In the play “The Sand Storm” by Sean Huze the writer recalls the thoughts, feelings and emotions of eight different Marines. He allows the characters to open up to the audience and recall the events that happened in the war after September 11th. This play was very enlightening and emotional. It moves the audience to better understand the trials and tribulations that the men in the military are faced with.
The Sand Storm was an eye opener for me. It showed how real the Marines are. That they, unlike the image portrayed of them, have feelings and emotions that need to be expressed and explored. When you see the commercials or the posters for the Marines, they are portrayed as hard cases, where nothing seems to break their resolve. However, they are human, they do break. By knowing what they went through over there, emotionally and physically, we are better able to understand that war affects everyone; that it causes severe stress disorders.
Corporal Rodriguez makes a valid argument in his statement of
“Have you ever faced your own mortality?
I don’t mean in some general sense like we all know one day we’re
going to die. I’m talking about feeling like it was imminent.
Like within the hour or at most the day. Knowingly placing yourself in
harm’s way. It’s not a natural act. I don’t know if it’s courage either, but
it’s something.” (1)
This shows that they as humans are concerned with their own lives, yet they willing place themselves in the middle of chaos for their country. I couldn’t imagine waking up everyday wondering if today was the day you were going to die. If your number would happen to pop up in fate’s box, and knowing that you may never see the ones you love and fight for again.
It enrages me that people think that they have the right to protest the soldiers and see them as the cause of the war. They curse them, spit on them, and call them names. How can these people be so naïve and not realize that without these soldiers, they wouldn’t have the freedom of speech they are so fond of invoking? I think that it’s worse for the soldiers to not only hear these ignorant outbursts, but to also have to come back to ignorant questions, like how many people they killed and such. These soldiers shouldn’t have to come back and relive these horrors over and over again for the sake of cheap entertainment. I hope that by producing this play they opened at least one person’s eye to the darker side of war for our soldiers and showed someone what it means to follow orders.
1. Huze, Sean. The Sand Storm. Page 15 lines 10, 15-20. Play. 2004
Link to: http://www.ptsd.va.gov/
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