John Marsdens novel Tomorrow when the War Began e Essays - Fiction

John Marsden's novel Tomorrow when the War Began explores the important ideas of change, leadership and morality of war as a group of australian teens return back from their camping trip only to find that their country has been invaded by a foreign army. The idea of leadership is spread throughout the novel, especially in relation with Ellie, a major character and narrator of the novel. Ellie's leadership qualities include being outspoken, courageous and confident. She shows these qualities when she originally plans the group trip to Hell. She also has the ability to work well under pressure as shown in the lawnmower incident where she saved herself and her friends by killing 3 enemy soldiers with a lawnmower. Ellie claims that "It was the first moment [she] realised what true courage was." Leadership is an important idea in the novel because without effective leadership, the group would have known little about the invasion and they would've struggled to survive. Another important idea in the novel is change when the group are quickly faced with the fact their country has been invaded. This forced the group to quickly mature. The character that underwent the most change is Homer Yannos as he went from an immature and irresponsible troublemaker to a responsible and mature leader the group can count on. Homer shows this change when he plans the bridge explosion when his quick thinking and leadership destroyed the enemy's main supply route. Ellie talks about Homer when she says "It was hard to remember this fast thinking guy, who spent fifteen minutes getting us laughing and talking again, wasn't even trusted to hand out books at school." Homer's change is very important to the group's survival as an immature and irresponsible troublemaker would've put the group in danger and made them more vulnerable. The morality of war is another important idea in the novel as it changes the group's perspective on life and makes them value their own life more that the enemy's life. A character that shows this idea is Ellie. After killing 3 enemy soldiers with a lawnmower she is constantly getting haunted with guilt. She is unsure whether to be happy that she saved her friends, or feel guilty as she killed three enemy soldiers. Ellie explains that "[she] doesn't feel like a criminal, but [she] doesn't feel like a hero either." In conclusion the ideas of leadership, change and the morality of war are important to the novel as they show emotional and physical change among the group. These ideas allow the group to think differently and understand the situation they are in. These ideas make the group inflict as much damage on the enemies as they can, in hopes of taking their country and their families back.

Violence in America †What it has shown me

Violence in America – What it has shown me Free Online Research Papers Violence in America is growing and it surprisingly is more prevalent in families rather than with strangers. Many causes of this are environmental problems that are causing stress between family members and are causing animosity. Violence seems to be an effect of some risk factors that put people in the line of having more of a chance of domestic violence in their homes. Although we are developed country we have just as much violence here as third world nations. Violence is causing so many homes to break up, people to get hurt, children to lose parents, and lives to be lost that there must be something that our society can do. Three articles from this class have also shown me how violence can change a family, person and society. The first article is â€Å"The Christmas Present,† by Caridad Souza, this is a heartbreaking story about a family ripped apart by violence on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve these children are left with their drunk Uncle and he tries to take advantage of one of the younger girls and instead of just being bystanders her siblings fight for her to keep her innocence. So they embark on this bloody battle against a man much bigger, stronger, and at times smarter. But they succeed and their young sister is not robbed of her innocence but they all have now witnessed violence first hand and what the effects are on children especially. This story is so sad because when the father gets home he blames the whole thing on the mother instead of being happy that his children are a little beaten but ok. Violence is a tricky thing because it creeps into usually happy families that are just down on hard times or are having a rough year. It prays on those who have more risk factors and exp loit them. Violence happens in any kind of family though no matter how much money, material goods, or kids they have. These kids have no witnessed first hand violence and it probably has had some major effect on them and unfortunately they probably will not get treated like they need to for psychological reasons. Violence like this happens frequently in high risk families. The next article is, â€Å"Notes on Oppression and Violence,† by Aleticia Tyerina, which is about that because of her race she is full of hate and violence. This story was great in my opinion because in the end she has a resolution that she should not fill her life full of hate and violence because she is disadvantaged. Her life before this resolution was filled with hate and violence because she was treated differently because of her skin color and she felt oppressed and by being hateful and violent she was releasing her anger. Although, this seemed to help at first she later realized that nothing will change if she cannot see past her hate and anger and she is only oppressing herself as well. This was such a step forward for her because I know if I was in that situation I would have a hard time pushing away all my anger and not taking my anger out and being violent. Violence is an escape for many people that are poor, unemployed, unhappy, and oppressed because really to fight back there aren’t many options but giving up violence is one of those. She escaped the trap that violence can put a person in, it can make great people go bad even for just a few minutes. This story though is inspiring for anyone who feels that violence is their last resort, their only answer. The last article is, â€Å"The Uses of Anger,† by Audre Lorde, this article is about how much anger that oppressed groups of people have to deal with daily. She takes a very different route in this article because she explains that anger for women of color can be very useful. It can help them keep going in life and propel them to never give up. She talks only of anger which is great because we know that she is not suggesting violence and when anger is used right it can change people, the world, or society. Anger is a way out for some women of color because their lives are so hard and by putting their anger out there they can identify it, see it, and maybe do something about it. Violence here is not even an answer because that does not lead to any change only hurt and terrible consequences. Research Papers on Violence in America - What it has shown meEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenCapital PunishmentRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andHip-Hop is Art19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraWhere Wild and West MeetQuebec and CanadaThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThe Effects of Illegal Immigration