Procrastinator. He’s jogging. Running. Sprinting. His feet hit the pavement hard. He must reach the end, feel the satisfaction of his sneakers crossing the final yellow line, to catch his breath. The deadline dragon breathes down his neck, races closer as he begins to stumble. He falls, knees and elbows scrape along the rough road, leaving traces of blood on the rocks. He regrets not training for this, not bolting at the first sign of danger - he should have began two weeks ago, even two days ago would have been beneficial. Time ticks away and people remain in the same position, frozen, waiting for the trigger to be pulled by someone else rather than taking the initiative themselves.
People do not like change, the unknown, or things that they …show more content…
The actions of the soldiers are most often summarized in brief, almost choppy sentences, whereas the setting and the effects of the war are described in sweeping sentences filled with images of the battlefield. This shifting syntax symbolizes the soldier’s little effort that resulted in a large, lasting impact on the country they were at odds with. Throughout the story, the soldiers’ demons surface from the shadows in the war, their humanity lost - clouded by the cruelty they committed. What was not visible at first, was illuminated in the heat of the fighting. In his repetition of the green color of spring in The Yellow Birds, the author juxtaposes the rebirth and renewal of spring with the war’s high death toll. The war also juxtaposes the repetition of the color white throughout the passage. The color white symbolizes purity and innocence, but the war had tainted the soldiers. In the last paragraph, the narrator describes Murph’s eyes, saying that the whites of them were “spider-webbed with red.” The bloodshot eyes not only indicate that Murph’s eyes are tired, but metaphorically, it illustrates how his white innocence was corrupted by the bloodshed and violence he and other soldiers like him had experienced throughout the
People do not like change, the unknown, or things that they …show more content…
The actions of the soldiers are most often summarized in brief, almost choppy sentences, whereas the setting and the effects of the war are described in sweeping sentences filled with images of the battlefield. This shifting syntax symbolizes the soldier’s little effort that resulted in a large, lasting impact on the country they were at odds with. Throughout the story, the soldiers’ demons surface from the shadows in the war, their humanity lost - clouded by the cruelty they committed. What was not visible at first, was illuminated in the heat of the fighting. In his repetition of the green color of spring in The Yellow Birds, the author juxtaposes the rebirth and renewal of spring with the war’s high death toll. The war also juxtaposes the repetition of the color white throughout the passage. The color white symbolizes purity and innocence, but the war had tainted the soldiers. In the last paragraph, the narrator describes Murph’s eyes, saying that the whites of them were “spider-webbed with red.” The bloodshot eyes not only indicate that Murph’s eyes are tired, but metaphorically, it illustrates how his white innocence was corrupted by the bloodshed and violence he and other soldiers like him had experienced throughout the