When it comes to life, there are many things you do that determine who you are. Whether you are a good or a bad person depends on how you treat others and your contribution to society. Perhaps the most interesting question presented in the article by Fleishman is whether or not good or bad people deserve the same burial. According to Erwin Kowalke, he believes that the good and the bad need to have the proper burial. The dead need to be honored and with the honor comes a peace that can be felt by all who were affected by this person in their life. While I was reading this post, there was a definite and ominous feeling that the article was very much related to Antigone's defiance of the state. Antigone buried her brother because of her religious belief that a buried person would be able to go on to the next life in peace. With this peace, you can understand why some people like Kowalke are willing to disturb the resting places of unknown bodies. Some of his opponents challenge his views by asking why he chooses to uncover these old remnants of soldiers. The article describes of a situation where Kowalke found a body of a 92-year-old woman's husband. At the point where he gave this woman her husband's bones, he said that he knew what he was doing mattered to people.
Perhaps the most interesting quote I took from the article is, "War is young men killing other young men they do noto know on the orders of old men who know one another too well." (HCC Reader 235) This quote sums up a majority of the conflicts that are major plots to movies and pretty much situations and cases of war in the world today. There is a certain archetype about the son who gets revenge for his father's death in many novels. The chain of killing does not ever really end and causes even wars to break out.
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2 comments:
i think this point is really good: "there is a certain archetype about the son who gets revenge for his father's death in many novels." it poses the question of if this is all war is... or perhaps if this is what it is that contributes to something like the "circle of violence," or "chain of killing..." does this revenge have to be acted out only by males or as a masculine violence?
I really enjoyed this post. I really liked the beginning because it caught my eye and made me want to read the rest of the blog. I also agree that people are being judged on what they do, good or bad. I also thought that the connection of their thoughts and that of the article of Kowalke were very well connected and put together. I think that the idea of getting revenge for their father can even be compared to today's society and the war in Iraq. Many people believe that George W. Bush invaded Iraq to revenge his father George Bush, and the previous Iraqi war.
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