This is the picture from the book on page 113 of Funafuti the morning after it was destroyed. During the destruction of Funafuti men were petrified. an airman wrote to his parents. "I thought I was scared in the air, but I wasn't. [It was] the first time in my life I saw how close death could come"(112). Men were experiencing a real war, and real acts of terror for the first time in their lives. The had never seen such destruction or violence before. What they once thought was scary was nothing compared to what they were now experiencing. This line particularly stood out to me because it really showed what these men were facing and how petrifying and life changing it was to be in the military. Men were dying instantly, some from heart attacks and severed limbs. Many men could not even handle the terror so they just broke down crying and prayed for their lives which in no way benefited them but benefited the others because it made those who stopped and just lay on the ground to cry, more vulnerable than the ones fighting for their lives. I found this sentence from the book to be very powerful. What do you think?
It is a powerful sentence. Thinking about facing death and actually come close to facing death are two completely different things. You don't know how you will handle it until you are in that experience. I feel as though the ones with the greatest mental toughness survive these close death experiences the most. If you could not handle it, you were not surviving. I find it amazing how much more is out there in this world and how we, hopefully, will never experience such a destruction or disturbance these men have too. We are so consumed in our own little worlds. It is almost good to get that little reality check of how lucky we are.
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