Motivation: Writing Before Reading

There are many times when we are put in a situation when we don’t want to follow the person that we are told to. In other words: submitting to authority is against human nature. People want to be in charge of themselves and don’t want to be told what to do by someone else. An example of this would be when our parents tell us to do something. Whether it interferes with previous plans or we’re just feeling lazy, the idea of doing what they say makes us want to scream.

I believe that military leaders have to enforce harsh decisions upon their soldiers. If a military commander is soft and compassionate towards his soldiers in training, they won’t be ready for what is to come in any way. They have to be strict and mean and everyone should think that they are the most horrible person on the planet, because if they let people get away with anything, that is how mistakes are made in combat.

It is very important for a unit to work as a team. If everyone is off on a tangent of their own, trouble is caused and nobody knows what each other are planning. Soldiers could be lost and there could be tragic consequences including losing the war.

If a commander is not in control of his troops, mistakes are made, men are lost, and the soldiers themselves will have no direction and no way to know what they are supposed to be doing. They are not the head of the army and they don’t know how to win a battle and they will just make fools of themselves.

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" Analysis

The poem “Charge of the Light Brigade” was a very sad poem. To me, it was about a fleet of 600 soldiers charging into battle. They seem fairly confident and charge in with strength. The poem describes the setting as “the jaws of death” and “the mouth of hell”, showing that they are plunging into a situation where loss and death are inevitable. The poem says “cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them.” They are completely and utterly surrounded and they are totally annihilated. The end of the poem reads: Shatter'd and sunder'd. Then they rode back, but not, not the six hundred.” They were killed off and only a few returned.