The grittingly realistic novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and the short story “The Half-skinned Steer” by Annie Proulx, take place in a harsh natural setting. These tales both vary in their theme and concepts. They also vary in many aspects, ranging from tone to symbols.Though these stories are different, they share commonalities in themes. Both Proulx and O'Brien use their pieces of literature to teach lessons or even show their personal perspectives. One of the themes present in The Things They Carried is that of obsession. O'Brien is obsessive and overly repetitive towards many different topics. Tina Chen goes on to say that “O'Brien is obsessed with telling a true war story”(Chen 77). Such as in the chapter “How to Tell a True
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Mero from the very beginning struggles with the lifestyle he had growing up of dealing with cattle, so much so that it causes him to become a vegetarian. At the end of the story, Mero claims to have seen the half-skinned steer that had been killed so many years back. Ultimately the cattle and steer are a symbol of the guilt Mero had toward nature. He tried to avoid this guilt by leaving the ranch and avoiding the consumption of meat, but never actually escaped his guilt. This all goes back to him trying to escape his past, but not being able to do …show more content…
First off, was the scene with the Water Buffalo. The scene was just as graphic “shot it through the right front knee… shot off the ear… it wasn't to kill, it was to hurt… rifle up against the mouth and shot the mouth away… He shot off the tail. He shot away chunks of meat below the ribs” as the one with the steer, maybe even more so (O'Brien 75). After Rat Kiley is shown performing the acts, it is obvious that he is feeling great despair. Rat Kiley loved Curt Lemon and therefore killed the Water Buffalo because he lost it, his grief had taken over. He had tortured it because the burden of his pain was too much. He would have probably not been as violent if Curt Lemon’s sister would have written back and given him some sort of closure. For Mero, he loved his brother as well and that was why he was going to make the trip out to his funeral, but after, his grief started to kick in and he started remembering stories and moments. In a way, Mero didn't only die because of how high and mighty he thought himself to be, but because all the guilt and grief he had inside that started flooding his thoughts. They are both similar in the way that they are depicting acts of love. It also ends up being that both authors use the animals as a symbol of guilt. Rat Kiley had guilt over his “soul-mate” Curt Lemon. Why did it have to be him that died and in
Mero from the very beginning struggles with the lifestyle he had growing up of dealing with cattle, so much so that it causes him to become a vegetarian. At the end of the story, Mero claims to have seen the half-skinned steer that had been killed so many years back. Ultimately the cattle and steer are a symbol of the guilt Mero had toward nature. He tried to avoid this guilt by leaving the ranch and avoiding the consumption of meat, but never actually escaped his guilt. This all goes back to him trying to escape his past, but not being able to do …show more content…
First off, was the scene with the Water Buffalo. The scene was just as graphic “shot it through the right front knee… shot off the ear… it wasn't to kill, it was to hurt… rifle up against the mouth and shot the mouth away… He shot off the tail. He shot away chunks of meat below the ribs” as the one with the steer, maybe even more so (O'Brien 75). After Rat Kiley is shown performing the acts, it is obvious that he is feeling great despair. Rat Kiley loved Curt Lemon and therefore killed the Water Buffalo because he lost it, his grief had taken over. He had tortured it because the burden of his pain was too much. He would have probably not been as violent if Curt Lemon’s sister would have written back and given him some sort of closure. For Mero, he loved his brother as well and that was why he was going to make the trip out to his funeral, but after, his grief started to kick in and he started remembering stories and moments. In a way, Mero didn't only die because of how high and mighty he thought himself to be, but because all the guilt and grief he had inside that started flooding his thoughts. They are both similar in the way that they are depicting acts of love. It also ends up being that both authors use the animals as a symbol of guilt. Rat Kiley had guilt over his “soul-mate” Curt Lemon. Why did it have to be him that died and in