Protagonists In The Things They Carried, Passing And Hate Poem

The literary readings of The Things They Carried, Passing and “Hate Poem” demonstrates the struggles of the protagonist through hardships of mental pressure, external issues, and difficulties of coping. The variance of actions between the protagonists from the readings, shows the apparent disconnect between their emotions and reality, thus, making their environment extremely difficult to withstand. The multiple literary pieces truly embody each protagonist’s emotions of struggle through hardships. The protagonists grew from their difficult circumstances, or deteriorated emotionally because of the hardships. Protagonist Tim O’Brien of The Things They Carried, experiences from the Vietnam War proves that his state of mind is determined by the

The narrator, of this short poem truly analyzes the person that they are talking about, because they go into clear detail about why they do not like the person. The “Hate Poem” is representative of a person having such a strong emotion, which is hidden with love. The outside influences does not allow the person express their feelings openly, which relates to the narrator disregarding their true emotions because of their style of coping and emotional state. “My lungs, duplicitous twins, expand with the utter validity of my hate, which can never have enough of you, Breathlessly, like two idealists in a broken submarine.” The narrator’s feelings do not match their choice of words, because their passionate descriptions are thought provoking, but the narrator actually has issues with their own mental stability. “The blue-green jewel of sock lint I’m diggin/from under my third toenail, left foot, hates you./The history of this keychain hates you./My sigh in the background as you explain relational databases hates you.” The narrator’s tone seems more reflective than hateful, because if the narrator truly disliked the person, they would not dedicate a whole poem to the person in this amount of detail. Julie Sheehan’s use of words follows a pattern that reinforces the idea of external issues affecting the

Overtime, the experiences become a learning process, especially for the protagonists Tim O’Brien, Irene Redfield, and the narrator of Hate Poem. Emotions are major aspect of the two novels and poem, because everything revolves around the feelings of the characters. “She had a great longing to comfort him, to charm away his suffering and horror. But she was helpless, having so completely lost control of his mind and heart” (p.93). The difficulties of breaking from the emotions make each character shelter their fears and emotions. The coping methods of each character are drastically different, for example, Irene could have possibly killed Clare because of her struggles, the narrator conceals true emotions of a relationship with a person with hate, and Tim O’Brien writes about his stories of personal hardships of the Vietnam War. The three literary pieces of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Passing by Nella Larsen, and “Hate Poem” by Julie Sheehan represents that, “the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven” through the challenges created by external issues and results in internal problems making the protagonist shield their emotions, therefore, their troubles