A Taste of War

The Things They Carried
Using unique narrative style, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien reveals the hardships, both internal and external, of American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War; developing the theme that the burdens of war encroach on the men’s lives and affect them forever. Rendering his fictionalized experiences, O’Brien identifies Vietnam as a continuing struggle despite the cessation of military combat. Although O’Brien is a veteran of the Vietnam War, most of his work is twisted truth: fictional characters creating emphasis of the theme that burdens of war affect the men throughout their lives. With this in mind, O’Brien displays these characters through a foundation of syntactical devices, such as ellipsis, italics, examples of anaphora, and even polysyndeton. All help project the image of a platoon in suffering because of hostility between the Vietnamese and the Americans: “You come over clean and get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same…”


Cold Mountain
Through a unique point of view and creative syntax, Charles Frazier, in Cold Mountain, portrays the two main character's struggle against the geographical and emotional barriers that separate them during the Civil War, conveying the theme that even though a world may be torn by war and hardships, knowledge and comfort are still gained. Rendering both Inman’s and Ada’s lives, Frazier constructs the journey of both as an odyssey; Inman leaves the war behind him in search for Cold Mountain and the company of Ada, while Ada finds the meaning in her life and journeys mentally out of her pampered ways her father brought her up as. These character’s journeys portray a foundation of third person narration and various syntactical devices, such as color imagery and similes, which assist in projecting how they struggle against their external and internal burdens because of the hostility between the federals and liberals during the 1860s: “You could grieve endlessly for the loss of time, [but]…your grief hasn’t changed a thing…you’re left with only [the knowledge and guidance]… to which you can use to continue forward."

The Red Badge of Courage
In The Red Badge of Courage a young isolated farm boy transitions into Private Henry Fleming and becomes in constant battle with his perception of the world versus reality. With the awareness of Henry’s conflicting thoughts, Stephen Crane possess an example of the shift from the Romanticism zeitgeist of a self-made man with meaning in the world to the Naturalism movement where individuals realize their impotence and nature becomes just an uninterested force among men. Crane portrays this Naturalistic belief through his narrator in The Red Badge of Courage when describing the transformations of Henry’s thoughts: “Yesterday, when he had imagined the universe to be against him, he had hated it, little gods and big gods; to-day he hated the army of the foe with the same great hatred…it was not well to dive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws." Crane explains the fundamental Naturalistic idea of people deviating from society-based actions to their basic animalistic instincts to survive once realizing the extent of the apathetic world. Once Henry stops running from the dangerous battle his platoon is engaged in, he starts to analyze his actions and realizes society’s futile attempts at advancing humanity with badges and titles. He now knows at this point what it means to be insignificant in world: “As he gazed around him the youth felt a flash of astonishment at the blue, pure sky and the sun gleaming on the trees and field. It was surprising that Nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment." With the falling action consisting of Henry rejecting his Romantic view on the world and claiming the Naturalistic truth, Crane concludes with his optimistic twist not in the Red Badge but in his brief continuation of the story in “The Veteran” a year later. With this last chapter of Henry’s life, Crane reiterates his hopeful solution of accepting personal responsibility with courage and companionship.


Shambling Towards Hiroshima
Over several chapters, Syms pieces the top secret information together and realizes he is deciding the fate of the end of WWII. He must give the performance of his life in a Gorgantis suit and destroy a miniature Shirazuka in order to end the Pacific War without the loss of more men on both sides. If he successfully convinces a group of Japanese officials that he is a real threat to Japan and therefore, have them surrender the war, President Truman will bypass unleashing fire-breathing monsters, an atomic bomb, and invading the Japanese mainland. All actions are but a command away if Syms Throley fails in his most significant performance yet—ending the war.
But as always, nothing goes “according to plan.” Several obstacles hinder Syms as he prepares to become Godzilla.

Macbeth (Oh yes, I AM bringing Shakespeare into this!)
To put it quite simply: Civil War within Scotland. Macbeth murders and replaces a rightful king and then misuses his authority.

So there you have it, 5 different War stories looked at in 5 different ways--realistically, emotionally/physically, metaphorically, satirically, and darkly!

And as always, thanks for reading!