The portrayal of a soldier is the theme that I have been researching. The portrayal of a soldier is to show different characteristics and emotions of soldiers either during war or when they return from war. The four texts I looked at is, the film/movie directed by Ted Kotcheff, “Rambo”, “The Sniper” written by Liam O’Flaherty, “Forrest Gump” directed by Robert Zemeckis and the song, “Goodnight Saigon” written and performed by Billy Joel. These four texts all portray soldiers in either similar or different ways.
Two texts that portray soldiers as being fearful are The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty and Rambo directed by Ted Kotcheff. Fear is shown in The Sniper when the sniper has to try and defeat an enemy sniper. The sniper nearly gets shot and the author says “he was frightened back to his senses”, this showing that The Sniper shows soldiers as having emotions of fear. Rambo also showed emotions of fear. When Rambo was about to be clean shaven by the cops, Rambo saw the blade and had flashbacks of back when he was in Vietnam. After the flashbacks he becomes fearful of the blade, the cops, and his surroundings. This is a clear connection between two texts that portray soldiers as having emotions of fear.
Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis and Goodnight Saigon written by
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Forrest Gump shows this the same way as being loyal. When his friends are injured in amongst enemy gunfire, Forrest ignores the enemy and runs in only thinking about his friends. He saves most of them and receives a medal of honour for it. Rambo also shows heroism as Rambo is known for what he did back in the Vietnam War. Rambo was one of the best soldiers and according to Colonel Trautman, Rambo is such a good soldier that he constantly goes on about how the cops and people against Rambo is still alive. Rambo was also given a medal of honour for what he did back in Vietnam
Oliwia Parafinska Ms. Haughey English Composition 102 28 April, 2023 Essay 3 Dealing with heavy emotions after traumatic life experiences is a tough feat, especially in situations that army soldiers go through. When taking a deeper look into the situation, it is clear that repression of emotions occurs more often than not. Pushing aside feelings seems like an easy, temporary escape, however, this repression has tremendous consequences on the psyche. In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien establishes the difficulty that soldiers in the Vietnam War have in terms of dealing with their emotional baggage which comprises grief along with fear.
Tim O’Brien writes us a wonderful fictional tale of a platoon of men in vietnam during the vietnam war, The Things They Carried shows the reader that when the men are over in this distant and strange land, not only do they carry physical objects, but emotional baggage and ideas that truly make, or break a man in war. Tim and his men show several signs of stress and turmoil while fighting the war, and while they survive they begin to understand what is really means to live, die, and what is right, and wrong. While over in vietnam the men are in a war, not a simple skirmish or fight, but a full on war against an enemy that they were not sure they are the enemy. The men would walk from location from location seeing what there is to do and trying
Tim O’Brien uses seemingly true events to describe his overall emotions about the Vietnam war and what he and others did there. “I want you to know what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (O’Brien, pg. 171). This quotation is the foundation of the entire book The Things They Carried, O’Brien uses this base to tell the story of many things that he witnessed. O’Brien’s verisimilitude is used to give real world emotions to a literary work.
The daunting face of fear is a situation in which both characters from Markus Zusak 's I am the Messanger and Nick Cutter 's the Troop are thrown into. Even though both books are opposites of each other, one dealing with a bio weapon and the other dealing with finding one 's true potential, in both books characters find their own ways to either face or crumble against their fears. Fears cause changes in courage, compassion and spirituality in
“They carried their own lives” (O’Brien 15). This quote explains the heavy emotional baggage soldiers carry with them as they go into war. “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing” (O’brien 20). This quote shows that soldiers' fears go beyond physical aspects, it touches on the emotional aspects soldiers’ face as well. Like showing signs of weakness (blushing).
The truth is that there are many ways that a man can be remembered. Perhaps to be a man of this nature you must face trials most likely leading to your impending doom, or maybe you have to simply be the one to forget the odds and keep on fighting. Many soldiers in U.S. history are remembered for these exact reasons. They are thought to be strong, brave, and willing to fight to the last man for their country. One such man was George Armstrong Custer.
The soldier himself is frightened on why he could not save him which haunts him in his dreams as he says “In all my dreams/ before my helpless sight” is how every time he dreams he sees the soldier and he cannot control it causing him to think of it every night frightening him everyday. Soon he will feel that the dead person wants revenge for his death as the soldier states “he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”, The dead soldier always comes into the narrator's dream wanting revenge as he chokes him as how he was being choked by the gas clouds and then drowning as how the dead soldier drowned in the green sea of chlorine gas. The horrors of war is what scares the soldier even after the war. At first soldiers imagine themselves as heroes creating them eager and excited they are until they finally get to the front and see no man's land. No man's land is usually bumpy with shell holes and dead trees that are either broken or burnt.
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
This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.
Hidden somewhere within the blurred lines of fiction and reality, lies a great war story trapped in the mind of a veteran. On a day to day basis, most are not willing to murder someone, but in the Vietnam War, America’s youth population was forced to after being pulled in by the draft. Author Tim O’Brien expertly blends the lines between fiction, reality, and their effects on psychological viewpoints in the series of short stories embedded within his novel, The Things They Carried. He forces the reader to rethink the purpose of storytelling and breaks down not only what it means to be human, but how mortality and experience influence the way we see our world. In general, he attempts to question why we choose to tell the stories in the way
In Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried”, in which he speaks of a man referred to as “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross”, who is struggling in balancing his obsession with a woman named Martha back in New Jersey and handling his duties within his platoon in Vietnam. His love for her intrudes on the love he has for his men, after he is daydreaming about Martha he loses his awareness of his surroundings and one of his men, who is named Lavender, gets killed. In coping with this death it is explained that the reason soldiers deal with these “intangibles” such as death, love, and fear is all due the idea that, “they were too frightened to be cowards.” (O’Brien, 1990, p. 24). For it is not by courage that these men are being pushed but, by the sheer fact that they do not want to be seen as cowardice amongst the men they stand by.
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.
Psychological Warfare in The Things They Carried Unless you have been in war or have read The Things They Carried, you can't fully understand the psychological toll on a person's mind and body, you can't understand the psychological hardship soldiers go through in war. However, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is written to where it shows the overall psychological effects of war on soldiers in and out of Vietnam; as shown throughout the story, the recurring themes of trauma, love, and guilt give the clear psychological implications of war.
The long duration of war takes a toll on soldiers and they are forced to tuck their emotions into a place far away, and not feel anything. If these emotions drove their actions, they would never accomplish anything at war. They turn into dehumanized machines in order to survive the horrors of war. Writing and telling stories of war allow for them to feel emotions again, “But this too is true: stories can save us” (O’Brien 225). Human beings need to release their emotions, and these
Both “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway use the townspeople as a symbol for how society treats soldiers. The authors show this symbolism by how the townspeople treat the soldiers, how the soldiers treat girls, and how the soldiers treat the townspeople over time. The symbolism in this story gives a message to the reader to treat soldiers with respect, and not just ignore them because their story is boring or uncomfortable. In “Soldier’s Home,” Krebs’ town is one which “has heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities” (84).