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Analysis Of You And I Are Disappearing By Jusef Komunyakaa

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It Is A Little Bit Deeper Than That Jusef Komunyakaa’s poem “You and I Are Disappearing” is about an experience in which the author was helplessly looking at a village girl getting devoured by flames that were caused by a firebomb called napalm. Within the context of the gruesome of war, the author puts down in words the vivid images of both the civilian and the soldier during the Vietnam War. While the village girl was engulfed by the flames, causing her physical pain, the soldier was also powerless in watching her burn. Years after the war, the speaker recalls how he still sees “a girl burning in his head” (Komunyakaa 2). A truth claim that can be drawn from this poem is that both the civilians and the soldiers are victims of war. I …show more content…

Ut himself was the one who put Phuc into the van for emergency medical help along with the other Vietnamese soldiers, and he saw that Phuc’s “burnt skin [was] raw and peeling off her body” as they were moving her (“Vietnam War 's 'Napalm Girl ' Kim…”). Phuc suffered serious burns over one-third of her body. As told by Ut, the napalm was on Kim for so long that it was burning her skins and her nerves. Due to the permanent nerves damaged, Phuc will always live with the persistent pain and the unwanted thick scar will forever be part of her. Decades after the war, the napalm is still burning her. Phuc still feels the pain. In the poem, the author uses similes to describe the burning village girl and how napalm was hurting her just like Kim was. In over three-fourths of the poem, the author used similes to portray the way she was being tortured by the firebomb. Komunyakaa used similes such as “like a piece of paper,” “like a cattail torch dipped in gasoline,” “like a shot glass of vodka,” and “like oil on water” to show the readers that the village girl was being burn by napalm very intensely (Komunyakaa). The author specifically used words such as gasoline, vodka, or oil, because all of these substances are known for being very flammable. They are the fuel to the fire, and they get consume as the fire burns. The author wants to show that the village girl is the fuel just like these substances and she is being consumed by the fire. She is disappearing. Research and data

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