Realism In Where Have You Gone Charming Billy

A feast for the bugs, but a nightmare for the soldiers. As expected, this would leave the soldiers fearful, making them paranoid and terrified. The metaphor O’Brien used leaves one to portrait war as nothing less than horrifying, the ultimate death zone for soldiers. Beside from using metaphor, O’Brien uses personification to convey the effect animals had on the soldiers, and war itself. He mentions, “{you’d} hear a strange hum in your ears...Tree frogs, maybe, or snakes or flying squirrels or who-knew-what.” The author’s purpose for using personification in this particular passage is to reveal how chilling this war is, how it’s unlike any other battlefield.

The characters I will be discussing in this book are Henry Fleming, Wilson, and Jim Conklin. The Red Badge of Courage is centered around a young man named Henry Fleming who decides at a young age to enlist in the military. Henry later discovers different sides of himself that he didn’t know even existed. Henry is burdened with the feeling of fear that he has and goes to other soldiers and tries to get them to admit that they are fearful as well. While talking to other soldiers, Henry runs into two other soldiers, Jim Conklin, and Wilson.

Finally, personification is used to show how the soldiers hid the horrors of the war and turned them into a more familiar sound like arguing. Through figurative language, the readers are clued into Collins’ insane choice and receive a clear image of how nihilistic the war raging around Collins was. “A Mystery of Heroism” is a short story that mocks heroism and what we define as a

What do you make of O’Brien’s definition of “truth”? Tom O’Brien defines a true war story as a story that embarrases the storyteller and makes the listener feel slightly disturbed after hearing it. War stories, as O’Brien defines them, do not have a happy ending or a moral. He even goes as far as to say “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).

He also explains the stressful ”heat of the moment” decisions involved. The second topic is emotion. O’brien explains how emotion was dealt with in war by soldiers. ”He told me I was a soldier, and I needed to shape up.” They did not want to show emotion because that meant they were weak, and

This poem describes the soldiers personal perspectives of war using the bare naked truth, not glorifying it in anyway. The purpose of ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is to not embellish the truth of war, but to show how tragic and useless it is. ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ hints that it is “sweet and honourable” to be at war, encouraging soldiers to go, however, as the reader begins to read they find out that Owen is truly against war. Owen shows that the soldiers are ruined, both mentally and physically. Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ structure hints to the uncertainty of war.

His saying this shows that he is trying to stay brave despite his obvious fear. He also shows other emotions, like disgust, when he finds out that "game" General Zaroff is hunting. Unlike typical movie heroes, he shows emotions and acts like a relatively normal person in the situation, showing fear. In High Noon, Will Kane is also emotional, unlike many action movie protagonists. He asks that townspeople for help, whereas the typical hero would not ask for any help.

In Tim Obrien’s text, Where have You Gone, Charming Billy?, the author invokes the theme of relative fear, what might be frightening for some may not be so for others. Private First Class Paul Berlin was new and inexperienced, being in an actual war is scary in itself. Even with training and practice you can never tell what will happen in an actual field of battle. The story shows how scary the war was. Paul Berlin experienced his fears throughout the entire story.

Throughout The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, Henry Fleming makes mistakes and has to relearn what he is capable of. His transgressions include running from a battle, abandoning a dying man, and lying to his comrades. Tim O’Brien defines what a true war story is in his book The Things They Carried, and states that, “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior…” Although the youth makes many mistakes throughout The Red Badge of Courage, and many immoral acts are portrayed, it is not a true war story according to Tim O’Brien’s definition. To begin with, The Red Badge of Courage does not show an “absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil,” because throughout the novel, good deeds are shown, and Henry finds role models that are ideals of virtue in war.

The Dentist works its way into the happening-truth aspect of the novel in a different sort of way. It 's a smaller vignette, almost seemingly thrown into the novel without any purpose. Lemon 's character in the novel offers an unusual spin on the idea of bravery and courage within war. He obviously needs to show his capability to endure suffering and act bravely when adversity confronts him. He backs down in this section though and experiences discomfort, "He didn 't mind blood or pain—he actually enjoyed combat—but there was something about a dentist that just gave him the creeps" (83).

In comparison to Dix, Remarque 's All Quiet on the Western Front depicts soldiers who are used to fighting on the front line; forcing them to forget how to adjust into a civilized society considering the horrors they face on a daily basis. Soldiers ' are familiar with their obligations on the front line as opposed to when they enter the real world after the war. Remarque includes a passage in which Paul, the protagonist of the novel, fights against his own conscience, reconnects with human morals, and ultimately concludes that war is real and that he must learn to adapt to it. After Paul stabs a Frenchman, he immediately questions if he would 've committed the killing if it were his loved ones, which uncovers his guilt built up inside of him. The author states, "Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?

At this part of the story Dave was trying to come tell him that his father had passed away in combat, but he was too afraid to hear him say the words that he didn 't let him and just beat Dave up. While reading the suspense of how badly the boys wanted to beat Dave up was a release of anger and fear, which is terrifying in the position of

He was profoundly affected by the sights of war and later described a recurring nightmare of his traumatic experiences. Dix later explains why he volunteered to go to war and why he needed the experience: “I have to experience all the ghastly, bottomless depths of life for myself, its for this reason that I went to war and for that reason I volunteered.” (Brainyquote, 2016). In the etching Dix has created, jagged lines which create a threatening and unnerving impression on the viewer, with the strong vertical lines of the sticks and figures suggesting movement. Dix asserts, “people were already beginning to forget, what horrible suffering the war had brought them. I did not want to cause fear and panic, but to let people know how dreadful it is and so to stimulate people’s powers of resistance.” (Brainyquote, 2016).

Instead he can only replay the dreadful scene in his mind. The speaker realises that right from the beginning, the truth was concealed and overpowered by rhetoric which convinced the innocent youth that war is glorifying. Owen states, “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old Lie” (25). The reality of the war takes many lives and destroys the innocence amongst the young soldiers. In The Wars, several characters endure their own destruction of innocence as a result of the war.