Yusef Komunyakaa Facing It

Reflecting within itself is a very hard thing to do in the first place. It is even harder when the reflection brings up a bad memory. Reflection might be the hardest thing a person can face as it brings back the pain from past experiences. “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa uses many literary techniques to describe the man’s internal battle due to events he had seen in the Vietnam War. As Yusef examines the wall, he sees names and is reminded of his fellow comrades who lost their lives. Yusef has an internal struggle because he really does not know what to feel. He is really conflicted by the wall. The title really explains how Yusef is feeling. He is facing the fact that he was in a terrible time in his life called war. Yusef feels like he should be on that wall along with his fellow comrades. He is facing the fact that a part of him died inside the war. This really moves the speaker and one can feel it in the title. Yousef sees the names of the fallen and thinks how that could be him. “Facing It” describes a man who goes to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and he experiences flashbacks of a hard time in his life

Yusef has an internal conflict that is easily brought up by the fact of him being there at the wall. At the start of the poem, he says, “My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite” (ll. 1-2). This uses a metaphor as the black granite is a graveyard of

Yusef is faced with the memories and the pain brought by the memorial that are almost too much to bare. Yusef is fighting an internal war due to the fact that he faces sorrows that this war brings into his life. The speaker has a grim tone throughout the story and casts a soldier's perspective. This story made the reader experience the pain that Yusef was going through. This story touched the reader as Yusef had to revisit his dark past. War is a terrible thing, but the events that follow it could be even more