Juxtaposition In The Things They Carried

The Vietnam war is well known in the world for its brutality. And there are an abundance of stories to this day about the war. One of these stories is called The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, give his point of view of the war, as an American soldier. Similarly, another text about the war is called Salem, by Robert Butler, a Vietnamese soldier giving his point of view of the war. Both of these texts explore the ideas that killing someone isn’t easy, even in war, also that war impacts soldiers and people not only physical, but emotionally and psychologically, by both of their uses of juxtaposition and through the different characters.

Both authors, O’Brien and Butler, uses a variety of literary techniques to explain the first theme, it's not easy to kill other people in war. One similarity between the two is that when both soldiers were killed, they were killed the same fashion, with a grenade, and they were alone. However one difference was how …show more content…
The characters of the text also explains this theme, of how they are seen upon or treats. O’Brien thinks of the man he killed of how his future was going to be, as a mathematician (119). He also go in depth of what his life was like, before he was put into the war. While Butler talks about the Americans as a whole and talks about how they thought they were so sentimental, but then realizes that he is sentimental was well (3). This is when O’Brien focuses on the individual while Butler focuses on the group. And both soldiers are impacted by it, where O’Brien seems like he can’t forgive himself for killing another, which has led him that feeling to this day, while Butler feels that he has gotten sentimental now, because of the war. This has caused them to be impacted, because they did not get physically injured from this event, however they have been alter mentally and have changed