This blog addresses the issue of being separated from a loved one by war. However, it isn't from the perspective of a soldier out in the middle east. Instead, this blog is written by a soldier's wife. She descibes the challanges of being separated from her husband for months on end, then sharing a few weeks together before getting pulled apart again.
The blog has a strong emotional impact, with many posts written like letters to the author's husband. This link is to a particular post in April of 2005, when her husband was deployed after two weeks at home. Even though she enjoyed that brief time together, the pain of separation still hit the author very hard. The previous two blogs were both fascinating, and I think that this one portrays the same issue of separation from the opposite side. We've spent a lot of class looking at how war impacts the lives of people who are right where the battles are taking place. I think it's interesting to see what it does to the people at home when their loved ones get taken away from them.
http://waitinginboston.blogspot.com/2005/04/your-gone-again.html
This post strikes questions and emotions for me that are similar to the first blog, but in contrast, stem from different circumstances.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading and exploring what the author had to say, one of the first things I experienced was obviously concern over the welfare of her husband, rather than thinking from a soldier's perspective revolving around everyday military life. I can't say I understand from first hand knowledge what this event would to do someone, or even what it's like to just be married, but working and taking care of three children at home while every second of the day she's terrified of what be might happening overseas is unfathomable. As if everyday life isn't hectic enough, she has to be content with the fact that she's doing things alone, and even come to terms with the fact that her husband might not come home.
Oppositely, however, granted his safe return, she also must deal with the fact that jumping back into a life he's had to leave is something that will take time and adjustment. Knowing that he might not be able to handle the situation, or feel or act the same with her or their children is heart-wrenching. So even though he might come home safely, the conditions under which they would live could potentially be turned upside down, which is also something extremely different to cope with.
My thoughts go out to this woman who seems to be holding it together fairly well and has nothing but hope and dedication towards her family's future. I respect the hardships that she has to go through as well as her husband when it comes to ensuring freedom and safety, and I also am appreciative of how this story has made me step outside of myself and feel stupid over the things I take for granted, because even though I know there are families who struggle with this everyday, it isn't in my daily routine to think about just how much this effects ordinary people like the author.
I pretty much like the words below the blog title, it's easy and sincere. I tried to scroll all the way down the page, i saw titles went as " you finally home" " just waiting" " only 1 month left" "6 more weeks" "2 more months" " three months", just like a countdown. However, there is only a pic on the homecoming post.I guess all audience could understand what the author is feeling when see that pic, and it's enough. the author mostly wrote all the details, not her opinion upon the war or sth. It makes it really true so that readers feel touching, feel almost the same as the author does.
ReplyDeleteThe first thought that comes to my mind after reading this blog is the tv serial - "Army Wives" atleast with the blog titled - "Soldiers Wife". The way the bolg is designed, the colour scheme and the clouds help us understand the womans' plight that besides the time when her husband is home she has nothing but memories of the time two of them have spent together to help her get through her loneliness.
ReplyDeleteHer blog posts show us how deeply she is attached to her husband, how it gets harder to see him go away everytime he comes back home.
Though this blog seems to be set up to have a wall of memories it also serves as a source of motivation for all the families who have someone close to them deployed in a war torn country. The mere fact that she is managing an entire house three children and her feelings from being away from her husband all alone, really serve as a source of inspiration, something that caught my attention the minute I read the blog.
If we took a second to think if we could manage what this woman is doing single handedly we can very well feel her pain from being separated from her husband and notice her strength and resilience to handle all of it alone.
I find this blog extremely interesting in that, in comparison to the other blogs that we have looked at, this blog is very different. One of the major, and perhaps the most obvious, difference is the fact that this blog is written by the wife of the soldier rather than the soldier himself. Instead of getting first-hand accounts of what happened in Iraq or opinions on war and politics, we get an extremely emotional account of what it is like for those that are left back at home. I also like the fact that when she writes in the blog she is writing directly to her husband as if she were writing a letter with the intent to send it to him. At time she refers to her audience, however those times are few and far in between. There was, however, one aspect to this blog that I did not find very interesting or pleasing. While reading many of the comments placed on this person’s blog, I found several instances in which the commenter did not even really comment on the blog but used the comment box as a place of advertisement. You can check out an example of what I am talking about in the first comment on this page:
ReplyDelete-> https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11379466&postID=112878176501805060
I do like that this is written from the soldier's wife's perspective, rather than the soldier's. It makes for an interesting contrast.
ReplyDeleteBut one thing I noticed pretty quickly was the spelling errors. It's just minor, like the use of 'thru', but I think it makes it more clear that she's just a regular woman using this blog as her diary, or as letters to her husband, as others have said. And in either case the spelling wouldn't matter at all.
It bothers me just a bit though.
I think the interface of this blog implicitly suggest that the blog's central theme is missing the soldier while he is gone, but also remembering the time with him before he left. The faded image in the top left corner has somewhat of a remembrance feeling, which sets the tone for when a reader first views the blog. And then just slightly below is the post with the picture of the family embracing, which stirs sad emotions and might make a reader remember a time in their lives when they also had to be a part of a difficult goodbye.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this blog, it seemed to be a bit melodramatic. The appearance itself seems a bit cliche- a lighthouse, faded colors, and clouds. All of the titles to the blogs sound cliche as well. For example, "Here We Go Again…,” "Picking Myself Back Up Again," and "Your Coming Home To Me." The blog entry itself seems like it was taken from a bad romance novel. I have no doubt that the blogger misses her husband, but the way she presents her blog doesn't seem completely sincere to me. When she writes things such as, "Family and friends are wonderful but I don't want to talk to them. All I want is you," it doesn't sound original.
ReplyDeleteThe blogger's story probably appeals to many, since countless wives of soldiers are probably feeling similar things. I would find this blog significantly more interesting if the blogger made the her blog sound more personal, instead of a story we've heard about thousands of times in movies, TV shows, and books.
I actually find this blog as the hardest to comment on so far. Content-wise, "Soldiers wife" has the most personal voice because the writer repeatedly creates entries in a certain format as though they are letters or little messages she wants to send to her husband. Reading thoughts from a woman who is married to a soldier, who currently battles in a distant land, leads to a rather interesting introspection. I wonder, in such circumstances, which one of them suffers more struggles and moment of despairs. The man who has to put his life in great risk everyday, far away from his loving family, or the woman who remains at home, fully acknowledges of how easily she can lose her husband,her only true soul mate and best friend,at any moment, yet unable to do anything about it but keep on moving forward.
ReplyDeleteThe presentation of this blog is pretty self-explanatory so I will not comment further on it. Now, one point has been made by Katherine about how cliche-ridden this blog is in general actually stirs me the most (not in a negative way though).
I agree with the notation that several sentences and ideas presented by the writer is somewhat banal. An explanation for this can be because it is how most women,who have husbands serve for the military, feel like for the most part. As several of them sharing the same thought, they will be very likely to echo the same flow of idea, while not necessarily having read the others'.
Also, there is a great chance that she is influenced by other authors' works (books/movies, etc), and they would be what inspired her to create this blog in the first place. Then it can be understandable if, along her process of writing, she unconsciously recalled the ideas she read and ended up including them in. This happens to a majority of our population, it's just a matter of whether or not we notice it.
I felt sorry for the author when reading this blogpost. I think it is clear how much she had missed her husband when he was away, and what makes her situation worse is that she has to let go of him again after a short stint of him being home. I don't have family in the military, but I can't imagine how it would be if I knew one of my family members was overseas risking their life and not able to see me. I think the author does a great job of capturing the "I miss you" emotion in her writing.
ReplyDeleteI also want to comment on Katherine's claim that the last couple of sentences don't sound original. They aren't original because she is expressing the purest form of longing to see someone, which of course has happened to countless people before her. While it may not be original, I don't think it takes away from the strong sense of longing to see her husband.
However, what I think does take away from the blog is the fact that there are small grammatical errors here and there. Even the title, the first thing a reader sees, is missing an apostrophe which almost deterred me from reading the post. I understand that not everyone types paying attention to grammar and I respect that it shows part of who she is.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this blog.
I appreciate this blog because it reveals a new perspective,that of a soldier's wife.
ReplyDeleteHuman beings' emotions in face of wars are eternal topics of mythologies and folk stories.I would like to share one of Chinese folk story here. Long long ago,there's a woman who misses her husband in the battle field so much that she kept staring for her husband on a cliff and since her husband never came back,she become a stone,forever staring on a cliff.Behind these stories, we can feel the strong and compelling emotions ,that's one of the main reasons why we like these stories.The bloggers also express very strong feelings with very straightforward emotional words, and the main events in her blogs are the departure and reunion of the couple ,the family.
And it's refreshing to see such eternal feelings expressed in such a feminine way in a blog.We have learned about these strong human emotions in face of wars in the blog of group one.But it's from the perspective of military personnel. Soldiers' wives, on the other hand, don't share the limelight as mush as the soldiers do.
Another thing I like about the blog is the characters style on the title. People have different character style for different purposes.Those of political papers are more sever and formal. The characters here are fairy-tale like,full of the blogger's personality,which I believe to be a subtle way to convey her emotions.
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ReplyDeleteWhen you read this blog you have got to sympathize with the wife, as well as for the rest of their family. after being away for so long, when a loved one comes back for a short period of time, its almost as if your emotions are teasing you with this. With that idea, I do believe it is exceptionally hard for the wife. When she begins to talk about her "boys" or sons, it gives you the thought of how this might be affecting the entire family and not just the wife. The picture obviously adds emotions to this blog by making it more of a reality. Towards the end of the blog when she asks herself if it was "worth it" then she goes on to say "I can honestly say I don't know", you get a sense of hope being lost. she knows that her husband is going away for a long time and even possibly never coming back, so for her to let him go this time was exceptionally hard since she knows what kind of mental strain is ahead for her entire family.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I noticed that this blog has had no comments posted yet, and its been posted since 2005. Then I also noticed that she had no followers, this strikes me to believe that she must have some kind of negative appeal to the war blog based fan group.
After reading this blog, I want to say that not only can soldiers be heroes in battlefields, but also their wives can be heroines at home. It may not seem apparent, or is ignored by most people, but it’s true. I know some girls who don’t want their husbands to be soldiers in case of being lonely and heavy-burdened. These girls are sensible to some extent. Imagine loved ones being separated for a long time and each is taking great pressure of life. That is even hard to bear, let alone waiting for the lover who’s risking life in war. How courageous and strong the woman has to be when handling this situation! So the blogger is definitely worth applauding. And, if she was a famous writer, she would gain much more plaudits as the time when her husband was away might be an endless flow of inspiration for a masterpiece, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the blog is still absorbing and sincere, though some of it is plain. Anyway, I find it fascinating to see firsthand material relating to war and especially the personal aspects of it, instead of secondhand ones like news citing fixed and dull sentences.
Lastly, I want to say that the photo is quite touching, especially when I imagine the children rush at their father and embrace him, while his wife is taking this photo some steps away, restraining the complex feelings that rage within her. Though we cannot see how excited the woman is, her intense emotion is wholly melt with the scene. What’s more, the three children are wearing military uniforms, which, I guess, suggest that they’re proud of their father being a soldier, though this brings them a lot of difficulties.
This blog is very moving and shows how its not only the soldiers in the war that the war has a large impact on but also their friend and family who have to live life without them being there while they are deployed to battle. Also I think that when she talks about him coming home for two weeks and not knowing whether or not it was a good or bad thing because when he left it made her miss him that much more is a very real and true statement that I myself have been through while being away from someone you truly care about.
ReplyDeleteThe initiate idea that came into my mind when I opened this blog was that "Oh my! Another soldier life?". I found I had made a huge mistake soon after this. The title is exactly Soldier's wife not life. Then I know it's time to read and feel sth different.
ReplyDeleteJust like other blogs describing the life whatver takes place in Middle Rast or America, the tone is such touching. As for me, I can absolutely recognize the emotion which is expressed in one by one articles named like a kind of countdown. That's the same feeling as my girlfriend's to some extent. When separated for thousands of miles, you are about to ignore anything but the distance and the time before meeting again. Like the simplest way of saying 3 months, 2 months, you finally home again...And I know it's pretty much harder for a soldier's wife because she can't take away the word "death" from her mind more or less. It's so realistic.Terrific blog anyway, showing us from a different angle of influences made to normal people.
I agree with Jiayang Xu when she commented that the wives at home are heroines for being so strong while their husbands (etc) are away at war. I found this blog very touching, because usually I just think about the soldiers at war, and forget about their loved ones who are just as affected and involved as they are. While reading the post, I couldn't help but feel that the woman was being very real and letting her true emotions out as a sort of relief. I think that the blog that she has created is like an outlet that she uses when she has strong feelings that she would like to get out. She truly brings the reader into her life/struggles, and I was able to sympathize with her. It is really interesting for me to read these kinds of posts because it is such a foreign concept to me to even imagine what it would be like to constantly be worried about a loved one while they are in danger at war. In my eyes, this woman is very strong and although before I wasn't really sure why people wrote blogs, I now understand much better. I think if I was in her position a blog would be really helpful to me when I was in pain or missing my loved one who was off at war; it would almost be like I was communicating with them just by posting my thoughts and feelings.
ReplyDeleteWhen first looking at the blog I was pretty interested, and I wanted to read a few other blogs, but after a couple it really didn't do anything for me. The author seems to just want to be talking to her husband and not really trying to just give her ideas to another solders wife. She is trying to play on her emotions and how she is feeling, but when looking at a few posts, like June 20, 2005. She talks about being fed up and wanting things to be over. It doesn't do anything, it doesn't give any credible knowledge,just lots of her emotion. I have seen the emotion, and ideas before through others. We have seen movies, news articles, and news stations talk about mothers who have a husband in war and how they are feeling. And after reading the articles I just felt kind of bored and like I have heard all this before. So, to me this blog does nothing to me and I believe that is why the comments could be so low because nobody wants to read what they already know and have gone through before. I mean don't get me wrong it is very sad and would be a tough thing to go through, but some people don't want to read about it all the time.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I feel that at some point a personal diary might be a better option for some people. This doesn't really benefit anyone else, nor would i think anyone would want to comment on it. To me it just looks like a bad movie. Has anyone ever seen P.S. I Love You? That's what the blog reminds me of. The only difference is, I love the movie, P.S. I Love You. I think a personal diary of her thoughts, feelings, and pictures would be better suited for her viewing only. I feel like maybe she is just searching for attention. Who wants to let the world know that they're grieving? I think it's a show. Yes, the blog is sad. I might even say pitiful. So get it off the internet. Lady, I'm sorry, but you aren't making me care this point.
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