At first he was against the war but reported for service and he was deployed to Vietnam with what has been called the “unlucky” American division due to it be involved with the My Lai massacre in 1968, which was an event that was a key thing in the book, In the Lake of the
American soldiers stationed in Vietnam some had a purpose to fight but for the most part, most didn't know what there reason for was. While Richie is in Vietnam he experiences a lot of traumatizing horrors of war that affected him mentally and physically leading to why his purpose of being in Vietnam. Richie doesn´t have the social skills since he´s been away from home for a while and wartime changed
How he hated being drafted and how badly he wanted to run away. He tells how he took time to himself to decide whether or not he was going to run away and risk being caught and imprisoned or go join the army and risk dying over in Vietnam. He states at the end, “ I passed through twins with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward.
His embarrassment causes him to enlist in the military and he ends up serving time in Vietnam. The novel touches on his experiences and bonds with his platoon while serving his time in Vietnam. Throughout the book, Myers shows a realistic depiction of war such as the graphic violence, the inner thoughts of a soldier, and how the platoon struggles to survive. Throughout the novel, Myers utilizes many different ways to portray the realistic depiction of war.
He realizes the ineffectiveness of the Vietnam War. The moral ambiguity in this being that he is risking his life when he shouldn’t be
He begins listing simple things, such as the moon, how the grass swayed from the wind of a helicopter, and a red clay trail. Then it grows more serious, from listing a hand grenade to the sight of a young dead man that he killed. The contrast from the petty memories to the young dead man makes his killing stand out. The purpose of the comparison and contrast is to emphasize the abrupt brutalness of death and fear during a war. The significance of the repetition of his age was to show how much time has passed from serving in the Vietnam War, but is still affected by the memories.
He had to flee Vietnam along with his sister, mother, and grandmother. He was confused and did not know what was happening around him at the camp, but he had qualities that helped him survive. All he was able to do was stay strong, become flexible, and adapt to his environment as much as possible. He also gave us a piece of advice on surviving, "Try not to feel ashamed" (Lines 33-34) this means that you should do anything in your ability to get food. You will have to be able to beg for the survival of you and your family.
1965-1972 Story and song comparison CHINOOK CRASH at FSB Keene 21 November 1968 By Gary Roush(Story) and Military Madness By Graham Nash(Song): Both the song and the story portray war in a way where they describe that the military can trap someone, be it physically or mentally. The military can be a very unpleasant experience. In the Story by Gary Roush he describes how his training in that moment had run out, and he was trapped. Zero options, dead, no way to escape.
O’Brien begins thinking about how the soldier’s life must have been, simply by going off of his description. O’Brien says that this soldier loved math but was bullied for being smart and having a miniscule body. O’Brien also says that this soldier was told many stories about brave warriors who served their country just like us, but the soldier was scared, and he prayed that he wouldn’t become old enough to fight. This moment of O’Brien seeing life from the enemy’s shoes gives the reader sympathy for the vietcong soldier. O’Brien explaining this now gives a new way to connect to our “enemy” and truly questions if anyone in war is purely evil or purely
In the chapter when he describes the man he kills, he talks about the state of the dead body by saying, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole…the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips, his right cheek was smooth and hairless, there was a butterfly on his chin, his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him” (O’Brien Chapter 11). This brutal and horrifying imagery displays an irrefutable element of truth to O’Brien’s writing. Not only does this imagery highlight the truth to his writing, but it also sheds light on the brutal truth about the war in Vietnam. By using imagery as such a strong rhetorical device in his writing, he gives the average person a taste of just how barbaric and cruel Vietnam felt for the people who experience the war first hand on either side of the fighting. Tim O’Brien gives a very detailed and intense description of his time fighting in Vietnam during their war with America.
While he was in the country he “wrote a few letters home; didn’t go into much detail; motive was "more superstitious" than protecting parents; wrote some short pieces for the Minneapolis newspaper and one for Playboy (published after he returned) that became the basis for his first book, If I Die in a Combat Zone; had always wanted to be a writer, but Vietnam made him need to be a writer; pieces were about events and other people, not about him; went to graduate school at Harvard after his return, kept writing short pieces, not intending them to be a book, but at some point, they accumulated into one. ”[Interview, 04:19] H said that the books he read inspired him to be a writer even if he hadn't gone to Vietnam, though “his experience made him a certain kind of writer; all his books are about the individual’s struggle to do the right thing against outside forces” [Interview,06:15] O’Brien takes the “awful experience of war; tries to reflect the non-linear experience of Vietnam; of his books, The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods best capture that.” [Interview, 06:15] “I was drafted in 1968 and spent the summer playing golf and worrying about Vietnam and dying and killing. But it’s abstract.
Jimmy was also a school principal in Arkansas, and he had and extraordinary passion for history. To get his students interested in history he added musical fun into it. He is recognized for historical songs, and was given a recording contract by the RCA. In this song it describe the Battle of New Orleans and its point of view from and American Solider. Throughout this song, it tells a tale of a comical attitude of what happened in the battle.
The soldiers in the Vietnam War are portrayed as losing themselves in the chaos and trauma of combat. Through the stories of the soldiers and their experiences, O’Brien explores the ways in which war strips away one's sense of identity and humanity. The author himself is depicted as losing himself in the war. O'Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his experiences inspired much of the book. Through the character of Tim O'Brien, the author explores the ways in which war can strip away one's sense of self and purpose.
This disconnect makes it hard for the military men to explain their experience and how one small death or win out of thousands can be so significant to them, when people on the other side see it as one of a million casualties. The war is not personified as it is with the soldiers who actually lived through it. Another soldier who feels detached from reality is Adam Schumann, who was put on countless medications to fix him with no help. After the war, Schumann has “lost all hope” and can’t live with himself, feeling that “the end is near for (him), very, very near. Day by
The song “War” was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1969 to protest against the Vietnam War. The song was later recorded by the singer Edwin Starr and it became the number one hit on the billboard hot 100 chart in 1970. The song was later sung by Bruce Springsteen and it gained popularity again in 1986 for being the most popular protest song ever recorded. In the song there were some controversial lyrics about their opinions of the Americans being part of the Vietnam War. The song was successful because it spreaded the anti-war messages across America and people agreed with them.
