During the first half of the 20th century, humanity experienced two consecutive world wars that were among the deadliest in history. This was a new type of warfare that the world had never seen before. It had Napoleonic-style battles but, instead of muskets and swords, they used machine guns and tanks; which produced countless more casualties. This horrible period of tension and war left over seventy seven million people dead and countless wounded or lost. However, the few soldiers that survived were sometimes able to channel their postwar trauma into great works of art that show us the pure truth about war. Two good examples…
Some things in life become part of you. People, places, feelings; you can become so close that you are one. But sometimes, these things can consume you; swallow you whole. In Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, many characters become one with the land of Vietnam. Vietnam consumes characters in different ways, but it always results in a character's unity with the land. Unity is defined as “the state of being one; oneness”. Kiowa physically becomes part of the land in “Speaking of Courage”, when he sinks into the shit field, where Jimmy Cross ordered his troops to camp out. In this case, Kiowa is literally swallowed by the land. Mary Anne becomes part of the land differently in “Sweetheart…
In the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien all of the people carry something. Some of the things they carry are things they need to survive. Most of them carry things that remind them of home or things they left behind. Every single person carries one thing in common, “they all carry respect for the power of the things they carry.”…
Distinctively Visual can form meaning when the composers are either sending messages or emphasising certain aspects of a character, an event through the use of particular images. In act two, scene thirteen of ‘the Shoe-Horn Sonata, Misto uses photographic background images to covey the idea of what is truly happens in the war field. ‘On the screen we see a photograph of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima – the infamous mushroom cloud. This is followed by a photograph of the devastated city.’ Also when Bridie stated ‘they wasted no records of what they’d been doing’ P.80. These examples reinforce the responders to understand how the war is structured and how the government covers up past event or experience over time. The images give a devastating shock to the responders and help compare the truth of war within current reality. Thus the audience are able to linking the different images to the events in this case when the war was occurring and after the war had occurred images emphasising the truth of war.…
Dead tree trunks rise from the muddy ground and clouds of smoke obscure the view of the background. The searchlights piercing through the murky clouds give off a sense of lostness, but may also signify that among the barren wasteland, there is still a sign of humanity and hope. This painting exceptionally illustrates how the war changed beautiful, innocent meadows and fields into grotesque and frightening wastelands.…
Many people, in some point in their lives will experience a death of a loved one and will try to cope with it as best as they can. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien talks about his war stories and how he and the soldiers handled the deaths of the soldiers while at war. The soldiers had to deal with the stress, sadness, and guilt when seeing their partner get killed. O’Brien talks about the different coping mechanisms the soldiers use when facing the death of a fellow comadre. The soldiers tell jokes, write letters, tell stories, take responsibility of their death, and even reenact the death scene.…
Soldiers looked for ways to communicate their experience to those who were not soldiers. O”Brien, Komunyakka, and Owen are soldiers who each wrote a text describing soldiers at war from their personal point of view. O”Brien writes to get others to understand the physical, mental, and emotional things soldiers carried during war. Komunyakka writes to get others to understand how the soldiers must face death and reality at the same time while also having emotions as any other human does. Owen writes and exhibits his frustration with the condition that the soldiers were in and the point of view of people who haven’t experienced war first hand. All three soldiers wrote to better communicate with the world the conditions and reality to those…
The mouse is the symbol for purity while the bush is freedom and protection, but also of death, of the innocence that cannot survive or must be sacrificed. The birds that fly free in the sky also feed on the bodies of dead soldiers. The bland colors used on the poster symbolizes the element of earth which represents both the cold and dry traits on the front the war was fought on and is associated with the melancholic or depressed trait seen in people. The pistol robert carries symbolizes authority and security, protection from what may harm him. The fire in the war is a symbol both of passion and…
This book embodies all of the facets that go along with love and death, during a volatile time of war. O 'Brien captures the theme of emotional conflict and how strongly it affects soldiers in a brilliant way. By correlating mundane goods with intangibles like feelings and emotion, he successfully points out all of the angles of war that the lay person generally cannot comprehend. He compels the reader to understand not just the daily grind of war, but how the little things can bring important things in life into perspective. He digs under the surface of the tangible items to demonstrate a much greater meaning to these mens lives. In essence, the soldiers are defined by the things they…
The idea of war brings up many questions about life and death, suffering, and consequences. While many people may see war as something that affects people as a whole, such as nations or a persecuted group, war further impacts every individual, whether or not they are directly involved. War limits freedoms and individualism, and in most cases people find themselves with less rights than during peacetime. People base their choices not on what they feel, and more on what they have to do to survive. Soldiers and civilians alike are influenced by war in different ways, however, these tie together when the overall effects of war are examined.…
War is a very controversial topic for many people. Depending on the person’s outlook on the war, it can be depicted as something good or bad. War brings destruction wherever it goes, whether it is on a place or the people, and it ultimately is inevitable. War also protects a country from having further destruction and keeps the people at home safe from any danger. As a person can see in many recordings of war, there are many comparisons and contrasts that are expressed through soldiers, veterans, and civilians. Some comparisons seen in many of the testimonies given by effected people are dehumanization, dislocation, and alienation; but they also have contrasts that can be seen through nationalism, technological advancements, and the coming home for many…
“The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers experience during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and mind, to the point where a few men return home completely destroyed. Many soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. Furthermore, an indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet they each individually harboured a desire to die and bring a conclusion to their misery. Over all, this story allows us to observe changes within the mentalities of army officers.…
The symbols in The Things They Carried help to make the text more meaningful and how show the theme throughout the story. One of the symbols, the dead Vietnamese soldier, represents the horrors of the war and what all of the soldiers experience on the battlefield. The author copes with the death of the soldier as he does with the other throughout the story. He thinks about what kind of person the soldier was, what he did before the war and what he will do after.…
Brave men in the military who fight for their country are often victims of stereotype. They are thought of as emotionless people whose only purpose is to follow orders; have no sentimental attachments to any materiality or spirituality. On the contrary, Tim O’Brien on “The Things They Carried” and Louise Erdrich in “The Red Convertible” write about the meaning of symbolism.…
On this same page, the image of the fallen soldiers is the image of a party. The first panel, of the soldiers in an explosion, represents the idea that these men have died honorably and that they are off to paradise. The second panel, of the people dancing, represents the desperation for a distraction from the terrible state the country is currently…