The first chapter that could be applied to The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien from How To Read Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster would be Chapter 11: … More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence. For the most part, violence and death are everywhere in The Things They Carried. Explosions, gun shots, open wounds, all in a typical war setting that was fought by people who did not even need to be in the war. “By daylight they took sniper fire, at night they were mortared, but it was not a battle, it was just an endless march, village to village, without purpose, nothing won or lost (page 15).” The war they were fighting was pointless for these men and it had nothing to do with their country, but yet they were drafted in anyway, almost
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But this was Vietnam, where guys carried guns, and Dave Jensen started to worry. It was mostly in his head. there were no threats, no vows of revenge, just a silent tension between them that made Jensen take special precautions (page 63).” The war ate up people and spit them right back out, leaving them damaged both physically and mentally, some even to the point where they destroyed themselves physically just to get away from the war. Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk made a pact to kill one another if the other ends up in a wheelchair, though Strunk ended up having his right leg blown off and dying anyway, but instead succumbing to the wound rather than Jenson killing him like he promised. Bob Riley, usually a very composed and carefree person, eventually lost it and shot himself in the foot to take him out of the war, and Norman Bowker left the war but ended up hanging himself in a YMCA locker room due to crushing guilt and grief. Due to the violence that was the Vietnam War, they also lost men during their time there in gruesome ways; Ted Lavender was shot in the head, Curt Lemon accidentally stepped on a landmine and was blown to pieces, and Kiowa was buried alive in waste. “When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. …show more content…
If one looks into it long enough, they can feel Jimmy Cross’s guilt for not being a stronger and better leader, Tim O’Briens longing for home and a normal life, every man slowly picking up the pieces after their friends die though they know they will never be the same. "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman 's, his nose was undamaged, there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear, his clean black hair was swept upward into a cowlick at the rear of the skull, his forehead was lightly freckled, his fingernails were clean, the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips, his right cheek was smooth and hairless, there was a butterfly on his chin, his neck was open to the spinal cord and the trail, a slim, dead, almost dainty young man (page 124)." With this quote, one can imagine the dead man very clearly because of how detailed it is, and one
But this was Vietnam, where guys carried guns, and Dave Jensen started to worry. It was mostly in his head. there were no threats, no vows of revenge, just a silent tension between them that made Jensen take special precautions (page 63).” The war ate up people and spit them right back out, leaving them damaged both physically and mentally, some even to the point where they destroyed themselves physically just to get away from the war. Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk made a pact to kill one another if the other ends up in a wheelchair, though Strunk ended up having his right leg blown off and dying anyway, but instead succumbing to the wound rather than Jenson killing him like he promised. Bob Riley, usually a very composed and carefree person, eventually lost it and shot himself in the foot to take him out of the war, and Norman Bowker left the war but ended up hanging himself in a YMCA locker room due to crushing guilt and grief. Due to the violence that was the Vietnam War, they also lost men during their time there in gruesome ways; Ted Lavender was shot in the head, Curt Lemon accidentally stepped on a landmine and was blown to pieces, and Kiowa was buried alive in waste. “When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. …show more content…
If one looks into it long enough, they can feel Jimmy Cross’s guilt for not being a stronger and better leader, Tim O’Briens longing for home and a normal life, every man slowly picking up the pieces after their friends die though they know they will never be the same. "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman 's, his nose was undamaged, there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear, his clean black hair was swept upward into a cowlick at the rear of the skull, his forehead was lightly freckled, his fingernails were clean, the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips, his right cheek was smooth and hairless, there was a butterfly on his chin, his neck was open to the spinal cord and the trail, a slim, dead, almost dainty young man (page 124)." With this quote, one can imagine the dead man very clearly because of how detailed it is, and one