Imagery In Tim O Brien's The Yellow Birds
According to The New York Times, it is estimated that as many as one billion people have been killed in war, from the very first war casualty to the current day. In these wars, not every soldier wanted to participate, or agreed with the cause they were fighting for. If these men were not killed by the war, the aftermath of so much trauma likely destroyed their minds, as in the case of Kevin Powers, the writer of The Yellow Birds. His time in the Iraq War left him with a fragile mental state that made it difficult to have a conversation without trailing off or getting lost in his own thoughts. While Powers felt too much from what he had seen, Tim O’Brien’s time in the Vietnam war caused him to become cold and desensitized to death, prompting
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As a war reporter, Stephen Crane experienced war differently than others. His exposure to the Spanish-American War allowed him to peel away what many expected at war to reveal the grim reality of constant death. Wilfred Owen, who fought and died in World War I, was more straightforward with his protestation, saying that “it is sweet and right to die for your country” is a lie. Some soldiers and witnesses of war have turned their experiences into works of literary art, and use imagery, irony, and structure to protest war.
First of all, imagery can be used by writers to protest war. The excerpt from The Yellow Birds states, “...only the animals made you sad, the husks of dogs filled with explosives and old arty shells and the...guts...and everything stinking like metal and burning garbage…” (Powers). By implying that human deaths no longer sadden him and including a description of his grisly surroundings, Powers protests war by expressing how seeing so many deaths can desensitize a person to human suffering. With his use of visual imagery, Powers further reinforces the disgusting reality of war, by emphasizing the fact that guts were all around him. By using auditory imagery in mentioning the explosives and arty shells, Powers influences the
As a war reporter, Stephen Crane experienced war differently than others. His exposure to the Spanish-American War allowed him to peel away what many expected at war to reveal the grim reality of constant death. Wilfred Owen, who fought and died in World War I, was more straightforward with his protestation, saying that “it is sweet and right to die for your country” is a lie. Some soldiers and witnesses of war have turned their experiences into works of literary art, and use imagery, irony, and structure to protest war.
First of all, imagery can be used by writers to protest war. The excerpt from The Yellow Birds states, “...only the animals made you sad, the husks of dogs filled with explosives and old arty shells and the...guts...and everything stinking like metal and burning garbage…” (Powers). By implying that human deaths no longer sadden him and including a description of his grisly surroundings, Powers protests war by expressing how seeing so many deaths can desensitize a person to human suffering. With his use of visual imagery, Powers further reinforces the disgusting reality of war, by emphasizing the fact that guts were all around him. By using auditory imagery in mentioning the explosives and arty shells, Powers influences the