The Elements of War

The Elements of War

"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." -Josef Stalin

This collection of short stories all deal with one common subject, war. War is a major aspect of everyday life, and everywhere you look war is abundant. Life without war would be rather interesting. Would countries result to large scale debates instead? No, life with war is inevitable and war itself will exist until the last two men on earth fight to the death. In this selection of short stories you will find a large variety of warfare, each particular story dealing with an important aspect of war. As you read through these stories think to yourself about the aspect the author is trying to convey. Also, watch each particular character and how war takes its toll on them. Each story, as you'll find, shows how war affects people in various ways. The authors make it a priority for the reader to experience the change that occurs in everyone during warfare, and how warfare in itself is chaos.

The titles included in this collection are Crystal Arborgast's Covenant, Nicolas Travers's The Prisoners, Ambrose Bierce's A Tough Tussle, and Liam O'Flaherty's The Sniper. The reason I selected these short stories is because they all deal with the different aspects of war, but also share many common attributes found in warfare. All of the Stories are told in third person. This allows for the author to present a more neutral sided story less full of emotion and more information based. The authors most likely chose to write in third person to achieve a less bias stance towards war, and more information based. This in turn lets the readers choose for themselves their own stance on the issue, resulting in a story that is more socially accepted.

Covenant is a great example of a story that benefits through using a third person point of view. Arborgast clearly wants the reader to view the whole picture of the story by doing this, resulting in a story filled with more information that allows the reader to sympathize with the characters. As you read the story try to envision what the story would be like if not told in third person.

The main aspect of war I'd like to mention that Covenant presents so well is friendship. Believe it or not, war is a place not only of fighting, but there is a type of friendship that can only be achieved through fighting along side others. People that you would never talk to on a normal day are suddenly in charge of keeping you alive and vise versa. Friendship so deep you would entrust your life in the hands of another. War is in fact chaos, and within the chaos is where heroes and true friends are born.

The Prisoners is a part of my collection for two reasons. The first reason is the symbolism found in the story. Symbolism can be an author's greatest weapon when trying to convey a message which can be socially frowned upon. Travers clearly wanted to inform the public about the immense deal of change that a soldier experiences while at war. Being from Great Britain, he chose to rather hide his message through symbolism, than receive ridicule through public shame. Watch the main character's attitude towards killing as the story progresses. There is a big deal of change that occurs, which brings me to believe that the change that goes on inside a soldier while at war is what the author was trying to convey to the reader. War changes people in a very bad way. In most cases soldiers find themselves doing things they would never dream of doing when first entering a war. A soldier emotionally becomes calloused to death.

The second reason I chose this story is the huge emphasis on death in it. Death is everywhere in war, and The Prisoners is a great example of it from the view of a prison camp. Nicolas Travers most likely chose a prison camp as a setting to achieve a more gruesome scene to convey his symbolism through. In stories of war, setting many times can be one of the most important elements of fiction. Setting can stir up memories of past events in the reader that create a more real and interesting story. The story has a great quote about war, "Death squares all accidents and settles all disputes, and the dead are the only losers."

In A Tough Tussle the main aspect was also the change in the soldier