Yusef Komunyakaa's Facing It
In Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Facing It”, he uses a regretful tone to successfully express the speaker’s memories of the Vietnam War. The poem starts out with the speaker looking at the memorial “My black face fades, hiding inside the granite.” (1), which helps visualize for the audience that the speaker is African American. However, this line is meaningful because it shows how he saw all the casualties that came out of the war, on the memorial, and visualizes the speakers hatred for the war. Later it becomes more evident that he was part of the war and how this caused the speaker’s ambivalence to surviving. As these emotions become more evident, the man states, “I said I wouldn’t dammit: No tears.” (3-4). The diction vividly expresses the emotions
Summary Of Facing It By Yusef Komunyakaa
927 Words | 4 PagesMany of his poems in this book are about his time serving in the Vietnam War “as an information specialist and later an editor for the military newspaper The Southern Cross” (Conley). However, many of these poems are not only about the Vietnam War but also about racial matters. One writer states that “at the beginning of his poetic career, Komunyakaa’s vision was rooted most often in his race…” (Mack). This shows that his race and roots were extremely important to him growing up and remained important when he began his writing career.
Yusef Komunyakaa Facing It Analysis
698 Words | 3 PagesYusef Komunyakaa, the author of “Facing It,” is a Vietnam Veteran who appears to write as a means to express his grief, pain, and postwar experiences. Being a Veteran myself and having been to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. several times, I empathize with Komunyakaa. The first thing I noticed upon walking down the path to the monument was how quiet and peaceful it was, yet the sorrow and pain was deeply rooted. I located the names of family, friends, and the MIA Marine’s name “CAPT RICHARD R. KANE” on my MIA/POW bracelet. This experience sent chills throughout my body and was emotionally overwhelming.
Yusef Komunyakaa Analysis
469 Words | 2 PagesYusef Komunyakaa’s poem and Stephen Crane's excerpt factor similar and different events throughout their stories. While Crane’s piece is written from one man’s point of view, Komunyakaa uses the collective voice of a group of soldiers. In Crane’s excerpt, it talks more about fighting, what’s happening and going on in the war. In the poem, it talks more about what the soldiers do to mask their feelings and their emotions to stay strong and not get distracted thinking of memories of family.
Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis
1292 Words | 6 PagesReaders, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.
America Vietnam Memorial Essay
1553 Words | 7 PagesThe author, Suhi Choi, stated, “Memory is not merely an abstract image of the past, but also a frame that provides us with a way of constituting the past from the perspective of the present” (64). In the City of Brotherly Love, it is essential that the former soldiers of the city are remembered eternally. With such controversy surrounding the entire Vietnam conflict, the seclusion of this particular memorial is
War Is Kind And Mankind Rhetorical Analysis
443 Words | 2 PagesIn a desperate attempt for peace, as ironic as it may be, we create chaos, resulting in the death of millions at a time. Firearms burn bright in the dim sun, exposing the vibrancy of blood-stained suits. As the bullets penetrate skin, the life of another innocent individual has already been lost. Families never to hear a last, “I love you” before their loved one tragically passes in a loud, chaotic mess. They run towards the danger, knowing exactly what result the soldiers might have gotten in the gamble of life or death.
Spin By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis
791 Words | 4 PagesIn 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.
A Marker On The Side Of The Boat Analysis
813 Words | 4 PagesRegret is a powerful emotion that has the ability to scar someone for the rest of their life. Moments of regret can come from relationships, self-made decisions and life changing events. The idea of regret also applies to “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh and “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien. Although these two literary pieces are very different in many ways, both authors describe the experience of the Vietnam War as a time of regretful decisions that negatively impacted people of both the American side and the Vietnamese side. Both authors tell a story about a character that recalls of flashbacks of the war, where they grieve over the past decisions that have affected them for the rest of their life.
Rhetorical Devices In Duty Honor Country
520 Words | 3 PagesThrought this powerful essay it is clear that MacArthur is passionate about his Country and the military who serves it. Being very vivid in the descriptions of the world at war, was a way that this essay provokes emotion. Stating “...many a weary march from dripping dusk to to drizzling dawn,slogging ankle-deep through the mire of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack,blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective…” Those striking words hit the audience like an arrow piercing the hearts of those in attendance. This diction drives home the the point through the use of the audience's emotions keeping their feeling on the surface to be further affected by the speaker's words.
How Did The Vietnam War Affect People's Life
551 Words | 3 PagesWe mourn the losses of close relatives that died the day of the Vietnam War. After the war, “Re-education Camps” opened up for the South Vietnam were captured Vietnameses had been forced to do extremely harsh work like what my grandpa had did before. When the war happened, economy went down, bits of rations of food barely to be found, and no education affected the ways my family thinks about education, especially me. The Vietnam War changed a lot for me and my family, we know now how special education is, hard work, sympathy towards lost lives, and how our lifestyle today is privileged; although it may have been war, it’s now
Structure And Symbolism In Elizabeth Alexander's 'Nineteen'
1297 Words | 6 PagesThe older man 's behavior contrasts with that of the persona who is young and has barely experienced life. Whereas the speaker is eager to discover life and have new experiences to escape her reality, the older man avoids his truth by focusing on mundane details of his experience in the Vietnam War. Furthermore, the older man was once a young man himself, surely eager to have new experiences, as he enrolled in the army. Instead of having these desires fulfilled, his memories of the war have caused his view of the world to greatly deviate from that of the persona and
Summary Of Martin Luther King Jr Vietnam Speech
674 Words | 3 PagesOn April 4, 1967 Doctor Martin Luther King Jr gave the speech, “Beyond Vietnam-A time to Break Silence.” In this powerful speech Dr. King addresses his followers, and explains why the same people who are advocating for civil rights, should also protest the war in Vietnam. Dr. King’s main appeal is towards pathos because he is explaining his reasons, most of which are moral in some way. Dr. King develops the central claim of the speech by explaining how the war is taking away resources from the poor, how the soldiers are disproportionately poor people, and lastly how the war is completely against his morals. His central claim of the speech revolves around war being an enemy of the poor.
Ho Chi Minh's Letter More Persuasive Than Lyndon B. Johnson
280 Words | 2 PagesI find Ho Chi Minh’s letter far more persuasive than Lyndon B. Johnson’s. Using ethos, pathos, and logos, he forms a solid argument that supports Vietnam’s stance on the war. He appeals to one’s emotions by expressing the injustices faced by his people, writing, “In South Viet-Nam a half-million American soldiers and soldiers from the satellite countries have resorted to the most barbarous methods of warfare, such as napalm, chemicals, and poison gases in order to massacre our fellow countrymen, destroy the crops, and wipe out villages.” Words such as “massacre” and “barbarous” highlight the severity of these crimes, and invoke feelings of guilt and remorse in the reader. Chi Minh uses ethos to support his logos, or logical, views on the
Martin Luther King Jr Speech Figurative Language Essay
488 Words | 2 PagesThrough utilising figurative language to juxtapose optimistic progress and “demonic destruction”, King is able to emphasise how devastating the Vietnam War is. Additionally, by constructing an optimistic view on the civil rights situation during that time period and immediately refuting it, King is able to establish a strong sense of
Telling A True War Story Analysis
1032 Words | 5 PagesWhy Is Telling A True War Story Hard Lots of stories are hard to comprehend because they’re more brutal and traumatic for listeners, even the story-teller. In three stories: “The Man I Killed”, “How To Tell A True War Story”, and “Speaking of Courage”, Tim O’Brien showed how changing certain parts of a story and making them graceful, can make them easier to comprehend. However sometimes telling the story the way it was makes it brutal and gruesome, though some listeners prefer that over gracefulness.
More about Yusef Komunyakaa's Facing It
Summary Of Facing It By Yusef Komunyakaa
927 Words | 4 PagesYusef Komunyakaa Facing It Analysis
698 Words | 3 PagesYusef Komunyakaa Analysis
469 Words | 2 PagesThings They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis
1292 Words | 6 PagesAmerica Vietnam Memorial Essay
1553 Words | 7 PagesWar Is Kind And Mankind Rhetorical Analysis
443 Words | 2 PagesSpin By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis
791 Words | 4 PagesA Marker On The Side Of The Boat Analysis
813 Words | 4 PagesRhetorical Devices In Duty Honor Country
520 Words | 3 PagesHow Did The Vietnam War Affect People's Life
551 Words | 3 PagesStructure And Symbolism In Elizabeth Alexander's 'Nineteen'
1297 Words | 6 PagesSummary Of Martin Luther King Jr Vietnam Speech
674 Words | 3 PagesHo Chi Minh's Letter More Persuasive Than Lyndon B. Johnson
280 Words | 2 PagesMartin Luther King Jr Speech Figurative Language Essay
488 Words | 2 PagesTelling A True War Story Analysis
1032 Words | 5 Pages