Chapter 17 I Thought I Was a Salamander

Provide a brief summary of the conflict in this section.

The political and religious conflict between Israel and Lebanon comes to a close
as the two countries have a ceasefire. Stack also experiences a personal inner
conflict as she questions the purpose of war and her own role in it, as well as
facing the emotional effects of her experiences of war. She realizes that she is
not immune to the effects of war and realizes that she has lost a part of herself
in it. She feels most comfortable when she visits the mental hospital, as she feels
she is able to let go of all the experiences and emotions she has had to put up
with over the last 6 years.
Who is involved?
This chapter briefly involves the political conflict between Israel and Lebanon,
but mainly focuses on Stack and the inner conflict she displays as he realizes the
effects that war has had on her. The mental patients also serve as a sort of
mirror for Stack to see the emotional damage that has been done to her, and she
sees many similarities between them and herself.
What are the causes of the conflict?
Stacks inner conflict is caused by the buildup of her experiences as 6 years as a
war correspondent. Being at the end of her journey, she realizes the toll it has
taken on her through seeing the death and destruction inside Lebanon caused by
Israel, as well as seeing the world from the point of view as a mental patient.
This causes her to reflect on her own experiences and the mental toll that war
has taken on her, as well as the purpose of war itself.
What are the consequences of the conflict?
In this, the last chapter of the book, a contrast is created between this and the
first chapter. Initially, Stack sees covering war as an adventure, while at the end
of her journey, war has become a negative experience for her, and is not the
adventure she had imagined. Stack develops post-traumatic stress disorder, and
deals with heavy emotional consequences as a result of the effects of war she
has seen as well as questioning her own role in war.
How are we positioned as the reader to view this conflict? What
evidence is there to support this view?
The reader is positioned to feel sorry for Stack, with some feelings of sympathy
and pity for the heavy emotional toll and hardships she has endured. At the
same time the reader feels she is a little ignorant for initially viewing war as an
adventure and not realizing the full consequences that she would experience
from it. The reader is also positioned to see war as something that affects

everyone who is involved in it in some way, including journalists who cover it.
They feel that none are immune to the effects of war.

Give a few overarching big idea statements.

None who are involved in conflict are immune to its effects.

War is not the adventure that journalists believe it is
Journalists have a high price to pay for what they experience in war
War merges political and personal conflicts into one
Provide the extract page numbers that best relate to the conflict.
237-240, 245 These pages best show Stacks acceptance of the effect war
has had on her
Provide some important quotes from the text.
When the bombs stop, all you hear is the possibility, the promise,

of another bomb (p.237)

Somewhere between Afghanistan and Iraq, we lost our way

(p.242)
The line between heaven and earth broken (p.243)

It was a dirty end to a dirty war (p.244)

I had survived. I was alivebut I left myself there (p.245)

You can survive and not survive, both at the same time (p.245)

Paragraph Conflict has only negative effects on all who are involved
in it.

Journalists pay a high price for their experiences in war, as it turns out
to be very different to the adventure they think it will be. Their initial
feelings of excitement inevitably turn into sentiments of guilt and they
also face a great deal of emotional trauma. In Stacks memoir Every
Man in This Village Is a Liar, by the time she reaches the end of her
career as a war journalist, she realizes the heavy emotional toll she has
taken as a result of what she has experienced. She realizes that she
had survived, but at the same time she left myself there. While she
had survived the war in a physical sense, it caused a great deal of
emotional damage. She develops post-traumatic stress disorder as the
sound of fireworks shook my heart like a bomb and every crash
brought the war back around me. She is unable to escape the
hardships of war even after she is no longer a part of it as she has
become so used to it as a part of her daily life. This contrasts to Stacks
initial thoughts on war when she began her career as a war reporter,
seeing it as an adventure. She believed that America had the ability to

tame all the wilderness in the world, and believed that she would be
able to play a part in helping her country achieve their goals. She
believed I was a salamander and would be completely immune to the
effects of war, being an outsider to the actual conflict. However,
throughout her time as a war correspondent, she continually finds
herself thrust into the middle of conflicts, placing her life in danger.
This has a large toll on her, as he realizes that she was not able to be
the salamander she thought she was, as nobody really survives the
fire, showing that war has an effect on all who experience it, no matter
in what capacity they do so. She ends her chapter with the same
statement that opened her memoir; you could survive and not survive,
both at the same time. This shows the real effect that war has had on
Stack, where she has survived in a physical sense, but has suffered
greatly emotionally. This demonstrates how war and conflict only has
negative effects on those who experience it, no matter in what capacity
they do so.

Paragraph - 'War is not the adventure journalists believe it is.'

Like many who go off to war, no matter their role, it is in many cases
seen as an adventure. However the effects of war take its toll on all
who are involved and they soon find this not to be the case. Megan
Stack tells her story through her memoir Every man in this village is a
liar. A story involving a very quick learning curve that she undergoes
when faced with the reality of war. The excitement that she had at the
beginning of the war, her countries ability to Tame the world were her
driving factors to doing her job as a reporter. Stacks views on war
quickly change when compared to the last chapter of her memoir. The
way she talks about Surviving and leaving myself there does not
sound as though it is an adventure. She talks about the effect the war
has on her. How every firework that goes off reminds her of the bombs.
Stack suffers still today from PTSD Post traumatic stress disorder
something as a result of an adventure. The contrast between her first
and last chapter sums up her change in belief in war. She no longer
sees it as an adventure, but more something she is grateful to have
survived. She ends her last paragraph with the phrase You can
survive and not survive, both at the same time. Although Stack
returns, it seems a part of her is lost to this great adventure that is
war.