"Life Goes On"
Nectar in a Sieve and Supporting Media
Negative Disallsionment - When one has to struggle with a new truth about their society, self, or social world, but in the end this struggle ends in personal despair or loss of hope.
We feel that the texts Nectar in a Sieve, Fallen Angels, and Krik? Krak!are examples of negative disallusionment because they all involve personal struggles and hardships, but in the end those struggles did not promote any personal enlightenment or growth.
Fallen Angels
by
Walter Dean Myers
One Step Closer
(Linkin Park clip)
"I hadn't been to worried about going to Nam. From what I heard, the fighting was almost over, anyway" (5).
"I started writing a letter to Kenny. At first I thought I wanted to tell him about the war, about how I felt about the fighting . Then I knew I wanted to tell him about my killing the Cong... I started off saying that the war was about destroying the enemy. Then I remembered about the news guys asking us why we were fighting in Vietnam. It wasn't the same. Saying that you were trying to stop Communism or stuff like that was different than shooting somebody" (189).
"I was telling him about the wonders of Harlem when I noticed he was shaking. I asked him if his stomach was bothering him, and he said no, that he just couldn't believe he was out of Nam" (308).
Summary
This novel is a graphic tale of a platoon of young soldiers that have gathered in Vietnam for many reasons. They learn that if they do not ban together and forget their diffences than they will never meet their ultimate goal - to finally make it home.
"Shame is heavier than a hundred bags of salt" (p. 154).
"How is a man remembered after he is gone? I remember my father, who was a very poor struggling man all his life, as a man that I would never want to be" (p. 75).
"There is so much sadness in the faces of my people. I call on our young. I call on our old. I call on our mighty and the weak. I call on everyone
and anyone so that we shall all let out one piercing cry that we may either live freely or we should die" (p. 71).
"A wall of fire is rising and in the ashes, I see the bones of my peole. Not only those people whose dark hollow faces
I see daily in the fields, but all those souls who have gone ahead to haunt my dreams" (p. 56).
"Freedom is on my mind" (p. 56).
"There is no place like you (home). I had to leave you before I could understand you" (p. 9).
Summary
Krik? Krak! is a series of short stories exploring the enduring lives of Haiti's women as they struggle through horrors, heartaches
cruelties, and loss as they resist the brutality of Hatian rulers and regime changes.