In short, it takes a little bravery to think about things in a serious manner and this includes our thoughts regarding courage. O'Brien writes, "Proper courage is wise courage (133) and it is also acting "wisely when fear would have a man act otherwise. It is the endurance of the soul in spite of fear -- wisely" (133). Courage is not something that can be conjured up on a whim, in O'Brien's estimation. It comes from coherent thinking and he writes, "Men must know what they do is courageous" (137), adding that they "must know it is right, and that kind of knowledge is wisdom and nothing else" (137). In O'Brien's opinion, bravery is not related to how one acts in the field. Bravery is described powerfully when O'Brien states, "Either they are stupid and do not know what is right . . . Or they know what is right and cannot bring themselves to do it. Or they know what is right and do it, but do not feel and understand the fear that must be overcome" (137). Firing a rifle in a war just because you have a gun does not make one smart, brave or courageous. "Grace under pressure means you can confront things gracefully or squeeze out of them gracefully. But to make those two things equal with the easy word "grace" is wrong. Grace under pressure is not courage" (If I Die 142-143) The character of William Cowling allows us to see another side of war. Cowling describes some of his thoughts regarding the war. "How do you explain it? Terror mixed with fascination: I craved bloodshed, yet I craved the miracle of a happy ending" (O'Brien The Nuclear Age 10-11). This passage is significant because it represents the duality that emerges from Cowling's experience. He has been transformed by being a soldier. His thoughts do not seem like his own because war has conditioned him to think about things from another perspective. Before Cowling goes to war, Keezer recalls his Vietnam experience to a young William. He tells him, "I lay flat and hugged my riffle. It was all I could do, hug and twitch. Gunfire swept the beach. Thus, I deduced, was how it was and had to be. If you're sane, if you're...
This image is powerful in that it allows us to see the soldier hugging his rifle, twitching, listening to gunfire. This is where the change begins to take place. The soldier's perspective changes as he suddenly sees the world through another lens. In the dark, facing unknown enemy forces soldiers to reconsider life, death, war, and fighting in general. Later in the novel, when Cowling looks at Melinda, who is suspicious of him, he thinks, "We share the knowledge that there is no mercy between fathers and daughters. We will kill for our children. We will kill for us. We will kill for our families. And above all we kill for love, as men have always killed" (308). This scene captures the essence of how war affects individuals in many different ways.
Furthermore, in environments that are highly conducive to trauma, such as war or a paramilitary educational institution that is predominantly filled with Caucasian males who are permitted to attack one another during a certain period in their careers, conventional morals can also become distorted .The differences of right and wrong that apply to the outside world, the world that was inhabited by people before they left it to take place
At the same time, the style is expected to give the reader an idea of what is happening, and that too in a more refined version. In his language there are poetic references for the brutality and masculinity of war as feminine features. He has talked about the "star shaped hole" and this reminds most about the American flag as also the expectation of the country to kill and
Krajek points out that what she took from O'Brien's lecture was the fact that a fiction author can help the reader connect with the story in reality, even if the story is not true. "His lecture's overarching message illustrated his belief that fiction, while a product of a novelist's imagination and not true in the literal sense, gets closer to the meaning of emotional and spiritual truth" (Krajek, 2009). The
It is very difficult to reach a conclusion regarding "The Things They Carried" and the purpose for which O'Brien wrote it. While a first look on the collection of books is probable to provide someone with the feeling that it is easy to read and does not involve a lot of strong feelings, the truth is that this is what the writer intended it to look like. Not only is
True War Story," by Tim O'Brien. Specifically, it will discuss are there universal truths that apply to all people and societies; or do we live in a state of relativism, one in which perception dictates how we will respond to the tasks that we are given, or to the world around us? What happened to Rat Kiley and Curt Lemon? What part of Rat Kiley's story do you think
I can make myself feel again (O'Brien, p. 180). And, through story truth, what the story is able to do for O'Brien, it becomes able also to do for the reader. In "The Lives of the Dead," O'Brien further elaborates on his need for stories universally. Through make-believe -- imagination, stories, fiction -- O'Brien finds that he can not only resurrect the dead but also lay a barrier between himself and
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