Figurative Language In The Things They Carried

People often say the only constant in life is change. Like yin and yang, these very different pieces of literature complement each other in a way of beauty and enhance our understanding of the world. In his famous novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien laments on stories about war.
“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things they have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie” (O´Brien 65). Wallace Stevens

In "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," The author uses imagery and metaphors to explore the nature of perception and how it shapes our understanding of life as seen in the passage, “He rode over Connecticut / In a glass coach. / Once, a fear pierced him,/ In that he mistook” (Stevens 42-45 ). It suggests there is no correct way of viewing the world and is subjective to the individual. In The Things They Carried uses language to explore the experiences of soldiers in war and the mental damage that they endure. Tim O’Brien writes, "In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it's safe to say that in a war story nothing is ever absolutely true"(78). Similarly, in the poem Stevens writes, "A man and a woman / Are one. / A man and a woman and a blackbird / Are one."(Lines 9-12). These two quotes suggest that human experience is multifaceted and cannot be reduced to simple, objective truths. In The Things They Carried It states, “In many respects. she was like the war itself: deceptive, elusive, and extremely dangerous”(page 157). Using loaded words is a common theme throughout the book and the poem helping us understand the emotions the soldiers were feeling, while also helping us understand the connection between human, nature, and feelings. In the book Divergent they describe,“His eyes are a striking bright blue,

In "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," each of the 13 sections offers a different viewpoint on the bird, demonstrating how our perception of the world is shaped by our individual perspectives. For example, “The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds./ It was a small part of the pantomime”(Lines 8-9). Showing the blackbirds view from above differed from the eyes on the ground. In The Things They Carried, the various stories offer different perspectives on the experiences of soldiers in war, highlighting the way in which our understanding of events is shaped by our personal experiences and biases. Tim O’brien writes, "They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity"(14). It showed that the soldiers' perception of their environment is just as important as the environment itself. The poem explores the idea that our perception of the world is influenced by our own experiences. As he writes, "The blackbird whirled in the Autumn winds. / It was a small part of the pantomime." Here, Stevens suggests that our understanding of the world is limited by our own perspectives. However, the two works contradict greatly in their tone. "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" is contemplative, while The Things They Carried, is a collection of stories. While both works offer insights into the human condition, they do so in