Hero Of War Analysis

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We think of soldiers in many different perspectives. But we never know the pain they go through or what they experience in battle. “Expectations versus reality” is the theme that connects all of these texts together. These songs are Hero of War by Rise Against, Wrong side of Heaven by Five Finger Death Punch, Rambo First Blood by Sylvester Stallone, Ted Kotcheff and Peter MacDonald and lastly Like Toy Soldiers by Eminem. In the song Hero of War, soldiers make many assumptions about what it’s like serving in the military, but then realize the reality of war. At the beginning of the song, we are thrown into a perspective of a man who is being persuaded into joining the military. He joins and starts his adventure through boot camp. He makes friends…show more content…
We are thrown into the perspective of a man who is trying to be a soldier, but can’t compose himself properly as he tries to think about all the other soldiers dropping like dominos. “I'm supposed to be the soldier, who never blows his composure, Even though I hold the weight of the whole world on my shoulders, I ain't never supposed to show it, my crew ain't suppose to know it.” This verse is trying to tell us that he’s expected to be the best soldier and lead a crew without them noticing he’s scared. He feels like he’s carrying the whole world on his shoulders and his crew isn’t meant to know. He probably feels this way as it’s his responsibility to keep them safe. Most soldiers have responsibilities as they are a higher rank. When they are told to take a group of soldiers to complete a mission they would feel like they are carrying the whole world on their shoulders because they don’t want anyone to die. “I'm so caught it I almost feel like I'm the one who caused it, This ain't what I'm in Hip Hop for, it's not why I got in it, That was never my object for someone to get killed, Why would I want to destroy something I helped build, It wasn't my intentions, my intentions were good. This verse talks about how he expected a war to be. He feels like it’s his fault that someone got killed. He has now seen the true reality of war. He says “This ain't what I'm in Hip Hop for, it's not why I got in it.” This is a metaphor, he is saying that he got into the Hip Hop industry because he enjoyed rapping and dancing. When he relates it to the song, he talks about that he didn’t join the military so that he could see his soldiers die. He probably joined it for the adventure. He wasn’t shown the full picture when he signed up. The recruiting officer didn’t tell him what he would see on the battlefield. This just shows us how the government thinks of soldiers, they play them like
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