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Compare And Contrast Speaking Of Courage And Soldiers Home

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Recommended: Analyzation of soldiers home by ernest hemingway

“Soldiers Home” by Ernest Hemingway and “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien both deal with the difficulties of veterans returning home from war. Both of the protagonists, Krebs and Bowker respectively, experience trauma, which leads them on a search for self-discovery and an outlet for their pain. At the end of each story, neither of the characters wants to participate in society anymore. Despite the similarities, Norman Bowker is more forthcoming with his feelings, ultimately making him a more successful character. In addition, the similarities and differences between the authors’ styles accentuate those that occur within the characters of the stories; both authors use symbolism to show the changes in the dynamic characters over the course of the narratives. Hemingway begins Krebs’ story in a Methodist college in Kansas when the war starts off in 1917. When the war ends Krebs chose to stay in Germany for the next six months and when he comes back he realizes that the town moved on about the war and didn’t get the welcome he thought he deserved. This leads to the theme of not being able to find an outlet for pain. He wanted people to listen to his stories so they would be able to see the pain of what he went through throughout the war and the heroic actions he accomplished while fighting …show more content…

The car in ‘Soldiers Home” shows the change in Krebs by showing how he was before and after the war. Before the war he wanted to drive and be more active and have a life after he chose to be lazy and not be part of his life like wanting to drive. “Speaking of Courage” starts the book around the lake and is told throughout the the whole of the story. The lake symbolizes the past and how it revolves around in his life still and helps him reflect on the future and how he wants to keep moving in his

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This reminds me in paragraphs four and five the lies Krebs makes is a person who is fallen or injured they are not important those people are overlooking them. This reminds me of the relationship of Krebs and his sister when they have fights together. Also, this love is reminded between him and his sister when at the kitchen table eating breakfast and finally that conversation turned into a fight(16). Finally Krebs goes to his sisters indoor baseball game to watch as he was

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These stories show the harsh realities of the Vietnam War communicated by Tim O’Brien’s memory. O’Brien does not shy away from the importance of friendship during the war. Soldiers are

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Tim O’Brien is a novelist and a retired soldier from the Vietnam War. He wrote a semi-autobiographical novel titled, The Things They Carried, in a format that seemed as if we were in the novel itself. As readers continue with this novel one can envision and have the impression of deaths and all the effects war has on a soldier from the war. O’Brien explores the effect of war on an individual through fictionalized stories he tells in this novel in order to show how humans can change through drastic events that happen to them due to the war. Being in a war affects the way we think and the people we love.

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844 Words | 4 Pages

This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.

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By including phrases such as, “Circling the lake, Norman Bowker remembered how his friend Kiowa had disappeared under the waste and water,” and “I let the guy go,” O’ Brien emphasizes the culpability left by Vietnam. “Speaking of Courage” explores the way storytelling recalls the pain of a war experience and highlights memories that were never forgotten. Additionally, O’ Brien further exemplifies the difficulty of accepting past memories in the chapter, “Field Trip.” During this section of the novel, the narrator returns to the site of Kiowa’s death with his daughter, Kathleen. At this moment, he reflects on the previous times and compares his memories to that of the significantly changed site.

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990 Words | 4 Pages

The lives of soldiers, Norman Bowker and Curt Lemon, illustrate how the war pressures the human spirit to a standard it can’t resemble. The pressure and responsibilities of lost friends and lost acts of courage heavily weigh Norman Bowker down,

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Returning home from war is never an easy transition for a soldier, no soldier embodied that truth more than Norman Bowker. Bowker is a Vietnam War veteran from the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien who struggles with his life and mental health after the Vietnam War. Bowker is troubled by his memories- most specifically one memory- that he cannot forget or forgive himself for. Bowker was a man who had to fight for his life every day he was in Vietnam, there was always a chance the Viet Cong would attack. Bowker lost friends and lost fellow soldiers every day in Vietnam, he even lost his best friend to the war.

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Speaking of Life After War Veterans go through very traumatic events during war and for many, these events change their lives and perspectives. In the chapter “Speaking of Courage” from his novel The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien uses the third person point of view and the imagery of the cycle of the road around the lake to strengthen the impact and separation that veterans feel from regular life in the United States, letting the reader recognize the life-changing trauma that results from war and how it impacted many veterans, especially during the Vietnam war like the setting of most of the novel. Trauma can result from the death of a friend, dangerous and scary events, oppression, and more. Throughout the chapter, Tim O’Brien uses

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Hidden somewhere within the blurred lines of fiction and reality, lies a great war story trapped in the mind of a veteran. On a day to day basis, most are not willing to murder someone, but in the Vietnam War, America’s youth population was forced to after being pulled in by the draft. Author Tim O’Brien expertly blends the lines between fiction, reality, and their effects on psychological viewpoints in the series of short stories embedded within his novel, The Things They Carried. He forces the reader to rethink the purpose of storytelling and breaks down not only what it means to be human, but how mortality and experience influence the way we see our world. In general, he attempts to question why we choose to tell the stories in the way

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Imagine being drafted to move thousands of miles away from the life you love to fight a war you hated. This is the unfortunate reality for Tim O’Brien In The Things They Carried. O’Brien explains his experiences of war in Vietnam, what it took to get him there, and his relationships with the other men in his platoon. He portrays guilt and pride through storytelling and intertwines the two by showing how the men often feel guilty for the actions they pursue or decisions they make based on their pride.

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He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

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911 Words | 4 Pages

Hemingway uses the story to painfully highlight the internal conflict that leaves an individual veteran like Krebs questioning his peculiar heroic status after fighting in the war. The protagonist of the short story, Krebs, is drafted by the state into the U.S. Army fighting in Rhineland having been uprooted from his home. The character traits of Krebs can be defined as rebellious, detached, and stressful. The creation of the character Krebs has been the epitome in the realization of the devastating

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925 Words | 4 Pages

Literary analysis America’s war heroes all have the same stories to tell but different tales. Prescribed with the same coloring page to fill in, and use their methods and colors to bring the image to life. This is the writing style and tactic used by Tim O’Brien in his novel, “The Things They Carried”. Steven Kaplan’s short story criticism, The Undying Certainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, provides the audience with an understanding of O’Brien’s techniques used to share “true war” stories of the Vietnam War. Kaplan explains the multitude of stories shared in each of the individual characters, narration and concepts derived from their personal experiences while serving active combat duty during the Vietnam War,

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855 Words | 4 Pages

'No, ' said Krebs. “ (p.8, line 5-6. Ernest Hemingway). The quote shows how the war and military has taught Krebs to not believe in love but in the society he currently lives in love is very crucial and therefore he feels lost

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941 Words | 4 Pages

Both “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway use the townspeople as a symbol for how society treats soldiers. The authors show this symbolism by how the townspeople treat the soldiers, how the soldiers treat girls, and how the soldiers treat the townspeople over time. The symbolism in this story gives a message to the reader to treat soldiers with respect, and not just ignore them because their story is boring or uncomfortable. In “Soldier’s Home,” Krebs’ town is one which “has heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities” (84).

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