ipl-logo

Analysis Of Tunnel By Yusef Komunyakaa

594 Words3 Pages

"Tunnels" by Yusef Komunyakaa is a poem that defines the experiences of the Vietnam War for the public. This shows harsh, but true faces of the war. The author sounds like a knowledgeable witness to the war so that his poem has a direct connection to the war and shows a very authentic voice. When I read "Tunnels" for the first time I thought of a soldier that is hiding in tunnels, running away from the enemy trying to save himself because that is what imagery comes into mind after reading the title. The author put in imagery of angels, golden rings, gods. and stars. I saw the end coming for the soldier in the form of heaven. I believe the author really respected the soldiers and all the men and women who put their lives on the line all deserved …show more content…

This poem makes me feel proud and sad at learning the real things that armies have to face. Komunyakaa had served in the Vietnam War as a correspondent and he was managing editor of the Southern Cross during the war so he had first-hand experience of what really happened. I have learned that war is a genre of poetry that seeks to create meaning for an indefinite experience and Vietnam War poetry defines these experiences for the soldier himself, but also for a public which did not show great support for the war and had no true understanding at the time according to the History Channel. In Vietnam, the Viet-Cong used tunnels to evade American troops and their air bombings during the Vietnam War. Military was forced to clear these tunnels and many times, smaller soldiers called “tunnel rats” were forced to go inside tunnels by themselves to search and kill any enemies living underground. Tunnels were not very stable built and had many booby traps waiting for victims to snare. North Vietnamese and VC troops went underground in order to survive and continue their guerrilla tactics. The poem takes the readers through the experience of a “tunnel rat” having to go underground by

Show More
Related

Komunyakaa Comparison Essay

477 Words | 2 Pages

Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage and Komunyakaa’s “Camouflaging the Chimera” may seem quite similar, but they are in fact very different from each other. For instance, The Red Badge of Courage focuses on one main character while “Camouflaging the Chimera” focuses on a group of soldiers. So, despite how similar they may appear at a first, when you dig deeper and take a closer look, you’ll find that they are not as similar as you thought.

Read More

Between Epitaph On A Solider And The Death Of A Ball Turret Gunner

874 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout history, one of the most common occurrences during times of warfare is the death of the soldiers who are fighting for their country. Depending on one’s point of view, a soldier’s death at war could be honorable and glorified, or it can be a gruesome, anonymous demise. In the two poems, “Epitaph on a Solider” by Cyril Tourneur and “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” by Randal Jarrell, there is a stark contrast between the emotional impacts experienced by the reader. Through each author’s unique writing style, “Tourneur’s Epitaph on a Soldier” shows glory in a soldier’s death and is supportive of war, while Jarrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” gives a much more painful impression of war and the passing of those involved in it.

Read More

American Tunnel Rat Essay

1001 Words | 5 Pages

On 18 January 1967, the tunnel rats had discovered a tunnel complex that had over half a million enemy documents. When the operation was complete, there were 750 confirmed enemy kills, as opposed to 72 American casualties. The U.S. Army destroyed over 525 tunnels and knocked out all of the Viet Cong’s medical facilities. (Mangold, 1985) These Soldiers earned the respect of the Viet

Read More

Yusef Komunyakaa Facing It Analysis

698 Words | 3 Pages

Yusef 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.

Read More

Yusef Komunyakaa Analysis

469 Words | 2 Pages

Yusef 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.

Read More

Summary Of Facing It By Yusef Komunyakaa

495 Words | 2 Pages

“Facing It”, written by Yusef Komunyakaa, tells a story of the long list of names on the granite Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. The speaker is able to show a great deal of emotion which was able to bring forth emotions in me. After reading this poem I was filled with feelings of gratefulness, sadness, and pride. My grandfather is a veteran of the Vietnam War and I remember when I was a young child making visits to my grandparents house seeing my grandfather in uniform posted in frames on the walls. I remember seeing an American flag folded and laying peacefully in a glass box.

Read More

Walter Dean Myers Fallen Angels Analysis

936 Words | 4 Pages

Choice Novel Assignment The Vietnam War was a very brutal war where many of the American soilders were young men with a bright mindset of serving their country. Even though many Americans forget about this war. Many veterans do not forget about the harsh expirence and how it effected them. In ¬Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers accurately describes the young American soldiers experiences in the Vietnam war on how it effected them mentally and physically.

Read More

Ho Chi Minh's Letter More Persuasive Than Lyndon B. Johnson

280 Words | 2 Pages

I 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

Read More

Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis

1292 Words | 6 Pages

Readers, 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.

Read More

Spin By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

791 Words | 4 Pages

In 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.

Read More

The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis

644 Words | 3 Pages

It highlights the atrocities of war, how it consumes people, and the effect it leaves behind. In the quote, there is pain, sadness and acceptance. Even though I’ve never been to war and have never experienced anything on the level that Vietnam soldiers did, I feel like I can relate to, or at least understand, O’Brien and his situations. I feel like I know what he is going through; his thoughts and feelings are, in a way, my own. It is really remarkable when an author can get his readers to really feel and understand the characters in his or her novel; that’s what makes Tim O’ Brien such a great author and what makes “The Things They Carried” a must-read

Read More

Lament To The Spirit Of War Analysis

329 Words | 2 Pages

Lament to the Spirit of War Quiz One Response In Lament to the Spirt of War, the idea of war is a frightening and quite scary place to be. Although reading this story is not like the reality of war, a person has a sense of what it feels like to be caught in the war itself. The story gives details that explains what a soldier feels like when he or she is in battle. Like a “raging storm” or a “fiery monster.”

Read More

The Effects Of War In All Quiet On The Western Front

889 Words | 4 Pages

War carries important morals that heighten the perspective of men and women on their nation, but it also entails many acts and experiences that leave lasting effects on their emotional and physical state. Throughout the following texts, Paul Baumer, the dead soldiers, and Kiowa’s comrades all sustain losses that compel them to persevere and fight harder. All Quiet on the Western Front, Poetry of the Lost Generation, and an excerpt from In the Field all connect to the recurring theme, horrors of war, that soldiers face everyday on the front line through the continuous battle. War involves gruesome battles, many of which lead to death, but these events forever affect the soldier’s mind and body. In All Quiet on the Western Front, men experience horrific sights, or horrors of war, through the depiction of the terrain, death, and the

Read More

Examples Of Trauma In The Things They Carried

689 Words | 3 Pages

Bowker’s most eye-opening and heartbreaking experience during Vietnam takes place at the platoon encampment that unknowingly was placed at the edge of a sewage field. One night it begins to rain particularly hard causing the edge of the sewage pit to turn to mud, then unexpectedly Viet Cong mortar rounds take fire on the already eroding campsite causing a fellow soldier by the name of Kiowa to fall into the sewage pit and begin to drown in human

Read More

What Every Soldier Should Know Brian Turner Analysis

968 Words | 4 Pages

In the poem, “What Every Soldier Should Know”, Brian Turner, details the ever-present threat of death in a war zone. This poem expesses not only the terror of the American soldiers, but also exemplifies the emotions that the Middle Eastern soldiers feel towards the American soldiers. The soldiers are experiencing death, chaos, and disorder, but for some of the middle eastern people, they experience that every day. A lot of Middle Eastern people are normal people, defending their home land, their family, and their country.

Read More

More about Analysis Of Tunnel By Yusef Komunyakaa

Related Topics

Open Document