The story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is an enormously detailed fictional account of a wartime scenario in which jimmy Cross (the story’s main character) grows as a person, and the emotional and physical baggage of wartime are brought to light. The most obvious and prominent feature of O’Brien’s writing is a repetition of detail. O’brien also passively analyzes the effects of wartime on the underdeveloped psyche by giving the reader close up insight into common tribulations of war, but not in a necessarily expositorial sense.. He takes us into the minds of mere kids as they cope with the unbelievable and under-talked-about effects or rationalizing
In the novel, The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, several major themes and illustrations present themselves throughout the storyline and strongly connect to previous readings and films from class. The purpose of this book review will be to identify these illustrations, explain why they are important, identify how these themes are connected to previous materials, and then determine if a movie could accurately represent the book. As such, I argue that this book illustrates ideas of the loss of innocence, loss of faith in humanity, and dust symbolizing the war these soldiers are fighting and how it consumes all. I will then further my argument by the identification of themes such as neorealism, heroism, and PTSD. However, it is first important to identify the special narrative structure of the book, which is used to create these illustrations and themes.
While the plot and the theme are always very significant, a reader should never forget the importance of the setting in a story. This short story is a perfect example of the importance of the setting, since it is through it that the reader is able to truly understand the author’s message and intensions. It is through the description of a post-apocalyptic world, a city in ruins and the last house standing, that the reader is able to truly understand the
In “The Shawl”, Cynthia Ozick uses vivid details throughout the story to engage the reader. The story portrays the hard times Jews had during the Holocaust in a concentration camp consisting of three main characters: Rosa, Stella, and Magda who are trying to survive the horror of Nazism through a magical shawl. Rosa is the mother of Magda, a fifteen month baby and the aunt of Stella, a fourteen year old girl. The shawl is the only thing keeping them alive throughout the story and at the end it leads them to their death. The author’s use of symbolism is very significant to the story. Cynthia Ozick use of symbolism helps the reader visualize the setting by using symbols to convey different meanings and understand how these symbols characterize the experience of the holocaust survivors.
In the novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” the author, Kurt Vonnegut, discusses some issues in society that he believes should be different. The issues that I will be writing about in this essay are; the glorification of war and war “heroes”, and the inevitability of war. He expresses his criticism on these topics using a number of literary techniques, which include; metaphors and imagery.
The design of this novel was structured from Kurt Vonnegut’s own World War II experiences. The one experience that seemed to stand out the most in the novel was the Dresden air raids. Vonnegut saw the air raids as senseless, so every time Vonnegut is describing the raids in the novel we see a distinct pattern, Vonnegut uses his novel to depict to the reader a feel of senselessness every time the bombing is mentioned. As a witness to the destruction, Billy confronts fundamental questions about the meanings of life and death. Traumatized by the events in Dresden, Billy is still left lost with no answers. Although his life as a working family man is considerably satisfying, he is unable to find peace of mind because of the trauma he suffered in Dresden. (Vonnegut,
During times of war, it is inevitable for loss to be experienced by all. In the poems “The Black Rat” and “The Photograph” written by Iris Clayton and Peter Kocan respectively, the idea of loss is explored through an omniscient narrator recalling a soldier’s involvement in warfare. While Clayton writes of a soldier’s abrupt loss of hope and how this experience negatively affects his life, Kocan explores how the loss of a loved one affects a family sixty years later. While both poems incorporate similar techniques in imagery and narration, the time setting for each poem is different as “The Black Rat” is set in Tobruk, Libya during World War 2 and “The Photograph” is set during World War 1.
As an illustration, the author describes the scenery of the battlefield, “The most vivid images of the war show soldiers facing the hardships and terrors of battle. Some confronted the enemy in well-defined battles in the highlands. Others cut their way through the jungle, where they heard but seldom saw the enemy. Still others waded through rice paddies and searched rural villages for guerrillas… They were rarely safe. Enemy rockets and mortars could--and did--strike anywhere” (Boyer 2). By using descriptive language, the author illustrates the soldiers surroundings and evoke the reader’s sense of terror. With this in mind, this gives the readers a better understanding of how inhumane war is and how the severity of war torments soldiers by them through physiological traumatizing experiences. Furthermore, the author quotes a nurse recalling her experiences in a field hospital, “We really saw the worse of it, because the nurses never saw any of the victories...I remember one boy who was brought in missing two legs and an arm, and his eyes were bandaged. A general came in later and pinned a Purple Heart on the boy’s hospital gown, and the horror of it all was so amazing that it just took my breath away. You thought, was this supposed to be an even trade?” (Boyer 2). By using imagery, the author cites a nurse who describes the boy’s injuries in detail and appeals
In the short story "The Destructors" we are introduced to a group of young men that seem to be surrounded by destruction. The setting of this story takes place after the World War. It depicts an atmosphere of dilapidated buildings destroyed by bombs. As the story unfolds one can see that the boy’s surroundings have caused them, to have a pretty negative outlook.
In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez reports the details revolving the murder of Santiago Nasar, an affluent member of the town. Nasar was murdered because he was accused of taking Angela Vicario’s purity, thus degrading the honor of her family. Angela, the bride of Bayardo San Ramon, told her brothers of her perpetrator's alleged affront, effectively creating a blood-debt that only could end in jail for the twins and the imminent death of Santiago. Throughout the novel, Marquez actively foreshadows Santiago’s murder in the non-linear plot by highlighting the recurring imagery of murder and brutality surrounding Nasar.
In the passage, imagery was portrayed. In chapter three, in the first book, the character Stent, an Astronomer Royal was shouting out orders on top of a suspicious cylinder. While Stent was shouting orders, the passage stated "his face was crimson and streaming with perspiration, and something seemed to have irritated him" (pg.12). This piece of imagery helped me visualize what state of condition that Stent was in. Also, in the passage foreshadowing presented in chapter seven, in the first book. In the novel it stated “ I did not know it, but that was the last civilised dinner I was to eat for very many strange and terrible days” (pg. 28). This foreshadowing helped inferred that something unfortunate was going to happen later in the novel.
During this time, as wounded and deceased soldiers arrived at the hospital in England, Joe was forever affected by what he saw, smelled, and heard. The deceased were charred lumps. The smell of burned flesh filled the nostrils of the medical staff. The painful wailing of the injured, suffering from horrific burns, was heart wrenching. Joe had never seen such devastation and destruction before.
Often authors whom utilizes significant details in their works or novels have the most effect on readers. In the two novels, “The Chronicles of a Death foretold” and “Perfume”, the authors utterly apply great details throughout their novels to keep their readers interested. By doing that, the authors of these novels used imagery. Imagery (visually descriptive or figurative language, used in literary work) is used by the authors applying every aspect that is relevant to the details stated in their novels. Meaning that, the authors precisely uses imagery to have a better effect in the novel.
By comparing the aftermath of Dresden bombing to a mission on the moon, Vonnegut showcases the difficulty to survive post the destruction of the city. Similar to an expedition crossing the moon, people had to be conscious about every action of their during war time not knowing which action of theirs would result in massive
Poets frequently utilize vivid images to further depict the overall meaning of their works. The imagery in “& the War Was in Its Infancy Then,” by Maurice Emerson Decaul, conveys mental images in the reader’s mind that shows the physical damage of war with the addition of the emotional effect it has on a person. The reader can conclude the speaker is a soldier because the poem is written from a soldier’s point of view, someone who had to have been a first hand witness. The poem is about a man who is emotionally damaged due to war and has had to learn to cope with his surroundings. By use of imagery the reader gets a deeper sense of how the man felt during the war. Through the use of imagery, tone, and deeper meaning, Decaul shows us the