Writing Assignment
This assignment asks you to discuss similarities and differences in the world of combat described in the Iliad and E. B. Sledge's With the Old Breed using observations from Jonathan Shay's Achilles in Vietnam and material presented in lecture and in discussions. Your work should be typed, finished, and ready to hand in at the beginning of class.
Stoic philosophy claims that external conditions aren't "up to us" - in our direct sphere of control - and therefore have no real moral worth.
The only valuable thing, the Stoics claim, is a good character. A good character is something that no one else - no other person or any other external factor - can take away from a person. A person's character is up to them, and only they can choose to to abandon it.
This powerful vision of moral self-sufficiency is what enables Jim Stockdale to endure 7 years as a POW and still retain his self respect.
It's clear, though, that while the Stoics claim that your good character is completely and uniquely up to you, that deprivation, hardship, and betrayal, take their toll upon those who endure them.
Combatants in the Iliad, the battle at Peleliu, and the Vietnam war fought under very different conditions, but they were all difficult and all participants suffered from hardship. These conditions, and combatants' reactions to them, often had a strong affect on the characters of those involved.
1. Sledge writes that "the critical factor in combat stress is duration of the combat rather than the severity"(Sledge, p 157). Compare a feature of combat that is experienced differently in two of our readings.
Write a paragraph for each feature that describes its moral significance - its effect on the character of those involved - in the two texts.
Your comparison should address differences in external conditions as well as examining participants' motivations and reactions to the situations.
Choices might include hardship or deprivation, the length of battle, the different weaponry used, the proximity of the enemy, the physical environment of the battlefield, or any other of a number of features. Cite texts specifically.
2. Repeat the exercise from question one using a different feature.
3. How combatants view one another is a prime factor in injury to character. Discuss a specific example of this by examining a combatant's attitude towards the enemy and the consequences for the character of the person involved. Cite a specific example, quoting where appropriate.
4. Shay describes the "violation of what's right" as a prime factor in a person's likelihood of developing PTSD. Define what he means by this and apply to it a specific example in a text.
5. Shay describes "berserking" as a strong, rare reaction to profound loss. Describe Shay's account of it and give an example from one of our texts.
Your paper should cite specific instances in the Homer, Shay, and Sledge You do not need to provide footnotes or a Works Cited page; page numbers or (in the case of Iliad) line numbers in parentheses after a quotation are fine.
Papers should be 1.5 spaced with standard margins. Please be careful to carefully proofread your work both for spelling and grammatical correctness, as these elements will form a part of your grade.
Papers are due at the beginning of class. Late papers will be accepted only when accompanied by a doctor's note, so please do not request an extension unless you have such a note.