provided for a flurry of reactions. I wanted to be happy for those men honored for combat, living through the horrors of hell, and seeing the relief on their faces when being honorably discharged and sent home. I was equally and oppositely somber, however, for those men’s lives stolen in combat, for those permanently crippled and bitter, to hear of the unspeakable horrors awaiting prisoners of war, as well as letters from optimistic soldiers killed in action shortly after. Another thing I found effectively executed by this film was the specific numbers given. They showed the variation in the number of soldiers deployed to Vietnam over the course of the war, as well as the rising KIA numbers and wounded in combat. A gruesome part of this war as well was the thick jungle that the soldiers had to navigate through blindly until ambushed by the Vietcong, and I thought the film did an excellent job of revealing that to the public. One of the most powerful moments of the film was when a soldier, grieving over his superior officer exclaimed that “he’ll be given a silver star, and somehow that is supposed to suffice for his life being…
The Sullivan Ballou Letter was written by Sullivan Ballou to his wife Sarah He wanted to state how strongly he felt about his cause. He is not afraid of the war because he knows how much we really need it and how important it is to our country. He said, “I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter” (Sullivan Ballou) He also wrote it to say how much he loves his wife because he knows that he has a good chance of dying in the war and wants to say goodbye to her so that she knows how much he loved her, but he said he loves his country more.…
The soldiers that fought during World War I faced many difficulties during the war. These difficulties included day to day combat, little or no food for days at a time, health issues that arose from the poor conditions, and having to deal with the mental strain of the war. Your average person either knows or has heard of these difficulties, but the average person probably doesn’t know about the problems these soldiers face upon their return home. The main problem for returning soldiers is what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.…
I’m writing to you from Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. Life here is horrible. There’s a lot shortages of everything from food to clothing to medicine. My men are sick from disease, hunger, and exposure. Right now, were camped in crude log cabins and have endured cold conditions while the Redcoats warmed themselves in colonial homes. Naked and starving as they are we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery. My men are suffering, but they are so loyal, and even though they are naked and hungry, they will do their best to fight for their country.…
I know it by receiving your greeting card” (Inada, 85). To me, I felt like this was important because even know they were miles away from each other they still continued to celebrate life even in the most simplest ways. Their eagerness to remain close to one another in spirit showed greatly through the letters that were sent back and…