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The Man I Killed Poem Theme

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The album title Trapped In My Mind fits The Man I Killed by Tim O’Brien and the songs selected because the songs are mostly about thinking to yourself and being on your own path. By having the album cover of a man on the moon alone it shows the desolate feeling and being away from everyone. Being alone to yourself is a great time to reminisce.
The exposition of The Man I Killed and “Suicidal Thoughts” by The Notorious B.I.G share a common theme and tone. The common theme is after making a poor decision one may suffer an emotional burden as a result. In The Man I Killed Tim O’Brien is describing the dead body and the dead man was not built buff like a typical soldier. The Vietnamese man had a fragile stature and “ his chest was sunken and poorly …show more content…

The Man I Killed is written by Tim O’Brien who is the main character in the story and the situation is told by writing a book on what happened. And in Eminem’s Song “Stan” the story/rap is told in an epistolary style. Stan is writing letters to Eminem to express how much love he has for him since he is his favorite rapper but as Eminem starts to not read his letters quickly Stan goes crazy. The song and book share a common motif of storytelling. The stories are told in a first person point of view and are told by writing about it. Tim in The Man I Killed had difficulty with speaking about the Vietnamese Man he killed but found ease with speaking on it by writing. In “Stan”, by writing letters and reading them aloud it helps the reader comprehend the situation. Kiowa is trying to convince Tim to speak on the situation and let his emotions out but Tim is having an internal conflict with himself. Tim doesn’t want to talk about how he killed the Vietnamese Man because he is in shock and can’t accept what he done. Kiowa simply says “Talk” and Tim says nothing. (O’Brien 176) This internal conflict is similar to the one Stan has in “Stan” by Eminem. Stan’s internal conflict of him loving and hating Eminem simultaneously is shown through his lyrics and voice. The voice Eminem raps in is very aggressive and this shows he truly cares about what's going on. Stan when thinking about Eminem says “ I loved you Slim, we coulda been together, think about it! You ruined it now! I hope you can’t sleep and dream about it!” In the beginning, Eminem speaks in a softer more caring manner but then becomes aggressive and hate starts to fill his mind and this is vivid in his voice. Internal conflict is seen in both Tim O’Brien and Stan because they both can’t accept their situation and deal with it either with silence or aggression. Both writers speak on their situations through pen

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