Book Report After the Bomb Essay Example For Students

Book Report After the Bomb Essay After the Bomb, written by Gloria Miklowitz, is a thrilling novel that takes place before, during, and after a bomb, which supposedly was sent from Russia by accident. The disastrous happening alters all of Los Angeles and surrounding cities. Philip Singer, a teenager, is in a position as leader of the family. His brother, Matt, is awfully sick, possibly from radiation, his father was away at work during the blast and for all Philip knows he might be dead, and his mother was badly injured and needs immediate attention. Hospitals are flooded with injured and dying people and the government doesnt send help for a few days. The badly injured dont even get the chance to be helped because the hospitals have to send the ones that are likely to live to hospitals that specialize in burns. His mother is so badly burned that the hospitals put her on the bottom of the list to be flown to burn centers. By the end of the novel Philip has taken charge, snuck his mom ahead to be flown to a burn cen ter, and in a sense saved his town from thirst. He truly survived the terror, shock, and danger of the bomb. The novel goes through a couple of settings such as, Philips struggle to keep his family alive, and the conflict between the nature of a nuclear bomb against the Los Angeles area. When the bomb hits he is playing around in a playroom shelter with his brother and his girlfriend. They go out to find out what had happened and found burning houses, their home only left with one wall, rubble on the ground, debris all over the place, and people running frantically for shelter. Philips brother became sick after finding his mother and bringing her back down to the shelter, and found that his mother had been burnt severely and needed immediate medical attention. Philip struggles to keep his brother from getting even sicker and to bring his mother to a hospital. Philips family wasnt the only people affected by the bomb. A devastating bomb pounded the entire surrounding area of Los Ange les. Churches, hospitals and streets were flooded with sick, dying, and even dead people. Hospitals that were built to only withstand 200 people now have thousands, and hospitals lack food, doctors, and water. Philips struggle for survival, and the devastating blow against LA was only the beginning of the disastrous bomb. The setting is practically the whole plot of the novel showing Philips struggle to get his mother to a burn center that could save her life, bring his family to safety, and to save his town from thirst. When Philip arrives at the hospital with his mom the government and hospital had already started flying patients to burn centers, but his mom was too sick and so badly burned that the hospital didnt care for her. She was placed on the bottom of list to be flown away. Philip secretly switches the tag on his mom with one that says and earlier number, so that she would be flown out more promptly. He does so and she is flown out early and he most probably saved her life by doing so. Another example was when the bomb had just struck and Philips family was in the shelter, which wasnt very safe and stable. He went up to the surface to check out his neighbors house which was miraculously intact. Philip found the owner and his wife in good shape and arranged to bring his family over to the neighbors cool basement for safety and refuge. A third example was when the hospital in his town was almost put of water and Philip was asked by a nurse to find a worker that works with the town s plumbing at his house and manage to get water to the hospital. He did so and after a while drained water from a residents pool and had it flown down to the hospital. After the Bomb is an exciting and stimulating novel which shows the leadership of a teenager over his family. The novel displays a realistic happening that can happen any second and describes it intricately. Its an electrifying, terrifying, and exhilarating rushand is an outstanding novel. Survival was only the beginning How effectively does Harper Lee present the children and growing up in To Kill A Mockingbird EssayThe depletion of language and history is present in Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four and Huxleys Brave New World and acts as a part of the repression of artistic and creative endeavors. Everyone has the need to express themselves; whether it is through poetry, music, writing or painting; it should be a wonderful passion that individuals enjoy. With a ban of creative or artistic activity, there will definitely be a change in society. And passion and neurasthenia means the end of civilization. You cant have a lasting civilization without plenty of pleasant vices. This shows that individuals must be able to express themselves in order to have an interesting and pleasant society. Language and history are slowly being erased from Oceania and brave new world. Newspeak, the local news station on the telesceen of Oceania in Nineteen Eighty-Four, aims to reduce the number of words in the language. The plan continues with the reporters using less and less words to decrease the thinking in the brain, and the eventual dissolve of ones imagination. In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it Now there is no need for the Thought Police because there will be a little amount of words left in the English language. History, in both novels, contributes to the development of stable society. Winston, from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four works for the Ministry of Truth. This Ministry is completely immoral, where Winstons j ob is to change history constantly so :.. the chosen lie would pass into the permanent records and become truth.. In Brave New World, people have no desire for history and literature because they have been brainwashed to stay away from books. In both societies, people will never learn how to make their lives better or be aware of the illusion that is present. This results in living in a stable society, where nothing will ever change. The people from this society unwillingly paid the price of their creativity and their ability to think, which results in their lack of expression and imagination. These creative and artistic endeavors that are necessary to sustain a utopian ideal, create an unrealistic utopia. Expressed in George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, is the unfeasibility of the Utopian ideal. There perfect state remains dystopic when a lack of familial bonds, the sacrifice of human identity, and the lack of creative and artistic desires try to create stability in their society. The illusion of the utopian society is obvious. Both of these authors do an excellent job in depicting the reality of utopia ideal: But I dont want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin. In fact, said Mustapha Mond, youre claiming the right to be unhappy. All right, then, said the Savage defiantly, Im claiming the right to be unhappy. Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind. There was a long silence. I claim them all, said the Savage at last. This quote represents the failure of the utopian ideal. John in Brave New World, is the last one to see through this illusion. He recognizes what the controllers have done; they have deteriorated family relationships, lost the individualism in each human, and repressed artistic and creative endeavors to a minimum to ensure a stable society. In Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston has almost reached the state of seeing through the illusion. The Party realizes this and sends his to Room 101, where your worst fear becomes a reality. The purpose of this being to readjust Winstons attitudes. He is conditioned and at the end of the novel comes to a realization, I love Big Brother . The Party is too powerful for Winston to see through this illusion. It is evident through both novels, whereby both societies strive for this utopian state, that in the end, it is proved that with a lack of familial bonds, the loss of human individuality, and the repression of creative and artistic endeavors, both societies remain dytopic.