WW2 Creative historians
All quiet on the western front seminar reflection
One specific comment that sticks in my mind was made by Max. He said that that the book could’ve been made up of some of the author’s real experiences. This hit me because the book is fictional. After learning about all of the horrible things that these soldiers went through and how you couldn’t talk about the horrors, this comment made me realize that the author probably could not write about what he truly experienced and had to write the book through a fictional character’s eyes. In chapter seven, it shows how Paul hates talking about the war in his home town because he knows that no one will truly understand. I believe that this is the author showing the reader how difficult it was for him to write the book and illustrate through words, the truth of war.
Paul reacts negatively to going on leave because nothing is as he expects. Before Paul leaves the front, he dreams and thinks fondly of happy times during his childhood. In chapter six of AQotWF, Paul says, “We sat beneath the poplars on the bank of the stream and let our feet hang in the bright, swift waters. The pure fragrance of the water and the melody of the wind in the poplars held our fancies.” This is an example of how he remembered his home, but he was devastated to find that upon return, it was nothing of the sort. Paul discovered his mother to be ill with cancer barely able to leave her bed, his family with very very little money or food, and his childhood interests such as his books not to capture him as they used to. Paul states in chapter 7, “The room shall speak, it must catch me up and hold me, I want to feel that I belong here, I want to hearken and know when I go back to the front that the war will sink down, be drowned utterly in the great home-coming tide. A terrible feeling of foreignness suddenly rises up in me. I cannot find my way back, I am shut out though I entreat earnestly and put forth all my effort.” For this reason he concludes this chapter by saying, “I ought never to have come on leave”.
I would like to connect the idea of Tjaden pointing out all of the ups and Paul emphasizing the downs of being in the war to a song called “Bullet” by Rhymefest. This song talks about a boy just out of high school with no money for going to college who accepts an invitation to the army because of the education opportunity. It goes on to sing about all of the risks that he takes and all of the life threatening situations he has to go through only in order to get a scholarship. A quote from the song is, “he ain’t really a killer though.” This reminds me of Paul’s experience in the shell hole when he kills the French man and realizes that killing this man was only in response to orders and that this man could've been his friend if not for the country’s dispute.
Retreat, Retreat. I run back from the German’s trench being shot at and shells exploding around me. It’s a miracle I haven’t been hit. Suddenly I hear a shell screaming down towards me and I dive into a shell hole with a dead man lying face down in the water. Before I could process this German man, he jumped up with incomprehensible speed and agility and I feel a knife plunge into my stomach, again, and again, and again, I fall to the ground trying to breath, my torso in so much pain that the thought of everything around me disappears and all I know is pain. It’s gone, It is no more, I feel nothing, I only hear. I hear muttering in between sobs but they aren’t mine. Opening my eyes is not possible but I see everything through my ears. The German man is sitting, crying, and staring at the blood on his hands. He feels bad but he shouldn’t. I deserve this. He knows this not but I have just come from slaughtering an entire trench full of his comrades. Anyway, I am sick of this war, of this blood, and this horror, I will leave this world gladly. The feeling of cool water enters my mouth and I know he is trying to save me. I gulp it down out of courtesy to the stranger but I know that I will not live and deep down, he knows the same. The last thing I hear is the awful sound of a boy crying, then a feeling of peace washes over me and I know nothing.
One of the main themes that I annotated in my book was the idea of youth. The idea that these men that fought in this war would be forced in the most absolute way to grow up. In chapter two I made an annotation that said, “Although the soldiers are at most two years older than the new recruits, they feel as though they are wise old men.” Later in the book it talks about the recruits weeping and screaming and basically going mental at their first taste of true war. This shows how over the course of just a couple months, a boy can change into a knowledgeable man because he has no choice but to either grow up or die.
Paul reacts negatively to going on leave because nothing is as he expects. Before Paul leaves the front, he dreams and thinks fondly of happy times during his childhood. In chapter six of AQotWF, Paul says, “We sat beneath the poplars on the bank of the stream and let our feet hang in the bright, swift waters. The pure fragrance of the water and the melody of the wind in the poplars held our fancies.” This is an example of how he remembered his home, but he was devastated to find that upon return, it was nothing of the sort. Paul discovered his mother to be ill with cancer barely able to leave her bed, his family with very very little money or food, and his childhood interests such as his books not to capture him as they used to. Paul states in chapter 7, “The room shall speak, it must catch me up and hold me, I want to feel that I belong here, I want to hearken and know when I go back to the front that the war will sink down, be drowned utterly in the great home-coming tide. A terrible feeling of foreignness suddenly rises up in me. I cannot find my way back, I am shut out though I entreat earnestly and put forth all my effort.” For this reason he concludes this chapter by saying, “I ought never to have come on leave”.
I would like to connect the idea of Tjaden pointing out all of the ups and Paul emphasizing the downs of being in the war to a song called “Bullet” by Rhymefest. This song talks about a boy just out of high school with no money for going to college who accepts an invitation to the army because of the education opportunity. It goes on to sing about all of the risks that he takes and all of the life threatening situations he has to go through only in order to get a scholarship. A quote from the song is, “he ain’t really a killer though.” This reminds me of Paul’s experience in the shell hole when he kills the French man and realizes that killing this man was only in response to orders and that this man could've been his friend if not for the country’s dispute.
Retreat, Retreat. I run back from the German’s trench being shot at and shells exploding around me. It’s a miracle I haven’t been hit. Suddenly I hear a shell screaming down towards me and I dive into a shell hole with a dead man lying face down in the water. Before I could process this German man, he jumped up with incomprehensible speed and agility and I feel a knife plunge into my stomach, again, and again, and again, I fall to the ground trying to breath, my torso in so much pain that the thought of everything around me disappears and all I know is pain. It’s gone, It is no more, I feel nothing, I only hear. I hear muttering in between sobs but they aren’t mine. Opening my eyes is not possible but I see everything through my ears. The German man is sitting, crying, and staring at the blood on his hands. He feels bad but he shouldn’t. I deserve this. He knows this not but I have just come from slaughtering an entire trench full of his comrades. Anyway, I am sick of this war, of this blood, and this horror, I will leave this world gladly. The feeling of cool water enters my mouth and I know he is trying to save me. I gulp it down out of courtesy to the stranger but I know that I will not live and deep down, he knows the same. The last thing I hear is the awful sound of a boy crying, then a feeling of peace washes over me and I know nothing.
One of the main themes that I annotated in my book was the idea of youth. The idea that these men that fought in this war would be forced in the most absolute way to grow up. In chapter two I made an annotation that said, “Although the soldiers are at most two years older than the new recruits, they feel as though they are wise old men.” Later in the book it talks about the recruits weeping and screaming and basically going mental at their first taste of true war. This shows how over the course of just a couple months, a boy can change into a knowledgeable man because he has no choice but to either grow up or die.
Slaughterhouse five seminar reflection
While we were seminaring, Max made a comment that Intrigued me. He said that although Vonnegut may be using time travel as a metaphor, Billy truly does believe that he can travel in time. On page 29 of the book, Billy’s daughter asks why he said all of this false stuff to the newspaper and Billy replies simply, “it’s all true.” Connecting this time traveling and being captured by aliens to PTSD really takes away from the book. It is very relevant to guess that this stuff is Kurt’s way of expressing his memory but I think that in the book, Billy truly is traveling in time and this is what makes the book enjoyable and interesting. By reading the book from a perspective that is simply that Billy is crazy and imagines everything, it is taking away the personal connection to the book that one might have while believing Billy’s stories. I felt that Max’s comment was very clarifying and personal to the intent of the book and it opened my eyes to a couple different perspectives on the novel.
Did Billy really get kidnapped by aliens and travel in time? I believe that Billy did do these things based on the fact that the book says nothing contrary to this. Kurt Vonnegut may not have traveled in time or been captured and taken by Tralfamadorians but his character did. The one quote in the book that shows Billy’s true belief that he time travels in chapter two on page 27 and Billy says, “it’s all true” We must remember that Billy Pilgrim is not a real person. He is a fictional character created by a highly creative and slightly mental war veteran. It is my opinion that Kurt’s real person is represented through Billy Pilgrim but not that they are exactly alike. Billy, not being a real human being, can do as he wishes wether it may be to travel in time or to fly on the backs of dragons. Billy Pilgrim did travel in time and Billy Pilgrim was kidnapped by aliens and taken to Tralfamadore. Kurt Vonnegut did none of these things.
A song that I feel connected to Slaughterhouse 5 is “Houdini” by Foster the People. In the chorus it says, “sometimes I want to disappear.” I think that sometimes Billy time travels because he just wants to disappear from the situation. Although it doesn’t state this in the book, Billy time travels just as horrible things are happening. An example of this is on page 71 when Billy has just been captured and is on the train to Prison. “Billy Pilgrim nestled like a spoon with the hobo on Christmas night, and he fell asleep, and he traveled in time to 1967 again-to the night he was kidnapped by a flying saucer from Tralfamadore.” Being freezing cold in a train on the way to prison turns suddenly to an exiting trip in a flying saucer.
A connection between slaughterhouse 5 and AQotWF is the stress on the impact of war upon the mind. Both books strongly express the fact that experiencing the horrors of battle severely affects the mental state of the soldier. Although they both show this, it is expressed in two very different ways. Remarque demonstrates the decline in mental strength through a chronological series of events that destroy the confidence, enthusiasm, and physical health of his character, Paul. Kurt Vonnegut shows his own mental problems by writing a crazy book about time travel and aliens through a character named Billy who is believed to represent himself in some shape or form. These books were very eye opening to the after effects of war on every soldier.
Did Billy really get kidnapped by aliens and travel in time? I believe that Billy did do these things based on the fact that the book says nothing contrary to this. Kurt Vonnegut may not have traveled in time or been captured and taken by Tralfamadorians but his character did. The one quote in the book that shows Billy’s true belief that he time travels in chapter two on page 27 and Billy says, “it’s all true” We must remember that Billy Pilgrim is not a real person. He is a fictional character created by a highly creative and slightly mental war veteran. It is my opinion that Kurt’s real person is represented through Billy Pilgrim but not that they are exactly alike. Billy, not being a real human being, can do as he wishes wether it may be to travel in time or to fly on the backs of dragons. Billy Pilgrim did travel in time and Billy Pilgrim was kidnapped by aliens and taken to Tralfamadore. Kurt Vonnegut did none of these things.
A song that I feel connected to Slaughterhouse 5 is “Houdini” by Foster the People. In the chorus it says, “sometimes I want to disappear.” I think that sometimes Billy time travels because he just wants to disappear from the situation. Although it doesn’t state this in the book, Billy time travels just as horrible things are happening. An example of this is on page 71 when Billy has just been captured and is on the train to Prison. “Billy Pilgrim nestled like a spoon with the hobo on Christmas night, and he fell asleep, and he traveled in time to 1967 again-to the night he was kidnapped by a flying saucer from Tralfamadore.” Being freezing cold in a train on the way to prison turns suddenly to an exiting trip in a flying saucer.
A connection between slaughterhouse 5 and AQotWF is the stress on the impact of war upon the mind. Both books strongly express the fact that experiencing the horrors of battle severely affects the mental state of the soldier. Although they both show this, it is expressed in two very different ways. Remarque demonstrates the decline in mental strength through a chronological series of events that destroy the confidence, enthusiasm, and physical health of his character, Paul. Kurt Vonnegut shows his own mental problems by writing a crazy book about time travel and aliens through a character named Billy who is believed to represent himself in some shape or form. These books were very eye opening to the after effects of war on every soldier.
Project Reflection
This project was about writing a narrative showing the truth of war. In order to be able to write about the truth of war we had to first learn about what war really is. During this project, the class read two books about war, “Slaughterhouse 5”, and “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Both of these books portray truths of war in very different ways while also leaving the truths open to the interpretation of the reader. We did seminars on the books, had group discussions, did our own research, and learned specifics about the world wars. Once we had obtained all of the background information, we were able to formulate truths of war and begin to show them through our creative writing. The climax of the project was the writing process. In writing my story, I learned to use plot, round characters, historical integration, showing vs telling, and other writers tools such as metaphor and simile.
I think that my story does the best job of showing and not telling. Every time I found myself saying words like “thought,” or “knew,” I forced myself to think creatively in order to give a clear, deeper, understanding to the scene. By formulating emotions in my head, I was able to work the words onto the page in order to bring out the emotions of my reader. One thing that really helped me do this was the use of smilies and descriptive language. An example of a simile that I came up with and used in my story to show and not tell is, “Huge teardrops poured down my face like two rivers down the side of a mountain.” I used this in my climax to show the absolute despair of my character after accidentally murdering his little sister.
I believe that my story was lacking in plot development. It proved to be vey difficult for me to use the basic rising action format given to me by Stephen. The idea of small crises happening, resolving, and building tension up to the climax made perfect sense in my mind. Incorporating it into my story however, ended up being very hard because of the entire story taking place within one day. I felt that with such a short period of time, It was difficult to have the action build. I tried to overcome this challenge by emphasizing the faults and resolutions in the rising action. By making a couple sentences more clear, I showed the accumulation of tension before the climax.
My first major revision was one of complete elimination. I had an intro paragraph that showed the war from the perspective of an owl who had spent his days soaring through the skies watching battles and observing the life of my main character. Although this paragraph was high quality writing, added a new aspect to the story, and completed an extra challenge extension, it was not important enough to take up a page of my paper. I removed it entirely in order to focus more of my writing space and creativity to the development of my main character and plot. With more room to work now, I was able to use more descriptive language and show more rather than tell. When reading the story, my reader is now less confused and more able to focus on the single day in which so much happens to Rudi.
I chose the challenge option of incorporating a primary source into my story. This was intriguing to me because of the simplicity and yet the importance and meaning of something that someone who was actually there said. I used the order that Hitler gave to the German police to arrest all of the jews on Kristallnacht. The order said, “As many Jews, particularly wealthy ones, as the local jails will hold, are to be arrested in all districts.” Quoting Adolph Hitler strengthens my story in showing the impact he had upon the Hitler Youth. The boy of my story turns in his Jewish family members to the police and burns down their house when he hears this order.
I think that my story does the best job of showing and not telling. Every time I found myself saying words like “thought,” or “knew,” I forced myself to think creatively in order to give a clear, deeper, understanding to the scene. By formulating emotions in my head, I was able to work the words onto the page in order to bring out the emotions of my reader. One thing that really helped me do this was the use of smilies and descriptive language. An example of a simile that I came up with and used in my story to show and not tell is, “Huge teardrops poured down my face like two rivers down the side of a mountain.” I used this in my climax to show the absolute despair of my character after accidentally murdering his little sister.
I believe that my story was lacking in plot development. It proved to be vey difficult for me to use the basic rising action format given to me by Stephen. The idea of small crises happening, resolving, and building tension up to the climax made perfect sense in my mind. Incorporating it into my story however, ended up being very hard because of the entire story taking place within one day. I felt that with such a short period of time, It was difficult to have the action build. I tried to overcome this challenge by emphasizing the faults and resolutions in the rising action. By making a couple sentences more clear, I showed the accumulation of tension before the climax.
My first major revision was one of complete elimination. I had an intro paragraph that showed the war from the perspective of an owl who had spent his days soaring through the skies watching battles and observing the life of my main character. Although this paragraph was high quality writing, added a new aspect to the story, and completed an extra challenge extension, it was not important enough to take up a page of my paper. I removed it entirely in order to focus more of my writing space and creativity to the development of my main character and plot. With more room to work now, I was able to use more descriptive language and show more rather than tell. When reading the story, my reader is now less confused and more able to focus on the single day in which so much happens to Rudi.
I chose the challenge option of incorporating a primary source into my story. This was intriguing to me because of the simplicity and yet the importance and meaning of something that someone who was actually there said. I used the order that Hitler gave to the German police to arrest all of the jews on Kristallnacht. The order said, “As many Jews, particularly wealthy ones, as the local jails will hold, are to be arrested in all districts.” Quoting Adolph Hitler strengthens my story in showing the impact he had upon the Hitler Youth. The boy of my story turns in his Jewish family members to the police and burns down their house when he hears this order.
Vietnam Project
Artist Statement
“Although friendship can be the deepest at war, there, it is also the easiest to lose.”
My art piece represents friendship and loss of friendship. The hands holding are the hands of two soldiers representing their friendship. In war, every soldier experiences things that few others in the world have. This intimate connection of common experience gives root to the deepest of friendships. The hand that has been blown off at the wrist is a symbol of how in war, you can lose your best friend in less than an instant. One second he is standing beside you and the next, he is laying in the dirt with twenty bullet holes through him.
To make my art piece look professional and refined, I first made 2 drafts adjusting and fixing the proportionality of the hands. To get the shadows and positioning right, I took a picture of two hands clasping and then imported it into photoshop. I then adjusted the brightness and contrast in order to emphasize the contours of the hand. Using this picture, I was then able to transfer a likeness onto my paper. By then creating a background that contrasted the color of the arms, my image came together as a beautiful whole.
The inspiration for my piece came to me in a few different ways. After reading the book “The Things They Carried,” the value that most stood out to me was the men’s friendship. They did everything with each other. They smoked dope, killed people, got killed, ate, fought, and slept together. I was having trouble deciding what to do with my piece and so I enlisted the help of my dear mother. She asked me “what is a truth of the Vietnam war?” and I the first thing that came to mind was friendship and the second was loss of friendship. Immediately after saying this, a million ideas began to flow through my mind. The hands of two men holding with one of them blown off seemed a perfect idea. Although I doubted the quality of my piece throughout my first three drafts, I am very pleased with the outcome of my final piece.
“Although friendship can be the deepest at war, there, it is also the easiest to lose.”
My art piece represents friendship and loss of friendship. The hands holding are the hands of two soldiers representing their friendship. In war, every soldier experiences things that few others in the world have. This intimate connection of common experience gives root to the deepest of friendships. The hand that has been blown off at the wrist is a symbol of how in war, you can lose your best friend in less than an instant. One second he is standing beside you and the next, he is laying in the dirt with twenty bullet holes through him.
To make my art piece look professional and refined, I first made 2 drafts adjusting and fixing the proportionality of the hands. To get the shadows and positioning right, I took a picture of two hands clasping and then imported it into photoshop. I then adjusted the brightness and contrast in order to emphasize the contours of the hand. Using this picture, I was then able to transfer a likeness onto my paper. By then creating a background that contrasted the color of the arms, my image came together as a beautiful whole.
The inspiration for my piece came to me in a few different ways. After reading the book “The Things They Carried,” the value that most stood out to me was the men’s friendship. They did everything with each other. They smoked dope, killed people, got killed, ate, fought, and slept together. I was having trouble deciding what to do with my piece and so I enlisted the help of my dear mother. She asked me “what is a truth of the Vietnam war?” and I the first thing that came to mind was friendship and the second was loss of friendship. Immediately after saying this, a million ideas began to flow through my mind. The hands of two men holding with one of them blown off seemed a perfect idea. Although I doubted the quality of my piece throughout my first three drafts, I am very pleased with the outcome of my final piece.