War Is Kind By Stephen Crane: How Do Writers Protest War?

In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien created several allusions that each character endured during the Vietnam War. Throughout the story were vast representations of the things the soldiers carried both mentally and physically. The things they carried symbolized their individual roles internally and externally. In addition to the symbolism, imagination was a focal theme that stood out amongst the characters. This particular theme played a role as the silent killer amongst Lt. Cross and the platoon both individually and collectively as a group. The theme of imagination created an in depth look of how the war was perceived through each character which helped emphasize their thoughts from an emotional standpoint of being young men out at war.

One aspect writers use to protest war is by demonstrating the irony in fighting. In Stephen Crane’s, War is Kind, it is said to “not weep...war is kind” (1). During war a great amount of risk is placed upon the soldiers which is the complete opposite of kind. In Amy Lowell’s, Patterns, a man “in a month would [be a husband]” (81-90). Instead of coming home for a wedding, they would return home in a casket. In Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds, it explains how you are also “taught your whole life there is no making up for [killing] but even your own mother is happy” (Powers D). It is ironic that killing people has been instilled in your head to be awful, but when you are killing people in a war you are known as a hero.

In a general sense, irony is a rhetorical device that is characterized by incongruity in the real situation and what is expected. The deliberate use of irony, especially in literary works and speeches, is used to emphasize a point. It is a language that in some of its forms understates facts, denies the contrary of the truth, or states the opposite of the truth. In all it’s forms, it elicits a similar effect to the audience. There

By using syntax, repetition, and evidence, Tim O’Brien builds an argument to convey the reality that the soldiers in the Vietnam War had something to carry, both physically and emotionally. In “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien uses syntax to arrange his sentences in order to show the harsh correlation between the weight of real and mental possessions. For example, O’Brien first introduces the 30 pound PRC-scrambler radio, then immediately follows with the weight of memory. Appealing to emotion by displaying that, like the heavy radio, the weight of memory also was a burden, but something that they were forced to carry.

In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien created several allusions that each character endured during the Vietnam War. Throughout the story were vast representations of the things soldiers carried both mentally and physically. The things they carried symbolized their individual roles internally and externally. In addition to symbolism, imagination was a focal theme that stood out amongst the characters. This particular theme played a role as the silent killer amongst Lt. Cross and the platoon both individually and collectively as a group. The theme of imagination created an in depth look of how the war was perceived through each character which helped emphasize their thoughts from an emotional stand point of being young men out at war.

War is a horrible and devastating event that hurts many people in many ways. This something many people have to cope with. Authors are among those who have to cope with war as well. Many people cope different ways but authors cope by protesting war. To do this authors use imagery, irony, and structure.

The Things They Carried is more than just a story about the Vietnam war. A focus has been placed on the real soldiers who lived through it. With the use of repetition, figurative language, and described imagery O’Brien is able to illustrates his story. WIth these three things, we are able to understand the physical and emotional side of a soldier at war.

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien portrays a detachment of soldiers serving in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War starts amid the 1960/70's in the nation of Vietnam. It is a curiously severe war, and numerous veterans experience for a long time after their awful encounters. The author recounts every one of the things they carry from weapons to the passionate weight of wartime. Short memories evoke, and bits of knowledge to the characters create as everything the soldiers carry reveals. The author describes stories of a significant number of the soldiers' missions and tricks. The Author viably utilizes the components of fiction: tone, style, and imagery to enable the peruser to comprehend the soldiers' hardships in the Vietnam War.Tim O'Brien utilizes the tone of the story to improve the perspective of the hardships the soldiers confront. All through the story, an officer named Ted Lavender specified. An enemy murders him, and his death addresses frequently. The author utilizes a cold, dispassionate tone to make Ted Lavender's passing a typical subject. O'Brien expresses in the story that “Ted Lavender a soldier. He was scared at that moment, and he got shot in the head while carrying thirty-four rounds at the place Than Khe. He died, and there was no twitching or flopping (325).” The levelness communicates by the author utilizes to demonstrate the hardships of the fighter's mental state. O’Brien states again that “Another soldier named

War is something that all countries have been apart of at some point. War, is an awful thing, but it is inevitable and impossible to avoid is many cases. Although, sometimes war cannot be avoided, it is still protested by many people. Many protesters who are also former soldiers; protest war by writing about it using certain techniques of writing. Writers use irony, structure, and imagery to protest war in their writings.

Nothing will end war unless the people refuse to go to war”, Albert Einstein. Stephen Crane, the author of “War is Kind”, had no experience with war; that was until the Spanish-American War, where he became a foreign war correspondent. “Dulce et Decorum Est”, was written by Wilfred Owen; Owen survived as a foot soldier during World War I and lost his life fighting for his country. The author of The Things They Carried, was Tim O’Brien who served in the Vietnam War. The final writing was The Yellow Birds, it was written by Kevin Powers after he served terms in the Iraq war. All of these authors use imagery, irony, and structure to protest war.

The definition of irony is a contrast between two things. One example is verbal irony. It is a contrast between what someone says and what one means, while dramatic irony is a contrast between what the characters know to be true and what the readers know to be true. Many writers use irony in their short stories to prove a dramatic point, or just to develop a story for upcoming use. These short stories by Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (140), Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” (183), and Stephen Crane’s “The Blue Hotel” (229), spin a tale of symbolic irony. Each tell a tale paradoxical twists with sublime contradiction where one is led to believe one side of an event, yet it is dragged down a twisted trail of mental sarcasms coupled with death. It is a known fact that many tales of irony require many major events to twist the order they are written in to create a viewpoint that stride away from the main topic or where the author wants the reader to end up.

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried has within it many recurring themes, one of the most prominent of which is repetition. Throughout the book, repetition is used to convey a wide range of ideas and emotions, from the prominence of the soldiers' burdens in "The Things They Carried" to regret in "The Man I Killed." No matter its specific use, O’Brien’s use of repetition throughout the novel always conveys veterans’ ‘emotional truth’ of being unable to escape the war, both in Vietnam and at home.

Human beings carry many different things with them, both physical and metaphorical. In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” he presents an exploration of the many burdens that people can carry. Throughout the story, he presents many detailed descriptions of the equipment and tangible things that the characters carry with them to help them survive their ordeal physically. O’Brien also describes the various ‘things’ that the men carry both physically and emotionally to help them deal with the mental and emotional stress of war. O’Brien also details the additional ‘things’ that the men pick up over the course of their experiences, both physical and mental/emotional. Through the metaphor of carrying objects, the descriptions of the items and

In Tim O’Brien’s the “The Things They Carried” he uses a wide variety of items, people, and circumstances to create this world where the reader is completely immersed. In this short story it takes place during the Vietnam War and the reader is taken along with all of the daily activities along with flashbacks to illustrate exactly what it was like to be the in the war. There is a lot of repetition used to illustrate how important certain aspects are, such as Ted Lavender’s death and the actual items the men carried. There is no better way to do this than by the vivid imagery he uses to captivate the reader. O’Brien uses very mundane objects to illustrate who these soldiers are and the effects that war is having on them and how exactly they

Irony can be used in poetry to make a point, or to evoke a particular emotion or reaction. Sometimes it can be hard to identify, but can ultimately change the way you interpret a poem. Irony, in all its forms, has become an important literacy technique. You can see irony in one, two or all three forms throughout one single