“Within ninety days of the statue’s dedication, each of the survivors’ lives went its separate way.” (Bradley 188) Bradley’s accounts of life after war of the surviving
“Facing It”, a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa, is found in Dien Cai Dau, which was published in 1988. Komunyakaa was born and raised in Bogalusa, La. Being that I am from Bogalusa, I had the instant draw to this poem by this poet. The second reason I chose this poem was because of the ample research I found on this poem and the poet.
While this is a good thing that we don’t have conflicts where we need men to serve, the young men and women of this generation won’t ever understand the effects of combat related PTSD where the world of those affected with it “became a cacophony of nightmares, flashbacks, depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide” and the number of Vietnam Veterans left are slowly dwindling (Price). This photograph shows the remorse
In If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O’Brien argues that the Vietnam War was unjust by expressing his disapproval of the war through his own moral beliefs, sharing the descriptions of deaths in Vietnam of the innocent citizens, and by describing how much the war impacted himself and others negatively. In the beginning of the book, O’Brien openly stated his beliefs on the war. He believed it was wrongly accepted and unjust, but he battled his own opinions with society’s views anyway (18). Constantly, O’Brien discussed within his own head about the true definition of bravery and courage (147).
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.
Soldiers typically lacked sympathy for what they went through from society ignoring the trauma they brought back from the Vietnam War. The following quote from the article presents the thought process of most soldiers to us: “By forgetting, he said he could prove that he was strong and could master his anxieties… by remembering, he felt he was admitting that he was weak and no longer in control” (Penk and Robinowitz 3). The previous quote shows how the soldiers felt that forgetting made them appear strong rather than letting their emotions weaken them, and this is why we see a soldier’s inner conflict as they force themselves to remember in the poem. In this quote from the poem the soldier has come to the monument for remembering those who passed in the war and as he looks at those names his first thought is: “No tears.
He talks not only about his experiences but, also his platoon members experience. War degrades the lives of war and post-war soldiers by completely ripping them from their normal lives and into war. The Vietnam war derailed many lives, as people were forced into a foreign land to fight an unknown war. The 60’s were a changing time, young adults were looking to succeed and rebel the norms.
Voices from Vietnam is a collaboration piece between two authors that is a detailed and very deep book about the conditions of Vietnam and gives a first person view of the warfare by quoting veterans from the war about their time in Vietnam. The two authors Richard Burks Verrone and Laura M. Calkins are Oral Historians at The Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University and both have Doctorate degrees. This book describes the tragedy, the harshness, and the lifestyle of combat in Vietnam. The veterans talk of the weather and the land and describing them both as harsh and dreary. They also speak of their opponents and the methods they used.
The author, Suhi Choi, stated, “Memory is not merely an abstract image of the past, but also a frame that provides us with a way of constituting the past from the perspective of the present” (64). In the City of Brotherly Love, it is essential that the former soldiers of the city are remembered eternally. With such controversy surrounding the entire Vietnam conflict, the seclusion of this particular memorial is
The difficulties that a Vietnam War veteran confronts, like unemployment, poverty, and social isolation, are reflected in the lyrics. Similar to this, the poem "Facing It" explores the speaker's sentiments of loneliness and loss as he approaches the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC. The speaker highlights the psychological toll that war takes by attempting to reconcile his own combat
While the Lincoln Memorial speaks of hope the Vietnam speaks of sorrow. Byers describes his experience at the Memorial as such, “the ambivalent descent, deeper and deeper, along a sinister black wall, exactly mimics the national experience of the war (76).” Here he realizes the horror of war with every name engraved in the black stone. Here he realizes that these people on the wall are part of us. They were part of the nation and defended us.
Vietnam veterans including former POW's protest the war by Leonard Freed both share a war theme; however, the way these two artists depict life differs significantly, especially in color and shapes. The Washington, D.C. 1985. Vietnam Vet holds an American flag to the Vietnam Memorial is a veteran mourning over his loved ones while reminiscing on his past experience with the war.
I have never wanted to be out of a place more than Vietnam. The place filled me with dread and I have never known the kind of fear I felt there any place else.” (The Vietnam War: A History in Documents, Document
Regret is a powerful emotion that has the ability to scar someone for the rest of their life. Moments of regret can come from relationships, self-made decisions and life changing events. The idea of regret also applies to “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh and “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien. Although these two literary pieces are very different in many ways, both authors describe the experience of the Vietnam War as a time of regretful decisions that negatively impacted people of both the American side and the Vietnamese side. Both authors tell a story about a character that recalls of flashbacks of the war, where they grieve over the past decisions that have affected them for the rest of their life.
This reveals how the war impacted the people of vietnam and the sacrifices they had to make to be safe from the
