The War Escalates By Paul Boyer

War can be defined as conflict and battle. Wars are waged intentionally to destroy bonds between relationships, however, there are also wars that occur within oneself. These wars negatively affect the mentality of humans as it is able to manifest conflicts within the mind. Through the use of literary devices such as: tone, mood, imagery and pathos, writers Paul Boyer, Tim O’Brien, and Kenneth W. Bagby are able to convey the idea that war has a substantial impact on the self. In the texts written by these authors, the notion that war is affects the self the most is apparent.

In the excerpt “The War Escalates” by Paul Boyer, the author clearly shows how war influences the self by utilizing the descriptive literary devices tone and mood. Throughout the excerpt, Boyer informs the audience on the situation of the Vietnamese war. Boyer mentions the experience of a nurse who worked in the military aiding injured soldiers. Using the voice of the nurse, Boyer includes her experience, “‘We really saw the worse of it, because the nurses never saw any of the victories. If the Army took a hill, we saw what was left over. I remember one boy who was brought in missing two legs and an arm, and his eyes were bandaged. A general came in later and pinned a Purple Heart on the boy’s hospital gown, and the horror of it all was so amazing that it just took my breath away. You thought, was this supposed to be an even trade?’” (Boyer 2). The author expresses his tone by adding the memoir of the nurse. The nurses of the Vietnam War suffered after effects of the sights of war. This particular memoir exhibits the change in the nurse’s mentality after having to watch the horrors of injured people and deaths. The post-war devastations negatively affected ...

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...f self doubt about the fact that he is still alive and views this as a religious phenomenon. Evidently, Bagby himself is influenced by the destruction of war and goes through mental and emotional changes. Overall, Kenneth W. Bagby uses both pathos and imagery to show how war has had an effect on himself.

As can be seen, Paul Boyer, Tim O’Brien, and Kenneth W. Bagby, convey the notion that war affects the one’s self the most. Through the use of literary devices: tone, mood, pathos, and imagery, these 3 authors portray that war affects a person’s self most of all. War is not only a battle between two opposing sides, but it can also be a mental conflict created within a person. Although war is able to have an effect on physical relationships between family, friends, or even society, conflict within oneself is the most inevitable battle one must face during war times.