A creative essay dealing with the many faces of tragedy throughout wars, illness and natural disaster.

The word "Tragedy" comes from the Greek word “tragoedia,” meaning “goat song.” The origin of the word derives either from the practice of sacrificing goats before the performance of tragedies or from the goat-skins worn by choruses. The purpose of tragedy is to illustrate how humans are at the leniency of fate and to cleanse the audience by provoking extreme emotions of pity and terror. Tragedy is part of everyday life and we must learn to move on; it takes its toll in the shape of wars, illness and natural disaster.

War. While much has been written on its influence on contemporary living, its influence on western cinema has not been given proper recognition. Movies typically depict war as a conflict which is being disputed by 2 or more parties. There is usually a great act of heroism by someone and a happy ending to wrap up. In reality, this does not happen.

English: A picture of the 2004 tsunami in Ao Nang,...

Tsunami wave field in the Bay of Bengal one hour a...

Animation of 2004 Indonesia tsunami

Instead, many lives are taken every day as a war wages out. For instance, let us take a look at the 2nd World War. At this time, countries were using various methods of communicating secretly with its military personnel. Germany had invented the Enigma machine which was capable of encoding messages in such a way that it was next to impossible in cracking unless another machine was used. Therefore, many attacks on the U.S., England and many other countries succeeded and were led by Germany, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. This continued until the British cracked the Enigma code and was finally able to put an end to the tragedy and genocide. Due to the war, this led to many people becoming ill from various factors.

Illness has affected one too many people. Whether it be from poisonous gasses from...