The narrative world of The Armies provides readers with multiple and diverse meanings to the incident of the anti-war March towards the Pentagon. Multiplicity emerges out of the various perspectives of the same story told by the reporter of The Time and retold by Mailer, the narrator. In the process of the Time reporter’s telling and the narrator’s retelling of the scenes of the March, readers become aware of their involvement in the process of creating the fictional universe of the text. The Reporter of The Time and Mailer, the narrator, alternatively exchange roles as a reporter/narrator and as a reader of the same story. However, in the linguistic mode, The Armies constitutes itself as a quintessential narcissistic text with its “building blocks,” that is, “the very language whose referents serve to construct that imaginative world” (Narcissistic Narrative 29). On the linguistic sphere, Mailer, in The Armies, skillfully reconciles the generic opposites by deliberately giving the subtitle of his work: ‘history as a …show more content…
It enables the author to engage himself into the narrative itself to reiterate the textual self-consciousness and self-reflexivity of the narrative by frequently drawing the attention to the writing process of the narrative. By so doing, the author asserts historically his on presence and participation in both the historical moment and the narrative. Thus, the narcissistic trope in The Armies “strengthens and points to the direct level of historical engagement and reference of the text” (Hutcheon, A Poetics 117). The meta-factual and narcissistic elements appear everywhere in the text. After holding the mirror twice before up to the text and the reader, the author/narrator holds it again up to the character of Mailer himself. So, in the last chapter of the first part, the author/narrator confuses and blurs the boundaries between Mailer as an author/narrator and as a
The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.
William Dean Howells was an advocate of realism in writing; he believed that literary art should reflect the reality of the common man and demonstrate the truth of everyday current issues. He believed in truthful writing and he accepted very little at face value. He practiced this belief in his own writing, and his story called “Editha” is a good example of this. In this ironic tragedy, W.D. Howells shows the truth and nature of war. He uses a combination of metaphoric characters, irony, and the pathos appeal to create an almost grotesque parody of the reality of war. In final analysis, Howells is successful in highlighting the consequences of war and inspiring the audience to question the wisdom of those who advocate armed conflict.
1. “In any war story, especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told the way. “ (71)
O’Brien’s unification of fact and fiction is to illustrate the idea in which the real accuracy of a war story is less significant than storytelling. The subjective truth about what the war meant and what it did to change the soldiers is more meaningful than the technical details of the
In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.
The Wars, written by Timothy Findley, is a story about World War I, and consists of many shocking images passed over to the reader. Findley accomplishes to pull the reader into the narrative itself, so that the reader manages to feel an impact upon him/her-self about what is read. If it was not for this specific skill, or can also be seen as a specific genre, the novel would not have been as successful as it is now. Also, something that helps the book be so triumphant, there is the fact that Findley never overwhelms the reader with too many gruesome details about the World War I. Instead, he breaks the book down to help the reader calm down from everything that is happening. Throughout the essay, there is going to be some commenting on a
Throughout Tim O'Brien's short work "How to tell a true war story" O'Brien has two reoccurring themes. One is of the desensitization of the troops during their hardship regarding the events of the Vietnam War, and the other is of the concept of truth. Truth may seem simple enough to explain, but is in fact endowed with many layers. The story is chalked full of contradictions, as well as lies, and embellishments, and yet O'Brien claims that these are the truth. The truth, whether it be war or society's, is in fact a concept that can be conveyed many times and in many ways. Whereas each is independently untrue, the combined collaboration of these half-truths is in essence the only real truth.
The collection of poems “Theater”, “Water”, and “Safe House” by Solmaz Sharif shows the varied viewpoints of how war affects the speakers and how death is all too common in the midst of warfare. The author uses a spectrum of literary techniques to enhance the experience of the reader, so we can fully grasp the severity of each speaker’s plight. All of Sharif’s poems differ in form with the use of white space and indentations in “Theater”, colons in “Water”, and a style of abecedarian using the letter S in “Safe House”. While her diverse use of forms generate different emotions from the reader, they share the same notion of how violence is problematic. Each poem has a unique outlook to the sight of war: “Theater” being in the position of a victim and an assailant of war, “Water” explaining a war mission and fatalities in terse terms, and “Safe House” as an observer of an activist against war. Sharif’s strategy to exemplify the effects of how war affects the victim and the civilian is particularly critical because mass media tends to hide the collateral damage of war and only illustrates why we should attack the “enemy”. Another approach the author uses to critique the speakers central conflicts is by arranging words from the US Department of Defense 's Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, to concur with the message of the several ways war influences the lives of those who are unwillingly encompassed by it. Sharif uses poetry as an outlet to show the underlying tone
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 this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.
The novel was written between the periods of World War one and the American Civil War. The next discussion will help critique the book, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of John’s style of narration. To effectively do this, the critique will use the works of Michael da Silva, Robert Hatch and Greg Orybeck. After critically reading
The cadets’ narcissistic personalities are joined together between the cadets which makes them feel superior to those around them. The narcissistic cadets “believe that [they] are special and more important than other people” (Twenge 775). They see themselves to be superior and they see everyone else to be inferior. The cadets together believe that they are powerful as a whole than as individual cadets. As they shower together and eat together the cadets make this bond where “It’s like a true marriage. There’s an affectionate intimacy that you will find between the cadets. With this security they can, without being defensive, project tenderness to each other” ( Faludi 102). The unity that the cadets have allow them to have this unbreakable
The plot for the two shows “A braggart soldier” and “The Office” are quite different but there can also be a few similarities here and there. The plot line for The Office in the first five minutes show “normal life” situation, which a short period of time where the conflict has not arisen yet. This “normal life” situation is also shown in the braggart soldier, where a small amount of time before the conflict is identified happens. After this the show addresses the conflict, in the office it is one of the characters, Stanley, disrespecting Michael in front of everyone. In the braggart soldier the conflict is that the slaves need to trick their not-so-smart master and escape. Most of the episode follows the average sitcom plot line. With a
Taken at face value, Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night and Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test may seem very similar. They are both centered on a major author of the 1960s and his experiencing of historical events of the time, while set in the style of New Journalism. When examined closer, though, it becomes apparent that these novels represent two very different sides of New Journalism – Armies of the Night an autobiography with personal and political motivations, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test a sociological piece which tries to capture the essence of its subjects rather than the absolute facts. By looking at the form and style which the novels were written in and the motives behind Mailer’s Armies of the Night and Wolfe’s The
Can a narcissistic personality be a coping mechanism from fear? It may not just be egoism but the fear of being seen as an inferior. ‘’Look at me! I am better! I only associate with those on my level. You are below me and I will no longer waste my time with you". These statements are a sample of a person with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). "Egocentrism" a cognitive bias, refers to the limit on our perception caused by, that we can only see the world from our point of view. “We see the world from the inside out” a fact that leads everyone to be at least somewhat self-centered. “It takes special effort to see the world from any perspective other than through our own eyes”.