Truth of War Project
All Quiet on the Western Front Seminar Reflection
In our Seminar, there were a lot of great things said, but one of the ones that stood out to me was said by Michaelan. He was talking about what Paul realized when he killed the French soldier in chapter 9: “Paul had been looking at a mirror throughout the entire war, and only when he killed the Frenchman, did he realize that he had been fighting his reflection and that the Frenchman was exactly the same as him with a Mom at home that was missing him and friends like Cat.” I completely agree with what Michaelan is saying. I think that before that point Paul thought that the enemy was different than him and they were maybe not as human as the Germans. But after that point he realized that they were the same as him, just young kids that were told that the Germans or whoever the enemy is, were coming to take their country and kill everyone. Then they are convinced that if they go and protect their country that they will be heroes. But in reality, war is not heroic, it is a bloody awful thing.
I think that the question that was the most important and that we discussed the most during the seminar was, Chapter 9 was a turning point in the book. What crucial realization does Paul have in this chapter? How does it change his “truth”? This was the question that we went into most depth with, and it was the main topic of our seminar. I think that everyone in our seminar group came to the same conclusion. That is, that Paul realized when he killed that Frenchman that the people that he was fighting were not horrible monsters that wanted to take their land and kill all of the Germans. He realized that in reality, the majority of the soldiers that they are fighting deep down are just scared kids that have a Mom back home worried sick about them. A lot of the enemy soldiers were probably lied to like Paul and his friends were, and were told that the army would make them heroes and that joining up was the right thing to do by people that they looked up to and trusted. The first time that Paul realized this was when the Frenchman was dying and Paul said to him: “Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert.” I think that it is really sad that he realized this so far into the war, and that he had to realize it in such a traumatic way. But sometimes I think it takes a traumatic and horrible experience to open our eyes to something or to change us.
One connection that I could make is between what we were discussing in the seminar about Paul’s realization, and what has been happening with the Israel/Palestine conflict. The fighting between the Israelis and the Palestinians is a lot different than what was happening in WWI, but also very similar. Just like in WWI, the people of Israel and Palestine hate one another because their governments and people in power are telling them that the enemy are horrible people. The only differences are the scale of the war, and the objective of the war. But the idea that the people they are fighting are terrible people that they should kill is the same. By the time people realize that their enemy is just like them, just coming from a different religion or country, it is usually too late to do anything about it. Or, they never do realize it like Paul did, because I think that in order to have your eyes opened to something like that you have to have a traumatic experience like when Paul killed the Frenchman in AQotWF. The point in chapter nine at which Paul has the realization is very powerful: “Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me.” I think if there were some way to make even a few of the Israelis and Palestinians realize that it would be better to make a peaceful agreement, even though it may take a lot of time, and that just because they have different religions, it does not mean that they should kill everyone who is not in their religion. This would lessen the conflict a lot and reduce the hatred towards one another.
Before reading this book I had heard about PTSD and how war changes soldiers, but I never fully understood why. I thought that if I was to join the military and go into a war that it would not affect me very much. But now, after reading AQotWF, I realize that no one who goes into a war even close to as horrible as WWI will come out the same. I had never heard war described the way that it was in AQotWF. I had watched a lot of war movies like Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan, but all those movies are made to make war look like an heroic thing and that the American soldiers are badass fighters and heroes. But in AQotWF it describes war from the point of view of an average young soldier, which really gave me a picture of what war is really like. In chapter 10 of AQotWF, Paul talks about how war has ruined his innocence and has aged him because of all the horrible things that he has seen: “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.” I think that it is horrible that he had his life ruined by war when he was so young. It was not like he was an old man and had already had a good and fulfilling life. He had so much potential and barely got to live or see the world and I think that that is very sad.
I think that the question that was the most important and that we discussed the most during the seminar was, Chapter 9 was a turning point in the book. What crucial realization does Paul have in this chapter? How does it change his “truth”? This was the question that we went into most depth with, and it was the main topic of our seminar. I think that everyone in our seminar group came to the same conclusion. That is, that Paul realized when he killed that Frenchman that the people that he was fighting were not horrible monsters that wanted to take their land and kill all of the Germans. He realized that in reality, the majority of the soldiers that they are fighting deep down are just scared kids that have a Mom back home worried sick about them. A lot of the enemy soldiers were probably lied to like Paul and his friends were, and were told that the army would make them heroes and that joining up was the right thing to do by people that they looked up to and trusted. The first time that Paul realized this was when the Frenchman was dying and Paul said to him: “Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert.” I think that it is really sad that he realized this so far into the war, and that he had to realize it in such a traumatic way. But sometimes I think it takes a traumatic and horrible experience to open our eyes to something or to change us.
One connection that I could make is between what we were discussing in the seminar about Paul’s realization, and what has been happening with the Israel/Palestine conflict. The fighting between the Israelis and the Palestinians is a lot different than what was happening in WWI, but also very similar. Just like in WWI, the people of Israel and Palestine hate one another because their governments and people in power are telling them that the enemy are horrible people. The only differences are the scale of the war, and the objective of the war. But the idea that the people they are fighting are terrible people that they should kill is the same. By the time people realize that their enemy is just like them, just coming from a different religion or country, it is usually too late to do anything about it. Or, they never do realize it like Paul did, because I think that in order to have your eyes opened to something like that you have to have a traumatic experience like when Paul killed the Frenchman in AQotWF. The point in chapter nine at which Paul has the realization is very powerful: “Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me.” I think if there were some way to make even a few of the Israelis and Palestinians realize that it would be better to make a peaceful agreement, even though it may take a lot of time, and that just because they have different religions, it does not mean that they should kill everyone who is not in their religion. This would lessen the conflict a lot and reduce the hatred towards one another.
Before reading this book I had heard about PTSD and how war changes soldiers, but I never fully understood why. I thought that if I was to join the military and go into a war that it would not affect me very much. But now, after reading AQotWF, I realize that no one who goes into a war even close to as horrible as WWI will come out the same. I had never heard war described the way that it was in AQotWF. I had watched a lot of war movies like Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan, but all those movies are made to make war look like an heroic thing and that the American soldiers are badass fighters and heroes. But in AQotWF it describes war from the point of view of an average young soldier, which really gave me a picture of what war is really like. In chapter 10 of AQotWF, Paul talks about how war has ruined his innocence and has aged him because of all the horrible things that he has seen: “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.” I think that it is horrible that he had his life ruined by war when he was so young. It was not like he was an old man and had already had a good and fulfilling life. He had so much potential and barely got to live or see the world and I think that that is very sad.
Slaughter House 5
- How was time portrayed in this book?Time is portrayed by Billy jumping around a lot in time, because of the time travel. It is not in chronological order, the Tralfamadorians told billy when he went to their planet that time is not in order and the past present and future all take place at the same time.
How is it different from our view of time?
We think of the past as gone forever and we are all stuck worrying about the future, we are never able to just live in the present. Most people live in the future or in the past. We try and put things in chronological order.
Why does the author want to think about time this way?
Because he wants you to see that the war is still going on in his own mind, and it is hard for him to tell past present and future because of his PTSD.
- Why is this important to billy?
- Why do you think that billy first came unstuck in the book?
Story
A small thatched house, if you can call it that, sits nestled in a stand of coconut trees that provide shade from the sweltering heat of summer. A wooden canoe lays about ten yards in front of the house tipped over, two paddles laying discarded in the sand beside it. Behind the house, lines of papaya and breadfruit trees stand. Big green fruits hang from the branches of the papaya trees, and in a few days, they will all have to be harvested so that they do not become rotten in the humid climate.
At the end of a small path, between the slender papaya trees, and a much taller breadfruit tree, there are rows of short, leafy plants with no visible fruit growing. At the far side of the rows of plants a man is bent over, attempting to pull one out of the ground by grasping it tightly by the base. His muscles flexing on his dark leathery back, the plant starts to come out of the ground. When it came out of the ground a big dirty yam is attached to the leafy stock. The man straightens up, standing just over six feet, with a stocky, fit body, dark wide-set eyes and long hair. Felis Ayuyu is a typical looking Chamorro, the native peoples of Saipan. He breaks off the hardy stem and places the yam in a large woven basket amongst a dozen others, then throws the stem into a pile with the rest of the stalk. After taking a swig of water he starts struggling with the next yam, but a buildup of sweat and dirt on his hands causes his hands to slip on the plant. He wipes his hands on the khaki shorts that he has on, then turns back to the stubborn plant but just as he reaches for the stem to have another go, something catches his eye. He straightens up and looks in the direction that he saw the movement.
Three men, about 300 feet away, are walking towards him. As they get closer Felis can make out what they are wearing. Army green jackets and pants, big brown leather belts, which one man has a katana attached to. Atop their heads they wear hats that match the rest of their outfits except for the red Japanese flag embroidered on them. Each man has a rifle slung over his back. The shortest man carries not only a rifle but a small, hand-held machine gun with the magazine on top, Felis has never seen a soldier's this heavily armed before, they usually only carry a pistol or rifle but never a machine gun . He quickly takes his basket of yams, lifts up the pile of stems and places about six yams under them. Then, he quickly starts to pull out the yam he has been struggling with earlier, pretending he has not seen the soldiers.
When they are about ten feet away he looks up acting startled to see them, the tallest one of the group who is still a few inches shorter than Felis breaks the silence. “We have come with oarders from general Saito to collect half of each Chamorro farmer’s crop to feed the new arrivals from Japan.” A frown comes over Felis’ face. “Why not take food from the big Japanese farms all over the island? This is the second time in six months that I have had to give crops to your army. I barely have enough yams here to feed my family until the next harvest.” The shortest soldier who has a squashed face and a big forehead angrily retorts, “You expect us to take food from our own people? We give you our protection, this is the least you can do to repay the people who fight for your safety.”
“We did not ask for the Japanese people to come here and take our land, this is your war, not ours, so don’t involve the Chamorro people in it,” says Felis, with increasing anger evident in his voice.
The short soldier reaches for his sword but before he can take it out, the soldier who has been silent interjects, “Why don’t you give us the yams that you have harvested so far and ten papayas, that should be sufficient. Just know, when the Japanese army is in need of food next, you will be the first person we call on.” Felis knows he has no choice but to accept this offer. If he declines this offer they will take his crops by force, and if that happens they will take as much as they want. “I guess that will have to work,” Felis said with anger very evident in his voice now. He thrusts the basket of yams into the tallest soldier’s hands, then walks over and picks the ten smallest papayas he can find and throws them in the basket as well. “Now get away from my house,” he says, and with that he turns his back on them and walks towards the path leading back to his house.
Felis sees the overturned canoe that was half way down the beach when it was left there. Since then, the tide has come in, and now the water is lapping at the end of the canoe. Felis yells, “Guifi, Lai, get out here now!” Two young boys come running out of the house. Guifi, the taller of the two, has features much like his dad, well built, tall with long black hair. The smaller boy was almost identical to his older brother, but where Guifi had muscle, Lai still had baby fat.
“How many times do I have to tell you that you need to tie up the canoe if you are going to take it out, and put the paddles inside of it so that they are not swept up by the waves?” said Felis.
“Sorry dad,” the boys say in unison and start dragging the canoe further up the beach.
Felis walks around the side of the house where his wife is washing and peeling some yams that he had picked earlier. “Alula, the soldiers came to take more of our crops today. They said that there are more soldiers coming, and they need food for them.”
“What? They just came a few months ago!”
“I told them that, but you know how they are. They have no regard for the wellbeing of the Chamorro people. I managed to hide some yams and only had to give them the yams I had in my basket and ten papayas.”
The next month is very hard for Felis and his family. They have to harvest all of their crop and dry most of the fruit so that it does not spoil. On top of all that there is the food shortage due to the food they gave the Japanese. Felis has been hearing worrisome rumors from his Chamorro friends and farmers around him. That the allies are moving closer to Saipan every day taking nearby islands and are planning on taking Saipan next. Felis is not sure that he believes that, he has seen the power of the Japanese army first-hand and could not imagine that anyone could defeat them. He often discusses this over dinner with his family.
“Today, I went over to Anchet’s house to trade some breadfruit for the fish we are eating,” says Felis to his family one night. “He said that he heard some more rumors when he went to the village earlier today, that the Americans are headed straight for Saipan and would be here within a day.”
“Dad what are we going to do?” says Lai, fear evident in his voice.
“Don’t worry Lai, if the rumors are true, which they may not be, the Allies are heading for the West coast of the island which is a ways from here, so there is no need to worry.” But Felis is not as confident as he is making it seem. Everyone that he has talked to so far has had the same story and seems very panicked. The Japanese soldiers have been telling everyone on the island, including their own people, that if the Americans capture the island, they will kill everyone in terrible ways. For the time being, though, Felis has decided to not panic or run into the jungle with all of their belongings like some of the other families are doing, and wait for more news before he decides what to do.
Felis awakes later that night when he hears the distant sound of gun fire. A few seconds later Guifi and Lai both came running over from their beds, “Dad what’s going on?” asked Guifi. “Are the Americans attacking us?”
“I don’t know, you guys stay in here with your mother while I go and see what's going on.”
Felis runs outside onto the beach, and looks in the direction of the gunfire. It seems like the fighting is going on around the point, on the western side of the island, which was the opposite side that the Japanese thought that the Americans were going to attack. But the gunfire is very faint so it appears that the fighting is happening off the coast of the island, not on the island itself. On the horizon, Felis can see airplanes up in the air shooting at each other. Every once and a while, one of the planes falls out of the sky. “I hope those are the Americans,” Felis wishes.
Alula and the boys poke their heads out of the house. “ Felis what is going on?” she asks. Felis walks back into the house and tells her what he has seen. “We should be safe for now, as long as the planes don’t come near this side of the island. You guys try and get some sleep. I will keep watch outside tonight in case they do come near us. Tomorrow morning we will decide what to do,” he tells her.
It is a long, sleepless night, not only for Felis and his family but for everyone on that side of the island. The fighting goes on until daybreak. “I must have seen 100 planes fall from the sky last night,” Felis says in a shaky to their neighbor, Anchet, who was a fisherman. “The Kaipats have already left their house and fled into the jungle,” says in his deep, harsh voice. “I think I am going to leave if the fighting starts again. I don’t want my family killed.”
“Yes, but be careful, the Americans may not have to kill you. You will have a very tough time finding food for your family. That is why I have decided to stay for the time being. Feeding yourself and one or two other people is one thing, but finding enough food and water for yourself and three other people is very different.”
There is no fighting the next day. Felis assumes that the Japanese beat the Americans and the battle is already over.
Later that day, Felis decides that he will hike up to the top of the ridge dividing the east and west side of the island so that he can see what is going on. The trail to the top of the ridge starts just behind the clearing where he grows the yams. The trail is almost indecipherable. If you did not know the trail is there, it would be almost impossible to find and even harder to follow because of the thick jungle surrounding the trail on all sides. The trail winds its way gradually uphill until just before the top, where it ends abruptly in cliffs. A few years back Felis and some friends anchored a rope to a tree at the top of the cliffs so that the climb could be done by their children. Felis now tests the rope by giving it a few good pulls. Then, putting his full weight on the rope, he starts to pull himself up the rope while walking his feet up the rough rock wall.
What he sees when he reaches the top makes his heart stop; from his vantage point he can see down the jungle-covered western side of the island. The jungle ends by at the edge of a big beach. The disturbing part is, out in the ocean, about three miles offshore, Felis counts 11 battleships, that aren’t like any he has seen before, he assumes that they are American ships . Between the Americans and the beach are floating remnants of the destroyed Japanese fleet. The only thing between the Americans and the island now are the Japanese soldiers stationed on the beach with heavy artillery. It also looks like the Japanese have very recently dug trenches and set up barbed wire on the beach to help defend the island. None of this was there when he had gone to fish on that beach just the week before.
Felis climbs back down the rope as fast as he can, almost falling a few times on his way down and getting burns on his hands from sliding down it so fast. He starts to run back to his house as fast as he can right when he hits the ground. He gets about 20 feet when he freezes in his tracks. About ten feet in front of him, lying across the trail, is a six-foot-long monitor lizard with its black eyes fixed on Felis, tongue flicking in and out as it tastes the air. These lizards are not known to attack humans, but Felis has heard stories about people who have gotten too close to them and suffered nasty bites.
Felis changes course, running off of the trail through the thick jungle, giving the lizard a wide berth. When he is a safe distance away he returns to the trail and continues to run home. He runs through the rows of yams and through the fruit trees. As he runs by he hears a voice from amongst the breadfruit trees. “What are you running for Felis? Is everything allright?” his wife yells, worry evident in her voice. Felis wheels around and runs over to where Alula is picking ripe breadfruits. “I just went to the top of the ridge to see what was going on with the the fighting and to see if the Americans were defeated,” Felis tells her, trying to catch his breath.
“Did they, did the Americans go home?” she asks him, placing an armful of spiky breadfruit on the ground. “No, the planes that we saw falling out of the sky the other night were not the Americans like we thought, they were the Japanese. I saw their remains scattered in the lagoon along with what looked like at least three or four Japanese ships,” said Felis frantically. “The Americans look like they did not lose a single ship during the battle. They have 11 ships a few miles of the coast, and the only thing keeping them off the island are the Japanese stationed on the beach who do not have nearly enough weapons or men to keep the Americans out.”
“No! what do we do? How do we keep the boys safe?” Alula asks almost in tears.
“There is only one thing to do. We have to pack as much stuff as we can carry and hide in the jungle like we discussed. I know that it will be hard leaving everything behind, but if the Americans do take that beach it will be a matter of days before they are at our house. You heard what the Japanese said that they would do if they captured prisoners,” Felis says with a shudder.
“I will go get the boys. They are fishing in some tide pools away down the beach.” Alula says.
“Ok, I will start collecting our things. Alula, we will be alright, I promise. We just need to find a freshwater spring and I will be able to find food for us,” he says, hugging Alula tightly.
Felis runs into the house, and grabs the two big duffle bags that he uses to store his fishing and camping supplies when he goes to other parts of the island to fish. He takes out the one-man canvas tent that he traded a Japanese soldier for a few years back. It is much too small for them to all fit in he also takes out all his fishing supplies, except one rod and his box of hooks. he leaves his big wool blanket in the bag just incase it got cold, then he walks over to the back left corner of the house where they store their cooking supplies. All the actual cooking takes place outside on fires, this was just where they store utensils, pots, plates and so forth. He grabs one pot, one pan, two knives, some spoons and one plate. “That should be enough,” he thinks, “ We can use banana leaves to eat on.” He then carefully places these things in the bag so that they take up as little room as possible. He ran into the boys sleeping area and grabs one pair of pants and one t-shirt for each of them. With just a little bit of room left, Felis grabs a pair of clothes for himself and Alula as well as the only jacket that they own. he packs all this into the first bag with his fishing rod.
The second bag he filled with yams breadfruit and two water skins that he files up with water from the big storage tank that they collect rainwater in. He figured that he can leave out the papayas because those would just get smashed. Felis looks down the beach, and sees Alula walking quickly towards him with Guifi and Lai. the last rays of sunlight were hitting the ocean making it sparkle with dazzling beauty, “I am going to miss this place,” he thinks. The setting sun reminds him that they will be needing light so that they can walk in the dark, he dashes back into the house to grab the only two lanterns that they own and packs them into the clothing bag.
Now there is only one last thing to grab, hidden above the door high out of the kids reach, Felis has a pistol and a case of bullets. He had stolen them from a Japanese base a few years back, Just in case he ever needed to defend his family. He loaded the magazine, it holds six shots, then he placed the remaining bullets in the the duffle with their clothes. He puts the safety on the pistol and tucks it into the waistband of his shorts, just as Alula and the boys reach the house. “Come on boys we have to leave now, I will explain why we have to leave once we are a safe distance away,” Felis says in a stern voice as they reach the house. “But what about my fuzzy, did you get my fuzzy,” Lai asks frantically. “There was no room Lai we are only bringing the necessities, I am sorry but your fuzzy will have to stay here.” Lai breaks down in tears, Felis realizes that they will be able to leave much sooner and the trek would be much more enjoyable if he just let Lai bring his fuzzy. “Alright, go and grab it. But you have to carry it the whole time and not complain.” Lai looks up a smile coming over his tear drenched face, “Thank you dad.” He runs inside to Lai’s bed his sleeping area and grabs a ten by ten inch grey rabbit pelt that is as soft as silk, it was a present that he got for his birthday when he was two, and he has not gone a single night without it since then. He runs back outside, and hands the pelt to Lai. Felis gives Alula the bag that contains the clothes and survival gear to carry, and Felis slings the duffle containing food and water over his back, using the two straps like a backpack. Finally they are all ready to leave, or as ready as anyone can be to leave their home maybe never to return. Felis leads the way threw the fruit trees, instructing the boys to load their pockets with as many papayas as they can carry, for them to eat on the trail.
The trail they were going to follow started near the trail to the west side of the island, but instead of west this trail went along the eastern coast heading north. Unlike the undefined hard to follow trail that Felis had taken earlier that evening this trail was the only one going north so it much more defined.
A few miles into the trail, the sunlight starts fading and Felis realizes that they will soon need to use the lanterns. But wanting to conserve the only batteries, he decides that they can wait for a while longer.
In the first hour they don’t make much progress due to the lack of light, the boys Lai and Guifi keep tripping over rocks and roots that littered the trail. By ten o'clock, Felis was forced to take out the lanterns, which make a world of difference. After walking two more hours, they can not go any further, it seems like Lai was saying the same thing every 30 seconds, “Dad, when are we going to stop? My legs hurt,” he says with increasing exhaustion in his voice. Felis starts searching for a place to sleep that is off the trail, he finds a big enough clearing about twenty paces above the trail that is well hidden. Felis and Alula sleep on either side of the two boys, so that they are safe for the night. Felis looks over at his family just a few minutes after they lay down and all of them are already fast asleep, Lai holding his blanket tightly up to his face.
Felis spends a long restless night trying to fall asleep, but every time he is almost asleep he awakes with a start to the sound of gunfire, only to realize that it is all in his head. But just as the sun was starting to breach the horizon. Felis awoke with a jolt, after being asleep for what seems to him like only a few minutes, to a noise, a very long way away, but when he opens his eyes the sounds will not stop. This time, the sounds are not in his imagination. He sat up rubbing his eyes then he heard another explosion off in the distance barely audible from so far away.
Felis gets to his feet and shakes Alula and the boys awake, telling them they need to leave now, he hands each of them a papaya that is in his pockets still from home, they were slightly bruised with big brown squishy parts, he tells the boys to eat them as they walk. “Dad what are those sounds,” Guifi asks, “Are the Americans attacking again?”
“Yes, thats why we need to get moving. We don’t want there to be any chance that the Americans find us if they make it onto the island,” Felis says with urgency. He leads the way keeping a brisk pace up for a long time, until Felis feels that they are in no immediate danger. They stop for a rest too caught their breaths. Lai finds a papaya in his bottom pocket and tries to split it into four pieces with just his hands, but the papaya just gets even more smashed. When they start walking again it is not as fast of a pace; mid-way through the afternoon, Felis hears the falling of many footsteps up ahead, Felis and his family step off the trail just as a line of Japanese soldiers come jogging towards them. Felis asks one of the soldiers in the lead where he is going, the soldier shouted back, “We are going to attack the Americans on the beach, from the east.” There were probably at least three hundred soldiers that went by.
Felis told his family, “We need to keep going for a little longer that means. If they have taken the beach it is quite possible that they will make it this far before the Japanese are able to get them off the island. We will try to get to a freshwater spring that I have used on fishing trips a few times before, There are some caves near there by the shore that will be as good a place as any to hide,” the two boys let out audible groans of frustration at this.
After an hour or so more of hiking, the Jungle is starting to thin out, until they start to be able to see the ocean through the trees. The ground is changing too, rough black volcanic rock is replacing the soft rich soil of the jungle. “We are almost there, just a few more miles, try not to fall on this rock, it will cut you up.” Felis tells everyone reassuringly. Sure enough, they soon find the cave, which took Felis a little while to find even though he has been there many times before. Felis takes out a lantern before they go in the biggest of the three caves, which are not much of caves at all. The mouth of the biggest cave is about tall enough for Lai, standing no more than four and a half feet tall, to stand up. They climb through the gap one by one ducking their heads so they do not hit them on the sharp rock above. A few feet into the tight tunnel, The cave opens up so that even Felis can now stand without hitting his head, the room was big enough to sleep six people side by side, at the far end of the cave, a smaller tunnel, too small even for Lai to fit through goes deep into the heart of the island. “ My dad showed me this cave when I went on a fishing trip with him when I was Guifi’s age, he said it was formed with the creation of Saipan when the volcano erupted creating these lava tunnels,” Felis tells them. After they get set up, by laying down the big blanket on the right side of the cave for all four of them to sleep on, taking out the kitchen supplies and laying them on the other side of cave.
They go out to find the fresh water spring after everything is set up in the cave, it is about 500 feet further down the trail from the caves. The small stream of water runs out of a whole in a band of cliffs next to the trail and winds its way down to the ocean. It takes what seemed like hours to fill the water skins with the very small stream of water, but they will hold enough for two days, so they will not need to be refilled for a while. They head back to the cave collecting firewood on the way, the wet climate makes it very hard to start a fire though, Felis is relying on dry driftwood that is washed up by the ocean to start the fire. But Felis has done this hundreds of times and gets the fire going in no time, Lai and Guifi help surround the fire with rocks so the strong wind did not blow it out. Then Felis takes live branches from leucaena trees, which are the main kind of tree covering saipan, and puts them across the rocks so that he can boil water in a pot that he places on the branches. “Tomorrow I will try and catch some fish for us and set out some traps for coconut crabs,” Felis tells his wife over dinner which consists of two boiled yams.
“I don’t know how long we will have to hide here. I doubt the Americans will make it this far north, which is why this is the safest place for us to stay until the battle is over.
The first three weeks are the hardest, food is scarce, it is very rainy, and they have no information on what was going on for the most part. About one week after Felis and his family got to the cave, a family of Japanese civilians walk past. Felis is sitting at the entrance to the cave one evening using the little remaining light before the sun goes down to clean some fish he caught earlier that day. He presses the head of a fish firmly against the rock keeping it from moving, as he stabs a small blade into the fish right below its head and slices it all the way down to its tail. He then opens the fish and runs his hands down the warm, slimy insides of the fish grabbing all of the guts as he goes, pulling them out. He takes the guts and sets them aside to use for bait the next time he goes fishing. Just as he starts cleaning the second fish he hears a noise coming from the direction of the trail and looks up. Walking towards him from the south, a tall Japanese man was in the lead, carrying a large back pack. Behind him walks a pretty, middle aged Japanese lady who also had a backpack on. Bringing up the rear, is a little boy who looks to be about Lais age, dragging his feet as he walked. Felis gets up, letting go of the fishes head and dropping the knife which still is pushed deep into the fish's belly. He walks up to the family, startling them as he appears out of the cave. As he gets closer he can tell that this man is exceptionally tall for Japanese standards, Felis can not see over his head when they stand face to face. Felis bows to the man, “Hello, my name is Felis.” The man bows back, but does not lower his eyes,
“I am Aki, where did you just come from?”
“There are some caves about 50 paces of the trail in the direction that I came from where my family and I are hiding out. Where are you and your family coming from?” Felis asks Aki.
“We have just come from the Southernmost tip of the island, where I own a hog farm. We were able to stay in our home until three nights ago when the Japanese army was pushed back by the Americans, we were forced to flee our home as a small battle broke out a mile from our home. I am taking my family to the other side of the island where my sister lives so that they are safe. Then I will take up arms and fight in the Japanese army for my familys sake, even though I am no fighter.” Aki says talking faster and faster, hands clenching into tight fists.
Felis put his hand up to his face,
“How is this happening? How have they not been stopped by now?” asks Felis.
“We are greatly outnumbered, and when Japan sent ships to attack the US navy.” Aki shudders, “The american fleet destroyed them, the Japanese fighter planes were no match for the Americans much faster more maneuverable planes. We were able to see the battle from our house, I saw three of our aircraft carriers, the amount of Japanese planes I saw get shot down were too many to count.”
“But all is not lost, we will fight those American scum until the last man standing if that is what it takes. The whole Japanese army is holding out a few miles south west of here, on Mount Tapotchau, I will join them there as soon as I can.” Says Aki while looking back at his family, the woman whom Felis assumed was his wife is standing a short distance behind him talking with the little boy who is jumping around asking what is going on and when they can go. Bowing low, lowering his eyes this time, Aki says, “We must go, I want to get my family to safety so that I can help the army take our home back. This is a good place to hide, the Americans will not make it past Tapotchau, but if they do somehow, stay hidden and do not let them see you, because this will be the first place the Americans will come looking for hiding soldiers or civilians to kill.” With that they start walking North again, the little boy running ahead, so that he can be “The first one to aunty Asukas house.”
“Thank you,” Felis shouts after them. Aki turns and nods his head, then keeps on walking down the rocky path.
Besides Aki and his family, no one else passes by the cave for another two weeks. Just as Aki had said though, the whole Japanese army seems to be on Mount Tapotchu. Every night and periodically throughout the day, they can hear gunshots being fired and every once in a while planes fly over dropping bombs, which makes dust fall from the roof of the cave, but they never come within more than half a mile of the cave. One night the sounds of gunfire are especially bad, in the middle of the night Lai comes crawling over to where Felis is sleeping, touching him lightly on the shoulder he says, “ dad I am scared, the gun shots sound really close tonight and I can’t sleep.” Felis who is accustomed to the sound by now rubs his eyes, and replies with a groggy voice, “Don’t worry Lai they sound close but they are quite a ways away. This is the safest place for us, go back to bed and try to get some rest sun.” Felis did not want to scare Lai, but he has been noticing the same thing for the past two weeks that the Japanese have been on Tapotchu, every night the shots and explosions have been getting closer and closer. Even a week ago, the explosions could be heard, but did not make the cave shake as if in an earthquake. Felis decides that as Aki told him, this is the safest place to hide, and besides he does not know of any other sources of freshwater on this side of the island so they can not leave.
The next morning Felis wakes up early because the fish are most active at that time. Without waking Alula or the boys who are still fast asleep, he silently grabs his fishing rod and extra hook and then walks outside. He pauses at the mouth of the cave to admire the dazzling sunrise. Just outside of the cave, Felis grabs a stash of fish guts that he has been using for bait. He stuffs the now firm, leathery organs in the pocket of his shorts as he walks the 20-second walk down to the ocean. Sitting down on his usual rock -- a big piece of lava rock that he found in the jungle which was surprisingly smooth -- he hooks a fish liver. He then stands up, holding his now-baited bamboo pole in his hand. He winds up and throws the bait as far as he can into the calm sea, and sits back down twitching the rope so that the bait moves, making it more attractive to the fish.
In no time Felis has a fish on the line. His years of experience tell him that this fish is by far the biggest that he has caught in the three weeks that they have been at the cave. He tightens his grip on the pole and starts to pull in the fish. He has to brace himself, putting all his weight on his back foot as the fish fights hard to stay in the water. When the fish is almost to shore, he gets a glimpse of it and he can make out the stout silver body of a tuna just under water. Then he hears something that makes his heart stop.
“Dan! Get over here! Let’s see if this trail leads to the hideout of any Japs,” a voice with a thick American accent shouts from inside the jungle. Felis forgets all about the massive fish on his line, drops the rod, and sprints back towards the cave. He runs inside, hitting his head on the low entrance, knees weak with fear. He wakes his family and puts his finger to his lips to signal silence. He quickly explains what’s going on in a whisper and tells them to get against the far wall of the cave. Felis goes rummaging through his duffle bag and finds his pistol where he had stashed it, and goes to the mouth of the cave to see if he can hear what is going on.
“Hey Dave, I am not seeing any caves in these cliffs over here, are you finding anything?” a new voice shouts, sounding like it is coming from the cliff band by the water spring.
“Nope, no caves so far, but I know the they are hiding somewhere around here. By the looks of it, they were fishing here not to long ago. I just found some fishing line and a hook with bait on it,” the first voice yells back.
“Ok, well I’m going to check this next cliff band over here,” Felis hears the man say, his voice getting closer each time he talks. Felis looks back and sees Alula holding the two boys. Lai is crying in her arms and Guifi is staring at the entrance to the cave, a terrified look on his face.
“Well, I’ll be damned, I found some caves!” Felis jumps as the man shouts to his friend, just outside of the cave. “Get over here and help me clear this cave out.” A few seconds later, Felis hears the footsteps of the second man running towards the cave. Felis cocks the pistol, heart pounding as fast as if he had just run a marathon.
“Damn, I hope this is the last of them. I am getting tired of fighting people who are too cowardly to fight us in the open. They need to realize they have lost and surrender.”
“Let’s start with the big cave, see how many cowardly Japs are packed in there,” responds his companion.
Felis, in an attempt to scare them off, puts his gun around the corner, points in the general direction that the voices are coming from, and shoots. Felis knows he hit his target from the cursing and yelling that comes from one of the men. “One of those damn cave monkeys shot me in the arm!” The effect this has on the soldiers is the opposite of what Felis wanted.
“Enough messing around, turn on my tank so I can take care of them,” the soldier that Felis shot says through gritted teeth.
Felis starts to run over to his family at the far side of the cave to defend them, but halfway across he turns and looks back through the entrance.
A man, with dark hair, who is short and stocky like Felis, stands in the entrance. He is wearing camo-green pants and a matching hat, with a white tank top on. A look of pain and anger is on his face. He is holding what looks like a machine gun, but the barrel is much thicker and there is no magazine attached. Instead there is a metal hose which runs from the back of the gun to two big cylinders that he is wearing on his back.
He pulls the trigger, but there are no bullets or sounds of gunfire that come out of the weapon. Instead, there is something much worse. Where bullets should have been, a jet of orange flame erupts from the muzzle. The flame reaches Felis before he can react and at first he feels nothing, just sees the fire wash over him and he watches it engulf his family like a powerful wave. Then the pain hits him. It is a pain greater than he has ever felt before. He lets out an ear splitting scream as did Alula, Guifi and little Lai. Felis turns to his family, to hold them and protect them like he promised himself he would, but then he realizes that he can not see or hear anymore, his eyes are dried out like old playdough. He reaches up with his hands to touch his face, but there is no face left, just bubbling skin, like the sizzling fat of crisp bacon, when he touches his face, the skin starts to slide off, leaving only bone.
At the end of a small path, between the slender papaya trees, and a much taller breadfruit tree, there are rows of short, leafy plants with no visible fruit growing. At the far side of the rows of plants a man is bent over, attempting to pull one out of the ground by grasping it tightly by the base. His muscles flexing on his dark leathery back, the plant starts to come out of the ground. When it came out of the ground a big dirty yam is attached to the leafy stock. The man straightens up, standing just over six feet, with a stocky, fit body, dark wide-set eyes and long hair. Felis Ayuyu is a typical looking Chamorro, the native peoples of Saipan. He breaks off the hardy stem and places the yam in a large woven basket amongst a dozen others, then throws the stem into a pile with the rest of the stalk. After taking a swig of water he starts struggling with the next yam, but a buildup of sweat and dirt on his hands causes his hands to slip on the plant. He wipes his hands on the khaki shorts that he has on, then turns back to the stubborn plant but just as he reaches for the stem to have another go, something catches his eye. He straightens up and looks in the direction that he saw the movement.
Three men, about 300 feet away, are walking towards him. As they get closer Felis can make out what they are wearing. Army green jackets and pants, big brown leather belts, which one man has a katana attached to. Atop their heads they wear hats that match the rest of their outfits except for the red Japanese flag embroidered on them. Each man has a rifle slung over his back. The shortest man carries not only a rifle but a small, hand-held machine gun with the magazine on top, Felis has never seen a soldier's this heavily armed before, they usually only carry a pistol or rifle but never a machine gun . He quickly takes his basket of yams, lifts up the pile of stems and places about six yams under them. Then, he quickly starts to pull out the yam he has been struggling with earlier, pretending he has not seen the soldiers.
When they are about ten feet away he looks up acting startled to see them, the tallest one of the group who is still a few inches shorter than Felis breaks the silence. “We have come with oarders from general Saito to collect half of each Chamorro farmer’s crop to feed the new arrivals from Japan.” A frown comes over Felis’ face. “Why not take food from the big Japanese farms all over the island? This is the second time in six months that I have had to give crops to your army. I barely have enough yams here to feed my family until the next harvest.” The shortest soldier who has a squashed face and a big forehead angrily retorts, “You expect us to take food from our own people? We give you our protection, this is the least you can do to repay the people who fight for your safety.”
“We did not ask for the Japanese people to come here and take our land, this is your war, not ours, so don’t involve the Chamorro people in it,” says Felis, with increasing anger evident in his voice.
The short soldier reaches for his sword but before he can take it out, the soldier who has been silent interjects, “Why don’t you give us the yams that you have harvested so far and ten papayas, that should be sufficient. Just know, when the Japanese army is in need of food next, you will be the first person we call on.” Felis knows he has no choice but to accept this offer. If he declines this offer they will take his crops by force, and if that happens they will take as much as they want. “I guess that will have to work,” Felis said with anger very evident in his voice now. He thrusts the basket of yams into the tallest soldier’s hands, then walks over and picks the ten smallest papayas he can find and throws them in the basket as well. “Now get away from my house,” he says, and with that he turns his back on them and walks towards the path leading back to his house.
Felis sees the overturned canoe that was half way down the beach when it was left there. Since then, the tide has come in, and now the water is lapping at the end of the canoe. Felis yells, “Guifi, Lai, get out here now!” Two young boys come running out of the house. Guifi, the taller of the two, has features much like his dad, well built, tall with long black hair. The smaller boy was almost identical to his older brother, but where Guifi had muscle, Lai still had baby fat.
“How many times do I have to tell you that you need to tie up the canoe if you are going to take it out, and put the paddles inside of it so that they are not swept up by the waves?” said Felis.
“Sorry dad,” the boys say in unison and start dragging the canoe further up the beach.
Felis walks around the side of the house where his wife is washing and peeling some yams that he had picked earlier. “Alula, the soldiers came to take more of our crops today. They said that there are more soldiers coming, and they need food for them.”
“What? They just came a few months ago!”
“I told them that, but you know how they are. They have no regard for the wellbeing of the Chamorro people. I managed to hide some yams and only had to give them the yams I had in my basket and ten papayas.”
The next month is very hard for Felis and his family. They have to harvest all of their crop and dry most of the fruit so that it does not spoil. On top of all that there is the food shortage due to the food they gave the Japanese. Felis has been hearing worrisome rumors from his Chamorro friends and farmers around him. That the allies are moving closer to Saipan every day taking nearby islands and are planning on taking Saipan next. Felis is not sure that he believes that, he has seen the power of the Japanese army first-hand and could not imagine that anyone could defeat them. He often discusses this over dinner with his family.
“Today, I went over to Anchet’s house to trade some breadfruit for the fish we are eating,” says Felis to his family one night. “He said that he heard some more rumors when he went to the village earlier today, that the Americans are headed straight for Saipan and would be here within a day.”
“Dad what are we going to do?” says Lai, fear evident in his voice.
“Don’t worry Lai, if the rumors are true, which they may not be, the Allies are heading for the West coast of the island which is a ways from here, so there is no need to worry.” But Felis is not as confident as he is making it seem. Everyone that he has talked to so far has had the same story and seems very panicked. The Japanese soldiers have been telling everyone on the island, including their own people, that if the Americans capture the island, they will kill everyone in terrible ways. For the time being, though, Felis has decided to not panic or run into the jungle with all of their belongings like some of the other families are doing, and wait for more news before he decides what to do.
Felis awakes later that night when he hears the distant sound of gun fire. A few seconds later Guifi and Lai both came running over from their beds, “Dad what’s going on?” asked Guifi. “Are the Americans attacking us?”
“I don’t know, you guys stay in here with your mother while I go and see what's going on.”
Felis runs outside onto the beach, and looks in the direction of the gunfire. It seems like the fighting is going on around the point, on the western side of the island, which was the opposite side that the Japanese thought that the Americans were going to attack. But the gunfire is very faint so it appears that the fighting is happening off the coast of the island, not on the island itself. On the horizon, Felis can see airplanes up in the air shooting at each other. Every once and a while, one of the planes falls out of the sky. “I hope those are the Americans,” Felis wishes.
Alula and the boys poke their heads out of the house. “ Felis what is going on?” she asks. Felis walks back into the house and tells her what he has seen. “We should be safe for now, as long as the planes don’t come near this side of the island. You guys try and get some sleep. I will keep watch outside tonight in case they do come near us. Tomorrow morning we will decide what to do,” he tells her.
It is a long, sleepless night, not only for Felis and his family but for everyone on that side of the island. The fighting goes on until daybreak. “I must have seen 100 planes fall from the sky last night,” Felis says in a shaky to their neighbor, Anchet, who was a fisherman. “The Kaipats have already left their house and fled into the jungle,” says in his deep, harsh voice. “I think I am going to leave if the fighting starts again. I don’t want my family killed.”
“Yes, but be careful, the Americans may not have to kill you. You will have a very tough time finding food for your family. That is why I have decided to stay for the time being. Feeding yourself and one or two other people is one thing, but finding enough food and water for yourself and three other people is very different.”
There is no fighting the next day. Felis assumes that the Japanese beat the Americans and the battle is already over.
Later that day, Felis decides that he will hike up to the top of the ridge dividing the east and west side of the island so that he can see what is going on. The trail to the top of the ridge starts just behind the clearing where he grows the yams. The trail is almost indecipherable. If you did not know the trail is there, it would be almost impossible to find and even harder to follow because of the thick jungle surrounding the trail on all sides. The trail winds its way gradually uphill until just before the top, where it ends abruptly in cliffs. A few years back Felis and some friends anchored a rope to a tree at the top of the cliffs so that the climb could be done by their children. Felis now tests the rope by giving it a few good pulls. Then, putting his full weight on the rope, he starts to pull himself up the rope while walking his feet up the rough rock wall.
What he sees when he reaches the top makes his heart stop; from his vantage point he can see down the jungle-covered western side of the island. The jungle ends by at the edge of a big beach. The disturbing part is, out in the ocean, about three miles offshore, Felis counts 11 battleships, that aren’t like any he has seen before, he assumes that they are American ships . Between the Americans and the beach are floating remnants of the destroyed Japanese fleet. The only thing between the Americans and the island now are the Japanese soldiers stationed on the beach with heavy artillery. It also looks like the Japanese have very recently dug trenches and set up barbed wire on the beach to help defend the island. None of this was there when he had gone to fish on that beach just the week before.
Felis climbs back down the rope as fast as he can, almost falling a few times on his way down and getting burns on his hands from sliding down it so fast. He starts to run back to his house as fast as he can right when he hits the ground. He gets about 20 feet when he freezes in his tracks. About ten feet in front of him, lying across the trail, is a six-foot-long monitor lizard with its black eyes fixed on Felis, tongue flicking in and out as it tastes the air. These lizards are not known to attack humans, but Felis has heard stories about people who have gotten too close to them and suffered nasty bites.
Felis changes course, running off of the trail through the thick jungle, giving the lizard a wide berth. When he is a safe distance away he returns to the trail and continues to run home. He runs through the rows of yams and through the fruit trees. As he runs by he hears a voice from amongst the breadfruit trees. “What are you running for Felis? Is everything allright?” his wife yells, worry evident in her voice. Felis wheels around and runs over to where Alula is picking ripe breadfruits. “I just went to the top of the ridge to see what was going on with the the fighting and to see if the Americans were defeated,” Felis tells her, trying to catch his breath.
“Did they, did the Americans go home?” she asks him, placing an armful of spiky breadfruit on the ground. “No, the planes that we saw falling out of the sky the other night were not the Americans like we thought, they were the Japanese. I saw their remains scattered in the lagoon along with what looked like at least three or four Japanese ships,” said Felis frantically. “The Americans look like they did not lose a single ship during the battle. They have 11 ships a few miles of the coast, and the only thing keeping them off the island are the Japanese stationed on the beach who do not have nearly enough weapons or men to keep the Americans out.”
“No! what do we do? How do we keep the boys safe?” Alula asks almost in tears.
“There is only one thing to do. We have to pack as much stuff as we can carry and hide in the jungle like we discussed. I know that it will be hard leaving everything behind, but if the Americans do take that beach it will be a matter of days before they are at our house. You heard what the Japanese said that they would do if they captured prisoners,” Felis says with a shudder.
“I will go get the boys. They are fishing in some tide pools away down the beach.” Alula says.
“Ok, I will start collecting our things. Alula, we will be alright, I promise. We just need to find a freshwater spring and I will be able to find food for us,” he says, hugging Alula tightly.
Felis runs into the house, and grabs the two big duffle bags that he uses to store his fishing and camping supplies when he goes to other parts of the island to fish. He takes out the one-man canvas tent that he traded a Japanese soldier for a few years back. It is much too small for them to all fit in he also takes out all his fishing supplies, except one rod and his box of hooks. he leaves his big wool blanket in the bag just incase it got cold, then he walks over to the back left corner of the house where they store their cooking supplies. All the actual cooking takes place outside on fires, this was just where they store utensils, pots, plates and so forth. He grabs one pot, one pan, two knives, some spoons and one plate. “That should be enough,” he thinks, “ We can use banana leaves to eat on.” He then carefully places these things in the bag so that they take up as little room as possible. He ran into the boys sleeping area and grabs one pair of pants and one t-shirt for each of them. With just a little bit of room left, Felis grabs a pair of clothes for himself and Alula as well as the only jacket that they own. he packs all this into the first bag with his fishing rod.
The second bag he filled with yams breadfruit and two water skins that he files up with water from the big storage tank that they collect rainwater in. He figured that he can leave out the papayas because those would just get smashed. Felis looks down the beach, and sees Alula walking quickly towards him with Guifi and Lai. the last rays of sunlight were hitting the ocean making it sparkle with dazzling beauty, “I am going to miss this place,” he thinks. The setting sun reminds him that they will be needing light so that they can walk in the dark, he dashes back into the house to grab the only two lanterns that they own and packs them into the clothing bag.
Now there is only one last thing to grab, hidden above the door high out of the kids reach, Felis has a pistol and a case of bullets. He had stolen them from a Japanese base a few years back, Just in case he ever needed to defend his family. He loaded the magazine, it holds six shots, then he placed the remaining bullets in the the duffle with their clothes. He puts the safety on the pistol and tucks it into the waistband of his shorts, just as Alula and the boys reach the house. “Come on boys we have to leave now, I will explain why we have to leave once we are a safe distance away,” Felis says in a stern voice as they reach the house. “But what about my fuzzy, did you get my fuzzy,” Lai asks frantically. “There was no room Lai we are only bringing the necessities, I am sorry but your fuzzy will have to stay here.” Lai breaks down in tears, Felis realizes that they will be able to leave much sooner and the trek would be much more enjoyable if he just let Lai bring his fuzzy. “Alright, go and grab it. But you have to carry it the whole time and not complain.” Lai looks up a smile coming over his tear drenched face, “Thank you dad.” He runs inside to Lai’s bed his sleeping area and grabs a ten by ten inch grey rabbit pelt that is as soft as silk, it was a present that he got for his birthday when he was two, and he has not gone a single night without it since then. He runs back outside, and hands the pelt to Lai. Felis gives Alula the bag that contains the clothes and survival gear to carry, and Felis slings the duffle containing food and water over his back, using the two straps like a backpack. Finally they are all ready to leave, or as ready as anyone can be to leave their home maybe never to return. Felis leads the way threw the fruit trees, instructing the boys to load their pockets with as many papayas as they can carry, for them to eat on the trail.
The trail they were going to follow started near the trail to the west side of the island, but instead of west this trail went along the eastern coast heading north. Unlike the undefined hard to follow trail that Felis had taken earlier that evening this trail was the only one going north so it much more defined.
A few miles into the trail, the sunlight starts fading and Felis realizes that they will soon need to use the lanterns. But wanting to conserve the only batteries, he decides that they can wait for a while longer.
In the first hour they don’t make much progress due to the lack of light, the boys Lai and Guifi keep tripping over rocks and roots that littered the trail. By ten o'clock, Felis was forced to take out the lanterns, which make a world of difference. After walking two more hours, they can not go any further, it seems like Lai was saying the same thing every 30 seconds, “Dad, when are we going to stop? My legs hurt,” he says with increasing exhaustion in his voice. Felis starts searching for a place to sleep that is off the trail, he finds a big enough clearing about twenty paces above the trail that is well hidden. Felis and Alula sleep on either side of the two boys, so that they are safe for the night. Felis looks over at his family just a few minutes after they lay down and all of them are already fast asleep, Lai holding his blanket tightly up to his face.
Felis spends a long restless night trying to fall asleep, but every time he is almost asleep he awakes with a start to the sound of gunfire, only to realize that it is all in his head. But just as the sun was starting to breach the horizon. Felis awoke with a jolt, after being asleep for what seems to him like only a few minutes, to a noise, a very long way away, but when he opens his eyes the sounds will not stop. This time, the sounds are not in his imagination. He sat up rubbing his eyes then he heard another explosion off in the distance barely audible from so far away.
Felis gets to his feet and shakes Alula and the boys awake, telling them they need to leave now, he hands each of them a papaya that is in his pockets still from home, they were slightly bruised with big brown squishy parts, he tells the boys to eat them as they walk. “Dad what are those sounds,” Guifi asks, “Are the Americans attacking again?”
“Yes, thats why we need to get moving. We don’t want there to be any chance that the Americans find us if they make it onto the island,” Felis says with urgency. He leads the way keeping a brisk pace up for a long time, until Felis feels that they are in no immediate danger. They stop for a rest too caught their breaths. Lai finds a papaya in his bottom pocket and tries to split it into four pieces with just his hands, but the papaya just gets even more smashed. When they start walking again it is not as fast of a pace; mid-way through the afternoon, Felis hears the falling of many footsteps up ahead, Felis and his family step off the trail just as a line of Japanese soldiers come jogging towards them. Felis asks one of the soldiers in the lead where he is going, the soldier shouted back, “We are going to attack the Americans on the beach, from the east.” There were probably at least three hundred soldiers that went by.
Felis told his family, “We need to keep going for a little longer that means. If they have taken the beach it is quite possible that they will make it this far before the Japanese are able to get them off the island. We will try to get to a freshwater spring that I have used on fishing trips a few times before, There are some caves near there by the shore that will be as good a place as any to hide,” the two boys let out audible groans of frustration at this.
After an hour or so more of hiking, the Jungle is starting to thin out, until they start to be able to see the ocean through the trees. The ground is changing too, rough black volcanic rock is replacing the soft rich soil of the jungle. “We are almost there, just a few more miles, try not to fall on this rock, it will cut you up.” Felis tells everyone reassuringly. Sure enough, they soon find the cave, which took Felis a little while to find even though he has been there many times before. Felis takes out a lantern before they go in the biggest of the three caves, which are not much of caves at all. The mouth of the biggest cave is about tall enough for Lai, standing no more than four and a half feet tall, to stand up. They climb through the gap one by one ducking their heads so they do not hit them on the sharp rock above. A few feet into the tight tunnel, The cave opens up so that even Felis can now stand without hitting his head, the room was big enough to sleep six people side by side, at the far end of the cave, a smaller tunnel, too small even for Lai to fit through goes deep into the heart of the island. “ My dad showed me this cave when I went on a fishing trip with him when I was Guifi’s age, he said it was formed with the creation of Saipan when the volcano erupted creating these lava tunnels,” Felis tells them. After they get set up, by laying down the big blanket on the right side of the cave for all four of them to sleep on, taking out the kitchen supplies and laying them on the other side of cave.
They go out to find the fresh water spring after everything is set up in the cave, it is about 500 feet further down the trail from the caves. The small stream of water runs out of a whole in a band of cliffs next to the trail and winds its way down to the ocean. It takes what seemed like hours to fill the water skins with the very small stream of water, but they will hold enough for two days, so they will not need to be refilled for a while. They head back to the cave collecting firewood on the way, the wet climate makes it very hard to start a fire though, Felis is relying on dry driftwood that is washed up by the ocean to start the fire. But Felis has done this hundreds of times and gets the fire going in no time, Lai and Guifi help surround the fire with rocks so the strong wind did not blow it out. Then Felis takes live branches from leucaena trees, which are the main kind of tree covering saipan, and puts them across the rocks so that he can boil water in a pot that he places on the branches. “Tomorrow I will try and catch some fish for us and set out some traps for coconut crabs,” Felis tells his wife over dinner which consists of two boiled yams.
“I don’t know how long we will have to hide here. I doubt the Americans will make it this far north, which is why this is the safest place for us to stay until the battle is over.
The first three weeks are the hardest, food is scarce, it is very rainy, and they have no information on what was going on for the most part. About one week after Felis and his family got to the cave, a family of Japanese civilians walk past. Felis is sitting at the entrance to the cave one evening using the little remaining light before the sun goes down to clean some fish he caught earlier that day. He presses the head of a fish firmly against the rock keeping it from moving, as he stabs a small blade into the fish right below its head and slices it all the way down to its tail. He then opens the fish and runs his hands down the warm, slimy insides of the fish grabbing all of the guts as he goes, pulling them out. He takes the guts and sets them aside to use for bait the next time he goes fishing. Just as he starts cleaning the second fish he hears a noise coming from the direction of the trail and looks up. Walking towards him from the south, a tall Japanese man was in the lead, carrying a large back pack. Behind him walks a pretty, middle aged Japanese lady who also had a backpack on. Bringing up the rear, is a little boy who looks to be about Lais age, dragging his feet as he walked. Felis gets up, letting go of the fishes head and dropping the knife which still is pushed deep into the fish's belly. He walks up to the family, startling them as he appears out of the cave. As he gets closer he can tell that this man is exceptionally tall for Japanese standards, Felis can not see over his head when they stand face to face. Felis bows to the man, “Hello, my name is Felis.” The man bows back, but does not lower his eyes,
“I am Aki, where did you just come from?”
“There are some caves about 50 paces of the trail in the direction that I came from where my family and I are hiding out. Where are you and your family coming from?” Felis asks Aki.
“We have just come from the Southernmost tip of the island, where I own a hog farm. We were able to stay in our home until three nights ago when the Japanese army was pushed back by the Americans, we were forced to flee our home as a small battle broke out a mile from our home. I am taking my family to the other side of the island where my sister lives so that they are safe. Then I will take up arms and fight in the Japanese army for my familys sake, even though I am no fighter.” Aki says talking faster and faster, hands clenching into tight fists.
Felis put his hand up to his face,
“How is this happening? How have they not been stopped by now?” asks Felis.
“We are greatly outnumbered, and when Japan sent ships to attack the US navy.” Aki shudders, “The american fleet destroyed them, the Japanese fighter planes were no match for the Americans much faster more maneuverable planes. We were able to see the battle from our house, I saw three of our aircraft carriers, the amount of Japanese planes I saw get shot down were too many to count.”
“But all is not lost, we will fight those American scum until the last man standing if that is what it takes. The whole Japanese army is holding out a few miles south west of here, on Mount Tapotchau, I will join them there as soon as I can.” Says Aki while looking back at his family, the woman whom Felis assumed was his wife is standing a short distance behind him talking with the little boy who is jumping around asking what is going on and when they can go. Bowing low, lowering his eyes this time, Aki says, “We must go, I want to get my family to safety so that I can help the army take our home back. This is a good place to hide, the Americans will not make it past Tapotchau, but if they do somehow, stay hidden and do not let them see you, because this will be the first place the Americans will come looking for hiding soldiers or civilians to kill.” With that they start walking North again, the little boy running ahead, so that he can be “The first one to aunty Asukas house.”
“Thank you,” Felis shouts after them. Aki turns and nods his head, then keeps on walking down the rocky path.
Besides Aki and his family, no one else passes by the cave for another two weeks. Just as Aki had said though, the whole Japanese army seems to be on Mount Tapotchu. Every night and periodically throughout the day, they can hear gunshots being fired and every once in a while planes fly over dropping bombs, which makes dust fall from the roof of the cave, but they never come within more than half a mile of the cave. One night the sounds of gunfire are especially bad, in the middle of the night Lai comes crawling over to where Felis is sleeping, touching him lightly on the shoulder he says, “ dad I am scared, the gun shots sound really close tonight and I can’t sleep.” Felis who is accustomed to the sound by now rubs his eyes, and replies with a groggy voice, “Don’t worry Lai they sound close but they are quite a ways away. This is the safest place for us, go back to bed and try to get some rest sun.” Felis did not want to scare Lai, but he has been noticing the same thing for the past two weeks that the Japanese have been on Tapotchu, every night the shots and explosions have been getting closer and closer. Even a week ago, the explosions could be heard, but did not make the cave shake as if in an earthquake. Felis decides that as Aki told him, this is the safest place to hide, and besides he does not know of any other sources of freshwater on this side of the island so they can not leave.
The next morning Felis wakes up early because the fish are most active at that time. Without waking Alula or the boys who are still fast asleep, he silently grabs his fishing rod and extra hook and then walks outside. He pauses at the mouth of the cave to admire the dazzling sunrise. Just outside of the cave, Felis grabs a stash of fish guts that he has been using for bait. He stuffs the now firm, leathery organs in the pocket of his shorts as he walks the 20-second walk down to the ocean. Sitting down on his usual rock -- a big piece of lava rock that he found in the jungle which was surprisingly smooth -- he hooks a fish liver. He then stands up, holding his now-baited bamboo pole in his hand. He winds up and throws the bait as far as he can into the calm sea, and sits back down twitching the rope so that the bait moves, making it more attractive to the fish.
In no time Felis has a fish on the line. His years of experience tell him that this fish is by far the biggest that he has caught in the three weeks that they have been at the cave. He tightens his grip on the pole and starts to pull in the fish. He has to brace himself, putting all his weight on his back foot as the fish fights hard to stay in the water. When the fish is almost to shore, he gets a glimpse of it and he can make out the stout silver body of a tuna just under water. Then he hears something that makes his heart stop.
“Dan! Get over here! Let’s see if this trail leads to the hideout of any Japs,” a voice with a thick American accent shouts from inside the jungle. Felis forgets all about the massive fish on his line, drops the rod, and sprints back towards the cave. He runs inside, hitting his head on the low entrance, knees weak with fear. He wakes his family and puts his finger to his lips to signal silence. He quickly explains what’s going on in a whisper and tells them to get against the far wall of the cave. Felis goes rummaging through his duffle bag and finds his pistol where he had stashed it, and goes to the mouth of the cave to see if he can hear what is going on.
“Hey Dave, I am not seeing any caves in these cliffs over here, are you finding anything?” a new voice shouts, sounding like it is coming from the cliff band by the water spring.
“Nope, no caves so far, but I know the they are hiding somewhere around here. By the looks of it, they were fishing here not to long ago. I just found some fishing line and a hook with bait on it,” the first voice yells back.
“Ok, well I’m going to check this next cliff band over here,” Felis hears the man say, his voice getting closer each time he talks. Felis looks back and sees Alula holding the two boys. Lai is crying in her arms and Guifi is staring at the entrance to the cave, a terrified look on his face.
“Well, I’ll be damned, I found some caves!” Felis jumps as the man shouts to his friend, just outside of the cave. “Get over here and help me clear this cave out.” A few seconds later, Felis hears the footsteps of the second man running towards the cave. Felis cocks the pistol, heart pounding as fast as if he had just run a marathon.
“Damn, I hope this is the last of them. I am getting tired of fighting people who are too cowardly to fight us in the open. They need to realize they have lost and surrender.”
“Let’s start with the big cave, see how many cowardly Japs are packed in there,” responds his companion.
Felis, in an attempt to scare them off, puts his gun around the corner, points in the general direction that the voices are coming from, and shoots. Felis knows he hit his target from the cursing and yelling that comes from one of the men. “One of those damn cave monkeys shot me in the arm!” The effect this has on the soldiers is the opposite of what Felis wanted.
“Enough messing around, turn on my tank so I can take care of them,” the soldier that Felis shot says through gritted teeth.
Felis starts to run over to his family at the far side of the cave to defend them, but halfway across he turns and looks back through the entrance.
A man, with dark hair, who is short and stocky like Felis, stands in the entrance. He is wearing camo-green pants and a matching hat, with a white tank top on. A look of pain and anger is on his face. He is holding what looks like a machine gun, but the barrel is much thicker and there is no magazine attached. Instead there is a metal hose which runs from the back of the gun to two big cylinders that he is wearing on his back.
He pulls the trigger, but there are no bullets or sounds of gunfire that come out of the weapon. Instead, there is something much worse. Where bullets should have been, a jet of orange flame erupts from the muzzle. The flame reaches Felis before he can react and at first he feels nothing, just sees the fire wash over him and he watches it engulf his family like a powerful wave. Then the pain hits him. It is a pain greater than he has ever felt before. He lets out an ear splitting scream as did Alula, Guifi and little Lai. Felis turns to his family, to hold them and protect them like he promised himself he would, but then he realizes that he can not see or hear anymore, his eyes are dried out like old playdough. He reaches up with his hands to touch his face, but there is no face left, just bubbling skin, like the sizzling fat of crisp bacon, when he touches his face, the skin starts to slide off, leaving only bone.
Project Reflection
The idea behind the Creative Historians project, was to find our truth of war. We first learned about the history of WWI and read All Quiet on the Western Front which was written by a man who had actually fought in WWI. This showed us what the truth of was was for someone who had seen the terrors of war first hand. Then we did the same for WWII but this time we read Slaughterhouse Five which in a way also gave us an idea of the authors truth of war and how WWII made people crazy. For the final piece of the project, we were told to write a fictional story that had to have historical content from one of the two world wars, but that was the only requirement. The skill that I improved on the most were my creative writing skills. Before this project, I was a terrible creative writer or at least I thought that I was and struggled with the prospect of having to write a five page story that would all be creative writing.
The creative writing skill that I improved on most and struggled with most was my descriptive writing. I had never been good at describing things in great detail, I was much better at writing TEA paragraph style or more factual writing. It was hard for me to realize that descriptive writing is not actually that hard and that I have no problem doing it if I just open my mind up. An example of where I displayed these skills was at the end of my story when I was describing my characters deaths: “He reaches up with his hands to touch his face, but there is no face left, just bubbling skin, like the sizzling fat of crisp bacon, when he touches his face, the skin starts to slide off, leaving only bone.” This excerpt from my story really shows how far my writing has come and that I can write descriptively.
The other skill that I took away from this project was refinement. I have never written this long of a paper before which means that I have never had as many edits and mistakes. I learned that no matter how many times you look over your paper and no matter how perfect it may seem, once you read it out loud there is always something that is wrong with it. At least that is what happened with my story, when I read it in my head it sounded great but then once I read it aloud I realized that there were spots where did not flow well or sound the way that I wanted it too. In the future I will use this skill on all of my writing as a new way of refining all of my work.
The best part about this project for me was learning all of the history of WWI and WWII. I have watched movies and read books on WWII, but I virtually did not know anything about WWI going into the project. I really liked how deep that we went into both of the wars and didn’t just examine the historical events but also the people who were in it and how war affected them. Reading the books which were both written by people who had fought in the wars really helped me understand how terrible war really is and how much it changes people. This is another thing that I will take away from this project, to not just brush the surface of whatever I am learning about, to go deeper into it and get at the rout of whatever it is.
After months of hard work, studying history, reading books and writing a story. I can not say that I have found my truth of war. The only truth that I know is that it is a terrible thing that the world would be better off without in almost every circumstance. But no matter what war will always be a part of the world and a part of human nature unless we end up somehow being put in a dystopia. But threw readint both All Quiet on the Western Front and Slaughterhouse Five. I realized that there is no one truth of war every individual has their own and that the only way to discover yours is to fight in a war yourself, because no one can imagine the horrors of war unless they have been in one. So I am content to go threw my whole life without ever figuring out my truth of war because I never want to go through that awful experience to find it.
The creative writing skill that I improved on most and struggled with most was my descriptive writing. I had never been good at describing things in great detail, I was much better at writing TEA paragraph style or more factual writing. It was hard for me to realize that descriptive writing is not actually that hard and that I have no problem doing it if I just open my mind up. An example of where I displayed these skills was at the end of my story when I was describing my characters deaths: “He reaches up with his hands to touch his face, but there is no face left, just bubbling skin, like the sizzling fat of crisp bacon, when he touches his face, the skin starts to slide off, leaving only bone.” This excerpt from my story really shows how far my writing has come and that I can write descriptively.
The other skill that I took away from this project was refinement. I have never written this long of a paper before which means that I have never had as many edits and mistakes. I learned that no matter how many times you look over your paper and no matter how perfect it may seem, once you read it out loud there is always something that is wrong with it. At least that is what happened with my story, when I read it in my head it sounded great but then once I read it aloud I realized that there were spots where did not flow well or sound the way that I wanted it too. In the future I will use this skill on all of my writing as a new way of refining all of my work.
The best part about this project for me was learning all of the history of WWI and WWII. I have watched movies and read books on WWII, but I virtually did not know anything about WWI going into the project. I really liked how deep that we went into both of the wars and didn’t just examine the historical events but also the people who were in it and how war affected them. Reading the books which were both written by people who had fought in the wars really helped me understand how terrible war really is and how much it changes people. This is another thing that I will take away from this project, to not just brush the surface of whatever I am learning about, to go deeper into it and get at the rout of whatever it is.
After months of hard work, studying history, reading books and writing a story. I can not say that I have found my truth of war. The only truth that I know is that it is a terrible thing that the world would be better off without in almost every circumstance. But no matter what war will always be a part of the world and a part of human nature unless we end up somehow being put in a dystopia. But threw readint both All Quiet on the Western Front and Slaughterhouse Five. I realized that there is no one truth of war every individual has their own and that the only way to discover yours is to fight in a war yourself, because no one can imagine the horrors of war unless they have been in one. So I am content to go threw my whole life without ever figuring out my truth of war because I never want to go through that awful experience to find it.
Reading Clip
“Dan! Get over here! Let’s see if this trail leads to the hideout of any Japs,” a voice with a thick American accent shouts from inside the jungle. Felis forgets all about the massive fish on his line, drops the rod, and sprints back towards the cave. He runs inside, hitting his head on the low entrance, knees weak with fear. He wakes his family and puts his finger to his lips to signal silence. He quickly explains what’s going on in a whisper and tells them to get against the far wall of the cave. Felis goes rummaging through his duffle bag and finds his pistol where he had stashed it, and goes to the mouth of the cave to see if he can hear what is going on.
“Hey Dave, I am not seeing any caves in these cliffs over here, are you finding anything?” a new voice shouts, sounding like it is coming from the cliff band by the water spring.
“Nope, no caves so far, but I know the they are hiding somewhere around here. By the looks of it, they were fishing here not to long ago. I just found some fishing line and a hook with bait on it,” the first voice yells back.
“Ok, well I’m going to check this next cliff band over here,” Felis hears the man say, his voice getting closer each time he talks. Felis looks back and sees Alula holding the two boys. Lai is crying in her arms and Guifi is staring at the entrance to the cave, a terrified look on his face.
“Well, I’ll be damned, I found some caves!” Felis jumps as the man shouts to his friend, just outside of the cave. “Get over here and help me clear this cave out.” A few seconds later, Felis hears the footsteps of the second man running towards the cave. Felis cocks the pistol, heart pounding as fast as if he had just run a marathon.
“Damn, I hope this is the last of them. I am getting tired of fighting people who are too cowardly to fight us in the open. They need to realize they have lost and surrender.”
“Let’s start with the big cave, see how many cowardly Japs are packed in there,” responds his companion.
Felis, in an attempt to scare them off, puts his gun around the corner, points in the general direction that the voices are coming from, and shoots. Felis knows he hit his target from the cursing and yelling that comes from one of the men. “One of those damn cave monkeys shot me in the arm!” The effect this has on the soldiers is the opposite of what Felis wanted.
“Enough messing around, turn on my tank so I can take care of them,” the soldier that Felis shot says through gritted teeth.
Felis starts to run over to his family at the far side of the cave to defend them, but halfway across he turns and looks back through the entrance.
A man, with dark hair, who is short and stocky like Felis, stands in the entrance. He is wearing camo-green pants and a matching hat, with a white tank top on. A look of pain and anger is on his face. He is holding what looks like a machine gun, but the barrel is much thicker and there is no magazine attached. Instead there is a metal hose which runs from the back of the gun to two big cylinders that he is wearing on his back.
He pulls the trigger, but there are no bullets or sounds of gunfire that come out of the weapon. Instead, there is something much worse. Where bullets should have been, a jet of orange flame erupts from the muzzle. The flame reaches Felis before he can react and at first he feels nothing, just sees the fire wash over him and he watches it engulf his family like a powerful wave. Then the pain hits him. It is a pain greater than he has ever felt before. He lets out an ear splitting scream as did Alula, Guifi and little Lai. Felis turns to his family, to hold them and protect them like he promised himself he would, but then he realizes that he can not see or hear anymore, his eyes are dried out like old playdough. He reaches up with his hands to touch his face, but there is no face left, just bubbling skin, like the sizzling fat of crisp bacon, when he touches his face, the skin starts to slide off, leaving only bone.
“Hey Dave, I am not seeing any caves in these cliffs over here, are you finding anything?” a new voice shouts, sounding like it is coming from the cliff band by the water spring.
“Nope, no caves so far, but I know the they are hiding somewhere around here. By the looks of it, they were fishing here not to long ago. I just found some fishing line and a hook with bait on it,” the first voice yells back.
“Ok, well I’m going to check this next cliff band over here,” Felis hears the man say, his voice getting closer each time he talks. Felis looks back and sees Alula holding the two boys. Lai is crying in her arms and Guifi is staring at the entrance to the cave, a terrified look on his face.
“Well, I’ll be damned, I found some caves!” Felis jumps as the man shouts to his friend, just outside of the cave. “Get over here and help me clear this cave out.” A few seconds later, Felis hears the footsteps of the second man running towards the cave. Felis cocks the pistol, heart pounding as fast as if he had just run a marathon.
“Damn, I hope this is the last of them. I am getting tired of fighting people who are too cowardly to fight us in the open. They need to realize they have lost and surrender.”
“Let’s start with the big cave, see how many cowardly Japs are packed in there,” responds his companion.
Felis, in an attempt to scare them off, puts his gun around the corner, points in the general direction that the voices are coming from, and shoots. Felis knows he hit his target from the cursing and yelling that comes from one of the men. “One of those damn cave monkeys shot me in the arm!” The effect this has on the soldiers is the opposite of what Felis wanted.
“Enough messing around, turn on my tank so I can take care of them,” the soldier that Felis shot says through gritted teeth.
Felis starts to run over to his family at the far side of the cave to defend them, but halfway across he turns and looks back through the entrance.
A man, with dark hair, who is short and stocky like Felis, stands in the entrance. He is wearing camo-green pants and a matching hat, with a white tank top on. A look of pain and anger is on his face. He is holding what looks like a machine gun, but the barrel is much thicker and there is no magazine attached. Instead there is a metal hose which runs from the back of the gun to two big cylinders that he is wearing on his back.
He pulls the trigger, but there are no bullets or sounds of gunfire that come out of the weapon. Instead, there is something much worse. Where bullets should have been, a jet of orange flame erupts from the muzzle. The flame reaches Felis before he can react and at first he feels nothing, just sees the fire wash over him and he watches it engulf his family like a powerful wave. Then the pain hits him. It is a pain greater than he has ever felt before. He lets out an ear splitting scream as did Alula, Guifi and little Lai. Felis turns to his family, to hold them and protect them like he promised himself he would, but then he realizes that he can not see or hear anymore, his eyes are dried out like old playdough. He reaches up with his hands to touch his face, but there is no face left, just bubbling skin, like the sizzling fat of crisp bacon, when he touches his face, the skin starts to slide off, leaving only bone.
Vietnam War
Artist Statement
I made this art piece, destruction of America about the Kent State shooting because that event really stood out to me when we learned about it in class. The shooting was the tipping point for the citizens of the US, in a video that we watched a man said that when young white policemen were killing young white college students who were peacefully protesting is when the US realized that there was a real problem. This meant a lot to me because I think that really is a big deal that peaceful protesters were shot and killed by people barely older than themselves Since I am only a few years younger than the kids shot it really was shocking to me thinking that those could have been my friends or myself being shot and killed for peacefully protesting, I really just can't imagine it. The four silhouettes symbolize the four people who were killed in the Kent state shooting. The bullet holes in the American flag represent how during the Vietnam war, the American people were not united and our country was being torn apart. The images and symbols where the stars would be represent some of the other things that were going on during the Vietnam War. I used photoshop for my art piece because I learned that last year and am a lot better at that than a lot of the other art forms.
Op-Ed
Opening Doors With the Internet
Today over 2.5 billion people use the internet. Compare that to the 394 million people using the internet in 2000 and there should be no dispute that the internet is a huge influence on society. It allows people to access information and communicate with the billions of other internet users almost instantly. These statistics, combined with the fact that over 300 million people rose above the poverty line in the past ten years, lead me to believe that the internet has had an influence on the poverty line rising.
John Quelch, a Harvard Business school professor, talks about the economic benefits that come from the internet: “Each Internet job supports approximately 1.54 additional jobs elsewhere in the economy, for a total of 3.05 million, or roughly 2 percent, of employed Americans. The dollar value of their wages is about $300 billion, or around 2 percent of U.S. GDP” (Quelch). Although some people argue that the internet has a negative effect on people's social skills and society, the overwhelming economic benefits that come from the internet greatly outweigh any downsides.
The exponential growth of internet users in the last ten years has been spurred on by globalization. The internet has advanced globalization just as much as the other way around. The internet allows people from all over the world to connect through media and social networks. This allows ideas to be shared as well as goods and services to be exchanged more easily. The article Information Technology states, “IT is a driving factor in the process of globalization. Improvements in the early 1990s in computer hardware, software, and telecommunications greatly increased people’s ability to access information and economic potential” (Information Technology).
Some people who are against the internet argue that it makes people disconnected from society, but that is not what research shows. People may not be as connected to their own communities or countries, but they are now connected to the vast global community.
The few people that do not see the eye to eye with the majority of people around the world, argue that the internet has negative effects on our society. Some detractors of the internet say “Greater use of the Internet is significantly associated with decreased community within the family, a decreased local social network, and loneliness and depression.” (Rajani) vague arguments against the internet like this one, make the internet look really bad, but the benefits that come from the internet to the economy and society are much greater than its drawbacks.
Darrel Houle talks about the effect of the internet on society: “People are less likely to stay involved and connected within only small circles, but belong to many in a much looser and less formal structure” (Houle). This change in society is neither a good nor bad thing. It is just different and key to being able to be connected and successful in the new globalized world. This new, larger community of people allows anyone using the internet to not only meet more people, but learn about their cultures, languages, countries and foods.
The same goes for the internet’s effect on social skills. Today people may not have as well developed social and communication skills face to face, but now people are learning how to use the internet to communicate with people all over the world through social networks, texting, email and things like Skype. It is not necessarily a good thing that the youth are losing the skills to interact as well in society in person, but these new skills are essential for being part of the global community, instead of isolated smaller communities. Medical research gives evidence for the internet benefiting social skills through scientific studies: “Engaging in various forms of social media is a routine activity that research has shown to benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection, and even technical skills” (O’Keeffe, Clarke-Pearson).
There is one aspect of the internet that there can be no argument against, and that is the vast economic benefits that come from it. John Quelch quantifies the economic benefits of the internet for the United States: “The direct economic value the Internet provides to the rest of the U.S. economy is estimated at $175 billion” (Quelch). It is incredible that the internet is producing that kind of revenue in the US alone, after being in existence for only 25 years, and after being in public use for only 15 years. Those numbers will only go up with the improvement of the internet and related technologies, which are advancing at an exponential rate already. One scholar has predicted, for example, that “There will be 1,000,000-fold improvement in what you can get for the same price in computing by 2030” (Goldin).
Recently, the internet has started to be used for buying and selling goods and services. This allows people from anywhere in the world to sell their goods and services internationally, which they probably would not be able to do without the internet. This is one of the ways that the internet helps people in poverty: It gives them new business opportunities and makes most everyone in the world a potential customer, this has only been made possible over the last few years with the spread of the internet, allowing even impoverished people to have access to the internet.
The evidence and reasoning above, prove that the internet is essential to the function of society today, and for the further growth of the world’s economy. Regardless if you support the internet or not, it is a train that can not be stopped and will keep expanding until it reaches every corner of the world. This will give everyone around the world a better chance at being successful no matter what their background is, because of the internets numerous economic and social opportunities along with the endless information that it provides.
Word count: 982
Work Cited:
Houle, Darrell. "On Cultural and Social Implications of the Internet." Communicopia. N.p., 2 Jan. 2008. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.
"Information Technology." Globalization101. The Levin Institute - The State University of New York Authorship, 2015. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.
Navigating Our Global Future. Perf. Ian Goldin. Ian Goldin:. TEDGlobal, July 2009. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
O'Keeffe, Gwenn. "The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families." The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
Quelch, John. "Harvard Business School." Quantifying the Economic Impact of the Internet — HBS Working Knowledge. Working Knowledge, 17 Aug. 2009. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.
Rajani, Meena Kumari. "Use of Internet and Its Effects on Our Society." (n.d.): n. pag. Use of Internet and Its Effects on Our Society. National Conference on Emerging Technologies, 2004. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Sato, Katsuaki. "The Next Ten Years Of The World In The Era Of Globalization And The Internet." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 4 Dec. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.
Today over 2.5 billion people use the internet. Compare that to the 394 million people using the internet in 2000 and there should be no dispute that the internet is a huge influence on society. It allows people to access information and communicate with the billions of other internet users almost instantly. These statistics, combined with the fact that over 300 million people rose above the poverty line in the past ten years, lead me to believe that the internet has had an influence on the poverty line rising.
John Quelch, a Harvard Business school professor, talks about the economic benefits that come from the internet: “Each Internet job supports approximately 1.54 additional jobs elsewhere in the economy, for a total of 3.05 million, or roughly 2 percent, of employed Americans. The dollar value of their wages is about $300 billion, or around 2 percent of U.S. GDP” (Quelch). Although some people argue that the internet has a negative effect on people's social skills and society, the overwhelming economic benefits that come from the internet greatly outweigh any downsides.
The exponential growth of internet users in the last ten years has been spurred on by globalization. The internet has advanced globalization just as much as the other way around. The internet allows people from all over the world to connect through media and social networks. This allows ideas to be shared as well as goods and services to be exchanged more easily. The article Information Technology states, “IT is a driving factor in the process of globalization. Improvements in the early 1990s in computer hardware, software, and telecommunications greatly increased people’s ability to access information and economic potential” (Information Technology).
Some people who are against the internet argue that it makes people disconnected from society, but that is not what research shows. People may not be as connected to their own communities or countries, but they are now connected to the vast global community.
The few people that do not see the eye to eye with the majority of people around the world, argue that the internet has negative effects on our society. Some detractors of the internet say “Greater use of the Internet is significantly associated with decreased community within the family, a decreased local social network, and loneliness and depression.” (Rajani) vague arguments against the internet like this one, make the internet look really bad, but the benefits that come from the internet to the economy and society are much greater than its drawbacks.
Darrel Houle talks about the effect of the internet on society: “People are less likely to stay involved and connected within only small circles, but belong to many in a much looser and less formal structure” (Houle). This change in society is neither a good nor bad thing. It is just different and key to being able to be connected and successful in the new globalized world. This new, larger community of people allows anyone using the internet to not only meet more people, but learn about their cultures, languages, countries and foods.
The same goes for the internet’s effect on social skills. Today people may not have as well developed social and communication skills face to face, but now people are learning how to use the internet to communicate with people all over the world through social networks, texting, email and things like Skype. It is not necessarily a good thing that the youth are losing the skills to interact as well in society in person, but these new skills are essential for being part of the global community, instead of isolated smaller communities. Medical research gives evidence for the internet benefiting social skills through scientific studies: “Engaging in various forms of social media is a routine activity that research has shown to benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection, and even technical skills” (O’Keeffe, Clarke-Pearson).
There is one aspect of the internet that there can be no argument against, and that is the vast economic benefits that come from it. John Quelch quantifies the economic benefits of the internet for the United States: “The direct economic value the Internet provides to the rest of the U.S. economy is estimated at $175 billion” (Quelch). It is incredible that the internet is producing that kind of revenue in the US alone, after being in existence for only 25 years, and after being in public use for only 15 years. Those numbers will only go up with the improvement of the internet and related technologies, which are advancing at an exponential rate already. One scholar has predicted, for example, that “There will be 1,000,000-fold improvement in what you can get for the same price in computing by 2030” (Goldin).
Recently, the internet has started to be used for buying and selling goods and services. This allows people from anywhere in the world to sell their goods and services internationally, which they probably would not be able to do without the internet. This is one of the ways that the internet helps people in poverty: It gives them new business opportunities and makes most everyone in the world a potential customer, this has only been made possible over the last few years with the spread of the internet, allowing even impoverished people to have access to the internet.
The evidence and reasoning above, prove that the internet is essential to the function of society today, and for the further growth of the world’s economy. Regardless if you support the internet or not, it is a train that can not be stopped and will keep expanding until it reaches every corner of the world. This will give everyone around the world a better chance at being successful no matter what their background is, because of the internets numerous economic and social opportunities along with the endless information that it provides.
Word count: 982
Work Cited:
Houle, Darrell. "On Cultural and Social Implications of the Internet." Communicopia. N.p., 2 Jan. 2008. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.
"Information Technology." Globalization101. The Levin Institute - The State University of New York Authorship, 2015. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.
Navigating Our Global Future. Perf. Ian Goldin. Ian Goldin:. TEDGlobal, July 2009. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
O'Keeffe, Gwenn. "The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families." The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
Quelch, John. "Harvard Business School." Quantifying the Economic Impact of the Internet — HBS Working Knowledge. Working Knowledge, 17 Aug. 2009. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.
Rajani, Meena Kumari. "Use of Internet and Its Effects on Our Society." (n.d.): n. pag. Use of Internet and Its Effects on Our Society. National Conference on Emerging Technologies, 2004. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Sato, Katsuaki. "The Next Ten Years Of The World In The Era Of Globalization And The Internet." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 4 Dec. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.
Reflection
This project was designed to teach us about globalization and the influence that it has had on the world. We first learned about the ideologies and driving factors behind globalization and how it has changed the world through looking at political cartoons, watching movies and reading articles. This was all done in preparation for writing our Op-Eds, we were told to choose a topic that relates to globalization that interests us and write an Op-Ed about it. I chose to do my Op-Ed about the internet and globalization. I argued that although the internet may have some social downsides, the benefits that come from it are far greater. Along with our Op-Ed we were also told to create a political cartoon that went along with it. We had some knowledge about how to draw them from earlier in the semester so that helped a lot. We got critiques from ourselves, our peers and Lori.
This project gave me new insight in to globalization. Before this project I had heard the term globalization, but had no idea what it was and the effect that it has on every person in the world. I learned a lot about the ins and outs of the global economy and all of the controversial things that go on to produce the goods that most people are dependent on. I think that the most important and useful thing that I learned was when my dad came in and talked to us about the future of work and the skills that we will need to be successful in any job. I learned that I will need collaboration skills, I need to be prepared to not just have one steady job and I need to be able to be independent. All of the things that I have learned in this project have helped me better understand the world I live in as well as being more prepared for my future.
Over the course of this project I have grown immensely as a cartoonist. Before we started this project, I had seen political cartoons before but had no idea that there was a specific way that they were supposed to be done, and specific attributes that they are supposed to have. By the time we had to create the cartoon for our Op-Ed, I already had a basic understanding of how to do them because we did some cartoons earlier in the project. The cartoon for our Op-Ed however had to much more refined and professional than any of the previous cartoons that we had done. My first draft was very rough, I probably spent ten minutes making it and did not put much thought into it. After I got feedback from my peers, I started my second draft which I spent much more time on and even traced some things that I could not draw well off the internet. Then I started on my final draft after getting more feedback on my cartoon. I spent a lot of time on this draft and made it the best that I could. I learned a lot about drawing during this project, I have never been good at art so I thought that I was going to do terribly on this part of the project. But all I had to do was spend a lot of time on it, refine it and trace things that I could not draw which resulted in a cartoon that I was proud of.
Writing my Op-Ed required me to use a type of writing that I had not used before. The format is very different from an essay, the paragraphs are much shorter, my writing had to be much more concise and the Op-Ed as a whole was much shorter than an essay would have been on the same topic. I had to be careful and make sure that I did not make it too long because I like to embellish my writing. This type of writing is very useful to know how to do not just for future Op-Eds in school, but for writing newspapers among other things. I will use this more concise form of writing in future essays and writing assignments because in my opinion it is much easier to read and understand.
This project gave me new insight in to globalization. Before this project I had heard the term globalization, but had no idea what it was and the effect that it has on every person in the world. I learned a lot about the ins and outs of the global economy and all of the controversial things that go on to produce the goods that most people are dependent on. I think that the most important and useful thing that I learned was when my dad came in and talked to us about the future of work and the skills that we will need to be successful in any job. I learned that I will need collaboration skills, I need to be prepared to not just have one steady job and I need to be able to be independent. All of the things that I have learned in this project have helped me better understand the world I live in as well as being more prepared for my future.
Over the course of this project I have grown immensely as a cartoonist. Before we started this project, I had seen political cartoons before but had no idea that there was a specific way that they were supposed to be done, and specific attributes that they are supposed to have. By the time we had to create the cartoon for our Op-Ed, I already had a basic understanding of how to do them because we did some cartoons earlier in the project. The cartoon for our Op-Ed however had to much more refined and professional than any of the previous cartoons that we had done. My first draft was very rough, I probably spent ten minutes making it and did not put much thought into it. After I got feedback from my peers, I started my second draft which I spent much more time on and even traced some things that I could not draw well off the internet. Then I started on my final draft after getting more feedback on my cartoon. I spent a lot of time on this draft and made it the best that I could. I learned a lot about drawing during this project, I have never been good at art so I thought that I was going to do terribly on this part of the project. But all I had to do was spend a lot of time on it, refine it and trace things that I could not draw which resulted in a cartoon that I was proud of.
Writing my Op-Ed required me to use a type of writing that I had not used before. The format is very different from an essay, the paragraphs are much shorter, my writing had to be much more concise and the Op-Ed as a whole was much shorter than an essay would have been on the same topic. I had to be careful and make sure that I did not make it too long because I like to embellish my writing. This type of writing is very useful to know how to do not just for future Op-Eds in school, but for writing newspapers among other things. I will use this more concise form of writing in future essays and writing assignments because in my opinion it is much easier to read and understand.
Poetry Project
ISIS
Sunni Muslims clad in black
wheeling like a flock of crows blocking out all light.
They throng to Syria from every corner of the globe,
converting without question or knowledge
of the ideals behind their new faith.
Flinging handcuffed gays from buildings
the dull thud still resounding through the city,
blackened men with a permanent expression
of fear etched into their smoldering faces.
Stones wet with blood lay abandoned,
heaped casually near the limp body of a young girl,
a high price to pay,
For showing your face in public.
Fear is their fuel, an evil poison infecting the weak.
The rats with black flags- claiming theirs is the only god,
using media to bring in recruits.
Showing people in orange taking their last breaths.
heads held high for the last time,
praying that the man in black has a keen edge on his knife.
These games they play have become boring,
so they pass the blade to children instead.
For most, all this does is invoke hatred and fear,
like a terrifying nightmare played over and over.
But to the devils around the world,
it is an opportunity to kill and pillage without consequence.
Opportunity came with the war in Syria,
A perfect place to begin their reign of terror.
In Iraq it started with injustice from Nouri Al Maliki,
Oppressing the protesting Sunni minority with military force
for he dreaded the return of Allah’s students.
Little did Maliki know, he created the
monster that he greatest feared.
To the predators waiting to pounce,
this was the golden opportunity they needed,
promise of power and protection is what they offered.
To the beat-down dogs of Syria it was hard to refuse.
They were already fundamentalist Muslims,
what more to lose?
We attempted to reform these people in years past.
Obviously the lessons we tried to teach were not learned,
now stronger weapons are needed to weed them out.
The arrogant Arabs believe themselves above rules of war.
Training boys who are barely able to read,
kicking them ruthlessly to turn them
into sadistic killers like their fathers.
Bloodied foreigners dig deep trenches
so their bodies can be discarded without effort
after they are riddled with bullets.
I would see these monsters treated the same.
Sunni Muslims clad in black
wheeling like a flock of crows blocking out all light.
They throng to Syria from every corner of the globe,
converting without question or knowledge
of the ideals behind their new faith.
Flinging handcuffed gays from buildings
the dull thud still resounding through the city,
blackened men with a permanent expression
of fear etched into their smoldering faces.
Stones wet with blood lay abandoned,
heaped casually near the limp body of a young girl,
a high price to pay,
For showing your face in public.
Fear is their fuel, an evil poison infecting the weak.
The rats with black flags- claiming theirs is the only god,
using media to bring in recruits.
Showing people in orange taking their last breaths.
heads held high for the last time,
praying that the man in black has a keen edge on his knife.
These games they play have become boring,
so they pass the blade to children instead.
For most, all this does is invoke hatred and fear,
like a terrifying nightmare played over and over.
But to the devils around the world,
it is an opportunity to kill and pillage without consequence.
Opportunity came with the war in Syria,
A perfect place to begin their reign of terror.
In Iraq it started with injustice from Nouri Al Maliki,
Oppressing the protesting Sunni minority with military force
for he dreaded the return of Allah’s students.
Little did Maliki know, he created the
monster that he greatest feared.
To the predators waiting to pounce,
this was the golden opportunity they needed,
promise of power and protection is what they offered.
To the beat-down dogs of Syria it was hard to refuse.
They were already fundamentalist Muslims,
what more to lose?
We attempted to reform these people in years past.
Obviously the lessons we tried to teach were not learned,
now stronger weapons are needed to weed them out.
The arrogant Arabs believe themselves above rules of war.
Training boys who are barely able to read,
kicking them ruthlessly to turn them
into sadistic killers like their fathers.
Bloodied foreigners dig deep trenches
so their bodies can be discarded without effort
after they are riddled with bullets.
I would see these monsters treated the same.
Growth as a poet
Over the course of the poetry project, I feel that I have grown immensely as a poet. Before we did this project, I not only disliked poetry but also had no talent for it. So for me the thought of spending two months on poetry was very daunting, especially because I had no idea what topic to write about. That is, until I watched the Frontline documentary about ISIS, which told about their rise to power and all of the horrible things that they are doing. I was enraged and very passionate about that topic at the time so I decided it would the perfect topic for my poem.
In the first draft of my poem, a lot of my anger was translated into my writing, but I portrayed it in the wrong way. Instead of showing the reader all of the terrible things that ISIS is doing and how terrible they are, I told them instead. The third stanza of the first draft of my poem is a perfect example of this, where I wrote, “but people like this, they have no god, only a special place in hell.” I see now, looking back at this stanza, how it detracts from my poem and forces my view on the reader, rather than letting the reader come to the conclusion themselves. I later took almost all of that stanza out, leaving only the most solid line. Then I started working on the showing part, I did this by describing the terrible things that ISIS is doing using a lot of imagery. One example of where I did this is in the first stanza, “Flinging handcuffed gays from buildings the dull thud still resounding through the city, blackened men with a permanent expression of fear etched into their smoldering faces.” I think that by making these chances, it may not have shifted the perspective of my poem, but it certainly made the poem deeper and more powerful.
The biggest change that I made between my first and final drafts was the addition of another stanza. In a lot of the peer critiques that I got, people were saying that my poem either felt unfinished or that I should put my ideas into the poem about how to resolve the conflict with ISIS. I kept ignoring their advice and instead adding more to other stanzas until the last draft, when I realized that even to me my poem felt unfinished. Up until my final draft, the last stanza of my poem was: “To the predators waiting to pounce, this was the golden opportunity they needed, promise of power and protection is what they offered. To the beat-down dogs of Syria it was hard to refuse.They were already fundamentalist Muslims, what more to lose?” Although the last line to me is very powerful, it still needed more and I think that the final stanza that I added completed the poem. In the last stanza I discuss the reasons that I condemn all of ISIS and end it with a solution: “Training boys who are barely able to read, kicking them ruthlessly to turn them into sadistic killers like their fathers. Bloodied foreigners dig deep trenches so their bodies can be discarded without effort after they are riddled with bullets. I would see these monsters treated the same.” This to me is a lot better ending and I got positive feedback on the stanza. It both paints a better picture for the reader as well as impacts the message of the poem. If I had not added the last stanza, there would be no real message to the poem, it would just be a poem telling about the horrific things ISIS does. But with the addition of the last stanza the message now is that ISIS is doing such horrible things, they deserve the same treatment and need to be dealt with using extreme force.
Another critique the I kept getting was show don't tell. In the first draft of my poem, imagery and figurative language were lacking in all of the stanzas except the first. When reading the first draft of my poem, there was no real emotional connection and there is no evidence to back up the convictions that I was making. You can really see this lack of connection in the third stanza: “The rats with black flags use media to bring in recruits for most, all it does is invoke hatred and fear, but to the swine around the world, it is an opportunity to kill and pillage without consequence.” I felt that I needed to improve this stanza in particular, because it is talking about how ISIS uses the media and the internet to globalize their campaign of terror, with the beheadings, burnings and other atrocities. Seeing the videos on the internet is what made me have such a passionate hatred towards ISIS, so I thought by adding graphic descriptions of what they do to people, the reader may become as hateful towards the terrorists as I am. After a lot of refinement, stanza three of my final draft reads: “The rats with black flags- claiming theirs is the only god, using media to bring in recruits. Showing people in orange taking their last breaths. heads held high for the last time, praying that the man in black has a keen edge on his knife. These games they play have become boring, so they pass the blade to children instead.” This is just one place that I added emotion. I also added it to stanza one, plus I added the last stanza which has a lot of emotion in it. This changes the emotional connection to my poem, because now instead of being told that they do bad things and need to be taken care of, it leaves the reader to come to that conclusion themselves. My poem would not be nearly as powerful without the additions that I made, which is why these revisions are the most important.
The final major change that I made to my poem between the first and final draft, was to take out all of the comparisons I had between ISIS and various animals. I initially had many metaphors and similes using lowly animals like cockroaches and swine, to demean the people that are part of ISIS. In my third stanza I made a comparison like this, “but to the swine around the world, it is an opportunity to kill and pillage without consequence.” I later changed this when I was reminded by Lori and later my uncle, that in the Rwandan genocide, the Hutus referred to the Tutsis as cockroaches which to them made it more ethical to mass murder thousands of their fellow countrymen. This tactic was also used by the Nazis in WWII, when they called the Jews swine, thus making them not human and their extermination okay. As my uncle Christian said: “What we should not do, though, is to treat them the way they treat others and us. That is precisely why we are fighting them! If we lose our ability to recognize them as humans we would have lost, as we lost when we used torture in 2004 in Abu Graib, a prison in Iraq, or in 1968 in My Lai, a village in Vietnam.” After hearing this, I immediately took out all of the animal references except one; I left the line about rats with black flags because I did not think it too dehumanizing. After making the changes, that line now reads: “But to the devils around the world, it is an opportunity to kill and pillage without consequence.” I thought that devils would a better fit, because it has not been associated with any genocides. By replacing these words, I feel that it strengthened my poem intellectually and it will be less criticized. To some people the animal comparisons may have led them to think that I want to start a genocide of Sunnis, which is not the message that I am going for.
In the first draft of my poem, a lot of my anger was translated into my writing, but I portrayed it in the wrong way. Instead of showing the reader all of the terrible things that ISIS is doing and how terrible they are, I told them instead. The third stanza of the first draft of my poem is a perfect example of this, where I wrote, “but people like this, they have no god, only a special place in hell.” I see now, looking back at this stanza, how it detracts from my poem and forces my view on the reader, rather than letting the reader come to the conclusion themselves. I later took almost all of that stanza out, leaving only the most solid line. Then I started working on the showing part, I did this by describing the terrible things that ISIS is doing using a lot of imagery. One example of where I did this is in the first stanza, “Flinging handcuffed gays from buildings the dull thud still resounding through the city, blackened men with a permanent expression of fear etched into their smoldering faces.” I think that by making these chances, it may not have shifted the perspective of my poem, but it certainly made the poem deeper and more powerful.
The biggest change that I made between my first and final drafts was the addition of another stanza. In a lot of the peer critiques that I got, people were saying that my poem either felt unfinished or that I should put my ideas into the poem about how to resolve the conflict with ISIS. I kept ignoring their advice and instead adding more to other stanzas until the last draft, when I realized that even to me my poem felt unfinished. Up until my final draft, the last stanza of my poem was: “To the predators waiting to pounce, this was the golden opportunity they needed, promise of power and protection is what they offered. To the beat-down dogs of Syria it was hard to refuse.They were already fundamentalist Muslims, what more to lose?” Although the last line to me is very powerful, it still needed more and I think that the final stanza that I added completed the poem. In the last stanza I discuss the reasons that I condemn all of ISIS and end it with a solution: “Training boys who are barely able to read, kicking them ruthlessly to turn them into sadistic killers like their fathers. Bloodied foreigners dig deep trenches so their bodies can be discarded without effort after they are riddled with bullets. I would see these monsters treated the same.” This to me is a lot better ending and I got positive feedback on the stanza. It both paints a better picture for the reader as well as impacts the message of the poem. If I had not added the last stanza, there would be no real message to the poem, it would just be a poem telling about the horrific things ISIS does. But with the addition of the last stanza the message now is that ISIS is doing such horrible things, they deserve the same treatment and need to be dealt with using extreme force.
Another critique the I kept getting was show don't tell. In the first draft of my poem, imagery and figurative language were lacking in all of the stanzas except the first. When reading the first draft of my poem, there was no real emotional connection and there is no evidence to back up the convictions that I was making. You can really see this lack of connection in the third stanza: “The rats with black flags use media to bring in recruits for most, all it does is invoke hatred and fear, but to the swine around the world, it is an opportunity to kill and pillage without consequence.” I felt that I needed to improve this stanza in particular, because it is talking about how ISIS uses the media and the internet to globalize their campaign of terror, with the beheadings, burnings and other atrocities. Seeing the videos on the internet is what made me have such a passionate hatred towards ISIS, so I thought by adding graphic descriptions of what they do to people, the reader may become as hateful towards the terrorists as I am. After a lot of refinement, stanza three of my final draft reads: “The rats with black flags- claiming theirs is the only god, using media to bring in recruits. Showing people in orange taking their last breaths. heads held high for the last time, praying that the man in black has a keen edge on his knife. These games they play have become boring, so they pass the blade to children instead.” This is just one place that I added emotion. I also added it to stanza one, plus I added the last stanza which has a lot of emotion in it. This changes the emotional connection to my poem, because now instead of being told that they do bad things and need to be taken care of, it leaves the reader to come to that conclusion themselves. My poem would not be nearly as powerful without the additions that I made, which is why these revisions are the most important.
The final major change that I made to my poem between the first and final draft, was to take out all of the comparisons I had between ISIS and various animals. I initially had many metaphors and similes using lowly animals like cockroaches and swine, to demean the people that are part of ISIS. In my third stanza I made a comparison like this, “but to the swine around the world, it is an opportunity to kill and pillage without consequence.” I later changed this when I was reminded by Lori and later my uncle, that in the Rwandan genocide, the Hutus referred to the Tutsis as cockroaches which to them made it more ethical to mass murder thousands of their fellow countrymen. This tactic was also used by the Nazis in WWII, when they called the Jews swine, thus making them not human and their extermination okay. As my uncle Christian said: “What we should not do, though, is to treat them the way they treat others and us. That is precisely why we are fighting them! If we lose our ability to recognize them as humans we would have lost, as we lost when we used torture in 2004 in Abu Graib, a prison in Iraq, or in 1968 in My Lai, a village in Vietnam.” After hearing this, I immediately took out all of the animal references except one; I left the line about rats with black flags because I did not think it too dehumanizing. After making the changes, that line now reads: “But to the devils around the world, it is an opportunity to kill and pillage without consequence.” I thought that devils would a better fit, because it has not been associated with any genocides. By replacing these words, I feel that it strengthened my poem intellectually and it will be less criticized. To some people the animal comparisons may have led them to think that I want to start a genocide of Sunnis, which is not the message that I am going for.