Soundtrack to War Stories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzhAS_GnJIc
 This song by Taylor swift can be the soundtrack to both of the short stories we have read in class. it is called "Safe and Sound." This song is talking about the wars going on and how everything is on fire and if you close your eyes you will be safe and sound. "Just close your eyes, you'll be alright" (2:42) In "Guests of the Nations" and "Another Way to Die" loss is taking place and soldiers are now at loss of humanity. They are now used to all the fighting each day and the new wars to take place. In "Another way to Die" he veterinarian was used to all the killings of the animals and everything being destructed and on fire. Deep down they all knew that the war would be over and they soon would be safe and sound again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I98KeKV_F9g

This song "Eve of Destruction" goes along with both short war stories we read in class. Young soldiers have to fight and kill. In "Another Way to Die" the young soldier was very timid to kill the Chinese prisoners and didn't want to. When he was told to smash a prisoner head with a baseball bat he did not want to and had an upset look on his face. In the music video it says, "Your old enough to kill but not for voting" (:25) The soldiers were all very young especially in the short story "Another Way to Die." That's why I think this soundtrack would go very good together with the war stories. It also says how bullets are flying everywhere and violence is occurring. War is filled with violence and nothing but violence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1fHxPY3TJo

"Guns and Roses" is a song that goes good with war stories and with the short stories we read in class. "Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading," this is a lyric in this song that ties in with "Guests of The Nation," Noble, Jerimiah Donavon, and Bonaparte had to kill their "chums" they made because of war. It was peaceful until they had to start spreading hate. They started to then spread fear in the rest of the prisoners because they would be next.

Picking out songs that could be the soundtrack to war stories is very easy to do, when reading this and listening to each song what one do you think would be the most effective and powerful?

Short War story and War Poems

The short story, "Another Way to Die" and the poem, "The Diameter of the bomb," have a lot in common. Both of these sources not only have connection with the war topic, loss, but a connection with symbols used throughout the sources. The symbol of a circle is shown throughout the war story and poem numerous times. The symbol of the circle shows the circle of life. It also backs up the topic of loss.  In the "Diameter of the Bomb," on line 3 because of this circular bomb it says, "four dead and eleven wounded." People lost their lives because of this small bomb. As shown on previous lines it starts expressing how one little bomb can have such a huge impact. "The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters" (Amichai line 1 and 2) This symbolic circle in this poem caused major loss throughout this poem wounding and killing many and it also shows major loss in "Another Way to Die."  In this short story the circle of life is displayed and the circle is a way the soldiers can kill someone. "Deep circle inside him to scramble the organs."(Haruki page 6) The prisoner's circle of life has now ended because they cannot do anything to stop the soldiers from doing this. Another time this symbol was shown would be when the soldiers made the prisoners dig a big circular hole. Ironically the hole the prisoners made was then used to discard their own bodies. “The corporal drew a large circle on the ground using a baseball bat.”(Haruki page 5)The Chinese prisoners were then told to dig the hole. As you can see this short story and war poem had the same connection with the topic of loss and the same symbolic circle throughout both stores. This is the main way these sources related. Reading all of the short stories and poems is there any two the show a major connection to you? Does it follow the main war topics?