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In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried the narrator, Tim O’Brien, often blurs the lines between reality and fiction. As a young soldier, O’Brien recalls the Vietnam war including the sounds, sights, and his emotions, while 20 years later he again shares his feelings and experiences of the same event. This same event, however, is told differently in order to help him cope with the emotional pain of war. The details become blurry as the pain is too great to endure.
His eyes were glazed over, his lips parched decayed (88).” This example of imagery is made to shape the reader’s thought of this scene with a dramatic mood through words that will describe the situation in a serious and dramatic way. The sad mood can be connected to the choice of words that are used to describe an event in the story through
Olds also uses vivid descriptions in order to inject a realistic approach into the poem. Olds beginning of similes start in the seventh line of the poem and is used to show the similarities between the bodies of gravediggers’ preparation to be buried and a tree’s preparation for life. The speaker says, “ They lay on the soil, some of them wrapped in dark cloth bound with rope like the tree’s ball of roots when it waits to be planted”(Olds Lines 5-8). After the gravediggers’ fight against starvation they are taken on a “child’s sled” to a cemetery (Olds Line 4). The “child’s sled” as being a
The Irish Way is a historical non-fiction book written by James Barrett. This book is about Irish immigrants and their journey towards Americanization and assimilation upon their arrival to the United States. It also shows the impacts of their influence on many major American cities, as well as on immigrants of different ethnicities. Barrett’s purpose for this work is to show the lives of multiple generations of Irish Catholic Americans. In addition, he wanted to expand on the relationships that they had with other ethnic groups and how this created a long standing multiethnic identity.
The narrator’s changing understanding of the inevitability of death across the two sections of the poem illustrates the dynamic and contrasting nature of the human
Irish integration to America was a very important part of the immigration history of this nation. James R. Barrett, professor at the University of Illinois, writes The Irish Way: Becoming American in the Multiethnic City, an account of the story of second and third generation Irish immigrants whose experiences in America changed their lives in more ways than they could have imagined. The book primarily focused on the social history through; their shaky relationship with African Americans, politics and “The Machine”, religious opposition from other immigrants, and their strife in the workplace. Thoroughly developed with illustrations and facts, this book provides new insight into the topic of “Americanization” among immigrants coming to our nation.
“The Thing They Carried” by Tim O’Brien In the war novel “The Thing They Carry”, by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien open up his mind going down memories and stories he experience in the horrifying Vietnam war in 1950s-1980s. He used the signpost memory moment of truths and lies to reveal the burden of the war. Truth is what the soldier in the war, memories remember about, does whose location are unknown and what happens to them. Lies is everything that the soldiers can’t reveal to the public not just about the war but how they feel, damage which took place.
O’Brien presents a variety of stories to present the complexity of war. “On The Rainy River” is a pre-war
In the poem “BLackberry -Picking,” Seamus Heaney explains vivid experiences with the picking of berries with deep understandings. Heaney executes the experience by using figurative language such as simile, imagery, and hyperbole. Firstly, Heaney introduces a simile that describes the sweetness of the berry that is being picked: “You ate that first one and it’s flesh was sweet Like thickened wine…”
In Heaney’s poetry, he portrays ‘getting older’ as a dark and brutal incident that would remain for the rest of one’s life. He emphasizes this by the struggles and ups and downs growing up contains. This is transmitted by the variation of tone, violent and complex language, excitement, the structure and the transition from a childish voice to a more mature one. Therefore, “Death of a Naturalist and “Blackberry-Picking” are great examples to exhibit this claims. “Death of a Naturalist” presents a vivid sense of childish voice through the employment of childish terms.
1. In the essay The Irish in America, John Francis Maguire mentions the main obstacles the Irish immigrants face in the United States was drinks. Other challenges includes: lack of money, in need for employed and disease. The Irish immigrants were generally poor, thus making them in need to be employed, even the unpleasant ones. As the Irish immigrant population increases, resources are depleted quickly.
The poem Two Lorries was written by Seamus Heaney an Irish poet born in Northern Ireland, precisely in County Derry, on April 13, 1939. He was one of the most remarkable authors of that time, which dealt with topics of violence and social issues as well as nature and Ireland history, which demonstrates the variety of his work. Heaney was awarded with a Nobel Prize in the field of literature, by 1995 since his work was of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past. Seamus marked study on the role of sorrow in Ireland’s political atmosphere during the Troubles; a meditation on the personal effect of the Troubles on the citizen population, and should be read as the physical death of human life, the death of Ireland’s pastoral innocence, and the death of childhood to the abrupt nature of violence. By the time he was 74 he died on the 30 of August in Dublin.
Nettles In the poem “Nettles” the author Vernon Scannell is writing about a boy falling into a nettle bed, and how his father afterwards is trying to comfort his son. Thereafter, the father goes out and removes the nettles, but not long after the nettles are standing tall again. In this poem, Vernon Scannell uses the situation with the son falling into the nettles along with figurative language and sound techniques, as a metaphor for being at war.
In Easter 1916, Yeats highly regards and recognises the Irish nationalists’ sacrifice to free Ireland. The juxtaposed words “shrill” and “sweet” suggests Yeats’ applause towards the republicans who were eager for Ireland’s freedom. “This man / kept a school” refers to Patrick Pearse, a central figure in the Easter Rebellion and Irish nationalism whom Yeats admired as he was the Irish rebellion leader that exhibited resilience through the war. “This other man… vainglorious lout” alludes to John MacBride who abused Maud Gonne during their marriage and ultimately left her, hence Yeats expresses his displeasure “most bitter wrong / To some… near my heart” towards MacBride as she was Yeats’ unrequited love. Nonetheless, Yeats named or “number him” in the poem because “He, too”, repeated twice, was a mark of power for the transformation the uprising caused, which “has been changed in his turn”.
Comparative Essay “Midterm Break” & “The Early Purges” By Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet, who grew up on a farm. He writes about his childhood, nature, and in two particular poems, explores the theme of growing up. Whilst the two poems, titled “The Early Purges” and “Midterm Break” are both sad and thought-provoking in equal measure, I think “Midterm Break” portrays this the best in its symbolism, and the tragedy of it. Midterm break is about young Heaney, aged only twelve or thirteen years old, coming home from boarding school for the spring midterm break. However, instead of being greeted with a happy welcome from his family, he is forced to grow up very quickly after the death of his very young baby brother.
