Back porch

Being raised in a strict four person family, I have always been told what to do, what not to do, and to not stray from the right path. “Focus on your future, Bethany,” my mom would always tell me, and so I did. Focusing constantly on grades and schoolwork, I dared myself to make time for a social life, and instead, I became quiet and shy. I remained shy to the public for years until one traumatic day during my seventh grade year. This particular experience single handedly changed my future by…

In the ¨Drummer Boy of Shiloh¨ written by Ray Bradbury, a 14 year old boy named Joby is in the military and is the Drummer during the civil war. In the beginning, Joby and the soldiers are at a camp just waiting for the next day. There is going to be a battle on the next day that all of them are traumatized over. Joby is scared the most because he is the youngest and he cannot defend himself like the soldiers. He feels very insignificant. He only has a drum and drumsticks and they have guns. The…

Millions of young men have gone through life-altering experiences in their time in World War I. In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer, a 19-year-old German soldier, narrates his personal memoirs of this war. As he is forced to mature from a young boy to an experienced warrior in order to survive, Paul is left permanently scarred from the throes of war and his attitude towards life is forever changed. Paul is used as an example for all of the young soldiers…

the generations is that the older generation had their youth. They moved out of the house, got married, started a job, and enjoyed one of the most important times in their lives. These men have lost that. After the war they are expected to jump right back into reality, and somehow have the same drive and spirit they had before. However, Paul knows that this is just not…

(Wagner 117). World War I left Remarque feeling alone and at loss of his self-identity. The horrifying experiences Remarque endured shattered his life; and because he went straight into the war after graduating high school, he had no past life to return back home to (Yearley 2136). Remarque felt as if though writing All Quiet would soothe away all they pain World War I left on him. The purpose of Remarque witting this novel was to help pay tribute to a generation of men who were mentally and…

It is the next morning. Aldrich and Danny woke up early to start their next adventure at sunrise. Both got a big breakfast with scrambled eggs, blueberry pancakes and a glass of milk to get energy for a long day. “Ready to go?”, asks Aldrich his friend. Danny answers, “Yea, it looks like an auspicious day.” They go outside. Aldrich: “Wow, I think we got five more inches snow over night. I hope we gonna find the right trail.” After one hour walking through the snow there is a fork in the road.…

What is Patriotism? Patriotism is the love of one's country over all things. None of the young soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, are painted as patriots. Instead they are instruments of elected or appointed politicians who use their own stilted sense of patriotism to encourage young men to then give their lives to defend the country. In this setting, acts of patriotic heroism are thus made pathetic because they are made for no positive outcome. Remarque’s use of…

Since no humans are around, not only has Mother Nature started to take back the cities, highways, and villages, but also Animals have slowly migrated closer to the towns. Anyway, this Gorilla must have gotten either lost or escaped somewhere, because as I rounded a corner in the city centre of Rio, this massive silverback…

Erich Maria Remarque wrote All Quiet on the Western Front in 1929, after Remarque had served in the trenches for the Germans during World War I. The book quickly became a bestseller throughout the world, with many people claiming the main appeal was the realism. Due to the realism of war in All Quiet on the Western Front, many governments banned or edited it, so that their populace and military wouldn’t be demoralized if they ever went to war again. This was largely caused by the underlying…

My goal this semester was to focus on using the correct muscles, such as the abdominals and the glutes, to execute movements and hold positions. In the past, I would overuse my psoas, causing inflammation in my hips and pain in my lower back. While I still do not have complete control of my core and may not always use the correct muscles, I think that I have gotten stronger in the correct areas. I now only experience this sort of pain off and on, and it usually is not as severe as it has…