The front window shattered and a black oblong object rolled toward us, sending off a wild shrieking noise - a stench filled the room as a thin grey fog.
“Down!” I said. My reactions were those of someone who had been in combat but no matter how rusty, I knew we needed to get out of there. Nothing good was about to happen.
The old man hustled from behind the counter holding what looked like a silk scarf in his hands, and advanced on the object. He motioned us to get behind him with his head, never taking his eyes off the thing on the floor, which had begun to spin slowly. I think it was still shrieking, but my eardrums were numb with pain and I couldn’t hear anything.
Mia pulled me by the arm and we slowly moved backward, still watching the scene. I watched the old man throw the scarf over the object. I still couldn’t hear, but the spinning beneath the scarf appeared to be speeding up, riffling the edges of the cloth, but it was more irregular and eerie, like a living thing, a malignant kitten trying to find its way out from under.
“Go now”, he said, and walked past us to the rear of the store. We followed, Mia and I, to the alley beside the store.
Outside he looked at me closely. “You have brought an evil thing into our lives. Leave now. It will not stop - but…” at that he looked to the store doorway again, and hustled us off.
It all started one night in South Vietnam, at the home of the Screaming Eagles, the 101st, just south of the Ashau Valley. I woke up already falling out of my bunk onto the plywood floor, musty with mildew and a raw bitter smell as I pressed my face close. Hollow booming sounds, close and far, were echoing through our encampment. Incoming rounds, 122 mm rockets, exploding all around had brought me out ...
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...y, and cut myself again. “Damn!” Then I pushed up to look for Moss. He was sprawled on his back beside me just listening. Then I rolled on my side to see what had cut me. It was a silver bit of metal, about the size of a US quarter. It had some of the same odd script I had seen on the gravestone.
When I went back to the States after my tour, I took it with me as a souvenir. It was a lucky charm, I thought, because whatever had blown me and Moss into that grave may have saved our lives. The ammo in that chopper had blown up and scattered bit and pieces everywhere.
Trying to put my life together, I had gotten married when I got back. That didn’t work out. I was too young, too messed up from Viet Nam and had no business trying to be a husband. A second marriage ended no better and wiped out my appetite for a settled life. There was a restlessness I couldn’t control.
I. ‘s True Story of The War in Vietnam”, is a powerful account of one man’s journey from New York to the horrors that would proceed him into Vietnam. The memoir’s use of writing and vivid descriptions helps to make the story come to life as something more than events that would appear on a timeline. While some of the text seems clumped together, they also give a sense of life and credibility to a subject that at times caan be too much to comprehend. The author’s approach about his experiences is admirable. I would recommend this book to anybody who would want an up-close account of what life in Vietnam was
Author Tim O’Brien in “How to Tell a True War Story” uses the physical and mental mindset of isolation in the Vietnam war to create a story with many literary devices that makes a captivating story. The author uses point of view, verbal irony, and the character Tim O’Brien to enhance his written experiences of the Vietnam War. This story teaches the reader that experiences that were lived by the reader can be altered by the mind to a certain extent, where they can be questioned as true or not. Perhaps at a sports game or in a heated situation such as a police chase or court case. Tim O’Brien’s experiences have captivated many readers, but are they true? Or just a product of insanity from war? Well, Tim O’Brien leaves that up to the reader to decide.
Soldier's Personal Narratives of the Vietnam War and The Vietnam War and the Tragedy of Containment
Hynes, Samuel Lynn. "What Happened in Nam." The soldiers' tale: bearing witness to modern war. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: A. Lane, 1997. 177-222. Print.
The day after my grandfather left Playku Central Highland the army was overran by the Vietcong and there began the hand to hand combat. My grandfather was really scared for his little brother because he was afraid he would never come back, and...
...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.
Wars affect everyone in some way, especially soldiers who fight in them, like those in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. O 'Brien concentrates a lot on the psychological trauma that solders, like himself, confronted before, during, and after the Vietnam War. He also focuses on how they coped with the brutality of war. Some were traumatized to the point where they converted back to primitive instinct. Others were traumatized past the breaking point to where they contemplated suicide and did not fit in. Finally, some soldiers coped through art and ritual.
The word “Vietnam” means multiple things to many people today. To many, it means a conflict that was highly payed attention to for eight years of American life. To others, who fought in it, it entails the friendships and sorrows of combat, or ...
Throughout the world, it is clear that there were a range of standpoints in which individuals participated and endured the Vietnam War. From American Military Personnel, to the inhabiting Vietnamese...
Hillstrom, Kevin, and Laurie Collier Hillstrom. The Vietnam Experience: a Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs, and Films. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. Print.
As a child, my parents would tell me personal stories about the Vietnam War. My dad would tell me how he and his family traveled by boat to America to escape the brutal war, but were robbed of everything — their money, their clothes & their pictures. My mom, on the other hand, would talk about how my late great-uncle, her uncle, and my late grandpa served for South Vietnam and how they all suffered physical and emotional ailments. Just like my family, Tim O’Brien describes the soldiers’ suffering in The Things They Carried. The Protagonist, Tim O’Brien, remembers the past and continuously works the details of these memories of his service in Vietnam into meaning. Through a series of linked semi-autobiographical stories, O’Brien illuminates
The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.
War is a peculiar thing; it torments soldiers physically but even more so mentally. When people think of war, they think of the battles and the physical aspects. What they do not realize is that there is a whole other side to war. People do not realize what a war can do to a person. Some soldiers become so accustomed to the war life that they cannot adjust back into life at home. Even if the soldiers are able to adjust, their memories about the war still haunt them. In his short stories, O'Brien writes about the experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam War. In "The Ghost Soldiers," "Night Life," and "The Things They Carried," Tim O'Brien writes about the Vietnam War to show that the soldiers fought a mental war, not a physical battle.
My stomach retched, my throat dry, had I got myself into this mess? A distant thud echoed across the cold, hard floor, ricocheting into my ear. Someone was coming.
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as