Rhetorical Language In The Things They Carried

After being drafted, several thoughts came to his mind. O’ Brien thought about how his life will be if he goes to war. He states, “I imagined myself dead. I imagined myself doing things I could not do- charging and enemy position, taking aim at another human being” (44). It seems that O’Brien thought about his principles and morals as a human being. He believes killing innocent people was not a heroic act; it was an act of shame. On the other hand, he clarifies that not all wars are negative, “There were occasions, when a nation was justified in using military force to achieve it ends” (44). He considered to fight only in the cases were war is necessary to achieve a significant purpose. O’Brien uses examples of Hitler, referring him as an evil and one of the reasons he would have validated a war, and even joined the military if it were necessary. Yet, he does not want to play hero in a war that had not sense. For that reason, he decided to run away from his draft.

While the Vietnam War was a complex political pursuit that lasted only a few years, the impact of the war on millions of soldiers and civilians extended for many years beyond its termination. Soldiers killed or were killed; those who survived suffered from physical wounds or were plagued by PTSD from being wounded, watching their platoon mates die violently or dealing with the moral implications of their own violence on enemy fighters. Inspired by his experiences in the war, Tim O’Brien, a former soldier, wrote The Things They Carried, a collection of fictional and true war stories that embody the

Revolution is a term meaning, a coercive overthrow of government or social order in favor of a new system. Carl N. Degler focuses on the events that occurred before the American Revolution. Before the American Revolution, colonial Americans were already evolving into their own system, without really knowing how great of a gap they were widening between themselves and Britain. America had already experienced multiple revolutions before achieving victory during the Revolutionary War. American colonists grew to be revolutionists that changed the norm for the time period.

Furthermore, O’Brien himself admits he went to war not out of courage, but out of embarrassment and cowardice. In the chapter “On The Rainy River,” O’Brien received a draft letter for the Vietnam War. He was in shock, “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, to everything. It couldn’t happen. I was above it. A mistake, maybe—a foul up in the paperwork. I was no soldier… I remember the rage in my stomach. Later it burned down to a smoldering self-pity, then to numbness” (41-42). Obviously, O’Brien did not want to go to war. However, he was

In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien uses many short stories to describe his experience in Vietnam. The story that captured many aspects of writing was “How to Tell a True War Story” because it acts as a guide to writing a true story. O’Brien uses many different rhetorical strategies, narrative techniques, and establishes a theme in this story to help develop his characters and story line.

Revolution: a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system. A revolution has distinct determining factors with strong discontent among a group because of poor living conditions, or frustration with the existing government. It is evident it was a revolutionary war due to the quintessential characteristics it possessed such as the discontent of the oligarchical regime and the unequal distribution of money and land. The generic widespread dissatisfaction of Diaz’ dictatorship and the ultimate overthrow of his regime by those people are also typical features of a revolution. The rise of insurgent leaders such as

O’Brien reveals the lack of autonomy throughout the war by expressing his discontent with the draft and the moral confrontation of fighting in the war. One example of this would be when O’Brien was speaking with The Chaplain Edward about his quality of life as a soldier where the chaplain asks about the cafeteria servings almost ironically(pg.55), and O’Brien goes on to explain the physical and emotional trauma he has endured in the process of the war and the

Prior to learning he was drafted into a war he hated, we are told that he had recently graduated from college (38). O’Brien says, “I was twenty-one years old. Young, yes, and politically naive, but even so the American war in Vietnam seemed to me wrong” (38). The previous quote shows his confusion towards the war, he then goes on questioning the war by saying, “Was it a civil war? A war of national liberation or simple aggression?” (38) which furthermore provides an example of his uncertainty towards the war. While facing confusion, O’Brien also believed he was “too smart, too passionate” (39) for the war, he claims his drafting was “a mistake, maybe— a foul-up in the paperwork” (39). Both of the quotes show man vs. society conflict. Since O'Brien had recently graduated and received a full scholarship at Harvard, he felt like he was on top of the world, like any other person would if a war was not going on then, society was focused on something he didn't believe so he did not want to accept the harsh reality that he had just been drafted. The narrator also faces man vs self conflict, O’Brien wants to get out of the draft but, he says, “There was no happy way out...my health was solid; I didn't qualify for CO status — no religious grounds, no history as a pacifist” (41). O’Brien knows that it would be illegal to not follow the law of the draft but he also knows that he does NOT want to

In my world history class, our teacher, Mrs. Tomblin taught us about revolution. I define revolution as a revolt against a government or a social system in favor of a new one. We were taken back to the past to learn about many revolutions. We learned about the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and the Glorious/Mexican Revolution. Each revolutions has a story and a lesson. I learned that it takes a lot to start a revolution. It takes an idea, drive, and often, blood.

Revolution: a word that has been thrown around for centuries when it comes to some of the biggest historical events that have occurred up until this time period. What exactly does revolution mean? It is a dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works or is organized or in people’s ideas about it (Oxford). Europe’s political and economic standing has been rather bad since the Thirty Years War , and with new rulers and their different ideas of how countries should be run, disaster is bound to happen. In the 1640’s there was an upheaval that was brewing in the streets of Britain which quickly grew into a full on revolution.

A revolution can be described as a change in power or structure. Typically, that power is a system of government or a leader of some sort (Revolutions Felt around the World, 2015). If the people of a region do not agree with what their government says or does, they may rebel to show their leaders that they will not comply. No government wants a revolution, seeing as they want to stay in power, so it will try and silence the voices of those who are fighting for change. In response, the people will shout louder to make themselves heard. This cycle continues until one of the sides makes a bolder move to quell their opponent. Although no two revolutions are exactly alike, but there is a common thread among them all which will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

According to Steven Pincus, in Rethinking Revolution: a New Tocquevillian Perspective, “ revolution can be defined as a rapid, judgmental and violent domestic change in the dominant values and myths of a society, in its political institutions, social structures, leadership, and government activities and policies”. It is a fundamental change in power: a violent movement to overthrow an existing regime that results in major changes in the society. Revolutions have occurred throughout history, but its purpose, duration and method have varied from one country to the other.

Revolution is a way to make change in power, or a country’s governmental system. For some people it is a step towards freedom, a new beginning, also an action against injustice, corrupted government and leaders. Revolution is a movement to bring down a distorted regime and to make a complete change to a nation’s fundamental institutions. There were several revolutions that occurred in history such as the American, French, and Iranian Revolution among many others. Each of these revolutions brought many significant changes to a nation’s economy, culture and sociopolitical organization. According to Marxist Communism, revolution is very crucial to change the societies from one historical phase to another and the perception of revolution is an

A revolution is a complete radical and pervasive change in the structure of the economy and social structure. And it is mainly due to poverty, starving society, technology, and communication.

Ever since the beginning of history, societies are constantly undergoing change. As the world modernizes, some governments become outdated and call for a change through revolution. Revolution is a change in the economic, culture and political structures of a government.