Analysis Of Three Theories Soft Hard And Indeterminism Philosophy Essay

Analysis Of Three Theories Soft Hard And Indeterminism Philosophy Essay I am going to compare and analyze the three theories; Soft, hard and indeterminism. I will demonstrate what consequences they have on freewill as well if the universe entire history is predetermined. Strong determinism is the theory that states that every single thing that happens in the universe is determined and governed by the natural law. For example, how earth moves, what movie you chose to see in the cinema. A strong determinist strictly believes that nothing could influence this behavior, in other words our choice or free will does not exist, not even luck. This theory is the strongest theory that supports determinism; this affects freewill very badly, since hard determinism does not believe in free will. This is problematic since how can we have free will if everything is determined and if it is true, would it not create ethical consequences if we have no free will? One might argue that if determinism was true then how can we blame a person who robs a bank? If the universe de termines that he is bound to do that, then he does not have any free will which means we cannot really blame him? There is no right or wrong, nor good or evil if everything is predetermined, this shows the flaws of determinism as a consequence. If determinism may be real, then we are no freer than robots, and since there is no evil or good there is no reason to reward or punish someone. Since this theory rejects ethics, morals and completely disagrees with free will a new concept was created, which is called Soft Determinism. This theory states that determinism is correct; however it tries to make determinism and moral and ethics (and free will) compatible. Since soft determinism believes that everything is determined, it does not believe that our actions are acted freely. Soft determinism in contrast to Hard determinism believes that an action can be voluntary, in other words for something to occur it does not necessarily mean that it cannot have any freedom of choice. One argument may say if I was about to give money to a poor person out of good will and freedom (choice) and then he turned on me with a gun, then it would not mean it would be freedom or soft determinism since I will be forced to do it. An argument would be if a robber were to rob a bank, the soft determinist does not think that his action was caused because he was not free, he did it voluntarily. This theory states that free will is voluntary actions. A hard determinist would argue that this act cannot be free, it must occur. But then again why would the robber rob a bank without any reason? Indeterminism is the theory that states that most events and decisions are occurred by pure chance. In other words, they just happen and have nothing to do with having a determined behavior. They believe that every event is not predictable and this opens a way for us to influence the future and by this we can act freely and have morally responsibilities. The flaw in indeterminism is that if everything happens by chance then free will is unpredictable and happens randomly which cannot hold the person responsible for his choices since he cannot predict when or what will occur. If determinism was true, then it would have several of consequences for free will. Since if we have a determined cause for every action we imply, then our behavior is much like a robot. Since robots do not have any free will and if determinism was true then we people would not either have free will. So by removing all the responsibilities a person have since he cannot control what he is doing, would mean that if someone committed a crime they cannot be blamed since they did not have any freewill. An incompatibilist would argue that if determinism was true then there is no chance of having a free will. Another argument is that soft determinism states that freewill is voluntarily actions, but then again it cannot be free will if our causes are based upon voluntary actions since you are not the first causer. In order to have free will we need to be the first person that causes the choice he makes, so in other words if determinism was true, then we do not cause our choices but that every thing that happens are caused by events and the natural law which he cannot control. Therefore he cannot have freewill since he is not the primary cause of the choices he makes. Finally we come to the question, can we escape the conclusion that the entire history of the universe follows a predetermined path? Well I believe that we cannot escape the conclusion, since I think that the universe cannot come from nothing, and the path its heading is predetermined. I see that everything consisted in the universe is similar to a giant puzzle; if a puzzle bit would act randomly then the puzzle would break. For example, if the atoms in space would act randomly then the end product would not be produced, so every atom needs to have a determined action in order to create things. Just like we have cells in our bodies the immune system is an example, which is consisted of millions of other cells that interacts in a determined way in order to create end products such as; more white cells. That is how I see the universe that our solar system is one cell that exists in trillions of other universes that make up a small piece of the giant puzzle. For example, if my parents ne ver met I would not have existed, so for something to exist there must have been something determine its path. Their genes, education, social life and every factor that have enabled them to meet each other is a direct result of how they met, meaning that the end product is that his was meant to happen. But then, if the future is predetermined then why am I not acting randomly such as deleting everything Ive written so far, draw a huge smile face and send it to MR Hemingway? Well if I was to change the future of my philosophical grade, it would be a direct result of how I am as a person in other words it was meant to happen anyway. The best way for me to think is comparing the universe is with a song, if I pause the song just in the middle I have just heard the past but I know that there is a future that is already determined in that song but it is still unknown, but I can clearly hear that the future is based on the past and this is why I believe that the university is predetermined , and I also believe that in the future we will be able to time travel, just because of this. In conclusion hard determinism denies freedom and believes that everything is determined compared to soft determinism where it still believe that everything is determined however even though our actions are voluntarily. Indeterminism believes that things could happen randomly. All these theories give a consequence to free will, since if determinism was true we would be robots that have no free will at all, we would be people with choices that we cannot decide freely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/incompatibilism-arguments/#ChoConArg http://www.enotes.com/topic/Indeterminism http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/philosophy/courses/100/100kant.htm http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwVariousKant.htm http://philosophy.tamu.edu/~sdaniel/Notes/freedom1.htm http://www.degree-essays.com/coursework/philosophy-essays/compare-and-contrast-soft-and-hard-determinism-in-respect-to-competing-notion-of-negative-and-positive-freedom/ http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405106795_chunk_g97814051067955_ss1-85 http://www.scandalon.co.uk/philosophy/soft.htm http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/FREE.HTM

A&P by John Updike Essay

The short story entitled â€Å"A&P† by John Updike was published in 1961 and confirmed the author’s reputation as a master of detail. In reality, the author merely expressed the spirit of the 1960s, which includes decadence, transformations of polity and society, which ascended certain people, but spiritually impoverished others, as well uncertainty in the next day. The short story thus reveals multiple contexts, all of which can be tied to its title. The present paper is intended to discuss the narrative in relation to its short and simple title.   The plot of the short story takes place in a provincial grocery store â€Å"A&P† and is narrated by the protagonist, 19-year-old Sammy, who works there as a checker. â€Å"One Thursday afternoons the store is empty for the most part. The only people that inter the store are old woman and woman with six children whom he refers both to as sheep, when three girls walk in dressed with nothing more that bathing suits. This catches his eye and he watches them closely and studies each one of them with great detail† (Luscher, 1993, p. 168). Furthermore, the youth distinguishes the leader of the group and refers to her as Queenie, as she seems to behave with great self-confidence and social competence, and the two other girls simply follow her. . Sammy is aware of the fact that the girls violate the rules of this store concerning outfit, but doesn’t begin confrontation until his manager Lengel, who informs the girls abut the internal rules of â€Å"A&P†. Queenie states that they are not doing shopping, as they seek to purchase only one product, but Lengel still continues blaming the girls for the abuse of the regulatory policy. Queenie responds that they are decent and do not intend to abuse the other customers’ convictions concerning morality. Sammy finally allows them to make a purchase, but observing the manager’s behavior, he concludes that he is not going to work for this shop any longer and announces that he   is quitting. Thus, the idea of the short story circles around the transition from adolescence to adulthood and the growth of the ability to make one’s own moral judgments, which can be free and independent from any redundant formalities (Luscher, 1993). The period of adolescence is usually associated with the formation of role models, which might dictate behavioral patterns to follow (Luscher, 1993). In this sense, both his professional identity as an employee of the A&P and his self-awareness have been nurtured under the influence of two adults: Stokesie, a major breadwinner in his family, and Lengel, the store manager, whose career began in this place. Sammy, in this sense, seeks to imitate the relaxed behavior, demonstrated by Stokesie, who exclaims â€Å"Oh Daddy, I feel so faint!† (Updike, 2007, at http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/). Similarly, â€Å"Sammy whittles away his days looking at pretty girls and thinking about the ways of people. He hardly realizes that this is how he will spend his entire existence if he doesn’t soon get out of this job. During this day that will prove to change his life, he makes the step towards his realization† (McFarland, 1983, p. 95). In fact, he originates from a working-class family, as his parents served at cocktail parties, and at first he decided to make a career, connected with the service sphere, but on the day of argument with the three girls,   the youth begins to build his own superstructure over the foundation of convictions, imposed by parental desire to penetrate into middle class and by the corresponding values, which view job as the sense of existence, regardless of the agent’s attitude towards this employment (McFarland, 1983; Luscher, 1993). Thus, his competition for store manager’s position finally appears to him pointless, similarly to the movements of the â€Å"sheep†, who make purposeful actions (do shopping) in order to satisfy their basic and not always conscious needs. Sammy, on the contrary, begins hard cognitive work on his own goals and makes his first conscious decision to leave the job. Furthermore, the young man seems to realize the responsibility he should take for his actions. In fact, his second role model, Langel, influences this decision in the most notable way (McFarland, 1983; Porter, 1972). After Langel’s appearance at the scene, Sammy concludes that he doesn’t wish to grow into such snobbish and arrogant manager, who regards himself as the last resort in all moral dilemmas and successfully combines preacher’s duties with his professional responsibilities.   Langel highlights one phrase in his admonition: â€Å"This isn’t the beach† (Updike, 2007). Sammy believes the way the executive firmly repeats this phrase look â€Å"as if it had occurred to him, and he had been thinking all these years the A&P was a big sand and he was the head lifeguard† (Updike, 2007). As Porter notes, â€Å"his â€Å"sand dune† is the world of work, whereas the girls’ is the world of play† (Porter, 1972, p.1156). As one can understand, the first approach to the interpretation of the title derives from the central idea of the short story. In this sense, the A&P appears a place, where the protagonist’s psychological maturation takes place, so   the emphasis upon the name of the shop can be alleged as the author’s natural desire to prioritize the settings, including the social context (the desirable shift from one social class to another), which puts the main character on his path to the insight. Another approach to the title is aesthetic or spatial. The author might have sought to prioritize the place itself rather than the most important idea, primarily – in order to provide the reader with sample environment, in which contemporary teenagers perform their working duties. This means, the concept of the A&P as shop, which stores not merely goods, but also human fates and aspirations, is also valuable and deserves a more detailed examination. Due to the fact that this approach requires focusing upon senses and perception, it is important to include the atmosphere, depicted by the author. As McFarland notes, â€Å"to a large extent, the aesthetic pleasure in â€Å"A&P† depends upon the reader’s sensing this dramatic irony. Sammy’s words resonate and gain meaning through a larger artistic context out of which he comes (Updike’s knowledge and imagination) but of which he, the fictive character, is unaware† (McFarland, 1983, p. 96). Importantly, two scholars, McFarland (1983) and Shaw (1986) compare the method of building the relationship between the imagery and the protagonist’s inner world to the allusion, depicted in â€Å"The Birth of Venus† by   Sanrdo Botticelli. Similarly to all Renaissance paintings, it depicts a nude woman, who comes from sea spirit. The protagonist also focuses on the appearances of three females, who have merely bikinis on and therefore to great extent resemble to Renaissance patterns of depicting female body. Furthermore, Sammy concentrates his attention on the leader of the group, who appears a queen in his eyes, because of her unique step, movements and gestures. The protagonist thoroughly fixes all these details about the girl and she seems a source of aesthetic pleasure for the protagonist, rather than merely a person, who belongs to the opposite gender (Shaw, 1986) Sammy soon begins to describe the nature of femininity and indicates that girls’ inner life is always a puzzle for him. He upgrades his perception of the girl, as the essential aspect of their appearance is the alteration of the atmosphere and the emergence of the spirit of freedom in the air, rather than merely the girls’ clothing and the way they communicate with one another. In Sammy’s opinion, Queenie fills the store with her aura, comprised by charm, self-determination and ingenuousness. In order to improve the reader’s understanding of all these emanations, which saturated the accommodation, Sammy poetically describes the young girl: â€Å"If it hadn’t been there you wouldn’t have known there could have been anything whiter than those shoulders† (Updike, 2007). The protagonist’s description of Queenie to certain degree reminds Venus by Botticelli: white body, high shoulders, bare feet and pride in the eyes.   When the girl brings her purchase to the cashier, Sammy feels as if he has just been chosen by Fortune (Shaw, 1986): â€Å"Queenie puts down the jar and I take it into my fingers icy cold: Kingfish Fancy herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream: 49>. Now her hands are empty, not a ring or a bracelet, bare as God made them, and I wonder where the money is coming from† (Updike, 2007). The thorough depiction of all details, associated with the girls’ visit to the shop implies that the event was so meaningful to the protagonist that he memorized it completely, primarily, because of the surrealistic alteration of the place into the scene or arena of theatrical performance. After Langel confronts the girl, the sense of theatricality reinforces, as the manager explicitly plays hi professional role, whereas the girl behaves naturally and appears a â€Å"positive character† of the play. The girl, similarly to the Greek goddess in the ancient literature, inspires the protagonist and brings him into a different dimension of cognition, primarily through   participating in the affected episode, initiated by the executive, which in fact occurs at the workplaces like the A&P. Sammy thus understands that the service area turns employees into dull puppets, which perform uncreative job and inhibit inspiration, embodied by Queenie (Shaw, 1986). After the girl leaves, Sammy begins to feel the pressure of his workplace and finally decides to quit the job. The final interpretation of the title derives from the protagonist himself, especially when taking into consideration the fact that he is a teenager, who uses to simplify his life and at first doesn’t disclose any deep reflection. In this context â€Å"A&P† points to the teenage perception of the event, i.e. if a 19-year-old man like Sammy wrote this story he would probably given it this title. The reminder about the protagonist’s teen age can be found in the vocabulary he uses. As Grainer suggests, the narrator is defined primarily by his â€Å"tones and vocabularies† (Grainer, 2007, at http://www.enotes.com/and-pa/11435). Furthermore, â€Å"No one else supplies background information or details to round out character [†¦] when he [Sammy] describes the girls, we wonder if his lyrical flights of language expose the inadequacy of his slang as he stretches to show why these teen-agers deserve his sacrifice† (Grainer, 2007).   Furthermore, beyond the typical colloquial language, the protagonist behaves as impulsively as teenagers often do when they suddenly discover something fundamental and make corresponding decisions. Thus, the title perfectly fits the protagonist’s personality and the psychological features of his age. To sum up, the essay has outlined three major perspectives, from which the title can be interpreted. Firstly, the viewing the title through the prism of the central idea, the A&P appears a place, where the protagonist’s philosophy of life evolves. Secondly, approaching to the title in terms of the atmosphere in the store, one can conclude that the author also attempts to describe an ordinary shop, as a place which determines human fates. Finally, the short title matches the teenage psychology and the author’s simple and understandable reasoning. Works cited Greiner, J. â€Å"Sammy’s Colloquial Voice in â€Å"A&P†Ã¢â‚¬ . Retrieved   April 17, 2007, from: http://www.enotes.com/and-pa/11435 Luscher, R. John Updike: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1993. McFarland, R. â€Å"Updike and the Critics: Reflections on ‘A&P’.† Studies in Short Fiction, 20 (1983): 94-100. Porter, M. â€Å"John Updike’s ‘A&P’: The Establishment and an Emersonian Cashier†. English Journal, 61 (1972): 1155-58. Shaw, P. â€Å"Checking Out Faith and Lust: Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’; and Updike’s ‘A&P’†. Studies in Short Fiction, 23 (1986): 321-23. Updike, J. A&P. Retrieved April 17, 2007, from: http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/   

The Hurt Locker

â€Å"The Hurt Locker† , written by Mark Boal and directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Nominated and won for Best Picture, this award winning movie captured the attending of many film makers and audiences for boldly demoing the rough world of war and how a soldier trades with the horrors of war. â€Å"War is a drug† , a quotation mark that this film successfully reflects in its narrative and subject. The soldier associates war as some sort of drug that one must take to for maintain traveling in life. This movie emphasizes this through James, chief supporter of the narrative, who is a changeless danger to himself and to others around him. The movie is about an American ground forces bomb disposal unit in wartime Iraq tasked with determination and demilitarizing bombs in order to protect the local public. The Hurt Locker besides focuses on their battles and triumphs in Iraq and portrays the life of the armed forces. Not merely does the Hurt Locker have a good narrative, but this movie besides implements many movie techniques such as elements of mise en scene, superb filming, and redacting. I will speak about how â€Å"The Hurt Locker† deserves to be an Academy Award victor citing these elements of movie. The ground why this movie is considered to be a great movie is because of its accent on movie technique. One of the elements portrayed in this movie would be the incorporation of Mise en Scene. There are many illustrations of Mise- En -Scene used to make a sense of pragmatism in the movie. One I would depict the ocular manner would be farinaceous. Everything from the scene to the costumes were reliable plenty that it added to the pragmatism of movie. In the beginning of the movie, I would depict the histrions as your typical jarhead in war movies. As the movie progressed nevertheless, they became instead complex. Each character has their ain sense of values, some want to remain in Iraq and battle because they believe it ‘s the right thing to make while others, like James, the chief supporter, loves being a soldier and wants to remain in the pandemonium everlastingly. The location of the filmed in Jordan, which is located a few chinks off from the Iraqi boundary line. This helpe d created the pragmatism and atmosphere it needed for movie to be reliable as possible, which audiences love in war movies. The scene that implements elements of Mise-en-scene would be the opening sequence of the movie. The movie opens with the citation â€Å"The haste of conflict is a potent and deadly dependence, for war is a drug† . The sequence is portrayed as a docudrama movie, holding the camera act as if it were describing a narrative on the soldiers instead than traditionally movie a scene. The camera motions were unsmooth and visuals were farinaceous. The lighting in this sequence was realistic, utilizing frontal lighting to an country to make a natural environment and the colour of the scene was impersonal, which gave the feeling that they were shooting in a existent state of affairs. Bing able to utilize mise en scene to convey a film’s message, subject, and symbols is such an enchanting experience, particularly with the Hurt Locker. Achieving pragmatism, yo u are able to steer an audience towards cardinal narrative elements, and therefore holding a viewer’s such as me to the full engaged. We want to cognize what it will be like to be a soldier like James and this movie was able to take us into the action. This movie was able to make the feeling of wonder and suspense which adds to the many grounds why this movie is great. Filming are one of the many movie elements that contribute to this film’s success. To hold a scene to be more cliff-hanging, the manager incorporated different types of camera angles. The scenes that focuses a character on a personal degree, the framing would be tight and concise. The most occurring thing in the movie are bombs, this represents how the bad the universe is. The soldiers themselves can be described as the 1s who are morally good and are praised for it because they are considered the chief focal point of the movie. I noticed that green and orange was the reoccurring colour subject of the full movie. These colourss represents the correlativity between peace and pandemonium in the movie. Green represents the goodness that the soldiers are conveying into the war. Orange is suppose to stand for the pandemonium and force that war brings to an country. The camera was invariably near to the action, giving more suspense to it. The distance of the camera in the establishi ng shooting is a bit stray as it tries to demo every portion of a given location, which makes every scene dramatic and shoves off ocular beauty for harsh, honorable pragmatism. The movie was shot on-location, so existent sunshine and fluorescents were used as the film’s beginning of visible radiation. The best illustration of light contrast would be the scene where there was a monolithic detonation. The fire was able to supply the light beginning and it absolutely contrast with the pitch black dark. The supermarket scene would be the 1 that would be the most critical portion of full movie. This scene’s filming was absolutely coordinated to convey the hollowness of the James as a individual. It portrayed the contrast of the movie by demoing James ‘s interior struggle between his civilian life and his life in the military. James has become person who instead put on the line his life in the battleground than populating a normal life. The scene would be the focal point of contrast between the two universes. In Iraq, danger is everyplace, poorness is prevailing, every measure you take could be your last. Then the scene’s scene alterations and see James walking around a supermarket. The topographic point is filled with nutrient and fundamentally the antonym of what it’s like in Iraq. This contrast portrays these universes as wholly different things. Another things to portray a contrast between the two universes would be the usage of colour. In the parts wher e it shows James in Iraq, the colour of sand is used to represents the grittiness of his life in the military. Everything from the edifices to the uniforms, they all portion the same colour. On the other manus, the supermarket’s usage of colourss is your typical colour strategy of an mean shop in America. The colour differentiation was done deliberately for to correlate the flaxen colour pallet of Iraq to dirtiness and the white colour strategy of the supermarket is associated with cleanliness. Cuting from Iraq to America emphasizes the nature seeking to get by with life with war and returning to civilian life. This was done on intent to hold the audience feel confused. One minute James is speaking about how he loves his occupation and another where James is back place, seeking brand assimilate back into the normal of a civilian. Overall, what James had to travel through in the supermarket scene can associate to many soldiers who have been consumed by the horrors of combat. To them, seeking to set to the normal life is merely excessively difficult for them. The supermarket scene describes that experiencing absolutely. The techniques implemented were able to acquire into the emotional province of a war torn soldier who’s urgently seeking to populate a normal life. The feeling of being changed after emotionally intense events and experiencing disoriented were drawn with elaborate preciseness. James may be a ticking clip bomb waiting to go on, but I think many soldiers can associate to what he’s been through. Editing can be a elusive, but powerful tool that enable film makers with a overplus of movie determinations. Surprisingly, â€Å"The Hurt Locker† had small redacting done on the movie, possibly that it wanted content, instead than organize. Alternatively of doing any â€Å"fancy† redaction to the movie, maintaining it to a minimum really preserves the pragmatism of its message. It takes advantage of some really simple techniques. In most movies, if non all of them, the length of the cuts depends on the state of affairs of the scene. The tempo of this movie was normally slow. Whenever something dramatic or emotional is go oning, the continuance of the shootings lengthen, to extended proportions. An illustration of this would be the conversation between Sanborn and James after the failed effort of demilitarizing the bomb from a suicide bomber. Sanborn snaps stating that he can no longer cover with the emphasis of being a soldier. This scene was the most critical in specif ying two different characters. Lengthening the shooting helped give a sense of pragmatism to the scene. During the action scenes nevertheless, the gait of the movie quickens and the length of the shootings shorten. This creates the haste needed to maintain the audience invested into the movie. ( CONCLUSION ) The Hurt Locker is a really powerful movie that deserves all the congratulations received of being an Academy Award Winner. The message that war can be used as a drug and soldiers themselves can be addicted to it has been prevailing throughout the movie. This dependence has soldiers such as James to value war over anything else, including household. Personally thought the film’s subject was interesting because it focused on that impact a batch of people. The movie has a good sense of projecting world of what it is. It’s non the typical film where it creates an semblance of phantasy where when the movie is over, the audience returns to world.

Rat Kiley In The Things They Carried - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 966 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/04/11 Category Literature Essay Level High school Topics: The Things They Carried Essay Did you like this example? You are introduced to many characters throughout the story who deal with their own personal struggles and internal conflicts. From heavy substance abuse to moral convictions about the war and the meaning of why theyre fighting, every soldier is unique in their own struggle on the inside. However, there is one character who sticks out to the audience and his name is Rat Kiley. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Rat Kiley In The Things They Carried" essay for you Create order Rat seems like a pretty normal person compared to the rest of the characters until he witnesses a life changing event altering his sanity indefinitely. He witnesses his best friend curt lemon die and this sparks a change in him, a change for the worst. Soldiers that witness gruesome and tragic moments of loss during the war are mentally affected beyond point of repair. Rat starts off in the book as a normal man who has good morals and helps people. His duty is a medic, so he courageously saves others lives to the best of his ability. He even goes as far as to carry around MMs for especially bad wounds (OBrien). Rats story can be summed up to this quote from a literary analysis, The Vietnam War is so bad that even a kind-hearted, level-headed platoon medic named Rat Kiley eventually succumbs to the stress of war, after his best friend Curt Lemon is blown up into pieces onto a tree by a rigged 105 mm artillery shell. After mercilessly torturing and killing a baby buffalo with his rifle and seeing many more body bags, Rat Kiley finally mutilates himself to get out of war, This whole war, (Noor-Tehrani). Curt lemons death is what began Rats downward spiral out of control. Witnessing your best friend being killed will obviously shake anyone up, however it is different with Rat Kiley because he gives the biggest reaction. This event produces the question, why was Rat the only one who couldnt deal with Curts death or at least keep his sanity after his death. Everyone had dealt with a loss but what makes Rat so special? Why did Rat literally go insane because of it? He was Curts best friend, and this may have been why it had the biggest impact. He was also the medic, so possibly he repeatedly wondered why he couldnt save his best friend. These thoughts going on in his head over and over would certainly make someone go insane. The thought of not being able to do your job and save your best friend would have a lasting, indefinite impact on anyone and this is a key point as to why Rat went so crazy. After his death, Rat decided to write Curts sister opening himself up to her in a letter. This eventually did not go as planned because days and months passed by with no response from the sister. This left distaste in Rats mouth as he just explained to her how his Brother in Arms was killed and how much he meant to him. Rat even ends up bawling in the process of writing this letter because of how heavy the subject is for him (OBrien 64). Soon enough Rat snapped, he began doing very odd things. Later in the book he ends up mercilessly killing a water buffalo, he shoots it once and then continues to shoot it over and over again for no apparent, logical reason. The killing of the water buffalo represents something for rat, the animal represents innocence and then is brutally destroyed. This part in the novel symbolizes Rats innocence being destroyed, it is a very important part in the book representing the timeline of Rats internal struggle. In the book OBrien states that A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing things men have always done. (OBrien 65). Nothing about Rats story is moral at all, he is an example of a mans innocence being tainted. Rat eventually decides he gets to his full limit and ends up shooting himself in the foot to leave Vietnam. This shows just how much of a toll the Vietnam war can take on a man and the lengths he will go to in order to leave that hell. This is an example of Rat being unable to cope with his best friends death and the pressures that war puts on you. It shows that a sane man can be turned insane, it shows that a normal man can be changed indefinitely, and it shows how easy it is to lose your innocence and humanity in a time of war, even for level headed people. This book in a whole highlight the struggles of Vietnam veterans and why they are so different from other generations. A large portion of these soldiers are shown the worst of the worst throughout the war and it makes such a large impact on them for not just the duration of the war but for the rest of their life. The things they see are unimaginable and incredibly violent which will forever take a toll on their lives, and the things they experience are spiritually draining and damaging, and the things they carry are unbelievably heavy both physically and mentally. Rat Kiley was a man of good will and good morals and would of never been though of as to turn crazy and be affected the way he was from the war but he was. Soldiers lose their innocence and humanity in war because of what they see. They lose their innocence because of what they go through and they lose their humanity because of the things they do during the war. They lose their sanity because of the things they carry with t hem for the rest of their life.