The Like and Unlike of Two Stories

The summation of historical events known as the Rite of Spring written by Modris Elsteins and the short story known as the Soldier’s Home written by Ernest Hemmingway. Both present a unique link between short story and history featured in an early twentieth century take.  A major setting in both works is centered around the time frame of the First World War in which the countries of England and France were allies although the Rite of Spring expresses more interest in the more minor facts and details than Soldier’s home where as the short story likes to take more of a narrative approach to telling its story.

            The Soldier’s home is a short story written by Ernest Hemmingway in which the main character a returning soldier known by the name of Krebs as he comes back to his home from the war he struggles with adjusting to everyday life, himself, the war, and his religion. The soldier’s home is narrated embellished talk of what a soldier might go through when coming home after a conflict. The story shows us the trauma that one’s self might take during an event while excursing something like the military might imbue on the self (Hemmingway 111-116).

Like if a person was ever forcefully trapped in a dark box for a long enough time they may become claustrophobic or even afraid of the dark another side effect of the encounter may be that that the person may have both fears and will distrust both. Well Krebs who is a veteran of the war he just fought in has just experienced events that effect the difference parts of his life his self in a way that now that he is out he not only distrusts himself but also finds him questioning himself about his own religion (Hemmingway 115).

In the opposite role as Soldier’s Home the summation tale of historical events known as Rite of Spring written by Modris Elsteins offers a more systematic approach to looking at the war scene of the First World War from the unique allegiances to the difference battles. It gives a front line look at what people have to take on in war especially in World War I with all the trench warfare dangers like diseases, dropped shells, and infections were all common and it’s all these people who gives these stories that allows the war to continue with minimal causalities (Eksteins 140-155).

This work also gives pain and distrusted agony to the word of war even if it is historically based it’s like being trapped in that dark box again but this time on a person’s own conscience everything seen with in the dark box is okay because you cannot see anything which for some people can be calming but after a while the hallucinations start falling slowly corrupting the purity of the moment in which the inhabitant is living out their time in the box.

There is a quote from the Rite of Spring which goes like “The Germans and French are more innovative, ….. The British are more systematic “(Eksteins 141). Of the two works seen here both works support a different stance of that quote Soldier’s home is a more innovate work that is not bound by very many restrictions seeing as it is a work of fiction where as the work the Rite of Spring is more systematic in nature with its regulations being confined with the historical bounds of reality.               

Ekstein, Modris. "Rites of Spring ." Ekstein, Modris. Boston-New York , n.d. 140-155. Book.

Hemmingway, Ernest. "Soldier's Home." Hemmingway, Ernest. The Finca Vigia Edition. New York,London,Toronto,Sydney : Scriber , 1987. 111-116. Book.

                                      

Blurred Vision Comprehension of Another World   

It was April 11th, 1954 which was the Sunday after Thanksgiving/Black Friday. And as a Sunday was the day was for doing weekly shopping and washing weekly worn clothes nothing really happened well I mean nothing major happened no major news events, no famous people died, nothing happened beyond everyday life.  Historians are calling this day the most boring uneventful day in American history (April 11 1954). However thankfully our government loves to act like a little kid and make all sorts of messes so now we can’t ever say we are bored. One mess that we will never be able to clear up in full would be the war whether it be logical thinking vs illogical thinking or religious vs the non-religious. The current war that occurred now at are current time happens to occur where two different cultures clash against each other in a rage.

To set up the conversation for the current war a couple of examples are necessary for the cause. One such example can be found in the ever popular war time novel known by the title of Black Hawk Down this novel which was written by author Mark Bowden was tightly based on the 1993 conflict known as the battle as the Battle of Mogadishu/Day of the Rangers which was led by the United States rangers and delta force factions of the armed forces, and backed up by soldiers from the Pakistani and Malaysian armies. The battle itself took place in the African country of Somali at the horn of the continent in the country’s city of Mogadishu where US forces were ambushed by militiamen and civilian fighters who responded to the incoming troops by firing rocket propelled grenades or RPG’s at the convey of  little birds and black hawks knocking two of the black hawks out of the sky ultimately starting the two day conflict which resulted is the death of eighteen U.S. soldiers, one Pakistani soldier, one Malaysian, and the capture of one soldier by enemy forces. (Bowden)

             While the art of capturing and extracting an enemies highly valuable intelligence has always been around it has never been till the modern revolution of warfare until with the start of the Iraq campaign that started after 2001 that the public began the long tradition transition to the military from a long history of being held by the Central intelligence Agency. With a campaign lasting nearly ten whole years we saw many of our former allies from the cold war banded together, then broke off, then they reformed old groups like the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and ISIS or ISIL but now with a sense, style, and presence all their own. However among all four groups ISIS seems to have the biggest influence with its presence on a lot of social media websites like Facebook. It uses these tools to recruit more and more members its cause but the pain that comes with recruiting is that there are going to probably be some bad apples or some people who believe in the sacred figure so they lock them up and execute them which was the same thing that was about to happen to a bunch prisoners in the New York times article “U.S. Soldier Dies in Raid to Free Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq” and as it saying in the article during a raid to free these prisoners the one of the soldiers died and like in Mogadishu they got their targets but it came at the cost of a life and another tactic they used that similar to 1999’s Mogadishu conflict. (GORDON)

 Was that they put a form of defense kind of barriers when here they just cut the information digitally with the raid which is important tactic along with misinformation and disinformation it could be more severe than any weapon and people have done it since the beginning of time since people have been people with the wrong hands the operation could end up a giant black mess but in the right hands the operation will turn into a peaceful work of art that nobody will ever know what happened.  (Kelly)

             This is the ghostly public warfare of the twenty-first century tied back to the public ghost war on the very tip of the twentieth century. An event does not simply go away because it is over but merely repeats because of the events that come after it that bite. It tail transforms the once minor mistake into something of a philosophical ouroboros ever circling around always just ending up chewing on its own tail however the events worth chewing over is different event time but always similar in nature.      

Work cited:

April 11 1954: Most boring day of 20th century. 26 November 2010. web. 2015 October 2015.

Bowden, Mark. Black Hawk Down. 16 November 1999. web. 25 October 2015

GORDON, MICHAEL, R. ,and ERIC SCHMITTOCT. U.S. Soldier Dies in Raid to Free Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq. 22 October 2015. web. 29 October 2015.

Kelly, Kate. War Communication Before Modern Technology . 25 May 2011. web. 29 October 2015.