post #3 "When I Was a Soldier"

Synopsis:  Valerie has just found out that she has been assigned to a top secret part of the Isralei army, the inteligence sector.  Soon after finding that out she is sent to her new base which is near Jerusalem and her love, Jean-David.  She soon figures out that she is the brightest student in her training class and thefore she will be punished the hardest when she messes up, which is proved when she recieves an 80 on a test and her leave is taken away from her.  She retakes the test a few days later and afterwards she goes to the cafeteria and has a panic attack where she couldnt move and was very hot.  She is sent to the hospital and taken care of and sent back the next day.  She is required to see a theripist from then on though.  After her training is finaly complete she is sent to an underground bunker were she and her comrades read, take notes, and interpret information on the Jordians air force.  She and her unit enjoys this, one girl in the group falls in love with one of the piliots and later on sees him on TV only to releize that he is a fat old man.  Valerie finally gets another leave and visits Jean-David only to find out that he has a girlfriend with whom he is living with and in her anger Valerie leaves.  She goes to the Tel Aviv and goes to the beach there but forgets that she must keep her gun on her so it prevents her from swiming but she dips her feet in, she makes a promise to herself that once shes done with the military she will return and take a swim.  While still in Tel Aviv she meets up with her old friend Gali who is a homosexual and a very good friend to her.  They catch up and she remembers why she felt so close to him before, its because he was a great listiner and gave her good advice on her life.  Once back at the military she finds out that she has been assigned a mission and will report to another base in the morning.  The base she is assigned to is none other than her best friend in the military Enyat who greets her warmly and together they prepare for the mission they are about to embark on.  The mission is in a spy plane where they are listing for pilots speaking arabic.  After the missions is complete and the chapter concludes it flashes foward about a year Valerie and Enyat are finaly through with their service and the first place the go is the beach in Tel aviv.

Authors use of voice that shows culture:
the  quote from the book "I was bowled over by the fact that he'd confided, it felt like a huge demonstration of trust."
the way she words this shows that she really does appreciate the trust that people give her which is the way she was raised and that she also doesnt expect things like that but gladly accpets it.

post #2 "When I Was a Soldier"

What i have read since my first post is the following:
Valerie is still getting used to life in the military, she along with everyone else in her company is having to wake up at 4 in the morning and goes for runs that are kilometers long.  Not to mention the food which she refuses to eat, the only nuterion she has is the yogurt that she gets with her food supply in the army and when she returns home to a feast of her mothers making.  When she does return home to her family and friends she feels seperated not only from them but from herself, as she describes to Raheal life just becomes robotic while in the base, Raheal is terrified for her boyfriend Freddy who is about to turn himself into the army for desertion.  After her visit home she must return to the base and upon that time she learns that she will be firing a weapon.  Just the thought of killing another human being scares her to the point of tears at which point her corpral comes over to comfort her by telling her that the women only will have to shoot at someone in self defence.

Post #1 When I Was a Soldier

So far in the book "When I Was a Soldier":
we meet a young lady named Valérie Zenatti from Nice, France along with her to friends and her two Russian best friends Yulia and Rahel, they all live in Beersheva, israel in the desert. They have finally turned or are about to turn 18 years old and must take the trials of the baccalauréat. But for Val it doesn't matter because shes going to be enlisted into the army. It's a right of passage into adulthood but shes not exactly looking forward to it. finally the day comes were she must leave, after a brief but heart filled goodbye to everyone she loves she is called onto the bust. Once on the bus she is seated by another girl Eynat who she quickly becomes friends with. after they arrive at the base they are placed into regiments and companys. they are given their dog tags with and their numbers. they are introduced to their corprals and she soon learns that this life is going to be one of discipline and hardship.
in a paragraph that i have choosen she writes it from her point of view often commenting on things and telling what happens one after another. it flows as if someone was telling the story to you.

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