"The Stick Soldiers"
Hugh Martin did a great job of really capturing the difference of opinions between America and Iraq, even in the children. The American children sent the soldiers cards with pictures they drew. They write to the soldiers what they hope to receive for Christmas, along with some kids sending their best wishes to the soldiers. The children in Iraq draw pictures on the concrete walls that are seen as the soldiers are driving by. It is almost as if they are being given threats by children, but the kids are not even saying a word. The children in Iraq simply want the American soldiers dead and gone. What I particularly enjoy so much about Martin's writing is that he captures little moments like this, that would simply be overlooked by others. Writing his stories out in a poem definitely differs from the war stories we already have read, but the way each poem is about such a small detail that you would not expect a soldier to remember is what really separates his writing from the others to me.
"Four-Letter Word"
From the immediate title of this poem, I began to think this was going to be a simple poem about love. I mean, what other four-letter word is mostly written about now? As this poem is broken up into ten different sections, we go through different points in Martin's life where something has happened that involved the real four-letter word: Iraq. The end of the first point, "Dying is part of training for war in Iraq" stood out to me more than anything. We seem to look over what soldiers truly go through while training for war, and I feel that the point behind this poem is to simply show people's oblivion. The countless number of questions he writes in his fifth point while he is home on Christmas leave mostly seem to be asking the question of "why?" Why put yourself through something like that? It seems that not just Iraq, but war in general, meant much more to Hugh Martin than you would believe at first.
While reading "The Stick Soldiers" I thought the way Martin described the drawings children sent him from both Iraq and the United States was really important. It showed how different the societies are, but at the same time showed how alike they are to each other. Although the children have different opinions of the soldiers, they are still children. They think the way they do because they have been influenced by their society. Also, I agree with what you said about how much the war meant to Martin, and when reading, I really liked how he opened up to us in this poem.
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