An Analysis of the Second to Last Paragraph in Flannery O’Connor’s A Late Encounter with the Enemy
This essay analyzes the first full paragraph on page143 (the second to last paragraph in the story) that begins with “The speaker was through with that war…”. This passage appears to be what is going through ‘General’ Sash’s head right before he dies. The passage begins by saying “The speaker was through with that war and had gone onto the next one and now he was approaching another”. The general goes on to state that all his words are vaguely familiar. This is because he has lived through all of these wars and as the speaker mentions them they all go by in the General’s mind as blurred events of the past. The General calls the graduates passing by in their robes a “black processional”; th...
about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes
Did the Presidency of Andrew Johnson set the United States back politically almost a century?
...ir eyes off of the naked women dancing. The outbursts towards the black men is farther evidence that during that time, blacks had little to no say and had not felt equal to their white counterparts. Perhaps the most conspicuous symbol of all is the battle itself. The white men pitted a group of black men against each other; the black men were in a no win situation. Instead of expressing their displeasure with the white men, the black men were forced to take their anger out on each other. The narrator also seems to seek approval by the white men; remembering his speech as he fights the other men. According to the protagonist: Should I try to win against the voice out there? Would not this go against my speech, and was not this a moment for humility, for nonresistance?” ( ). He’s worried about defying the white men; letting them down by not performing well enough.
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
The first chapter of his book titled “Old, Unhappy, Far-off Things” gives Keegan’s recognition to the fact that historians do not focus enough on actual soldiers. To explain this further, what Keegan is saying is that a historian puts things in a pack of sequential dates and times; but to the soldier, these things happen very rapidly and many times without planning. Keegan continues on to make note that when a historian puts together the pain-staking task of compilation of facts, the information is put down on paper as the writer’s view of how the facts unfolded and not from the soldier’s perspective.
There is a major change in the men in this novel. At first, they are excited to join the army in order to help their country. After they see the truth about war, they learn very important assets of life such as death, destruction, and suffering. These emotions are learned in places like training camp, battles, and hospitals. All the men, dead or alive, obtained knowledge on how to deal with death, which is very important to one’s life.
Nadal, Marita. "Temporality And Narrative Structure In Flannery O'connor's Tales." Atlantis (0210-6124) 31.1 (2009): 23-39. Fuente Académica. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
Some common themes found in the work are self-discovery and invisibility. In “Battle Royal” readers are recipients of the central message self-discovery when one comes in familiarity with the part in text reading “I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man” (Ellison 2395). Readers can see how the narrator was faced with conflict several times throughout the work in his path to discovering his true self. Readers find themselves being recipients of the central message of invisibility when the narrator reveals the M.C.’s statement before allowing him to conduct his speech saying “ ‘I’m told that he is the smartest boy we’ve go out there in Greenwood. I’m told that he knows more big words than a pocket-sized dictionary’ ” (Ellison 2402). In this text the scholar believes that narrator constructed the text in such a way to reveal that to the in the novel, the narrator was invisible and he only became visible when someone else’s perception of him was revealed. Invisibility is again revealed in the section of the text where the narrator descr...
In life, there are certain responsibilities that comes with being part of a family. In some cases its sacrifice of personal needs or happiness. In others, it is caring about them no matter how irritating they can be. When out shopping, Julian’s mother bought herself a new hat. Thinking the hat was making Julian more distraught she tried to return it to their house. She states strickenly that she was going to return it, for she “was out of [her] head. [She could] pay the gas bill with that seven-fifty” (O’Connor 3). She bought this item with amusement and glee. She loved the hat, but her love for her son out weighed that. She noticed the dark look on his face and needed to remedy the situation. She was sacrificing her own small piece of personal
The young man’s grandfather’s dying words mean a lot to him and his family. The young man is too young to understand what his grandfather means “ ‘ Son, after I am gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is in war and I have been traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they v...
In the first chapter of the book, the relationship between the story and its title is quickly made. As the character who encites the chase, Cacciato embarks on the seemingly ludicrous journey to Paris. A voyage of eighty six hundred miles on foot is not one to be taken lightly. To get an idea of the distance that Cacciato is planning to transverse, imagine walking across the United States four times bringing only what one can carry. Paul Berlin, to whom Cacciato has divulged his travel plans, and his unit begin on a mission to retrieve Cacciato. Told from Berlin's viewpoint, the story is revealed from the experiences of a person who questions his own purpose in the war. The soldiers are literally walking away from the war as they follow Cacciato through the jungles of Vietnam. Paul's journey with the others is occasionally broken up by sudden lapses into the past. Such unexpected transitions have positive and negative affects on the reader. The latter result is immediate; the quick topic changes add an element of confusion as to what exactly is happening in the novel. However, the divisions also attribute to increased interest during these flashbacks as they break up the monotony of the mar...
...of the value of time and silence. With few words and actions, Elroy is able to prompt O’Brien to reach a resolve regarding his moral obligation to attend war. Miraculously, he succeeds without so much as mentioning war or O’Brien’s obvious predicament “as if he already knew” (58), suggesting he encompasses the omniscient masculine ideal. The unique way in which Mary Anne and Elroy disappear nearing the end of each short story further establishes their character’s identity. While Mary Anne’s exit derives confusion and drama, Elroy’s is simple and painless. This suggests that Mary Anne’s masculinity is presented through her loud and chaotic actions whereas Elroy’s is through his quiet sagacity.
Both ‘Journey’s End’ and ‘Blackadder’ explore attitudes towards the War. Different characters express different emotions but a common trend in both plays is the decline of patriotism and eagerness as naïvety and innocence are lost. Examples of this can be seen throughout literature and history. ‘A Soldier’s Declaration’ is possibly the best known piece of writing which summarises this change in emotion and it is highly relevant to the attitudes of characters such as Raleigh and Baldrick within these plays. Both plays explore this in different ways, through the utilisation of various characters, literary devices and choices of structure.
...is story, Hemingway brings the readers back the war and see what it caused to human as well as shows that how the war can change a man's life forever. We think that just people who have been exposed to the war can deeply understand the unfortunates, tolls, and devastates of the war. He also shared and deeply sympathized sorrows of who took part in the war; the soldiers because they were not only put aside the combat, the war also keeps them away from community; people hated them as known they are officers and often shouted " down with officers" as they passing. We have found any blue and mournful tone in this story but we feel something bitter, a bitter sarcasm. As the war passing, the soldiers would not themselves any more, they became another ones; hunting hawks, emotionless. They lost everything that a normal man can have in the life. the war rob all they have.
The detailed descriptions of the dead man’s body show the terrible costs of the war in a physical aspect. O’Brien’s guilt almost takes on its own rhythm in the repetition of ideas, phrases, and observations about the man’s body. Some of the ideas here, especially the notion of the victim being a “slim, young, dainty man,” help emphasize O’Brien’s fixation on the effects of his action—that he killed someone who was innocent and not meant to be fighting in the war. At the same time, his focus on these physical characteristics, rather than on his own feelings, betrays his attempt to keep some distance in order to dull the pain. The long, unending sentences force the reader to read the deta...