Truth Of War For A Soldier
Project Reflection, Essay, and Pictures.
Humanity:
What is left after it’s gone because of war?
Heidi Williams
Humanity: a process that allows a human being to experience emotion in many forms, compassion, love, hate. It is the concept that enables a person to have the instinct to pray for mercy and deal it out. Humanity has been defined by many but recognized by few. It makes up the human race by spreading an unconscious understanding for every human on Earth. Humanity is what is removed from a person through the experience of battle allowing war to be successful. Success in war consists of the stripping away of all humanity, this is a tactic that will get you back to regular life only to find you lead a life of ruin and feeling like you don’t fit in. Neither you nor I have ever been forced by a leader to pull the trigger to end another person’s life. The action of ending another’s life strips down the humanity that once drove a person to fight. The stripping of all humanity down to an animal like being results in mental angst and the ruin of the person off the battlefield.
Physical horrors of war contribute to the stripping away of humanity leaving a soldier in ruin by possibly being disabled. In chapter six in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, physical horrors are described when Paul and his comrades endure the first attack of the story set in the trenches of World War One. Paul describes the attack as "Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades--words, words, words, but they hold the horror of the world." (132) All war consists of weaponry, and all weaponry is created to destroy your opponent. In the quote it lists the weapons like “mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades”, all these things are designed to destroy not only your body, but also your mind. They were created to show you just how horrible the opposing side was, they were created to show you the “horror of the world”. Mustard gas was especially inhumane. It was used in World War One to burn the airway and blind the victim resulting in a torturous slow death. In terms of modern warfare, a new report from Jenna Smith reporting for CNN says, “Pentagon officials have estimated two in every three soldiers in the 1.8 million troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from physical-injury and\or brain-injury.” Those who survived war but still endured the violence of weaponry are forced to live with extreme physical damage such as chronic pain, missing limbs, blindness, or in the case of Vietnam, certain forms of Cancer due to Agent Orange. Physical horror contributes to the ruin of a soldier by added effect, that if a soldier does survive a battle wound it often results in a life time of suffering.
Soldiers on the battlefield face not only physical horrors, but also mental horrors.
In chapter nine of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul describes how he feels after he kills a soldier from the opposing side, “My state is getting worse, I can no longer control my thoughts. What would his wife look like? Like the little brunette on the other side of the canal? Does she belong to me now? Perhaps by this act she becomes mine. I wish Kantorek were sitting here beside me. If only my mother could see me-. The dead man might have thirty more years of life if only I had impressed the way back to our trench more sharply on my memory.” (222) Like many soldiers, Paul feels the guilt and shame of killing another man even in the circumstance of war, causing him to question the sanity of his own mind. The experience of killing or nearly being killed leads a soldier who survived war to post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of mental angst. In the article “Wars Mental Health” the author describes increasing numbers of exhibiting signs of mental health disorders, “A new report from United Press International is estimating 19,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder since 2002. Overall 40,000 veterans from the two wars have exhibited some signs of mental health disorders.” The stripping of all humanity to simply get the job done results in mental angst and the ruin when the person gets off the battlefield. This contributes to the ruin of a solider by leaving him or her to re-live the mental struggles and horrors seen on the battlefield through out the rest of their life. The result of the stripping down of all humanity works on battlefield but it changes the soldier forever in a negative way.
As a result of these horrors marriages have been failing. Due to the stripping down of humanity soldiers returning home are unable to love themselves, let alone others. In the article “Wars Mental Health” writers describe the amounts of failing marriages in the past year: “In December, the Pentagon reported that the military divorce rate has risen steadily since 2001, from 2.6 percent to 3.7 in 2011 — meaning that nearly 30,000 military marriages ended last year alone.” Relationships like marriage and family are what soldiers rely on to get through war. Situations a person deals with during war are far different than the situations revolving around marriage and other personal relationships. Because of the mental and physical horrors and the stripping down of all humanity seen during war, a solider comes home a different person. The relationship won’t work because the soldier has changed from the man or woman they were before the war. A soldier is ruined after war and is unable to love him or herself, so marriage and love become unreachable and the soldier cannot experience it as they did before the war.
Too often, the horrors faced by a soldier during war result in the loss of all humanity. The soldier loses his or her passion for life and make the decision to commit suicide. "We cannot stand the memories and [we] decide death is better. We kill ourselves because we are haunted by seeing children killed and families wiped out and ripped apart. We cannot enjoy even the thing we were most passionate about before the war," said a 35-year-old veteran of the Iraq war that was buried on Saturday - a week after he committed suicide. (Barber) Because of the measures taken during the war to get the job done and to get home, a soldier is scarred. The experiences on the battlefield that he or she inflicted or endured leave the soldier unable to see the light in the place he or she once saw it shining. This is present in the book All Quiet on the Western Front, in chapter 10 when Paul says, "I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another." (263) This connects to the shame and guilt Paul felt when he killed one person. It shows that guilt and shame can push a person so far they want to end their own life. This highlights how drastically a soldier changed because of the experiences on the battlefield. It shows that the ruin of a solider is so drastic that they would rather die then try to heal.
The reason for this horror is for a government or governments to make a decision on conflict. War is a government’s way to use the life of a human to get done what they need and/or want. Governments use a human life because it is the only thing that means enough to a person that will make them kill. Death is the only thing that makes a sane man kill. In the future we, as the people of the world, should consider using a nonviolent war alternatives such as the ideas of the Albert Einstein Institution found in Gene Sharp’s War Alternatives. The Albert Einstein Institution is an organization advancing the study and use of strategic nonviolent action in conflicts throughout the world. (Sharp) Nonviolent action provides a way of acting effectively in a conflict without the use of physical violence. Nonviolent forms of resistance do not kill, injure, or destroy. Instead, they intelligently undermine an opponent’s social, economic, political, and military power by withholding and withdrawing the pillars of support required by an adversary to maintain its position and to achieve its goals. The stripping down of all humanity works beautifully on the battlefield but it changes the soldier forever leaving him or her in ruin. Moreover, the ruined human has a profound effect on the citizens of his or her country that are left dealing with broken marriages, treating physical and mental disabilities and coping with suicide. So ask yourself, would you rather be a citizen of a country that inflicts the most pain on the opponent in order to win or the citizen of a country that uses the most intelligence in order to win?
Work Cited:
Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All quiet on the western front;. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1929. Print.
Smith , Jenna. "CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. CNN.com, 14 Aug. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. <http://cnn.com>.
Sharp, Gene . "War Alternatives ." Gene Sharp War Alternates . nsnbc.com, 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <www.genesharpwaralternatives.com>.
What is left after it’s gone because of war?
Heidi Williams
Humanity: a process that allows a human being to experience emotion in many forms, compassion, love, hate. It is the concept that enables a person to have the instinct to pray for mercy and deal it out. Humanity has been defined by many but recognized by few. It makes up the human race by spreading an unconscious understanding for every human on Earth. Humanity is what is removed from a person through the experience of battle allowing war to be successful. Success in war consists of the stripping away of all humanity, this is a tactic that will get you back to regular life only to find you lead a life of ruin and feeling like you don’t fit in. Neither you nor I have ever been forced by a leader to pull the trigger to end another person’s life. The action of ending another’s life strips down the humanity that once drove a person to fight. The stripping of all humanity down to an animal like being results in mental angst and the ruin of the person off the battlefield.
Physical horrors of war contribute to the stripping away of humanity leaving a soldier in ruin by possibly being disabled. In chapter six in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, physical horrors are described when Paul and his comrades endure the first attack of the story set in the trenches of World War One. Paul describes the attack as "Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades--words, words, words, but they hold the horror of the world." (132) All war consists of weaponry, and all weaponry is created to destroy your opponent. In the quote it lists the weapons like “mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades”, all these things are designed to destroy not only your body, but also your mind. They were created to show you just how horrible the opposing side was, they were created to show you the “horror of the world”. Mustard gas was especially inhumane. It was used in World War One to burn the airway and blind the victim resulting in a torturous slow death. In terms of modern warfare, a new report from Jenna Smith reporting for CNN says, “Pentagon officials have estimated two in every three soldiers in the 1.8 million troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from physical-injury and\or brain-injury.” Those who survived war but still endured the violence of weaponry are forced to live with extreme physical damage such as chronic pain, missing limbs, blindness, or in the case of Vietnam, certain forms of Cancer due to Agent Orange. Physical horror contributes to the ruin of a soldier by added effect, that if a soldier does survive a battle wound it often results in a life time of suffering.
Soldiers on the battlefield face not only physical horrors, but also mental horrors.
In chapter nine of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul describes how he feels after he kills a soldier from the opposing side, “My state is getting worse, I can no longer control my thoughts. What would his wife look like? Like the little brunette on the other side of the canal? Does she belong to me now? Perhaps by this act she becomes mine. I wish Kantorek were sitting here beside me. If only my mother could see me-. The dead man might have thirty more years of life if only I had impressed the way back to our trench more sharply on my memory.” (222) Like many soldiers, Paul feels the guilt and shame of killing another man even in the circumstance of war, causing him to question the sanity of his own mind. The experience of killing or nearly being killed leads a soldier who survived war to post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of mental angst. In the article “Wars Mental Health” the author describes increasing numbers of exhibiting signs of mental health disorders, “A new report from United Press International is estimating 19,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder since 2002. Overall 40,000 veterans from the two wars have exhibited some signs of mental health disorders.” The stripping of all humanity to simply get the job done results in mental angst and the ruin when the person gets off the battlefield. This contributes to the ruin of a solider by leaving him or her to re-live the mental struggles and horrors seen on the battlefield through out the rest of their life. The result of the stripping down of all humanity works on battlefield but it changes the soldier forever in a negative way.
As a result of these horrors marriages have been failing. Due to the stripping down of humanity soldiers returning home are unable to love themselves, let alone others. In the article “Wars Mental Health” writers describe the amounts of failing marriages in the past year: “In December, the Pentagon reported that the military divorce rate has risen steadily since 2001, from 2.6 percent to 3.7 in 2011 — meaning that nearly 30,000 military marriages ended last year alone.” Relationships like marriage and family are what soldiers rely on to get through war. Situations a person deals with during war are far different than the situations revolving around marriage and other personal relationships. Because of the mental and physical horrors and the stripping down of all humanity seen during war, a solider comes home a different person. The relationship won’t work because the soldier has changed from the man or woman they were before the war. A soldier is ruined after war and is unable to love him or herself, so marriage and love become unreachable and the soldier cannot experience it as they did before the war.
Too often, the horrors faced by a soldier during war result in the loss of all humanity. The soldier loses his or her passion for life and make the decision to commit suicide. "We cannot stand the memories and [we] decide death is better. We kill ourselves because we are haunted by seeing children killed and families wiped out and ripped apart. We cannot enjoy even the thing we were most passionate about before the war," said a 35-year-old veteran of the Iraq war that was buried on Saturday - a week after he committed suicide. (Barber) Because of the measures taken during the war to get the job done and to get home, a soldier is scarred. The experiences on the battlefield that he or she inflicted or endured leave the soldier unable to see the light in the place he or she once saw it shining. This is present in the book All Quiet on the Western Front, in chapter 10 when Paul says, "I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another." (263) This connects to the shame and guilt Paul felt when he killed one person. It shows that guilt and shame can push a person so far they want to end their own life. This highlights how drastically a soldier changed because of the experiences on the battlefield. It shows that the ruin of a solider is so drastic that they would rather die then try to heal.
The reason for this horror is for a government or governments to make a decision on conflict. War is a government’s way to use the life of a human to get done what they need and/or want. Governments use a human life because it is the only thing that means enough to a person that will make them kill. Death is the only thing that makes a sane man kill. In the future we, as the people of the world, should consider using a nonviolent war alternatives such as the ideas of the Albert Einstein Institution found in Gene Sharp’s War Alternatives. The Albert Einstein Institution is an organization advancing the study and use of strategic nonviolent action in conflicts throughout the world. (Sharp) Nonviolent action provides a way of acting effectively in a conflict without the use of physical violence. Nonviolent forms of resistance do not kill, injure, or destroy. Instead, they intelligently undermine an opponent’s social, economic, political, and military power by withholding and withdrawing the pillars of support required by an adversary to maintain its position and to achieve its goals. The stripping down of all humanity works beautifully on the battlefield but it changes the soldier forever leaving him or her in ruin. Moreover, the ruined human has a profound effect on the citizens of his or her country that are left dealing with broken marriages, treating physical and mental disabilities and coping with suicide. So ask yourself, would you rather be a citizen of a country that inflicts the most pain on the opponent in order to win or the citizen of a country that uses the most intelligence in order to win?
Work Cited:
Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All quiet on the western front;. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1929. Print.
Smith , Jenna. "CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. CNN.com, 14 Aug. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. <http://cnn.com>.
Sharp, Gene . "War Alternatives ." Gene Sharp War Alternates . nsnbc.com, 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <www.genesharpwaralternatives.com>.
Project Reflection
In this project we studies World War One and World War Two while keeping the question “What is the truth of war” on our minds. To get the gist we read two books, “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Slaughter house Five.” Each book is told from the perspective of a solider. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is set in the trenches of World War One on the Western Front. And “Slaughter House Five” is about a man tripping through time reliving his time spent on the battlefield. We learned what caused the war and what strategies the leaders used to pull out. For example Jophf Stalin saved his country from economic crisis by bringing up the iron companies.
I believe I used advocacy the most while writing my paper and painting. While writing my paper I found I was having a hard time to structure my sentences to best show my ideas. I overcame this by advocating to Nick, the other humanities teacher. He helped me make my thoughts solid while helping me make my paper A+ material. While painting I did not know how to make the paints drip and run like they do in my painting. I fixed this problem by advocating to my cousin (big painter) and asking her how to make them more runny and drippy. She said try using water to mix with powder paints instead of the paste. I did this and it turned out great! I am very proud of both my painting and essay.
Two substantial revisions I made in my essay were topic sentence refinement and analysis. During the writing of my paper I found that my topic sentences were far too bland and did not show what the clear topic of the paragraph was. For example I changed the topic sentence of my first paragraph to “Humanity: a process that allows a human being to experience emotion in many forms, compassion, love, hate.” From “Humanity is ruined in war so you can’t have much emotion.” While I was writing in my analyses I found I could not get my point out clearly. To fix this I went back to my outline and took a peek at what I was trying to say in bullets and then formed those bullets into complete sentences. These revisions will help my reader see how strong my ideas are in a clear as day way.
If I had another week to continue this project I would make my essay have more personal connections and make my heart on my painting look more realistic. I would add in more personal connections to my essay by telling quotes and stories from my grandfather who has fought in two wars. I would add these to my analyses to make my evidence closer to home. In painting my strong suit is in abstract art. I have a hard time painting realistic images such as real human hearts. I would make my human heart more realistic by asking Roxy about realistic colors and what type of brush strokes I could use to make my art more realistic. I believe if I perfected personal connections and realistic painting my project would become even more amazing.