Among the most divisive of topics in the realm of politics is war. War has the potential to inflict a great deal of bodily pain on different nations with different peoples, as well as the potential to destroy the mind of the individuals fighting. The Vietnam conflict was convoluted. There was no defined goal; Americans had no clue what they were fighting for. Some did not choose to fight, either, such as now-author Tim O’Brien who was drafted while he was still in school. O’Brien authored the renowned work of fiction The Things They Carried in 1990, a vivid novel that holds true to O’Brien’s bleeding-heart pacifist ideals. O’Brien employs devices like imagery and simile to quell the spirit of belligerence in others. On the opposite end of the …show more content…
Kyle was a Navy SEAL sniper, and he holds the record for most confirmed kills for any sniper, past or present. Kyle was nostalgic, he felt obligated to his wife and child, yet he could not help but miss the fighting. His sense of justice was barbaric. He wholeheartedly believed that each time he killed he was ridding the world of evil, justifying this to himself through synecdoche. Kyle also utilizes symbolism to justify his kills. These two authors use figurative language to develop their perspectives on war. Throughout both of these literary works the authors make their opinions of war clear to the reader. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien expresses his disdain for war by stating on page 122, “He devoted himself to his studies. He spent his nights alone, wrote romantic poems in his journal, took pleasure in the grace and beauty of differential equations. The war, he knew, would eventually take him… now, he waited. And as he waited… he fell in love… She liked his quiet manner; she laughed at his freckles and bony legs. One evening, perhaps, they exchanged gold rings. Now one eye was a star.” This vivid description of the man he killed expresses his sorrowfulness towards the matter