“Eulogy for Thomas Bryant”
Welcome friends and family (1). We are here this afternoon to pay respects to the memory of Thomas Bryant, husband of Marguerite, and my father.
Thomas was a brave, selfless, funny man. I still remember the way he used to hide under the stairs and then jump out at me, grinning, when I came down for breakfast
(2). I used to nearly hit the roof. I have fond memories of how he used to take me down to the lake on Sunday mornings with our Labrador, Bessie, and teach me how to skim stones on the glazy water (3 ). He was a very social man, before the war, and loved his brandy. I remember the elaborate dinner parties he used to throw for his friends, you people (4), in the hot summers of June. How he used to become very loud
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It was frightening.
The next ten years were very hard on my father. He never spoke about the atrocities he must have faced. I don’t blame him. What he experienced, however,came out in other ways. My once loud, laughing father was gone, replaced, instead, by a silent solitary shadow who took long solitary walks along our lake (8). He no longer fitted into daily life. He became more and more secluded from his friends, family and loved ones (9). A door slamming in the wind would make him jump uncontrollably (10). This was not the man that left this village 4 years ago (11). I don’t like to think of my father as ‘that’ man. The real Thomas
Bryant died in the trenches with the shells and rifle fire. This was an empty shell of a man, his soul stripped bare by war (12).
Forever in my heart is the man that used to read me bedtime stories, the man that taught me how to ride a bike and skim stones on glazy water (13). I ask you not to remember the ghost that returned from war or the man that hung himself in our garage. That man was an imposter, a man warped by hell on earth (14). Think back instead... to peace time, when all was well and good and Thomas Bryant was the loud and funny and kind man we all knew and loved... Thank you for coming
Everyone carried at least something with them such as: burdens, ghosts, cruel images, and unscrupulous experiences. (“The Things They Carried” Critical Survey of Short Fiction 1790-1793). In Tim’s novel, They Things They Carried, he carried courage, innocent, guilt, and love: those were his personal memories. Nonetheless, in the novel, it seems like every veteran carries griefs and experiences. Each person will have different griefs: to Tim, his griefs will be dead of his friends, Lavender and Kiowa.
In the 1940’s a man named Vivien Thomas made a procedure to save “blue babies” it was a problem because thousands of babies died from it. People still have it today. Dr. Alfred Blalock done the first procedure on Eileen Saxson ,but Thomas was next to him the whole time ,he was given no credit though. Helen Tausigg told Blalock and Thomas to fix “blue babies”. She also told them why ‘blue babies” existed.
Thomas Wolfe was born on October 3, 1900, in Asheville, North Carolina to a stonecutter and a boarding house owner. Wolfe’s father, William Oliver Wolfe, whom during his travels, felt the addition of an “e” to his last name was necessary. He adopted the “e” and since descendants have kept his alteration. Mr. Wolfe married twice before marrying the mother of his eight children. Julia Elizabeth Westall was nine years William Oliver Wolfe’s junior and birthed Thomas Clayton Wolfe at the age of 40.
Throughout the history of American Literature, there have been hundreds of influential pieces which have left a mark on other writers. The book “In Honor of David Anderson Brooks, My Father” by Gwendolyn Brooks utilizes a unique writing style, theme and American values. This text was sharing her father’s story and personality to the reader before he passed away. He presumably lived alone and maintained his own home.
When a new officer “found two rats on his blankets tussling for the possession of a severed hand” (138), the company turned the event into a joke. Instead of worrying about how sickening the event is, they turn it into a joke; One who cannot make light of the horrific will start to break down psychologically. As a part of gaining a stoic approach towards life, Graves starts to become emotionally detached. “Those who are killed can’t complain” (115), he says in reference to splitting up the money of those who died. By looking at the war from a purely pragmatic point of view, Graves is able to ignore the terror of combat.
One of the most common fears among individuals is the fear of dying. But what is it that makes us so fearful? Above all, people worry they will not be remembered by those who they leave behind. However, they not only worry that their memories will be lost over time, but that their beliefs and traditions will be forgotten as well. Throughout their lives, individuals tend to act a certain way to ensure their morals will be carried on, even when they are gone.
But Tim O’brien flips those ideas upside down using the chapter “How To Tell A True War Story” in The Things They Carried. The reader learns of a young man whose best friend dies in war, and how he writes a letter to the sister about his life, only to never get one in return. Throughout this chapter, the reader learns how truly contradictory the idea of a “true war story” really is. With a reflective and didactic tone, Tim O’brien effectively teaches those who have not fought in a war how to tell a true war story-- that “a
“Never say goodbye because saying goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” - Peter Pan “Goodbye may seem forever. Farewell is like the end but in my heart 's a memory and there you 'll always be.” - “The Fox and the Hound” - Richard Rich and Jeffrey C. Patch If we live enough and keep a sad way of seeing life we could say life is tragically short. But most forget to remember with death comes life, with life comes death.
There are many motifs that can be analyzed in ghost literature and folklore, though one that is ever present throughout the beginning of the telling of ghost stories is the motif of the suicide ghost. This ghost manifests after the untimely demise of an individual who takes their own life. This motif is intriguing, because of its complex nature and the fact that this motif persists through time, as it is seen in early ghost stories to the most recent accounts of ghosts. The suicide victim is often seen as returning as a ghost, because of the idea that these victims have unfinished business and internal turmoil. The suicide ghost motif persists because of the fascination of the premature death, along with the idea of understanding the internal
In a Hispanic tradition growing up, its every little girl 's dream to have a huge party when you turn 15 which in Mexico we call quinceanera. It 's a party where all your loved ones go, Friends and family. It 's all something you shouldn 't forget, from all the food, to our tradition, music, dances, planning , laughter, crying , pictures , presents, and much more stuff. Its all a dream come true that we all have a day that everyone dedicates that day to you and only you . First thing for my family and I was to plan this whole party a whole 6 months ahead, or others like to do a year ahead, because of course you need to save money for the party and you have almost all your imidate family helping you out with what ever you may need, they all cooperate with any little thing,
The person had to deal with death and the reality of war under the worst case scenario. Bob “Rat” Kiley was that soldier and one of the many soldiers that left something in the war. He had lost his friend Curt Lemon and that’s the first sign that the war has been turning to be painful for him. This coping mechanism for the death was to write letters to lemon’s sister and he shot a baby Water Buffalo. This coping mechanism is seen in the chapter “How to tell a true war story”, shows how he has been affected and explained the toll the war had taken on him.
The speaker discloses that his children have been “gathered like a small cloud [and have become] . . . steam weeping on the window” (ll. 32-35). The speaker uses this final comparison of his children to weeping clouds to convince his grandpa that his life is not irredeemable and his presence is still needed in this world. In conclusion, through Gary Soto’s usage of powerful imagery, precise descriptions, and an absence of rhythm, he evokes a sense of sympathy for the community where he grew up while telling a beautiful story.
Over all, this story allows us to observe changes within the mentalities of army officers. First, the trauma of living in a war zone can add a significant amount of intangible weight into someone’s life. In “The Things They Carried,” we discover that Cross’s men “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die (443).” Given that the majority of humans have experienced some form of trauma, we can understand how some men were driven to suicide and others into
To Tell A True War Story, 51). The true version is always what hits the hardest. In “The Things They Carried”
In enduring these complex emotions, this section was the most remarkable part. One of the first apparent emotions the boy experiences with the death of his father is loneliness to make this section memorable. The boy expresses this sentiment when he stays with his father described as, “When he came back he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again,” (McCarthy 281). The definition of loneliness is, “sadness because one has no friends or company.”