Imagery In Michael Herr's Dispatches
Dispatches Paper
As I read Dispatches by Michael Herr, there is an overwhelming sense of fear and horror. His dispatches are populated by soldiers called 'grunts', whose enemy was everywhere and nowhere. Their maps were blank; their names for the enemy, 'Charlie' or 'VC', told them nothing. How do you recognize them? They all wear black pajamas; they are all alien to us. They are everywhere. That's where the paranoia began. Herr's dispatches are disturbing because he writes from inside the nightmare, with all the tension and terror that turned these young men into killing machines. It is all the more frightening because, emptied of any concerns for justice, or ethics, or solidarity, they opened fire anywhere, everywhere. After all, who could know where or who the enemy was?
Herr's use of brutal imagery absorbed me into his savage surroundings. From the soldier who can't stop drooling as a …show more content…
Herr feeds on the death and carnage of the battlefield. It is difficult to grudge a person for their attachment to the most exciting times of their life. Herr's is almost an addiction to the life of the thrill seeker, but as he frequently mentions, unlike the grunts, he could always take the next chopper back to an air-conditioned hotel room in Saigon, or leave altogether. (Not that an air-conditioned room in Saigon would be necessarily safer than Khe Sahn...) He describes Vietnam as a jumbled, confused, mess of a living hell.
Herr also wrote the narration for "Apocalypse Now," so what more do you need to know? It is crucial to understand that this book is not a political or military history of the war. Instead, Herr tried to portray the "experience" of what it was like to be in Vietnam; you won't find a handy map and glossary in the back. (If you honestly don't know what words like di di, zip, grunt, 16, and DMZ mean, I suggest you bone up on your
As I read Dispatches by Michael Herr, there is an overwhelming sense of fear and horror. His dispatches are populated by soldiers called 'grunts', whose enemy was everywhere and nowhere. Their maps were blank; their names for the enemy, 'Charlie' or 'VC', told them nothing. How do you recognize them? They all wear black pajamas; they are all alien to us. They are everywhere. That's where the paranoia began. Herr's dispatches are disturbing because he writes from inside the nightmare, with all the tension and terror that turned these young men into killing machines. It is all the more frightening because, emptied of any concerns for justice, or ethics, or solidarity, they opened fire anywhere, everywhere. After all, who could know where or who the enemy was?
Herr's use of brutal imagery absorbed me into his savage surroundings. From the soldier who can't stop drooling as a …show more content…
Herr feeds on the death and carnage of the battlefield. It is difficult to grudge a person for their attachment to the most exciting times of their life. Herr's is almost an addiction to the life of the thrill seeker, but as he frequently mentions, unlike the grunts, he could always take the next chopper back to an air-conditioned hotel room in Saigon, or leave altogether. (Not that an air-conditioned room in Saigon would be necessarily safer than Khe Sahn...) He describes Vietnam as a jumbled, confused, mess of a living hell.
Herr also wrote the narration for "Apocalypse Now," so what more do you need to know? It is crucial to understand that this book is not a political or military history of the war. Instead, Herr tried to portray the "experience" of what it was like to be in Vietnam; you won't find a handy map and glossary in the back. (If you honestly don't know what words like di di, zip, grunt, 16, and DMZ mean, I suggest you bone up on your