Rat Man

murmured the waitress at Le Anne Jemima The man sitting next to us interrupted her saying “there ain't no way that it's true this is Fake.” Once me and my friend finish off our burgers after discussing if we should be worried about these possible life forms heading towards us. We decided we should just pay for our bill and not take any chances on whether or not this is true. When we ventured out to our car not sure which steps to take we came across a shady young man who seemed to be quite…

It can make them put on a front, act overconfident. Opposing to these reactions, fear can also make people run away or hide. In the mid to late 1900’s during the Vietnam War, soldiers were faced with this same fear. The men did not want to appear weak to each other, their community, their family, or to anyone. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried he reveals stories of the Alpha Company, a United States unit of foot soldiers, that he was in during the Vietnam War. Some men went to war to…

American enters the small silver box and recognizes a familiar face. She was an older white woman who lived down the hall. Wearing a fancy purple dress, she crammed herself into the far back corner of the elevator. She looked like she had just seen a rat, with her face as white as snow and full of fear. ‘Do you want to come up?’ the young boy asked. ‘No’ she responds in a high pitched whisper and quickly slides out of the elevator. With a puzzled look on the young boy’s face, he presses the 5th…

The iconic Marlboro Man represents an ideal of masculinity, toughness, strength. He is ever stoic. Tall, dark, handsome, and the silent-type, he is a being other men imitate, and the man many women describe as desirable. In Paula Cole’s 1997 hit song, she desperately asks, “Where have all the cowboys gone” (Cole). The man she believed was a cowboy is not one; he is based on an erroneous belief. Gretel Erlich seeks the cowboys in “About Men.” Her looking for Marlboro ads on the subway while…

novel, O’Brien during the vietnam war or another man in the platoon. In the chapter “The Things They Carried”, O'Brien uses a series of rhetorical questions and obscenities to allow the reader that the story is coming from O’Brien during the wars for these were the questions going through his mind in that moment, “...-ass and elbows- a swallowed up feeling- and how you found yourself worrying about odd things: will your flashlight go dead? Do rats carry rabies? If you screamed, how far would the…

Faulkner mentions, “‘Tobe!’ The Negro appeared. ‘Show these gentlemen out.” (Faulkner 2). Emily’s father influenced her when he considered his family of the highest class, and that no man in town was good enough for her. She refused to finish the awaited conversation by the Board of Aldermen, and orders her servant to escort them out. Being of a high social class allowed her to believe that she had authority and power over people. When…

This video made me question what makes a person gay or straight. I was immediate shocked that there might be an answer to this question. The video had two twins, Jared, and Adam. Jared has his room is decorated with G.I.O and marine furniture and his favorite toy was battlefield. Adam has a pink room and is into dolls and neopets. I was able to learn that Adam’s behavior reflects that of Childhood gender nonconformity (CGN). CGN is a phenomenon in which prepubescent children do not conform to…

regularly punished.” The restraint and pressure are anywhere in the comics, but the most critical example can be found on page 118. While Alison and Bruce are having lunch at a restaurant, they both recognize a chunky lesbian with hair short like a man, dressing in a virile shirt. With an unpleasant but solemn look, Bruce asks Alison, “is that what you want to look like?” Alison dares not confess her will, so she tells a lie. Bruce’s sign of disapproval demonstrates the punishment of not…

The Harsh Realities of War War is an unchanging human interaction that has been present in history for as long as humans have. Although every war has its own mitigating factors that started them and are fought by different people, the abstract concept of war has yet to change since humans fought each other with sticks and stones. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried provides specific insight into the effects War had on the soldiers of the American Alpha Company in the Vietnam War and…

The fascinating thing about a war story is how it does not revolve solely around combat. They are actually more like a hurricane, in that while in the midst of what seems to be a hellacious and destructive disaster, the anxiety and fear before landfall as well as the aftermath, leaving a planet in ruins, are critical in understanding the entirety of the experience. Though the war is a key component to the story, many of the battles occur before and after and create deeper wounds than could ever…