Figurative Language In The Things They Carried

People carry all kinds of things on the daily basis. From little things like car keys to a traumatic memory from the past. The soldiers who fought in the vietnam war had to go through many incredibly horrifying experiences and it was those exact events that make “The Things They carried” by Tim O'Brien such a marvellous vivid book. Tim O’Brien uses imagery, figurative language and repetition to get a ridiculous emotional connection with the reader. He uses story-telling to clear his conscious about war furthermore the constant struggle of the soldiers forgotten by society. “But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget.”

Sadly no one realizes a person's significance until they die. Only remembering how they lived instead of acknowledging their existence; which
is something that will never change in any war.
War is often thought about as something that hardens a soldier. It makes a person stronger emotionally because they are taught to not show emotion. Mainly dealing with the soldiers learning to be less human and turning into killing machines. Finding the reason why you are at war may be one of the hardest things to do. Are you fighting for a country you love and that loves you? Or will you find yourself one day writing a apology letter to your parents because you feel ashamed of fleeing from war because you believed you were too good like Tim O’brien?

The Iraq and Vietnam wars are two very particular and different wars. One was in a jungle and the other in a desert, one with more advanced technology the other with no women in the front line but would you ever consider looking at the war through the eyes of a African American or Latino? Not only an american
perspective. For certain soldiers after each war when they come back home, they have a different sense of patriotism, a different way of thinking about the United States, they connected to our nation because they now have earned their citizenship. A total of 170,000 hispanics served in the vietnam war and 5.2% of them died. Could possibly being appreciated for fighting for a country that doesn't want you there be wrongly denied because of religion, race or ethnicity? In the Medal of Honor’s history, just over 60 Hispanic men received the award, out of the more than 3,000 medals awarded. Even though last year more than 150,000 hispanics were in active duty. However let's not forget that most white americans weren't so pleased with the idea of arming African americans and training them how to use weapons during the war and while they served faithfully in the Navy they weren't allowed to serve in the army as the consequences the air force and marines had no African Americans enlisted in their ranks. Furthermore while they were at both wars they didn't think about race or color they just saw the other men as brothers. They made sacrifices for a county that didn't exactly love them and made sure they knew they were here illegally in the case of immigrant latinos. But in the end of both wars most of soldiers who fought and died for this country weren't not always seen as equal.

Unfortunately when you're out there in the combat zone things don't change. The vietnam war continues to influence american attitudes towards the use of force overseas towards the Iraq war. Currently we’ve given much hate to those who consider themselves or being involved in the “muslim” religion because of the frequent terrorist attacks were constantly terrorizing others blaming them for things they had nothing to do with. Little do we know that it's not always one race, one color, and most sadly not only one RELIGION. ISIS has proved remarkably successful at recruiting terrorist online from around the world, including the U.S. In december, a married couple inspired by ISIS killed 14 people at an office party in San Bernardino, California. Its things like that that Americans who criticize muslims don’t see. So whether you're fighting for a country you love but doesn't love you or you received a drafting letter in the mail, how much are you willing to sacrifice in order to receive justice