He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye had a star shaped hole. I killed him." (O'Brien 180). Very similar observations can be made about Turner's poetry. Turner uses highly descriptive language when he expresses his view of "bone and gristle and flesh," the clavicle-snapped wish" and, "the aorta's opened valves" in Here, Bullet. These images are immensely disturbing yet at the same time, surprisingly lyrical. The ability to combine these two opposing sentiments into a seamless flow of expression is a rare talent; one that both O'Brien and Turner possess in abundance.
Conclusion
While O'Brien chooses to express his experiences through prose, and Turner chooses poetry as his medium, the sentiments being relayed are remarkably similar. Each of the literary works discussed here demonstrates that it does not matter where a war is being fought, or when, or by whom. The fact remains, as O'Brien asserts, that "A true war story is never moral" (O'Brien 68). War is, by its very nature, barbaric, treacherous and immoral. Whether you are fighting in Vietnam, Iraq or
Ultimately then, the parallel significance of the Things They Carried, the Man I Killed, Here, Bullet and Sadiq, lies in the fact that both O'Brien and Turner demonstrate that not until one realizes the true depth of disillusionment, both in the conflicts surrounding him, and in those that exist internally, can true peace be genuinely achieved.
Works Cited
Lomperis, Timothy J. "Reading the Wind" the Literature of the Vietnam War . Durham: Duke University Press, 1987
McCaffery, Larry. "Interview with Tim O'Brien." Chicago Review;33,1982: 129-49
O'Brien, Tim, the Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton, 1990.
O'Brien, Tim, the Man I Killed. In the Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton, 1990.
Turner, Brian, "Here, Bullet" Here, Bullet, Alice James Books, 2005
Turner, Brian, "Sadiq" Here, Bullet, Alice James Books, 2005
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
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
Tim O'Brien's the Things They Carried In his book, The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien is allowing the reader to see the negative effects war has on people, especially on soldiers. Through a variety of short stories focused primarily on the Vietnam war, O'Brien illustrates the horror of war through exquisite detail of the violent nature that each soldier seemed to have adopted as time went on in Vietnam. By focusing
He is more interested in "things," than what those things will bring. "Nick went over to the pack and found, with his fingers, a long nail in a paper sack of nails, in the bottom of the pack. He drove it into the pine tree, holding it close and hitting it gently with the flat of the axe. He hung the pack up on the nail. All his supplies
The whole country. Vietnam, the place talks." The environment sinks under their skin, uncomfortable and yet unavoidable -- in short, hell. There is also a growing sense of insanity among the men that O'Brien describes in this story. There is the crack-up of the team that Mitchell Sanders describes, and the idea of playing catch with a smoke grenade as an idea of fun -- both of these instance reflect
In one sequence, O'Brien describes in poetic eloquence the same patterns which the research cited here above notes. Particularly, though all are exposed to the same terrors and opportunities in Vietnam, some are more prone than others to returning home with the dependencies formed at war. O'Brien tells that "you come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it's never the same. A question of degree. Some make
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