Jacob Tellas
AP English Wang Restarted on 10/3/16
Ghosts
With some knowledge of war, one can begin to appreciate Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”. Tim O’Brien is a veteran, as a result, there are many things he takes for granted and does not tell us, making us wonder if it is fact or fiction. America’s involvement in the Vietnam war resulted from internal domestic politics rather than from a national spirit. The soldiers were disembodied from the war, just like ghosts. O’Brien uses syntactic illusion to express the idea of ghosts thoroughly but indirectly, as to further convey the sinister nature of war.
First and foremost, O’Brien abruptly places a quote in the middle of the paragraph that describe a variety of personal items that …show more content…
They know war exists but it is not tangible because it’s not subject to logic or reason.
One of the more obvious allusion is “The ghosts soldiers”. The very title seems to suggests disembodiment, as though something were present, yet nothing at all.. O’Brien states, “We called the enemy ghosts. ¨Bad night¨ we´d say, ¨the ghosts are out.” To get spooked, into the lingo, meant not only to get scared but to get killed. “Don't get spooked,” we´d say. ¨Stay cool, stay alive¨ Or we´d say:¨Careful, man, don't give up the ghost….it seemed that all of Vietnam was alive and shimmering-odd shapes swaying in the paddies, boogie men in sandals, spirits dancing in old pagodas. It was ghost …show more content…
When, at the end of the “How to Tell a True War Story” section, O’Brien says that their experience in Vietnam “wasn’t a war story. It was a love story. It was a ghost story”, he is explaining the Vietnam experiences as kind of ghost that every soldier lives with for this entire tour, and even after this tour and return to “the World”, that the ghost is still with him, Just like how the war had a forever lasting effect on these
AP English Wang Restarted on 10/3/16
Ghosts
With some knowledge of war, one can begin to appreciate Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”. Tim O’Brien is a veteran, as a result, there are many things he takes for granted and does not tell us, making us wonder if it is fact or fiction. America’s involvement in the Vietnam war resulted from internal domestic politics rather than from a national spirit. The soldiers were disembodied from the war, just like ghosts. O’Brien uses syntactic illusion to express the idea of ghosts thoroughly but indirectly, as to further convey the sinister nature of war.
First and foremost, O’Brien abruptly places a quote in the middle of the paragraph that describe a variety of personal items that …show more content…
They know war exists but it is not tangible because it’s not subject to logic or reason.
One of the more obvious allusion is “The ghosts soldiers”. The very title seems to suggests disembodiment, as though something were present, yet nothing at all.. O’Brien states, “We called the enemy ghosts. ¨Bad night¨ we´d say, ¨the ghosts are out.” To get spooked, into the lingo, meant not only to get scared but to get killed. “Don't get spooked,” we´d say. ¨Stay cool, stay alive¨ Or we´d say:¨Careful, man, don't give up the ghost….it seemed that all of Vietnam was alive and shimmering-odd shapes swaying in the paddies, boogie men in sandals, spirits dancing in old pagodas. It was ghost …show more content…
When, at the end of the “How to Tell a True War Story” section, O’Brien says that their experience in Vietnam “wasn’t a war story. It was a love story. It was a ghost story”, he is explaining the Vietnam experiences as kind of ghost that every soldier lives with for this entire tour, and even after this tour and return to “the World”, that the ghost is still with him, Just like how the war had a forever lasting effect on these