Liberal Arts Education

When individual hear "Liberal Arts Eduacation" many do not know what exactly it is. It can be translated into several different things, just like Strauss showed us in her article in the Washington Post. Liberal Arts is what every college student must take in order to pass, and it provides the ground work for a higher eduacation. It consists of, Literature, Math, and Sciences, pretty much the basics of education.

Slaughterhouse-Five

Critical Analysis of Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five is an exquisite novel written by Kurt Vonnegut that deals with the repercussions and warped mindset that comes from war. The author himself hadn’t been involved in time-traveling or having been abducted by aliens like the character in his story. Even with these fictitious events occurring, the fire-bombing of the city of Dresden was a historical event that took place during the second world war and witnessing the event firsthand, Vonnegut struggled many years later with writing about the carnage that took place. In his story, the character Billy Pilgrim is one who seems to possess a special ability to travel through time, but is unable to control it. He travels back and forth through his life experiencing each important event repeatedly and even claims to have been abducted by aliens known as Tralfamadorians. The novel seems to place an emphasis on how twisted his idea of time is. Although his sense of time was different from everyone else, an issue that seems to present itself over others within the story is how the lines between fantasy and reality can so easily be distorted.

            In reading the first few chapters of the story, the reader can quickly conclude that there is no real climax in the story. The main character, Billy, jumps from one time period to another, those including his birth, time in Dresden as a POW, and even when he is assassinated by a laser rifle. It is possible that from the events he experienced through the war, Billy was so mentally damaged that he literally had to reinvent his reality in order to cope with his issues. One example of how contorted fantasy and reality was how he talks about his abduction by aliens and in how they explained the true nature of time. The Tralfamadorian said, “If I hadn’t spent so much time studying Earthlings, I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by ‘free will.’ I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will.” Humans believe in the right to free will whereas the aliens believe that free will is only an idea made up by earthlings. They believe that time was structured in such a way that no one had control over the past, present, and future. Realistically speaking, they were all doomed to an unchangeable end.

            Adding to this, the alien talked of how particularly structured time was and how it was never to be changed. The Tralfamadorian claimed that the universe will come to an end. Although they knew when and how the end would come, they would not prevent it from happening because it was meant to happen and they would do nothing to change it. Since the idea of time would always be this way, it was better to “spend eternity looking at pleasant moments” instead of focusing on the bad ones. This was their reasoning for not attempting to change their pre-determined future.

            As is evident in the story, fantasy and reality were obviously blurred, but this was used as a way of coping with the horror and destruction that Billy faced during the war. The entirety of the novel was used as a way to explain the horrors of war and how it impacts everyone involved. From coping with the mental damage to the physical aspects of war. After analyzing the book written by Vonnegut, I believe that he got his point across about the damages of war. Although the book is viewed as anti-war by most readers, “there would always be wars and they were as easy to stop as glaciers melting.”

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001

Matthew Branham

A Rumor of War 

                A rumor of war is written by Phillip Caputo, this book was a very interesting story line and very well written. The book simply does start rather slow I personally think. However, once the story line picked up the excitement increases tremendously. There are heroic characters and then there is the characters that not everyone enjoys. Simply this book was a wonderful choice and would have never considered reading it before seminar.

            In the book “Rumor of War,” the story is divided up into three parts, each story continually telling the story of the main character Lt. Caputos experience in the Vietnam War. The book is split up into four parts, part one begins with his adventures in boot camp, and later going into Vietnam and leading as an officer. Part two then begins to explain the story of how Caputo was reassigned from his rifle to an office job in other words sitting behind a desk. During this part he is mainly monitoring the causalities of the war. In part three he is reassigned, once more, back to a rifle company. Where eventually gets into an “incident” and eventually relieved if his duties as an officer. Finally in the last part of Caputo’s story he relives his experience as an officer as an journalist during the fall of Saigon

            In the book there are really only four to five characters that you really focus on when reading the book. Lt. Caputo is the main character of course as mentioned in the brief summary above. He is really portrayed and explained as a very intelligent young officer. He really is just trying to survive like most of his other peers. The next character would be Sgt. McClellan he is one of the very first characters introduced in the book. He is an overall very well rounded soldier who in which taught Caputo the art of war. The best way to describe his appearance is the typical very large man, very muscular, and energetic. Lance Corporal Sampson is the next character that is involved in the beginning of the writing. Sampson is pretty much described as kindly a bum. He is very sloppy not your typical war hero. However, he is a decent soldier and described as a chessboard. Officer Lemmon is another character that is introduced fairly early in the story line as well. Lemmon is very much comparable to Caputo, when it comes to rank and profession. Lastly mentioning Colonel Nickerson is the war head that has a very bad temper, typically considered a little bit strange. However, is a very nice man all in all.

            I strongly recommend this piece of literature to any individual that is simply interested in history or has strong war interest. Simply because this writing is a very close adaptation to the Vietnam War. The book is very descriptive giving very strong imagery. Example being “The rain fell into my collar and poured out the sleeves of my jackets as if they were drainpipes.” (Pg. 237) This is just a chilling piece of imagery to me simply seeing and imagining the miserable conditions that were sometime presented. The writing is simply intense and life like even though it is a piece of fiction. Overall the writing just gives an astonishing overall view of the impact war has on the soldiers.

            In conclusion, this writing was a very good choice for me because of my passion for history as well as war. The book was absolutely thrilling and simply very enjoyable to read. I have never really been a reader however the book really captured my attention and the strong imagery was simply astonishing. I am very pleased with my selection and I strongly recommend this piece of literature to anyone that enjoys reading. 

Eating Babies

In Johnathan Swifts, “A Modest Proposal” he suggests the one of the most horrific things to his country, or kingdom. He proposes that young infants should be used as nourishment for the human body. Yes, this man is sick, he says that we should eat babies, along with other things such as their flesh could be used as clothes. Johnathan Swift presents a rather sickening idea, but he has points behind his proposal to help fix the countries issues, such as poor families.

When reading this article, an individual will not believe what they are reading. When looked into detail, its actually not the worse idea in the world. He believes that using babies as animals would increase the country in trade and wealth. When looked at it, thousands of babies are born each day, and also thousands of dollars are spent while nourishing this child into a young adult. Instead of spending this money on raising it, they should just be sold to the market for advancements in wealth.

Swift also provides examples in the proposal of how men will look at their significant other more productively. Women today always complain about so many things, such as they should have more responsibility then just sitting at home and raising a child, while the man goes off to work to provide for the family. Woman crave attention from their significant other, and since all women will have to do is sit at home a have babies to help provide more financial wealth for the family, the man will be more eager to pay attention and help the woman through her pregnancy. The woman gets a sense of doing a work for the family and she gets the attention that she wants from the man.

Through this process, Swift shows that cannibalism can be the answer to many things. The way that I interpreted the proposal was that a country should use the certain resources that have been provided for them through nature. What kind of things as a country should we use to make ourselves more wealthy? This proposal was more of a political issue. The United States has free resources that we don’t fully take advantage of. One example would be our oil reserves; oil is one of the biggest trade deals in the world, and when we trade it can affect gas prices. Granted if we did tap into our own oil reserves, we would still have to pay a good price for oil and, but that would ultimately decrease our national debt.

Johnathon Swift is a crazy man, but at the same time has very many strong points to his proposal. Eating babies can be a metaphor to so many different things in the world today. While this article was disturbing, it had more meaning behind it. As a country, and as individuals, we should take advantages of the things that nature has provided us for survival in this world. The world is cruel enough, and sick enough to promote the sanction of devouring babies, but the way Johnathon Swift uses cannibalism in his proposal, it shows how bad we look at particular ideas that involve change to our country.    

Work Cited

Swift, Johnathon, and Leonard Baskin. 1969. A Modest Proposal. New York: Grossman.

Night

Night

First, the novel “Night” was not like anything I had expected. Just from the title name I figured it would be a horror story, never the less, I was wrong for the most part. “Night” is an autobiography by a man named Eliezer Wiesel. The autobiography is a rather unsettling record of Elie’s early life in the Nazi concentration camps, such as Buchenwald and Auschwitz, during world war two. Even though “Night” is Elie Wiesel’s supposed first person narrative about his experiences in the Holocaust, he is not exactly the main character who is speaking. “Night” is narrated by a boy named Eliezer who signifies Elie.

I find myself wondering where to begin this informative blog. So, I suppose ill start at the scene where Eliezer and his family get put on the train that’s headed to the first concentration camp. On the train to the first camp there was a woman, who at the time was foretelling what was going to happen, who was screaming “Look! Look at this fire! This terrible fire! Have mercy on me!” (Night, 25). She screamed each day in the evenings for several days and each day she yelled it, the other Jews that were on the train felt more weary and angry. The night before they arrived at the camp she began screaming, and the men had enough of her delusions so they beat her. At the time while reading this I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman ,knowing she was right about her foreshadowing, however I couldn’t really blame the men who gave her the beating. The reason being they were all growing anxious after several days with no food, water, or not having any idea when they were going to stop the train.

This next scene of “Night” happened in the second camp Eliezer and his father was taken to. During this scene Eliezer had to be put in the hospital because of his foot. He had to have a surgery done to his foot to remove an excess amount of pus from the sole of his foot. While in recovery the officers were evacuating the Jews to a different place, however Eliezer was in the hospital and the Doctor told him he needed to stay. The Doctor told him he could put his father in the hospital also, so they wouldn’t get separated. Him and his father decided it would be best to travel to the next camp for the fear if they stayed the hospital would get bombed. The symbolic part to this is Ellie stated that if Eliezer and his father were to have stayed they would’ve liberated two days after evacuating by the Russians. This part completely stunned me because I couldn’t imagine making that big a decision nor finding out that the decision changed the course of your life forever.

This is the scene after the evacuation. The officers made the Jews run in the snow for quite some time without a break. After they were able to take a break Rabbi Eliahou asks Eliezer if he had seen his son. The symbolic thing about this to me is while they were running Eliezer had seen Rabbi’s son running directly beside of him. While running Eliezer noticed Rabbi’s son trying to out run his father while his father is slipping behind to possible “rid himself of a burden”. This scene was highly symbolic to me because I thought that it was horrible that a son would completely give up on his father and entirely throw away the bond that he had with him. The only thing that I could think of for Rabbi’s decision was that everyone changes severely after being put through the torment that all of these people went through.

In conclusion Night, is a dramatic book, which tells the evil and horror of the concentration camps that imprisoned many Jews during World War two. Throughout the entire novel the author Elie Wiesel, as well as many prisoners, lost their faith in God. There were many instances in the entire novel where people were trying to keep and reinforce their faith, but there were many more examples of people rebelling against God and forgetting their religion. Thus, creating a demoralizing setting for those without religion to lean on for reinforcement.

Lord of the Flies

I never read this book in high school, and good thing I didn’t. Honestly I did not like this book.  I thought it was really weird, which isn’t a problem but I just wasn’t really into it as much as I thought I would be. While reading it the whole time I was just thinking why don’t they listen to Piggy, he is clearly the smart one to actually help them survive there. That got me mad because throughout the whole book if they just listened to Piggy they would’ve been better off instead of Ralph and Jack. Yes, they both also had some good ideas but Ralph and Jack just clashed way too much.  When it came to the part in the book when they picked a chief, and were doing all the rules and stuff I was surprised that kids would do that. Yes Ralph was reasonable for chief, so was Piggy. As the book kept going on , I would roll my eyes a lot, this book to me was kind of dumb and like a cheesy horror movie. There is a so called beast on the island, and so many different stories from where the beast actually comes from, yet no one except Simon noticed the beast was there fears. To me it was given as a hint, the beast if there fears. When Ralph says that it’s from the little boys dream in the beginning of the book. At the end of the book I was super mad because they fought, Simon and Piggy were both killed. The smartest person on the island was killed. They needed him! Ralph realized that. Ralph and Jack were fighting, over stupid reasons, and for nothing. Because at the end they were found by the smoke, which Ralph and Piggy were trying to keep going. Jack is dumb for thinking the food was the most important thing. I wouldn’t read this book again. It was a well written book but I wasn’t into it at all. This wasn’t the right book for me.

All Quiet on the Western Front

                We have all had hard times and been in places that we haven’t wanted to be in. With war being one of the most extreme circumstances. In the book All Quiet on the Western front you follow a soldier during the Great War which is most commonly known now as World War I. Paul Braumer is the main character that the story focuses on in his travels through the war with the eight remaining men from his regiment.

                The novel uses the mass carnage and brutal truth of war to depict how it can change people. One of the biggest being through the in bedded feeling of nationalism the was pounded in to the minds of the troops that were to fight on the front lines. It also uses symbolism to show the effects war has on people. One of the biggest uses of symbolism is actually in the first portion of the book, it happens when Kemmerich’s who is one of the friends in the group is laying on his death bed in a field hospital. His belongings in a bin under his bed which among them being a fresh pair of boots, in the mist of what was one of the deadliest wars they begin to let it take effect of them. As can be seen the worry of their friend is masked by their natural state of wanting anything that could give them an edge. A new pair of boots in that time was major due to the fact that in the late part of WWI in the German trenches some men didn’t even have boots. So it shows that in a dog eat dog world such as a major war it can change a person. Prior to the war Paul and his friends wouldn’t have even considered Kemmerich’s boots but more worried about his wellbeing. It emphasizes that war can bring out the most primal instincts due to the fact that any day could be your last and you have to take advantage of what you can.

                Nationalism is also beaten in to the heads of Paul and his friend as he speaks of the groups time in boot camp before they were deployed. The commanding officer that they had was given the label of the harshest of all the officers, his name is Corporal Himmlestoss. Himmlestoss is described as a small man with a napoleon complex, he was super tough on Paul and his friends due to their personalities being hard headed. All the way through the war until the end he maintains this toughness on the guys making sure that they stay alive. Towards the end of the war he tried to make amends with the guys though since he knew that the odds of making it out alive were very slim.

                All though war is a devastating thing the book also tries to make it seem like a great thing as it shows pride in one ‘s country. That then revolves around the nationalistic part of the book, It tries to say that yes war isn’t good but it’s alright if you’re doing it for the good of the country. In a way the book wants to show the gory and brutal part of war that changes people while also saying yes it changed them but it’s that they did it since it was for their country. I think that a big support for the book was that World War I was the first war that really gave people a look at the truth behind what war really is, therefore the explanation of the events in the book were a lot easier because the people reading the book understood what was being portrayed better.

                Kantorek who was a teacher prior to the war was very interested in politics and speeches, he was also probably the biggest factor for Paul and others joining the war. He basically bombarded them with political speech that gave them a heightened sense of pride for their country which led them to want to fight. With it being added that Paul and his friends were German soldiers it is well known that Germany was very nationalistic and socialistic in their ideals with both wars. So you can see with this book being originally written by a German author in 1920 how it could focus on war politics due to the fact they had to recruit all the men they could to support their military for the invasions that they did that were one of the big factors in the start of WWI.

                In conclusion All Quiet on the Western Front is a great read for anyone who is into war stories or politics, the main focuses being the gory and brutal truth of what war is and how it changes people. Along with that are the politics and nationalistic ideals that are used to mask the effects of war on the soldiers who fight it by making them seem as tools in a great cause to increase the achievements of their country.