Margaret Atwood Topic Proposal

For my text-in-context research paper on “The Handmaids Tale” I am going to dig into the practices and effects of totalitarian control. I chose this because it intrigues and confuses me. I am very interested in the idea that a single person or government can just up and control the masses at their whim. I wonder not only how this is done but also, how the said society adjusts and survives such an upheaval. I think the thing that has drawn me on this topic is the stark differences in this government and my own. As a citizen of the United States I feel I often take for granted the  freedoms I enjoy every day. From birth I have had rights and freedoms and it intrigues me that some people don’t.

The research on this paper will be quite extensive as I know virtually nothing about this form of government. First I need to fully understand what exactly a totalitarian government is and how it moves and functions from day to day. I then plan on finding examples of this and last the effects on people. How does a person function being so controlled and manipulated? Do they get used to this?. I would also like to find out if people can recover mentally from this sort of control?

So here we go! Hopefully after I absorb all the information and analyze it I will better understand the characters of “The Handmaids Tale” and the idea and facts behind a totalitarian government.

http://margaretatwood.ca/

Sean Huze

Sean Huze’s “Sandstorm” is a completely literal and honest depiction of his experiences as a Marine in the Iraq war. He play is basically Marines reminiscing about their experiences in the war zone and is set up brilliantly. The setting is kind of vague, “the stage should be somewhat abstract, suggesting no exact time or place” (Huze p.1). I thought that this was brilliant as it sets the audience up to be completely engulfed in the words these men are speaking. No crazy backdrop or war photos you only need to hear the men to see these images in your head and understand exactly how brutal war can be.

The play is powerful in the sense that is has been written from the front lines, you get to hear about war not from history book authors or talking heads on TV, but from the men that lived it. Sean most definitely stayed true to the stories and while at times it was a bit hard to take I have to respect a man that is willing to put these stories on paper so publically, and appears to have not toned it down a bit.

The story that probably shook me the most was the story of CPL Tracy Waters. In the play he is sort of known as the man that is obsessed with food, MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) specifically. In his mini-story  after a brutal ass-kicking by the Marines in a town called Al Kut he sits down to eat one of these MRE’s and sees that somehow one of the “enemy” has survived. He walks up to the man to find the guy pleading for Water’s to finish him off and put him out of his misery. This poor man refuses and walks far enough away from the man to finish his meal but still listen to the man die a slow and painful death. The reason I am so taken by this story is that I can’t begin to understand what this young man had to have experienced to become so hardened to human suffering. I refuse to believe any Marines or human for that matter wants this, so what has happened? As I read through the play I begin to realize that these men have been traumatized by the loss of their comrades and fellow Marines. They equate their friends death with any other person, civilian or not and seem to be being run by this need to exact revenge.

I don’t want to leave the impression that this play was completely overrun by violence and death. There are scenes in this play that are very moving and it is obvious that these Marines have big hearts and a lot of compassion, especially when it comes to the kids in this warzone. Based on this writing it is obvious these men are caught in a battle they themselves don’t understand and it is clear they are trying desperately to do the right thing and deal in a situation that is beyond my comprehension. My only hope is that after laying their lives down for this war and our country they are able to overcome what they seen and done and find solace in the fact that they are appreciated and adored and despite the fact they may have done things we can’t fathom they are heroes and should be treated as such.

http://www.veteranshelp.com/

Tim Obrien

The first 26 pages of Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” tell the tale of a group of men in Vietnam and more specifically the loss of one of them. The story seems to revolve around the platoon Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and how he feels at fault for the death of one of his men, Ted Lavender. The story begins telling what each man has carried and how the things they carry can weigh on them. The main character in this mini story is carrying a love for a woman, Martha who does not love him in return. Jimmy Finds himself often daydreaming and distracted by this love and feels he may be “slacking” as a leader because of it. Throughout these 26 pages Jimmy Cross explains that led by him, his platoon is pillaging villages and burning them to the ground for no reason they can understand. From what I know and feel about the Vietnam War this idea is commonplace but how could these men be sent out here on this endless trek through this country with no goal or plan? Upon arriving at the village, Than Khe the platoon comes across a tunnel that they have been instructed to search and then blow up. One man heads down the tunnel and searches it. While this man is down here Jimmy is daydreaming about his Martha at home. Seconds after the man arises from this tunnel, his comrade is taken out in a second feet from him. The lieutenant blames the death on his daydreaming. From this point on he vows to lead these men more effectively and promises to leave is love for Martha alone as it has no place in this war. The burden placed on these men is enormous and how they make it is beyond me but somehow they manage to move on from this horrible scenario and continue to fight a war they don’t understand.

                The thing that struck me about this whole scenario is that the men in this war (Vietnam) did not understand what they were there for. How could this be? We have actually sent men to another country to kill people and don’t bother to explain to them why they are their or what the “mission” is?? We put them through physical and emotional trauma for nothing? The worst part of this very sad scenario is that during Vietnam our country had a draft enlisted so these men ,as explained in this story, only joined the armed forced under fear of embarrassment for ducking the draft. They did not choose nor understand the war and in my opinion should have never been sent. The soldiers in this story seem to be living the life of a zombie, they walk day to day just trying to survive and have slowly been hollowed out of any real person they may have been. As I read this I began to wonder to myself what happened to these men. Were they able to go back to any normalcy or happiness?  From what I have learned about American history the unfortunate answer is no! Vietnam Veterans were treated unfairly upon their return home, some ended up addicted to the drugs they took to attempt to deal and some never came back at all. To this day we may still possibly have soldiers in Vietnam either living or buried in random unmarked graves throughout the country they invaded for what seems to be no good reason. My uncle was a Vietnam Veteran and when he came back I was told he was mentally unstable and could not handle the transition. His story didn’t end well he spent the last 20 years of his life homeless and on drugs. He rarely discussed the war and refused to seek help with the emotional and physical pain he had endured. He died of an apparent drug overdose at my grandmother’s house and as she had told me at the time, he is finally at peace. His story didn’t have a happy ending as most Veterans of this war didn’t. The only glimmer of hope for our country from this is that maybe, just maybe we have learned something. Hopefully we as a nation will think twice about a war and how it will effect a generation. In closing I would like to also add that it seems this may just be happening. As of our last election Americans as a society wanted out of Iraq and so they voted for a leader that would get them out. Our new president did keep his word and has an exit strategy. So maybe this is a sign that Vietnam did not fail altogether. Maybe these men who carried the entire burden of this war did not die in vain and people will begin to understand that what a soldier is carrying is too much for one man and they need the support of the country they fight for. As a citizen of this country I can only hope that in all wars in the future we send these brave souls into battle over things that matter and when honor them for what they do.

This is a link to a website specifically devoted to all the protest out country had AGAINST the war and occupation of Vietnam.

http://www.essortment.com/vietnam-war-protests-21614.html