Rough Draft

Natzem Lima

Mrs. Sejkora

AP English 12

February 16, 2012

Rough Draft 1

            Universally, themes are known to incorporate an author’s background and follow traditional methods of literary construction, while mirroring the plot of the novel. However, two very different illustrations of identical themes are displayed when analyzing Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Baeh and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

In sum, Baeh in Memoirs of Boy Soldier tells his own story of how he endured the attacks of rebels and went onto being one himself. Eventually, the government goes onto rescuing Beah and placing him in a rehabilitation center. Baeh goes onto establishing the theme of the detriment behind war through very unconventional and unseen methods.  As highlighted by Author X, Baeh’s:

knowledge is shocking, but it's the reader's imagination that delivers the cold sanguinary shudder, not the author's boilerplate prose. It is a vision of hell that Beah gives us, one worthy of Hieronymus Bosch, but as though depicted in primary colors by a naive artist.

Undoubtedly, Baeh does paint a picture of hell and does paint a picture of war in his depiction of the events he witnessed. Yet, Baeh does so in a neutral tone because the “[his] conversation shows no compassion for the people they killed and no remorse for their actions" (Hope). The neutrality with which Baeh paints his picture of hell mirrors no common literary technique. Baeh is very original in what he does because he doesn’t tell the reader what to think. He sets a tone so neutral that the images which he portrays are difficult to emotionally interpret. Therefore, readers draw their own conclusions instead of being led by a string of cheese. To further support this notion, "in the end, the book gives no evidence that one side had greater moral authority than the other" (Hope).

In a different scope, Wells in War of the Worlds tells the story of a narrator that undergoes the invasion of Martians. In the story, the narrator must split with his wife and undergo an adventure of glorified death scenes. In the end, the Martians are devoured through a bacterium which humans have developed resistance to. In War of the Worlds, Wells establishes the theme of the detriment behind war through more conventional methods. It is important to note that conventional methods refer to schemes and tropes. With War of the Worlds, a tone of determination becomes ruthlessly enhanced. His conventional methods are also seen through his archetypal storytelling and his establishment of a very specific environment.  Although conventional, Wells uses these literary devices with a twist as author x describes that “It was a shrewd move on Wells's part, therefore, to build the famous first paragraph of The War of the Worlds on the global preoccupation with telescopic surveillance." When Wells did this, he set himself apart from the normal and placed himself as an outlier because normally, a global theme is built upon. Instead, Wells was boldly outright. He built upon his theme in one paragraph instead of what often takes 200 pages or more. Not only was this original, but also, when Wells did this, he did so in order to place the reader in a total war state of mind so that everything the reader encountered could be treated with hostility. On another note, when Wells tell his story through an archetype, he is very conventional. When Wells uses an archetype he creates familiarity. Familiarity allows for readers to cross reference other books with similar themes and thus build upon their understanding of war.

With both stories having identical themes, the question now arises: how can a universal theme have so many different variations from which it is constructed? Much of the answer through how each author chose his form of narration. Beah was quite original in the way he approached his first person narration. With the theme of the detriment behind war, any one would have imagined that the Beah would’ve been intrinsically intertwined among his stories of the people he brutally murdered or the people he watched die. Yet, despite the personal attachment for the things which were ripped from him, Beah, as a narrator, seemed so disconnected from it all. It was almost as if Beah was narrating from a black and white camera, inot being able to understand that the ruby red blood gushing wasn’t in reality a stream of grey. His disconnect from the book placed Beah as a bystander and with this, Baeh is truly original with which how he narrates. Not only that, but for the first time ever a pubescent warrior-killer was given a literary voice. On the other hand, War of the Worlds, depicted the equivalent theme, however, through a very different narration technique. Wells wasn’t nearly as novel, but he did something most books would never do and that is to demonstrate the theme “at the outset” (Author x). While both books depict the equivalent theme they do so in very distinct ways.

Most often the plot of the book parallels the theme of the book. Meaning a violent plot will give rise to a violent theme. Yet, Beah’s memoir does not align with this generalization. In Beah’s memoir, despite its very violent plot, is told in a very peaceful tone. Yet this peaceful tone arises to a violent theme. Through this Beah’s construction of theme can be seen as an oxymoron when contrasted to theme is contrasted to tone. The cluelessness of war behind the voice of the author is noted because “Baeh's memoir describes a society in so much chaos that it is not clear that even the military leaders have a good understanding of what war is about.” (author x). The latter demonstrates how peaceful a mind can be, but how that peacefulness contributes to chaos because it is unaware. The peace of mind which Beah was at is demonstrated in his book because of theway he narrates. The reader, let alone, the author, has no idea what’s going on. This peacefulness in which the author constructs his theme is truly unique.

In all, the two identical themes have a very different foundation. Most foundations of a building often correspond with the building code of their time just like the construction of the theme’s of book vary in correspondence to their time in history. With that stated, it is quite safe to say that more modern books are constructed through more modern techniques, while the reciprocal is true. Therefore, modern author’s should focus more on delving into new techniques rather than following the old conventional ones. This deviation is most likely common because the traditional becomes boring and outdated, and in some ways incomprehensible by the more modern generations. Hence, why there exist so many classes for old literature in comparison to more modern literature.