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Comparing Brian Mockenhaupt's The Living And The Dead

518 Words3 Pages

Authors Brian Mockenhaupt and Chris Heath write stories about living with PTSD and how having PTSD turned into suicide. Mockenhaupt’s “The Living and the Dead” talked about a man who went to war and came home only to deal with PTSD. In Heath’s “18 Tigers, 17 Lions, 8 Bears, 3 Cougars, 2 Wolves, 1 Baboon, 1 Macaque, and 1 Man Dead in Ohio”, he talks about a man who is a Vietnam Veteran, who committed suicide. Both essays have various nonfiction elements in common with one another. Brian Mockenhaupt and Chris Heath both suffer with PTSD from war and explore the theme of traumatic experiences by using the nonfiction forms characterization, biographical sketch, and sense of place.

Brian Mockenhaupt and Chris Heath both utilized characterization. In Mockenhaupt “The Living and the Dead”, he writes about a Marine named Tom Whorl. Tom was a Sergeant in charge of searching for IED’s. His main concern was stepping on an IED. Mockenhaupt wrote, “The worst is not knowing when your last step will be. That’s what takes a toll on your brain.” In Heath’s “18 Tigers, 17 Lions, 8 Bears, 3 Cougars, 2 Wolves, 1 Baboon, 1 Macaque, and 1 Man Dead in Ohio”, he describes Terry as a good child growing up. Terry went to war in Vietnam and came back home suffering from PTSD. When Terry returned home, he was described as a wild guy who enjoyed his exotic animals. He had a different attitude from being drafted to war. He had no care or …show more content…

Mockenhaupt writes about Tom Whorl’s time when he was a kid, went to war, and returned home with PTSD. He focused on the time Tom spent in Afghanistan. Tom suffered from PTSD from all of the traumatic events that he was involved in while at war. Heath focuses on the time that Terry spent in Vietnam. He tells about him pulling other soldiers in the helicopter, sometimes cutting fingers off in the door. While in Vietnam, Terry befriended a monkey and that began his love for exotic

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