Free Things They Carried Essays: Violence In Literature
“In great literature no sense of violence exists on its own sake”(College Board). The scenes from the novel, The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien will be used to explain violence in literature.Violence can show many different things in literature, for example, how cruel people can be. It can be towards a friend, an enemy or even oneself. Not all violence is intentional, one may not have a choice when harming one's life. In the novel The Things They Carried, there are many examples of violence that contribute to the reader's’ emotions.
Violence in literature can involve many things such as how manipulative people can be. Many children are bullied no matter where they might be. Schieble stated, “When violence is approached it may be discussed one-dimensionally as physical conflict among characters in literature or as connected with students lives as in the case of bullying”(18).Within the story, O'Brien's true love,Linda was bullied. This scene gives the reader an emotional attachment to Linda, due her being bullied because the reader can connect with the emotion that she may be feeling. When Linda was just nine years old she was diagnosed with brain cancer. . Many of the other children at her school often make fun of her for wearing her red cap.. When Linda does not have this cap on her head, it is bald and veiny. To Linda this cap makes her feel more comfortable and she would rather not let other students see her without the cap.
The characters in this novel tend to mess with each other in violent ways. This comes about, due to many of the characters having …show more content…
issues with each other or often times when they are just messing around and someone gets hurt.r. Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson got into a fist fight over a missing knife. Jensen accused Strunk of stealing his jackknife so, Jensen hit Strunk so hard that, “Strunk’s nose made a sharp snapping sound, like a firecracker”(O’Brien 59). Jensen continued to hit him after breaking his nose. This scene is special because in a war you should not be fighting your own crew, it should be against the enemy. The way Jensen and Strunk act towards each other soon changes. In the chapter “Friends,” introduces violence in a little bit of a different way. In war you have to have trust in your soldiers even if you do not get along very well. In this chapter, Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk were not friends right away. Even though they were not close, they made a promise to end the others life if they suffer a wound that would make them have to use a wheelchair for the rest of their life. This promise was so serious that they made a contract for both of them to sign. Then later that year in October Lee Strunk stepped on a rigged mortar round. The explosion is so powerful that it took off his right leg at the knee. This is an injury that would put Strunk in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Strunk knew that they had a promise but when the time came he did not want to die. He told Jensen, “But you got to promise. Swear it to me swear you won’t kill me”(63). Jensen did not kill him but he was relieved when he heard that Strunk died somewhere over Chu Lai because he did not want him to be made that he did not kill him. Violence can be for the good even when you do not want to do it. Neither Strunk nor Jensen wanted to kill each other but when the time were to come they knew they would have to so the other’s life would not be lived suffering. There are many other scenes where the soldiers fighting for the same purpose get violent towards each other. Another event that reflects the crew fighting against each other is when, O’Brien got shot and he wanted to plot revenge on Jorgenson. When O’Brien was shot for the second time in battle the new medic, Bobby Jorgenson took ten minutes before helping him. This caused O’Brien to go into shock which led to him to almost die.O’Brien wanted to pull a prank on him or, “spook the fucker”(191). O’Brien was very cruel when he did this. While Jorgenson was on night watch, O’Brien and Sanders went out and almost scared him to death. Although these characters view their actions as just “pranks”, some of these actions can result in serious consequences.
In this novel, characters conducted violence on themselves. They do this for many possible reasons such as wanting to get out of the war, so they did have to deal with the constant struggle of going through deaths and trying to cope with it. Being in a war can be a lot on a soldier; sometimes they would hurt themselves to avoid the pain in the future. Curt Lemon was very afraid of the dentist. When the dentist came out to care for the soldier’s teeth he did not go to get his teeth looked at. All the other soldiers made fun of him because he was afraid of the dentist, even though he was a soldier. Lemon was so embarrassed that he insisted on waking up the dentist late at night to do a checkup. Nothing was wrong, “...but Lemon kept insisting, so the man finally shrugged and shot in the Novocain and yanked out a perfectly good tooth”(84). Lemon was so hard on himself, to get the courage to go get a perfectly good tooth pulled, just to prove a point.. He did not want to be made fun of being afraid of the dentist when he was less afraid of the war. War can be very hard on a soldier, so much so that they would do anything to get out. The soldiers will go to far to even cause themselves pain because the war is too much for them to handle. Rat Kiley was starting to lose it, the war was getting to his head. Kiley said, “These pictures in my head, they won’t quit. I’ll see a guy’s liver. The actual fucking liver”(211). Rat Kiley was scared but it was not the normal scared. Kiley could not take it so he shot himself in the foot, therefore he got shipped to Japan to recover which gave him a nice little break from the war life. War is a lot on one person so it causes internal conflict with one's self.
War is war; it involves killing people even when it is something you do not want to do.
In battle, soldiers have to kill the enemy; it could be one person or multiple people everyday. O’Brien explains an instance where Kiowa killed a man. Kiowa did not take it well and Azar kept telling him to forget about it because it is a war and it happens. The kill had a huge affect on
Kiowa,
His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was
shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and arched like
a woman’s, his nose was undamaged, there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear,
his clean black hair was swept upward into a cowlick at the rear of the skull, his
forehead was lightly freckled, his fingernails were clean, the skin at his left cheek
was smooth and hairless… (118)
He did not stop looking at the dead body, he couldn't take his eyes off this man that he remembered every detail of him. Kiowa kept thinking about what it would be like if he were to switch places with that man. The soldiers can lose the great new friends they meet in war without a goodbye. Rat Kiley had a best friend named Curt Lemon. Lemon died when him and Kiley were messing around playing with a grenade. The death of his best friend was extremely hard on Kiley because Lemon and him were so close. Kiley then decided to send a letter to Lemon’s sister to tell all the great things about him. Unfortunately, after two months there was no reply from Lemon’s sister. Kiley wrote a fantastic letter and when she did not reply it made him very upset. The violence in this case is to show that Rat had to get out all of his emotions. The shooting reflected off the emotions Rat was having. A reader could associate with Rat in this instance because he was so upset that he did not know how to handle his feeling, besides being violent. This scene could also affect the reader's, due to how detailed the killing of the buffalo is. Later on, he came across a baby water buffalo and at first he went up to it, offered it food which it had not taken and he pet its nose. First, he shot the buffalo in the knee. Then, “The animal did not make a sound. It went down hard, then got up again, and Rat took careful aim and shot off an ear”(75). He shot the buffalo many other times after that but he purposely shot it in places that would not kill it. To Rat the buffalo was not about the kill, it was about hurt. His best friend died and the man’s sister will not even write back. Even though the harm was on a animal instead of a human it is just another way violence is put into literature.
Violence in literature can give the reader different emotions and it contributes in many different ways. The Things They Carried is a war story, meaning there is going to be violence. The unique thing about this story is that is comes in many different ways. Violence is being shown towards friends, enemies and one’s self. Without the violence in this war novel it would not be the same, it would make the reader feel less emotion when reading the book.
Violence in literature can involve many things such as how manipulative people can be. Many children are bullied no matter where they might be. Schieble stated, “When violence is approached it may be discussed one-dimensionally as physical conflict among characters in literature or as connected with students lives as in the case of bullying”(18).Within the story, O'Brien's true love,Linda was bullied. This scene gives the reader an emotional attachment to Linda, due her being bullied because the reader can connect with the emotion that she may be feeling. When Linda was just nine years old she was diagnosed with brain cancer. . Many of the other children at her school often make fun of her for wearing her red cap.. When Linda does not have this cap on her head, it is bald and veiny. To Linda this cap makes her feel more comfortable and she would rather not let other students see her without the cap.
The characters in this novel tend to mess with each other in violent ways. This comes about, due to many of the characters having …show more content…
issues with each other or often times when they are just messing around and someone gets hurt.r. Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson got into a fist fight over a missing knife. Jensen accused Strunk of stealing his jackknife so, Jensen hit Strunk so hard that, “Strunk’s nose made a sharp snapping sound, like a firecracker”(O’Brien 59). Jensen continued to hit him after breaking his nose. This scene is special because in a war you should not be fighting your own crew, it should be against the enemy. The way Jensen and Strunk act towards each other soon changes. In the chapter “Friends,” introduces violence in a little bit of a different way. In war you have to have trust in your soldiers even if you do not get along very well. In this chapter, Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk were not friends right away. Even though they were not close, they made a promise to end the others life if they suffer a wound that would make them have to use a wheelchair for the rest of their life. This promise was so serious that they made a contract for both of them to sign. Then later that year in October Lee Strunk stepped on a rigged mortar round. The explosion is so powerful that it took off his right leg at the knee. This is an injury that would put Strunk in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Strunk knew that they had a promise but when the time came he did not want to die. He told Jensen, “But you got to promise. Swear it to me swear you won’t kill me”(63). Jensen did not kill him but he was relieved when he heard that Strunk died somewhere over Chu Lai because he did not want him to be made that he did not kill him. Violence can be for the good even when you do not want to do it. Neither Strunk nor Jensen wanted to kill each other but when the time were to come they knew they would have to so the other’s life would not be lived suffering. There are many other scenes where the soldiers fighting for the same purpose get violent towards each other. Another event that reflects the crew fighting against each other is when, O’Brien got shot and he wanted to plot revenge on Jorgenson. When O’Brien was shot for the second time in battle the new medic, Bobby Jorgenson took ten minutes before helping him. This caused O’Brien to go into shock which led to him to almost die.O’Brien wanted to pull a prank on him or, “spook the fucker”(191). O’Brien was very cruel when he did this. While Jorgenson was on night watch, O’Brien and Sanders went out and almost scared him to death. Although these characters view their actions as just “pranks”, some of these actions can result in serious consequences.
In this novel, characters conducted violence on themselves. They do this for many possible reasons such as wanting to get out of the war, so they did have to deal with the constant struggle of going through deaths and trying to cope with it. Being in a war can be a lot on a soldier; sometimes they would hurt themselves to avoid the pain in the future. Curt Lemon was very afraid of the dentist. When the dentist came out to care for the soldier’s teeth he did not go to get his teeth looked at. All the other soldiers made fun of him because he was afraid of the dentist, even though he was a soldier. Lemon was so embarrassed that he insisted on waking up the dentist late at night to do a checkup. Nothing was wrong, “...but Lemon kept insisting, so the man finally shrugged and shot in the Novocain and yanked out a perfectly good tooth”(84). Lemon was so hard on himself, to get the courage to go get a perfectly good tooth pulled, just to prove a point.. He did not want to be made fun of being afraid of the dentist when he was less afraid of the war. War can be very hard on a soldier, so much so that they would do anything to get out. The soldiers will go to far to even cause themselves pain because the war is too much for them to handle. Rat Kiley was starting to lose it, the war was getting to his head. Kiley said, “These pictures in my head, they won’t quit. I’ll see a guy’s liver. The actual fucking liver”(211). Rat Kiley was scared but it was not the normal scared. Kiley could not take it so he shot himself in the foot, therefore he got shipped to Japan to recover which gave him a nice little break from the war life. War is a lot on one person so it causes internal conflict with one's self.
War is war; it involves killing people even when it is something you do not want to do.
In battle, soldiers have to kill the enemy; it could be one person or multiple people everyday. O’Brien explains an instance where Kiowa killed a man. Kiowa did not take it well and Azar kept telling him to forget about it because it is a war and it happens. The kill had a huge affect on
Kiowa,
His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was
shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and arched like
a woman’s, his nose was undamaged, there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear,
his clean black hair was swept upward into a cowlick at the rear of the skull, his
forehead was lightly freckled, his fingernails were clean, the skin at his left cheek
was smooth and hairless… (118)
He did not stop looking at the dead body, he couldn't take his eyes off this man that he remembered every detail of him. Kiowa kept thinking about what it would be like if he were to switch places with that man. The soldiers can lose the great new friends they meet in war without a goodbye. Rat Kiley had a best friend named Curt Lemon. Lemon died when him and Kiley were messing around playing with a grenade. The death of his best friend was extremely hard on Kiley because Lemon and him were so close. Kiley then decided to send a letter to Lemon’s sister to tell all the great things about him. Unfortunately, after two months there was no reply from Lemon’s sister. Kiley wrote a fantastic letter and when she did not reply it made him very upset. The violence in this case is to show that Rat had to get out all of his emotions. The shooting reflected off the emotions Rat was having. A reader could associate with Rat in this instance because he was so upset that he did not know how to handle his feeling, besides being violent. This scene could also affect the reader's, due to how detailed the killing of the buffalo is. Later on, he came across a baby water buffalo and at first he went up to it, offered it food which it had not taken and he pet its nose. First, he shot the buffalo in the knee. Then, “The animal did not make a sound. It went down hard, then got up again, and Rat took careful aim and shot off an ear”(75). He shot the buffalo many other times after that but he purposely shot it in places that would not kill it. To Rat the buffalo was not about the kill, it was about hurt. His best friend died and the man’s sister will not even write back. Even though the harm was on a animal instead of a human it is just another way violence is put into literature.
Violence in literature can give the reader different emotions and it contributes in many different ways. The Things They Carried is a war story, meaning there is going to be violence. The unique thing about this story is that is comes in many different ways. Violence is being shown towards friends, enemies and one’s self. Without the violence in this war novel it would not be the same, it would make the reader feel less emotion when reading the book.