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The Hand And The Fist (2000)

by Eric Greitens(Favorite Author)

4.17 of 5 Votes: 3

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English

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review 1: Greitens starts this book with a heartfelt and inspiring message. “For each of us, there is a place on the frontlines.” Early in the book, he tells a story about his experiences in war. He quotes Pericles in his speech to the families of fallen Athenian warriors, “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” Greitens, by his actions, proves that he holds this message as a standard to which he evaluates the life he chooses to lead.Early in his life, he chose to become involved. He took a job teaching English in China, and was able to interact with many of the students present at the time of the uprisings for freedom that had been squelched within China. They, too, clearly had an impact on him. “Hist... moreory was alive today. It was made by people: courageous, determined, thoughtful—it was made by people my age.” (22) Here becomes a lesson in responsibility. Greitens confronts the problems of the world, he does not rely solely on the efforts of others. He appreciates the efforts of others as he works alongside them. Wow, is all I can think.There are incredible moments, such as those he relates about his work in Rwanda. “One day I stood outside a health care clinic in Rwanda as a volunteer pointed to a young girl with a deep machete scar that ran from behind her right ear across the back of her neck. We look at a scar like that—we reflect on the evil that human beings are capable of—and we are tempted to walk away from humanity altogether. But when that same child smiles at us, when that same child lets us know that she has survived and she has grown, then we have no choice. We have no choice but to go forward in the knowledge that it is within our power, and that the world requires of us—of every one of us—that we be both good and strong in order to love and protect.” (86)Greitens studied at Duke, and there continued his study of the classics, history, and philosophy. “I was fortunate also that I had professors who, while appreciating the value of contemplation, understood the importance of doing, of translating thoughts into deeds. In this regard they followed the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, who believed that action was essential: ‘Without it,” Emerson wrote, ‘thought can never ripen into truth.” (89) He continued training as a boxer, and supplemented his experiences in Bosnia and Rwanda with a trip to Bolivia. He then went to Oxford, and then decided to become a Navy SEAL. “I’d learned that all of the best kinds of compassionate assistance, from Mother Teresa’s work with the poor to UNICEF’s work with refugee children, meant nothing if a warlord could command a militia and take control of the very place humanitarians were trying to aid. The world needs many more humanitarians than it needs warriors, but there can be none of the former without enough of the latter. I could not shake the memory of little kids in Croatia drawing chalk pictures of the homes that their families had fled at gunpoint.” (125) Greitens, it seemed, was destined to be both a humanitarian and a warrior.Greitens chronicles then his military training, and I’m sure an abbreviated account of his special forces encounters in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Kenya, and Iraq. He is a special person, and this is an incredible story.
review 2: I very much enjoyed this book because it was a personal life story of a man that wanted to do something with his life and not have it wasted every day. He chose to do interesting and great things throughout his life so that it would mean something. How do the characters react towards adversity? This book is filled with many characters from many backgrounds and homes. Most of them are a mix of different ways that react to adversity, but the main character, which the book was focused on, reacted to adversity his own way. He reacted to adversity in a way that he always pushed through. When he was boxing, he was knocked down several times when sparring or in the ring, but he chose to get back up not because he didn't want to quit but because he knew how much he had trained and who is was in that category. The same with SEAL training. He trained and trained and when he failed or didn't rise to the standards, he would rise back up because he knew what had put him there and he had trusted it. My favorite passage of the novel was in SEAL training when one of the instructors was yelling at the trainees who had to do extra PT to make up what they had lost over the 4 mile run. He said: "You fail. You pay. You fail. You pay" (149). This symbolizes that if you make a mistake and do not rise to the standards set for you and fail, there are consequences. All the time there are consequences for our failures and mistakes. That instructor was showing those men that later on, in the battlefield, if they make a mistake or fail, men will die. He showed the importance about doing our best to everything perfect. less

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