Human Emotions In The Things They Carried - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1084 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/04/11 Category Literature Essay Level High school Topics: The Things They Carried Essay Did you like this example? Tim OBriens The Things They Carried is not only a novel about the Vietnam War and the tragedies that befell the soldiers, but a in depth dive into the experiences and emotions that are brought on by the perils of war and the power of humans to overcome these traumas and prevail. OBrien is able to make statements about the calamity of war through powerful characters. The author The pain and suffering those soldiers must endure during these wars and the fear of death that comes with it. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Human Emotions In The Things They Carried" essay for you Create order Tim OBriens The Things They Carried highlights the overwhelming power of how human emotions affect people. War is hell, but thats not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead. (80) This passage in the story very strongly shows the realism of war and how the soldiers felt about being a part of it. Most soldiers werent even old enough to drink alcohol, young people in their twenties that hadnt experienced life to the fullest, but were sent out to an unknown country to fight a war with only the feelings of fear and confusion by their side. Fear was one of the strongest emotions that all soldiers carried throughout the novel. Every soldier that takes part in the horrors of war carried this emotion. In a blog by Jeffrey Michael Bryant called The Next Level of Being Bryant rates fear as the worst people emotion that humans have. Many other negative emotions tend to stem from fear, which is why Bryant believes that fear is the most devastating emotion to someones psyche. Soldiers during was experienced fear every second of their life during the war and even away from it. It is one of the things they carried. Obriens character at one point exclaims I sometimes felt the fear spreading inside me like weeds. I imagined myself dead. I imagined myself doing things I could not do†charging an enemy position, taking aim at another human being (OBrien 42). This passage was taken when OBrien was drafted to go to Vietnam, he experienced the fear that all soldiers leaving their country do imagining what he would have to do to survive and even if he would survive. Fear is a driving point in all humans and stems out to many other emotions these deep crippling emotions were one of many things that soldiers during war must carry. The raw unrelenting fear leaves an imprint on soldiers that are so vile that many are unable to recover even after leaving the warzone, all of this f ear had to be carried by all soldiers during the Vietnam war. Another emotion carried by soldiers during the Vietnam War was pain, one of the most incapacitating emotions that human being experience. Pain was brought upon in many ways during the war. It was both a physical and psychological pain that people were put through during the war. Most men during the war carried things that were of sentimental value such as the heavy machine gunner Henry Dobbins carrying his girlfriends pantyhose around his neck or the religious Kiowa carrying the New Testament, a gift from his father; but many men were common low-ranking soldiers that carried the standard m-16 assault rifle and several magazines of ammunition. The weight of the weapons they carried put a strain on their bodies that would trigger physical pain that as well as the psychological pain of having to carry weapons to survive and to kill order to do so. The pain of friends dying besides them was a common pain soldiers endured, a pain that in many cases would never leave the soldiers. This is seen in the novel when Tim talks about his fellow soldiers Curt Lemon and Kiowa. Im forty-three years old, and a writer now, and the war has been over for a long while. Much of it is hard to remember. I sit at this typewriter and stare through my words and watch Kiowa sinking into the deep muck of a shit field, or Curt Lemon hanging in pieces from a tree, and as I write about these things, the remembering is turned into a kind of rehappening. Kiowa yells at me. Curt Lemon steps from the shade into bright sunlight, his face brown and shining, and then he soars into a tree. The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over. (OBrien 31) This passage explains the tremendous pain of losing a friend on the battlefield especially when they are supposed to protect on another and sometimes cant. O`Brien is able to capture the realism of pain that soldiers experience in war and how difficult it is to overcome the trauma that war induced on many soldiers during their time in Vietnam. Many people during war suffer loss, and many soldiers during the Vietnam War were unable to avoid the devastating emotion of loss. Many soldiers during the war carried pictures or mementos of loved ones to get them through the difficult days of war. Almost every soldier carried something to connect them to home. Some brought items that could be described as silly or random to remind them of their home. In the book What Happened in Name Hynes describes soldiers bringing things to remind them of their civilian lives. They brought their civilian tastes and habits with them-their radios, their tapes, their paperbacks, and their comic books-and what they didnt have the army provided (Hynes 184). Soldiers carried items from home to remind them of simpler times and give them strength even in the perils of war. These items are a reminder that they are not home with the people they love and this reminder turns into a sense of loss, the loss of time that may cause soldiers to become depressed and homesick. The loss of friends on the battlefield was common and scarred many soldiers. The death of a close friend whom they couldnt protect was carried around with the soldier even after they left. The feeling of loss can warp a soldiers mind into believing that they could have done something different. Soldiers would feel disgusted at themselves for not being able to protect their friends, this loss would bring the soldiers back into the reality of war.

The Gem Of The Ocean, Joe Turner s Come And Gone And The...

Myth as a semiological system in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson Abstract Myths are one of the most important elements included in the history of not only African-American lives but also the lives of each and every one of us. Myths are inevitable human resources at times when no other idea justifies our being. As Barthes posits, for it is human history which converts reality into speech, and it alone rules the life and the death of mythical language. Ancient or not, mythology can only have an historical foundation, for myth is a type of speech chosen by history: it cannot possibly evolve from the nature of things. This study looks into the significance of Myths and their determining roles as semiological systems in August Wilson s dramatic twentieth century cycle plays; Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson. In these plays, myths take the forms of individuals, rituals and even ancestral objects. It can be observed that each one of these elements performs the most important role in conveying the significance of the Afric an-American psyche and delicately portrays the eminent influence of ancestral backgrounds in shaping the lives of each character. The works of scholars such as Roland Barthes, Henry Gates, as well as many more, have been employed to better grasp this matter. Key words: Myth, semiological system, African-American psyche, mythical language, ritual Introduction

What aspects of this passage are of interest, considering the novel as a whole Free Essays

In this passage, a number of key themes are introduced into the novel. Waugh highlights Guy’s dislocation in society and his feelings of loneliness and exclusion. Waugh also satirises the upper class of society greatly throughout the novel and particularly in this passage. We will write a custom essay sample on What aspects of this passage are of interest, considering the novel as a whole? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Other themes presented in the passage which are important to the novel as a whole are themes of selfishness and justice. In the passage, Waugh portrays as lonely and excluded from society at the time. From the statement, ‘There was always someone going Guy’s way towards his hotel, always a friendly arm. But his heart was lonely. , we can see that Guy is unable to find a female companion which adds to his loneliness and gives his life less purpose. Furthermore, he seeks comfort from the old soldiers but ‘Guy found no sympathy among these old soldiers for his own hot indignation’. Guy seems to be insulted by the fact he is not able to lead the life of a typical soldier and feel a sense of inclusion. Later in the novel, Guy psychologically excludes himself from the rest of his regiment by saying ‘It looks as though I am going to be an extra mouth’, implying that he is not useful to society at the time, giving his life little purpose. By describing Guy’s situation, Waugh is questioning whether society fulfils its purpose of making people feel included and useful. Guy’s age acts as a barrier between him and the younger soldiers who call him ‘Uncle’, emphasised when ‘He was excused from parades and Physical Training’ because of his injury. Before the passage, Waugh explains that ‘Guy alone was a stranger among them’. Waugh’s use of emotive language such as ‘Guy alone’ and the word ‘stranger’ help create an image of loneliness, as Guy is different from the rest of the men. Guy’s inability to live a life of fulfilment and feel a sense of inclusion plays a part in Waugh’s satirising of the upper class. Waugh suggests that the exclusivity of the upper class prevents Guy living a life of fulfilment. Guy wants to become a part of the war effort in order to make himself useful but finds himself being excluded. This is supported by Lord Kilbannock who remarks that ‘It’s a very exclusive war at present. Once you’re in, there’s every opportunity. Waugh is able to satirise the upper class by ridiculing the principles, actions and traditions of the Halberdiers. Waugh often patronises the Halberdiers with Guy thinking ‘†¦ it seemed impossible that anything conducted by the Halberdiers could fall short of excellence’. However, this statement is ironic as, in the same chapter, Guy and half a dozen of the Halberdiers receive the wrong order, culminating in them missing the train to their new destination, Kut-al-Imara House. This shows that the Halberdiers give the appearance of a well organised force, but in reality, they are not an efficient fighting force. Waugh also satirises the upper class through the use of double-barreled names. In the passage, the name ‘Box-Bender’ is mentioned. Throughout the novel, Waugh uses double-barrelled names for numerous characters, such as ‘Ritchie-Hook, Sarum-Smith’ and a triple-barrelled name for ‘Grace-Groundling-Marchpole’. In their endeavour to remain exclusive, they have embellished their names to the extent of comical pomposity. However, the name ‘Crouchback’ serves only to exclude Guy yet further, giving a pathetic image of a poor, old man bent over with a sore back. The exclusiveness of the upper class is translated into the theme of selfishness by many characters throughout the novel. Firstly, many young soldiers had their lives ruined by generals such as Ritchie-Hook who were prepared to carelessly ‘spend them’. In the passage, Waugh argues that ‘Most of them had gone straight from school to the trenches and spent the rest of their lives forgetting the mice and lice and noise. ‘ The repetition of the word ‘and’ in this sentence emphasises the negative aspects of war. Secondly, in this novel as a whole, Virginia represents the selfishness of the upper class. She is prepared to use men for their money and leave them if they lose their money. For example, when talking to Guy outside the passage, Virginia reminisces ‘It was the year everyone went broke†¦ That was another of the troubles with Tommy’ and ‘Money gone, Me gone, all in one go’. Both these comments show that Virginia left her husbands when they had no money, illustrating her lack of principles and selfishness. Waugh extends the theme of selfishness in the novel to society in general, when the hotel owners raise their prices such as at the Marine Hotel. Managements and servants had settled down to the simple policy of doing less than they had done before, for rather more money. ‘ They are exploiting their fellow countrymen as they know that comfortable accommodation is at a premium. The moral issues involving Apthorpe’s selfish and ruthless attitude to promotion relate to the theme of justice in the novel. During the passage, justice is considered briefly by the old soldiers. Box-Bender’s view is that ‘You’d have a general strike and the whole country in collapse if you set up to be just’. This reinforces the moral issue that a selfish, immoral man finds it easier to progress in our society, illustrated by men in authority such as the Brigade Major and Ritchie-Hook. Guy takes the Brigade Major’s advice and takes a bottle of whisky to Apthorpe in hospital as an act of kindness, but this results in the death of Apthorpe for which he is forced to take full responsibility. Neither the Brigade Major nor Ritchie-Hook give him any support. This event shows that army life encourages a ruthless, selfish attitude as a lack of justice within the army ranks will ensure this type of character succeeds. How to cite What aspects of this passage are of interest, considering the novel as a whole?, Papers