ipl-logo

Analysis Of If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

1102 Words5 Pages

In If I Die In A Combat Zone author Tim O'Brien states that the Vietnam war was a horrible place and time to be a part of by showing the gruesome violence of the war, the horrible living conditions of the war and lastly the amount of casualties that resulted from the war.
O’Brien in the book reveles to the readers on several occasions how unorthodox the war in Vietnam was. This was already a pretty common consensus about the war but in the book it really drives the point home with countless scenes of violence and hostel imagery. A good example of this would be when the soldiers witness one of their comrades getting shot right in the buttox and the bullet comes out the other other end and out though the crotch area leaving puddles of blood …show more content…

This would also toy with american soldiers minds in that it made they extremely paranoid and afraid to trust anyone who claimed to be an ally. A very clear description of the soldiers dealing with these paranoid thoughts is when a soldier tells how even one of the pretty, innocent vietnamese girls could end up being a part of the enemy forces and they worst part for the soldier was that it would be practically impossible to tell otherwise. (Ch. 13) This aspect of war happened in other wars in the past but the Vietnam war made this type of combat all to frequent casueing a lot of soldiers to return home from serving in the war with mental illnesses like PTSD just from the sheer amount of paranoia and violence they were constantly exposed …show more content…

There comes a point were the soldiers describes the weather and conditions in vietnam and they describe it as being extremely hot and humid in the day and cold at night. They often fight in rice patties which is a main food source for the vietnamese and is grown in water that is ankle deep so the soldiers would have to be in this water causing all kinds for horrible living conditions, like them having swollen feet and limbs as well as catching diseases and sicknesses. (Ch. 9) Also another factor that adds to their awful conditions were the mosquitoes. Even though it's just a small insect they become a menace to the soldiers there and not to mention they often carry diseases and bacteria on them to in turn they get the soldiers sick. As if they didn’t have enough to deal with just fighting the vietnamese

Show More
Related

Physical Trauma In On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien

474 Words | 2 Pages

Like all wars the Vietnam War had Physical and Psychologial scars. Fifty-eight thousand people were killed, two thousand captured, and three hundred thousand wounded. I could talk more about the physical trauma, but I want to talk about the psychological damages the war caused O’Brien and other soldiers. O’Brien was a part of the war and through the story you can see his bitterness and how the war affected his mind. Like loosing his best friend Ted Lavender, the chapter I chose to do is On the Rainy River.

Read More

Realistic Depiction Of War In Fallen Angels By Walter Dean Myers

654 Words | 3 Pages

Fallen Angels Have you a reader ever wondered about the realistic depiction of war: how the war is romanticized and how it can be an awful place to be? The author Walter Dean Myers shows us the depiction of the war in Vietnam the main character in the book Richard Perry a young boy from Harlem being thrown into the war because of his life at home and doesn't want to really deal with people. The book Fallen Angels is a realistic depiction of war. The book shows us some untimely deaths, graphic violence and the main protagonist inner thoughts and doubts. Through the novel Fallen Angels the depiction of war is shoved into the main characters face with graphic violence untimely deaths that occur and the

Read More

Unrealism In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

701 Words | 3 Pages

It’s scarier than I would imagine sometimes it could make you do things you would never imagine yourself doing. If you would ever ask me what I think about the Vietnam War or what I think about it. I would tell you to me it’s a different life and you’re a different person as soon as you walk into it and out of it. ‘’they carried the soldiers greatest fear which was the fear of blushing men killed and died because they were embarrassed not to it was what had brought them to war in the first place nothing positive no dreams or glory or honor’’[20]

Read More

Ethical Issues In The Vietnam War

1101 Words | 5 Pages

The Vietnam war took a major death toll in Vietnam, United States, South Korea, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. Just in the U.S., “more than 58,000 American soldiers were killed while more than 150,000 others wounded”. On both sides, there were almost 2 million civilians dead and 1.1 simply on the Vietnamese side. The My Lai Massacre, where soldiers brutally killed Vietnamese children and mothers, presents an example where the war mentally changed the soldiers in the war in a very horrendous way. On the other hand, the United States took brutal losses in the Tet Offensive, where the Vietcong slaughtered over 100 towns and twelve United States air bases.

Read More

Vietnam War Dbq Essay

732 Words | 3 Pages

On top of the dramatically climbing number of casualties, there was also a lot of controversy regarding the horrific effects that the fighting had on the mental status of soldiers. “The bitter Vietnam experience has left the United States Army with a crisis in morale and discipline as serious as any its oldest and toughest soldiers remember.” (New York Times Article, Document I ) Many times, returning soldiers would suffer from extreme anxiety and depression, dealing with the difficult memories left in place of fighting in the war. “I know my happiest moment in Vietnam was when I was hit, because I “knew” I was homeward bound.

Read More

Rough Draft: The Things They Carried

1037 Words | 5 Pages

Rough Draft: The Things They Carried The Vietnam War, was a nightmarish place. It caused paranoia, and made some soldiers insane. Death could come at any moment in any place leaving men in constant fear knowing they could be next. Some men feared it so much they would self inflict wounds in hopes of getting discharged, and others would change their viewpoints on the war and change their actions completely.

Read More

Truth In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

1197 Words | 5 Pages

Using his past experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, O’Brien crafted a narrative that praises the ambiguous art of war-time storytelling and its power to shape the reader’s and/or listener’s perception of actuality. More so, the novel intentionally blends fact and fiction together to make the point that objective truth should retain very little relevance in the grand

Read More

A Summary Of Philip Caputo's A Rumor Of War

1500 Words | 6 Pages

Men went through so many tasks during the Vietnam War physically and mentally. The beginning chapters focus on training for war and being prepared for the worst. For example, when there is a sergeant in a room with the marines. The sergeant walks to the chalk board and writes “AMBUSHES ARE MURDER AND MURDER IS FUN” (36-37). The

Read More

Drug Addiction In The Vietnam War

1168 Words | 5 Pages

Their Escape from the War The Vietnam War was a difficult time for soldiers and the people on the home front. The soldiers were experiencing a completely different type of war, guerilla warfare. It was complete chaos and there were no organized battles or anyway to get a good attack on the Vietnamese soldiers, or the Vietcong as they were called. The soldiers were having to do unethical things and go against their will by killing these people.

Read More

Spin By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

791 Words | 4 Pages

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

Read More

Imagery In The Things They Carried

543 Words | 3 Pages

In the chapter when he describes the man he kills, he talks about the state of the dead body by saying, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole…the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips, his right cheek was smooth and hairless, there was a butterfly on his chin, his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him” (O’Brien Chapter 11). This brutal and horrifying imagery displays an irrefutable element of truth to O’Brien’s writing. Not only does this imagery highlight the truth to his writing, but it also sheds light on the brutal truth about the war in Vietnam. By using imagery as such a strong rhetorical device in his writing, he gives the average person a taste of just how barbaric and cruel Vietnam felt for the people who experience the war first hand on either side of the fighting. Tim O’Brien gives a very detailed and intense description of his time fighting in Vietnam during their war with America.

Read More

Things They Carried Symbolism Analysis

765 Words | 4 Pages

This book is compiled of short stories based off his time in Vietnam but also takes place back in his comrade’s hometowns. The main characters in the book are his war pals that are enlisted with him under 1st Lt. Jimmy Cross. Throughout the book O’Brien uses symbolism, imagery, and the setting of the story to show the extensive emotional and psychological pain of warfare and what it can do to humans.

Read More

Walter Dean Myers Fallen Angels Analysis

936 Words | 4 Pages

Choice Novel Assignment The Vietnam War was a very brutal war where many of the American soilders were young men with a bright mindset of serving their country. Even though many Americans forget about this war. Many veterans do not forget about the harsh expirence and how it effected them. In ¬Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers accurately describes the young American soldiers experiences in the Vietnam war on how it effected them mentally and physically.

Read More

PTSD In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

1504 Words | 7 Pages

Even after all these years, O’Brien is still unable to get the images of Vietnam out of him head, specifically of the man he killed. In the novel, he repeats the description of the man numerous times, almost to the point of excess, saying,“he was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole” (124).

Read More

Mental Illness In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

1091 Words | 5 Pages

During the Vietnam War the soldiers, whether or not they wanted to be there, many of them developed mental illnesses. The things they would experience would cause burdens on them for the rest of their lives. “Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April.” (The Things They Carried) Lavender carried tranquilizers until he died, because he was scared.

Read More

More about Analysis Of If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

Related Topics

Open Document