War In Toni Morrison's Alas, Babylon

Great Essays
War will be the one thing that will bring humans to their knees. How we as humans reacts and handles it depends on if humanity will fall. In the book Alas, Babylon, Helen had said, “You see, all their lives, ever since they’ve known anything, they’ve lived under the shadow of war” (Frank 85). She referred to the children and how the adults have tried to prepare them for war and what comes after it, but it can have a much deeper meaning than described. A society and nation could prepare for the beginning and end of a nuclear war by collecting a surplus of food and supplies. When the bombs really drop and things become more real than what people would realize will then show if a society of people can live through a war. From the quote, the …show more content…
This future is possible and sometimes some outcomes are inevitable. The only thing we can do is prepare as much as we can. We need to remember the most important values of human survival. Communication is vital and if we do not follow this, more mistakes will be made that will hurt the rebuilding of civilization. If the American government had confessed that they made a mistake instead of trying to cover it up things would not have been dragged out into all out war between countries. Words of misconduct were not put between the two. Coming up with strategies within the society is just as important. If one would need to carry out a task, a strategy would need to take place. Anything that succeeds starts with a plan. If people do not push aside judgmental comments that have to do with things such as race or gender, the community will not thrive, but fall. If there were more people like Randy and Malachi, who put aside their differences and worked together for a better cause, things in Fort Repose would not have been as drastic. Everyone must do a part in the society and must work together as a whole. With this type of warfare, no one will be prepared for what is to come, but we can only prepare the best as humanly

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    lots of young girls died and lost there loved ones. they should have made sure everyone was following the rules and not have left it up to the supervisor. Well i hope you understand me and make Blank and Harris guilty of…

    • 110 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War is war, that fact alone will never change. No matter how many people try to sugar coat the word, it always has the same ending. Only one winning side, broken families, broken homes and broken people. It’s become one of the most common subjects in the news and the only subject that is on practically everyone’s mind. With heroes on both sides with one goal it’s just another death game life has set up for us humans.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Things They Carried” demonstrates the effects of war to someone both physically and mentally. The story takes place with O’Brien and Alpha company during the Vietnam war. He goes through and tell the reader what each character is carrying and also helps shed some light on each character's conscious thought. Some characters who dealt with these mental struggles really show to the reader some of Freud and Jung’s theories. These examples are Freud’s theory on a person's shadow, and Jung’s maiden and child archetype.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When, in reality, has shaped not only history, but society itself. War is a trivial thing, Most of the population would agree with the Colliers when they say, “war does bring out the animal in men.” It is brutal and blunt, Mr. Meeker agrees when he says”Have you ever seen a dear friend lying in the grass with his skull cut off, brain sliding out like wet oats?” but boy is it necessary. In actuality, war has been a vital part of the economy, the mindset that we are in peace, because without war, what is peace, it takes two polar opposites to make each other be important, or even exist.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Impact of Race in Song of Solomon In Toni Morrison’s novel, Song of Solomon I believe that race plays a vital role on how the plot of the novel plays out. Race can be seen in many instances throughout the novel such as in 1. The community 2. Killings that occurred 3.…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lumarque 1 Jennifer Lumarque Mr. Amoroso AP LIT We are all born in a world that is unjust. The way people become and are brought up/ and are brought up are because of the environment their raised in. Every parent wants them to be nothing like them. We all go through the evolution to get to where we are now.…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This quote could also be carried onto other aspects of life aside from war, thus making it a novel that can be read by anyone and it could still teach valuable lessons. One of which is an awareness of mortality that soldiers face, that the average person might not know because of the glorification of war. This is seen when Tim O’Brien the character is aware of the fact that there is a possibility he could die in combat, however he knows that his memories will not go with him. O’Brien used a style typical of postmodernism, by creating somewhat of a paradox and changing the reader 's understanding of what is true to represent awareness of mortality. This novel should be taught until the year 2075 because it shows society through the eyes of a solider.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the Great War, the World as we know it, changed. Over eighty percent of the population was dead, the nature was rebuilding itself slowly, and the remaining people didn’t care about politics or the struggle of power, their only goal was to survive. The War was one of its kind since the nuclear weapons were launched immediately. The destruction was hard to imagine - after the explosions, which killed millions of people in just a second, the nuclear winter started. The nuclear winter was just a hypothetical thought before the War but soon it became reality.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is easy to believe that attaining peace in this world where violence and wars are so apparent is getting much harder. Perhaps to the point in which it is verging on the impossible. ‘Eve of Destruction’ expresses a strong but heartfelt warning towards how our hypocrisy as a society is edging us closer to our own demise . The writer, P.F Slogan, addresses both the solider and society singing about being on the ‘eve of destruction’. He wrote, “You’re old enough to kill but not for voting”, “you don’t believe in war, then what’s that gun your totin.”…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    War By Lee Maracle Summary

    • 2211 Words
    • 9 Pages

    When you fall, they say brush yourself off and try again. Nevertheless, like most things in life, to do so is easier said than done. Especially with a history such as those of the First Nations people. To recount such a history is beyond imagination, one dark and desolate; to try recount words such as torture… scorn… mockery… disdain…hatred are impeccable examples. Regardless of the animosity and malice directed at the First Nations, many discovered the power within themselves to overcome the horrors that were their lives, as well as to find the strength to move on.…

    • 2211 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Foreshadowing, strategically indicating to the reader what will occur later, can be exhibited in a multitude of forms: it can be subtle, it can be purposely misleading, and it can be suspenseful. Toni Morrison uses each of these techniques in Song of Solomon to suggest the incredible self-discovery and transformation that many of her characters experience. Morrison writes with subtle symbolism that summarizes the gluttonous attitudes of the town, illustrates the Dead family’s isolation, and foreshadows Milkman’s journey into the past that ultimately brings him happiness in the present. Within the first ten pages, Morrison introduces every theme that remains dominant throughout the novel.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    World War II was a horrific ordeal. Many people, innocent people, died during this war. There are many war survivors that believe that warfare is horrid and they share how the war affected them firsthand. Many of the survivors of the firebombing of Dresden lent their testimonies of what happened hoping that it would gain public awareness so people could see the tragedies of war. In Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut…

    • 1650 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is, at its core, a call to awareness for pressing social injustices, as well as a criticism on how various communities combat those injustices. Through the use of clever symbolism and equivocal character names, Morrison explores central themes of societal and emotional neglect, the needs of minority groups, and violence as a means of resistance. The characters of Hagar and Guitar are both representative of those themes. Though their justifications and actions may differ, both Hagar and Guitar show how abandonment, and the corrupting influence of greed, lead to the false notion that violence is a solution to injustice.…

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Song of Solomon is a richly textured novel in which Toni Morrison uses poetic language as well as a variety of literary devices to ultimately make her novel unique and with a certain level of depth. The passage above is particularly interesting because it incorporates many of the literary devices that Morrison uses such as metaphors, similes, oxymoron, allusions, and a variety of imageries. The excerpt also reveals Macon Dead’s personality through the other characters and his role in the household. This type of narrative, where the characters are discovered mainly through the other characters, is consistent throughout the whole novel. Ruth's character, for example, was shown to be isolated from the black community and thought of as a wanna-be white women from the appearance of the others and their actions during Mr. Smith’s suicide leap.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Dell Theory

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages

    War is unavoidable when people are interacting with so many different…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays