It’s hard for civilians to see what veterans had to face and still do even after all is said and done. The rhetorical strategies that contribute to Grady’s success in this article is appealing to the reader’s emotions through the story of Jason Poole. Denise Grady’s “Struggling Back From War’s Once Deadly Wounds” acts as an admonition for the American public and government to find a better way to assist troops to land on their feet post-war. Grady informs the reader on the recent problems risen through advancements in medical technology and how it affected the futures of all the troops sent into the Iraq war.
The heart wrenching tale of Jason Poole is an evident picture of the lost potentials of all the heavily injured veterans who came back to an entirely different “home”. Grady shows us that life as a veteran, who has put their life on the line to protect their country, after coming home is like having to start from scratch. “‘Jason was definitely a ladies’ man’, said Zillah Hodgkins, who had been a friend for nine years.” (5, Grady) Grady utilizes this quote by previously showing us the current state of
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The evident point is that the continued war ruined the lives, the dreams, and the future of every American soldier sent to Iraq. Grady emphasized that men and women with brutal injuries like Jason Poole are the new face of the wounded.(6, Grady). She means that soldiers heavily wounded in Iraq were both physically and mentally ruined for life. The tragedy that Poole and others like him become subject to in Iraq now took away the way they wanted. Poole was totally ruined to the point that it was not clear for him how he would face life on his own. Grady shows that Poole is not alone, there must be many others with the same story as Poole and that this is an evident problem that people must find a solution
Tina Chen’s critical essay provides information on how returning soldiers aren’t able to connect to society and the theme of alienation and displacement that O’Brien discussed in his stories. To explain, soldiers returning from war feel alienated because they cannot come to terms with what they saw and what they did in battle. Next, Chen discusses how O’Brien talks about soldiers reminiscing about home instead of focusing in the field and how, when something bad happens, it is because they weren’t focused on the field. Finally, when soldiers returned home they felt alienated from the country and
‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien provides a insider’s view of war and its distractions, both externally in dealing with combat and internally dealing with the reality of war and its effect on each solder. The story, while set in Vietnam, is as relevant today with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Southeast Asia. With over one million soldiers having completed anywhere from one to three tours in combat in the last 10 years, the real conflict might just be inside the soldier. O’Brien reflects this in his writing technique, using a blend of fiction and autobiographical facts to present a series of short narratives about a small unit of soldiers. While a war story, it is also an unrequited love story too, opening with Jimmy Cross holding letters from a girl he hoped would fall in love with him. (O’Brien 1990).
In the aftermath of a comparatively minor misfortune, all parties concerned seem to be eager to direct the blame to someone or something else. It seems so easy to pin down one specific mistake that caused everything else to go wrong in an everyday situation. However, war is a vastly different story. War is ambiguous, an enormous and intangible event, and it cannot simply be blamed for the resulting deaths for which it is indirectly responsible. Tim O’Brien’s story, “In the Field,” illustrates whom the soldiers turn to with the massive burden of responsibility for a tragedy. The horrible circumstances of war transform all involved and tinge them with an absurd feeling of personal responsibility as they struggle to cope.
It is estimated that anywhere between ten and thirty-one percent of Vietnam veterans have experienced post traumatic stress disorder sometime in their life. However, just because someone has not been labeled with that disorder, it does not mean there have not been long-lasting affects on that person. Throughout the book, we see the initial and long-lasting impacts that the Vietnam war has had on soldiers. This book is written in Tim’s point of view as he tells other soldier’s stories, as well as his own. Most of the book is told as Tim is looking back on his time as a soldier but there are times when we see him in present time with his family, over twenty years after the war. Over the course of the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Tim changes his personality for the worse, sees new sides of his friends brought out by
...of the struggle over how the war would be remembered. Blanketed by the discourse of disability, the struggle over the memory of veterans and the country alike would be waged with such obliquity as to surpass even the most veiled operations of Nixon’s minions. While Nixon’s plumbers were wrenching together the Gainesville case against VVAW in the spring of 1972, mental health and news-media professionals were cobbling together the figure of the mentally incapacitated Vietnam veteran. More than any other, this image is the one that would stick in the minds of the American people. The psychologically damaged veteran raised a question that demanded an answer: what happened to our boys that was so traumatic that they were never the same again? As it came to be told, the story of what happened to them had less to do with the war itself than with the war against the war.
The story of Jason Poole as presented by Grady is a clear picture of the ravage of the potentials of soldiers in the face of war, and the wrong priorities of the American government in spending billions of dollars for the war that have no clear advantage for them or the American people, that is worth dying for. The sending of potential young men and women in Iraq to sustain its war lacked the basic objective that warrant their sacrifices, as well as the billions of dollars spend in pursuing such unclear purpose that is wrongly labeled “war on terror.” As per records, American fatalities in Iraq as of January 20 stood at two thousand two hundred twenty five (2, 225), while casualties numbered at 16, 472 (The New York Times, par. 8). Grady cited that medical treatments for brain injuries in Iraq alone would cost fourteen billion dollars.
...ust deal with similar pains. Through the authors of these stories, we gain a better sense of what soldiers go through and the connection war has on the psyche of these men. While it is true, and known, that the Vietnam War was bloody and many soldiers died in vain, it is often forgotten what occurred to those who returned home. We overlook what became of those men and of the pain they, and their families, were left coping with. Some were left with physical scars, a constant reminder of a horrible time in their lives, while some were left with emotional, and mental, scarring. The universal fact found in all soldiers is the dramatic transformation they all undergo. No longer do any of these men have a chance to create their own identity, or continue with the aspirations they once held as young men. They become, and will forever be, soldiers of the Vietnam War.
Each soldiers experience in the war was devastating in its own way. The men would go home carrying the pictures and memories of their dead companions, as well as the enemy soldiers they killed. “They all carried emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing- these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” These were the things that weighed the most, the burdens that the men wanted to put down the most, but were the things that they would forever carry, they would never find relief from the emotional baggage no matter where they went.
Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year
As men and women serve this country we often forget the importance of what they did and how we give back to them for what they have experienced. Through student surveys that have been gathered, it has been proven in the course of knowledge that 80% of all thirty students surveyed that say they know of someone who is or was a veteran and only 57% of those Veterans receive help. Richelle E. Goodrich stated, “Have you ever stopped to ponder the amount of blood spilt, the volume of tears shed, the degree of pain and anguish endured, the number of noble men a...
One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind. Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable. Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone. Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off. Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death. His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.” The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.
Bracken, Patrick and Celia Petty (editors). Rethinking the Trauma of War. New York, NY: Save the Children Fund, Free Association Books, Ltd, 1998.
The reality that shapes individuals as they fight in war can lead to the resentment they have with the world and the tragedies that they had experienced in the past. Veterans are often times overwhelmed with their fears and sensations of their past that commonly disables them to transgress and live beyond the emotions and apprehensions they witness in posttraumatic experiences. This is also seen in everyday lives of people as they too experience traumatic events such as September 11th and the fall of the World Trade Center or simply by regrets of decisions that is made. Ones fears, emotions and disturbances that are embraced through the past are the only result of the unconscious reality of ones future.
What it is like to go to War by Karl Marlantes is an extremely captivating story about what the war is like during and what the veterans who return home have to go through. It was a very intriguing read and gave the reader an inside look on the struggles of combat veterans that come back from war and have to readjust to society. After watching someone die daily and being wounded by a grenade himself, Marlantes’, received several medals for his actions including the Navy Cross, one of the highest combat awards. He treads carefully between the warrior as ‘hero’ and warrior as ‘victim,’ taking pains to articulate the diversity of his experience – the profound accomplishment he felt at receiving awards, in stark contrast to the frigid welcome back America He seems to have done research on top of his experience of war firsthand along with returning home after the war. He says that
In conclusion, the short story “The Veteran” by Stephen Crane possess many elements that show that courage does not fade away when a soldier becomes a veteran. The short story uses dialogue, imagery, and setting to show that a soldier can be afraid, but still show courage and strength and risk their lives for others, no matter how old one is. Henry is a courageous and strong person and he showed this by running into a barn engulfed in flames to help several animals get out safely. Even though Henry did not make it out alive, his legacy will live