War: the Horrors and Cruelties

1. War: the Horrors and Cruelties A theme study by Matthew Mulkey

2. The Books • Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a book about a pilot named Yossarain • The Lucky Bastards Club by Travis L. Ayers is about a young B-17 navigator named Anthony Teta • War is Kind is a poem about the Civil War written by Stephen Crane

3. The Horrors • Death- could be civilian, military, friends neighbors. Either way all three stories had elements of death. • Destruction- could be of property, life and other people. Also shown in all three • Loss of connection to the human soul- people just do not have the will to live or fight any more

4. Catch-22 • Centered around a pilot named Yossarain flying the B17- flying fortress in WW2. Encounters lots of different experiences mostly related to death and deception of trying to get out of flying active combat duty.

5. Connections • Death- related to death through the experience of one of the two young tail gunners dying who is named Snowden. Snowden is through the major arteries in the leg and bleeds to death in Yossarain’s arms. • Destruction-forced to drop bombs on a village that is inhabited by civilians that the Germans will be passing through. Related to destruction from the killing of innocent people. • Loss of the soul- related to The pilot McWatt. Yossarain’s co-pilot who kills himself. This is done because he can not cope with having to kill the innocent people. He famously says, “Good bye boys, I think you can beat them without me” and then proceeds to crash in to the side of a mountain.

6. War is Kind • Written in 1899 regarding the Civil War. It was written depicting the ways people died and conditions of battle fields, but it is ironic because it tells the mothers to not cry for the dead because war is kind and heals all wounds.

7. Connections • Death- depicts seen with detail of men being shot off of horses, or dying in trenches shot in the heart gasping for breath knowing that this is their last and their not coming home. • Destruction-whole places in history are destroyed and battle fields are ruminates of the destruction of entire armies of soldiers • Loss of human soul- men in the second stanza are getting ready for battle. They have no idea if they will die, but will die fighting . This shows loss of the soul because they are getting ready for a fight they know they will not win.

8. The Luck Bastards Club • True story about an actual boy named Anthony Teta. He was a navigator of a B-17 crew. Entered the Luck Bastards Club in in 1943. Did this by flying 35 active duty flight missions and dropping the bombs on the target. Lived to a ripe old age and died in the summer of 1996 of a heart attack.

9. Connections • Death- saw planes that were from his squadron and others and even ones containing the friends of his blow up or shot out of the sky • Destruction-part of a raid that bombed the city of Berlin the capital of Germany at the time for three straight hours. • Loss of the human soul-displayed in the pilot who’s name was Chart. He was always happy to be bombing other. Loss of soul because it was in a sadistic way and was glad every time that he made two bomb runs in one day.