Midterm Analysis . Kazarian, OBrien, and McNeel - Term Paper Example

? Ans Context: India under the domination of British Raj faced strong retaliation marked with violence under different leaders. The emergence of Mahatma Gandhi in the political scenario brought forth the element of non-cooperation. He criticized both the British Raj’s rule and domination to enslave the dark skinned Indians and at the same time, he did not support the violent retaliation. Gandhi’s vision of Swaraj is similar peaceful and ordered anarchy. Self-rule did not imply any government of imposition of laws but the ability of every individual to rule himself. His non-cooperation method was reflected in the Salt March to Dandi in order to protest against salt tax and make salt himself. The British Raj was worse than U.S. because the former tried to take complete possession of a different nation or their colony in every respect in order to rob the nation of its resources and enslaved the Indians for this purpose. In U.S. the discriminations were reflected in form of allocating seats in buses and other cases of differentiation between races. The path defined by him has found reflection in the struggles of Martin Luther King who is known as the “spiritual heir to non-violence” (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 2011). 1) Martin Luther King Jr. in his ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ (written in 1963) illustrates number of discriminations against Blacks or Negroes. This includes their forceful confinement to ghettos, curtailment of voting rights and restrictions on them to enter amusement parks that make it clear that Blacks were victim of racial discrimination (King, 1963). King explains how he has devised the idea of a peaceful protest against such discrimination, particularly in the city of Birmingham. Birmingham is cited by King as the most isolated city in the United States. It is referred that how there has been so many unsolved cases of bombings of Negro homes and utter unfair treatment of the Negros in the city’s court (King, 1963). 2) Civil disobedience was a movement under which Blacks were groomed to resist authorities peacefully without resorting to violence. A civil resister was supposed to question himself or herself if he or she was “ready to accept blows without retaliating?” King, while calling for ‘creation of tension’ by civil resisters does not mean ‘violent tension’ but a sort of creative, ‘nonviolent tension’ that is crucial to address unjust laws. According to King, those who want to participate as civil resisters in the form of marching, petitions, etc. should be ready to accept the penalty of imprisonment, making perpetrators guilty by them. As Mahatma Gandhi who led such similar civil disobedience movement in India against the British Empire writes about a civil resister, “By noiselessly going to prison a civil resister ensures a calm atmosphere.” Practitioners of civil disobedience never use arms or resort to any violent activities and so cannot lead to anarchy (Gandhi, 1949). Both King and Gandhi argue that participants in civil disobedience are not an enemy of the State. This path is one that requires discipline with utmost self-belief (Gandhi, 1949). 3) According to King, unjust laws can be framed if makers of law do not adhere to principle of morality. Luther writes, “A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” (King, 1963) According to King, all segregation laws are unjust since they divide human beings into two false notions: superiors and inferiors. King cites St. Augustine who said that an unjust law is no law at all (King, 1963). According to Gandhi, resistance against such unjust laws is the intrinsic right of a citizen. It should be never given up without a surrender of self respect. While stressing that it is the right of every citizen to disapprove peacefully, Gandhi writes, “He dare not give it up without ceasing to be a man.” (Gandhi, 1949) King reminds that the idea of civil disobedience movement dates back to early Christians who were ready to face tortures than to submit to unjust laws by Roman Emperors. In US, King cites Boston Tea Party (1773) as one important example of civil disobedience movement. 4) Under civil disobedience movement, actions that can lead to imprisonment such as marches, sit-in demonstrations, boycott, and petitions are relevant. There is no place of using any form of arms or weapons in civil disobedience movement. After all, as Gandhi puts it, a civil resister is ‘philanthropist and a friend of the State.’ (Gandhi, 1949, p. 231) While advocating civil disobedience movement, King argues that in no sense he is suggesting escape or defying law as that might lead to anarchy (King, 1963). Force is used to quell criminal disobedience. But to subdue civil disobedience, people are imprisoned. Such imprisonment can only lead to more strength and unity among the supporters of the civil disobedience movement. Even in jail, they will not be hostile to jailors and look at them as “fellow human beings not utterly devoid of the human touch” (Gandhi, 1949, p. 232). Context: During the sixties, the Civil Rights Movement was popularized in protest against racial discrimination and to encourage equality in America. This movement was initially marked with rallies, strikes, unrest and violent encounters with the law keepers. In this backdrop of racial segregation in the public places, leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. emerged with their leaderships and King preached the notion of non-violence and non cooperation which heralded a social change amongst the masses, both blacks and whites alike. The idea was to promote equality amongst races. (University of Virginia, 1998) 1) King says that it is the responsibility of the civilians to spread the awareness about the duties and responsibilities of the church which to him is the body of Christ, but one which is blemished and scarred. He believes that in order to make the church effective, it is important for the institution to raise voice against inequality. He says that ministers have often said that the gospel is not bothered about social concerns. While he says that he wept over this outcome, he also conveyed that they were tears of love towards the church. 4) The King warns that if nothing is done against the injustice of the church, rather, the white church, then it will lose its authenticity and also the loyalty of several civilians. It will be soon regarded as “an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century” (King, 1963) Ans. 2 Context: During the World War II, North Africa Campaign was initiated. This included campaigns which were fought in the Western Desert as well as Morocco and Algeria (referred as the Operation Torch). The war originated from the invasion of British-America into the French North Africa during early 1940s. Feddala was one of the three points where the Western Task Force landed on November 8, 1942 (the other two being Safi and Mehdiya-Port Lyautey). The war efforts proved expensive for the Americans owing to the strong French defense (Operation Torch, 2011). Dramatic irony is said to exist when a character is unable to figure out what is happening but readers can comprehend. One example of dramatic irony in the essay ‘On the Fedala Road’ by John McNeel is when the author makes reference to ‘strange, spectral shapes floating toward their military group out of the darkness, emitting shrill high-pitched cries.’ It took some time for the author to realize that these figures belonged local Arab inhabitants, trying to sell them bottles of wine. The shapes were strange owing to the ways the Arabs dress and the figures seemed to be floating towards them because of their flowing white robes. The headwear accompanied by their dress gives an impression of spectrum or spectral shape. The cries were supposed to be a marketing technique in selling wine bottles. A second example can be taken from the fact that “some residents found a slower but more romantic means of transportation” (McNeel 1998). The readers know why this occurs and more than being romantic, this measure has a lot to do with the poor economic conditions of many of the common people as has been revealed before. The poor ones are extremely poor and due to lack of gasoline many people have to use charcoal based vehicles. Ans. 3 Context: The Vietnam War was a military conflict that took place during the Cold War period. The war was instigated by need to subjugate the Communist power, rather than any other interest or justification. The war reached its peak of American involvement in 1968. During 1967-1968 several young students ere drafted for the military service. It included all - “College students, drop outs, convicts, neer-do-wells, and concupiscent border line I.Q.s were rounded up and processed like so many units to be readied, packaged, and utilized in the maw of an "undeclared" war?” (Kazarian, n.d., p. 359) In this backdrop physical disabilities and moral opposition were looked into. Student deferment was offered but this was not a path to escape the final verdict. A student could join immediately or join later. Ans. While narrating the essay ‘On the Rainy River,’ Tim O’Brien makes reference to the draft notice that arrived on June 17, 1968 to him. Before this in college he always believed that a war needs to be justified by a valid cause and that was missing in the Vietnam War. He was against this war which only contained moral uncertainty. The sight of blood made him uneasy and he did not like the Scouts. Yet when the draft notice came he knew he could not protest against it the way he did in college and had to give in despite knowing that he was too good in terms of compassion and a human being for this unjust war. The author observes that the draft aroused a ‘rage in his stomach’, later burning down to ‘smoldering self pity’ and then ‘numbness’. Here lies the irony. He is angered initially but feels helpless in the end and submits to his fate with self-pity. (O’Brien). In the essay ‘One Year in the House of Pain,’ Skip Kazarian talks about the time when he was hardly aware of the worldly affairs and the imposition of government rules and demands apart from the levy of taxes. At such a point of time, he was drafted for the military to be sent for the purpose of Vietnam War which was taking place at a land foreign to him. The truth as revealed to him as he went to attend a job interview which would send him to France. The office assured him of a job but just when he expected the officer to say that he was sent to France, the former revealed that he would be taught Vietnamese and that he would actually go to French Indo-China, that is, Vietnam. In both cases the authors or the young characters have been exposed to the realities of injustice by force and compulsion despite their innocence (Kazarian, n.d.). Ans. 4 The feeling of authors in the essays ‘On the Fedala Road,’ ‘On the Rainy River,’ and ‘One Year in the House of Pain’ point towards vivid emotions of excitement and fear in some way or the other. Emotions of fear and dying are strong in “While on the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien who also finds no justification in going to war, making him still reluctant to die at the age of 21. In this context, he mentions, “American war in Vietnam seemed to me wrong.” (O’Brien, 1990) Though O’Brien is afraid of war, he is equally worried of being called fugitive or absconder. Despite being averse to the aspects of war especially when there is no proper reason behind it, the author reveals the irony of serving for one’s country. Interesting to note is the fact that though author finally came out of fear of running away to die patriotically and did actually go to Vietnam, yet he concluded the essay by saying, “I was a coward. I went to the war,” because he did something which his heart never supported (O’Brien, 1990). John Mc Neel in his essay ‘On the Fedala Road’ emphasizes upon feelings of ‘strangeness’ and ‘foreignness’ that a soldier undergoes after shifting to war zones. As the author states, when he is posted in Casablanca, “The trees and vegetation were especially strange to us.” (McNeel, 1998) Rather than talking about the just or unjust aspects of war he focuses on the experience in a foreign land and his observation of people along with the brutal killings at the military camps. He talks of the difference sin soldiers’ behavior according to ethnicities. One outcome of military hierarchy that affects many soldiers during war is indifference of their seniors. According to author Skip Kazarian in the essay ‘One Year in the House of Pain,’ war days are ‘the best of times and the worst of times’. It was really difficult to bear the pain of leaving a loving and nurturing family for the Vietnam War which his heart did not support. Kazarian’s emotions match with O’Brien who found himself caught between cowardice and heroism, ‘jingolistic loyalist’ and ‘true conscientious objector.’(Kazarian n.d., p.359) Kazarian sees himself dramatically transformed into a changed man. As Kazarian mentions, his life was passing through moments of epiphanies, “moments of understanding that he would have to take more responsibility for myself and not become either a casualty of armed conflict or its twin half, madness.” (Kazarian, n.d., p. 369) Much later, Kazarian would discover that same ‘kindred angst’ in Tim O'Brien’s On the Rainy River. There is little motivation for participating in war if a soldier is not sure of the cause for which he or she is representing is just. After Vietnam, many still wonder whether going to war on Iraq and Afghanistan by US was a right thing to do. For a member of US army there is no denying the fact that everyone is supposed to follow orders from their officers unconditionally. Yet, there is a human side of a soldier which is often reflected years after in their writings, as one could see in the case of Kazarian, O’Brien, and McNeel in this study. References Gandhi, M. K. C. (1949), Aspects of Nonviolent Resistance, Partisan Review Kazarian, S. (n.d.), One Year in the House of Pain King, M. L. Jr. (1963). Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Retrieved on June 17, 2011 from: http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html McNeel, J. (1998) On the Fedala Road. Autumn, retrieved on June 17, 2011 from: http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1998/autumn/mcneel-on-fedala-road/ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2011), Wikipedia, retrieved on June 19, 2011 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi O’Brien, T. (1990) On the Rainy River Operation Torch (2011), Wikipedia, retrieved on June 19, 2011 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Torch#Casablanca University of Virginia, (1998) the Civil Rights Movement, retrieved on June 19, 2011 from: http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties/civil.html Read More