Mortality in War in The Things They Carried
War often leads people to reevaluate their lives and beliefs. In Tim O’Brien’s They Things They Carried motifs, such as the repetition of storytelling, reveal how people can be given life through words, such as the little girl named Linda who died of cancer at a young age. Juxtaposition through grotesque imagery, such as the man O’Brien kills, reveals this concept of life versus death and how O’Brien is lead to reevaluate his life as a result of war. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried uses motifs and juxtaposition to convey a feeling of O’Brien’s own emphasized mortality as a result of war and his proximity to death. In war, there is a highlighted sense of mortality due to proximity to death. …show more content…
Juxtaposition reveals the relationship between death and innocence, and how similar they are; innocence connotes a sense of life and purity. The relationship of death and innocence, which can be seen through grotesque imagery and diction, creates an emphasized sense of mortality within Tim O’Brien. The Vietnamese foot soldier he kills reveals O’Brien’s emotions and thoughts on death and mortality as well as the innocence that goes along with it: “Along the trail there were small blue flowers shaped like bells. The young man’s head was wrenched sideways, not quite facing the flowers, an even in the shade a single blade of sunlight sparkled against the buckle of his ammunition belt” (121). Grim imagery in this text displays a corpse splayed on the ground next to dainty delicate flowers. The dissimilarity of these two descriptions creates juxtaposition, a disfigured body compared to petite flowers, revealing a sense of innocence and life so close to death and gore. When placed next to one another, words such as “wrenched” and “sparkled” create a complex and contrasting tone. O’Brien’s diction creates a disconnected tone shown in the way dissimilar words are used with fluidity, as if these words were similar rather than drastically different. Put together, these words mix war and innocence, life and death, thereby creating an emphasized sense of mortality in a death wrought setting. O’Brien recognizes how fleeting life is in war, especially in places where death may act unassuming. The man O’Brien kills was not expecting death to take him, walking down the trail he had no knowledge of the grenade O’Brien was about to throw. O’Brien himself did not even know how he had killed this man, the way he did it so instinctually and easily. In using juxtaposition and words that convey both innocence and death O’Brien aims to create a sense of figurative
War often leads people to reevaluate their lives and beliefs. In Tim O’Brien’s They Things They Carried motifs, such as the repetition of storytelling, reveal how people can be given life through words, such as the little girl named Linda who died of cancer at a young age. Juxtaposition through grotesque imagery, such as the man O’Brien kills, reveals this concept of life versus death and how O’Brien is lead to reevaluate his life as a result of war. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried uses motifs and juxtaposition to convey a feeling of O’Brien’s own emphasized mortality as a result of war and his proximity to death. In war, there is a highlighted sense of mortality due to proximity to death. …show more content…
Juxtaposition reveals the relationship between death and innocence, and how similar they are; innocence connotes a sense of life and purity. The relationship of death and innocence, which can be seen through grotesque imagery and diction, creates an emphasized sense of mortality within Tim O’Brien. The Vietnamese foot soldier he kills reveals O’Brien’s emotions and thoughts on death and mortality as well as the innocence that goes along with it: “Along the trail there were small blue flowers shaped like bells. The young man’s head was wrenched sideways, not quite facing the flowers, an even in the shade a single blade of sunlight sparkled against the buckle of his ammunition belt” (121). Grim imagery in this text displays a corpse splayed on the ground next to dainty delicate flowers. The dissimilarity of these two descriptions creates juxtaposition, a disfigured body compared to petite flowers, revealing a sense of innocence and life so close to death and gore. When placed next to one another, words such as “wrenched” and “sparkled” create a complex and contrasting tone. O’Brien’s diction creates a disconnected tone shown in the way dissimilar words are used with fluidity, as if these words were similar rather than drastically different. Put together, these words mix war and innocence, life and death, thereby creating an emphasized sense of mortality in a death wrought setting. O’Brien recognizes how fleeting life is in war, especially in places where death may act unassuming. The man O’Brien kills was not expecting death to take him, walking down the trail he had no knowledge of the grenade O’Brien was about to throw. O’Brien himself did not even know how he had killed this man, the way he did it so instinctually and easily. In using juxtaposition and words that convey both innocence and death O’Brien aims to create a sense of figurative