Before And After: The Effects of Warfare

Mordis Eksteins Rites of Spring: The Great War and Birth of the Modern Age and Ernest Hemmingway’s The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemmingway both have similarities and differences. Ekstein’s mostly pertains to the living conditions and events occurring during warfare, whilst Hemmingway’s focuses on what happens to soldiers after the war, particularly with family members and those who did not participate/stayed behind during wartime. . In some way, the two map out the harshness of before and after war, putting the psychological and physical effects into account as well. The two main characters in both stories also observed anything happening around them, and kept detailed accounts of it in their mind. One way to tie these two sources together is that Eksteins piece started and ended with such extreme psychological and physical conditions throughout the war, that when in Hemmingway’s story Krebs returned, his mentality was deeply affected. To how he viewed woman differently, to how he did not love anyone at all, it effected family members around him such as his mother, who cried due to Kreb’s harsh words. Both characters questioned the ongoing events occurring around them, such as in Ekstein’s, that when would help come, and that the hell that everyone was going through would finally cease? In Hemmingway’s, Krebs Morley questions his own actions and his own beliefs. One other thing is that in Ekstein’s, soldiers had more freedom, of course to an extent. In fact is was pretty much every man for himself. In Hemmingway’s, Kreb’s parents tried to restrict him when he returned from the war. They “did not want to hamper [his] freedom. [His father] thinks [he] should be allowed to drive a car.” As seen in both stories, both characters develop differently under extreme circumstances when it comes to extreme warfare. Depending on the person, effects can highly differ, from the experiences a person faced, to how one deals with it. 

Advancements and Drawbacks: Still Seen In Today's Military

Black Hawk shares some similarities with compared to Michael R. Gordon’s “American Soldier Killed Freeing Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq” as well as Kate Kelly’s “War Communication Before Modern Technology.” Gordon’s article links some similarities in technology used during the Civil War, still seen in today’s modern equipment, while Kelly’s proves that information concerning any deaths or fatal results can still be withheld from the public without much intel being released, which causes questions to arise from the public on whether or not the US military and government make the right decisions.

Compared Black Hawk Down, Kate Kelly’s article, “War Communication Before Modern Technology” has a big gap between today’s technology and the those used during the Civil War, yet shares some similarities. The balloons that were used for communication via scouting the battlefield and sending the observations through a telegraph are strikingly similar to Black Hawks. Black Hawks, despite the technological advancement, are still used as a form of communication from the sky, and are used to throughout missions. Whilst Signal Corps used flags as a system to carry out messages to their troops, sometimes encrypted with a secret code, this concept is still applied in our modern communication today. Troops now communicate via headsets in order to stay in touch with others throughout missions. These are essential particularly if they get separated during heavy fire or combat. Sometimes code words are used in order to signal or carry out a specific action. Despite the technological advancements, today’s technology still has hiccups, much like what Signal Corps faced. They had the issue of capturing one’s attention when trying to send a signal to them, and risked being shot. With Black Hawk Down, misdirection or one wrong word resulted in hazardous results, injuries, and even deaths.

Michael R. Gordon’s “American Soldier Killed Freeing Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq”, has a situation similar to Black Hawk Down. After the devastating mission in Black Hawk Down, there was an attempted scramble to try to hide certain evidence from the public, much like the American military officials did so concerning the mission’s outcome as well as the American soldier’s death Gordon’s article. Like all missions, most people can expect a death or two, but in Kelly’s article, no one expected an American Soldier to die during this mission’s objective, which was to release the prisoners who were being held by ISIS in Iraq. Black Hawk Down is similar in the case that during the core mission, most of the troops thought the mission was to last one hour, when it spanned into twenty four hours, and resulted in the unnecessary loss of many soldiers.

Looking back, there is a definite improvement in today’s way of communication, although there are still many cases in which with the modern era’s advancements, is still prone to miscommunication. When faced with critical results from missions, military officials and the government still attempt to cover up the vital information from the public. These articles are a reflection of Black Hawk Down’s content in some sort of fashion.