The author of the story does a great job of giving meaning and depth to characters with motifs and thematic events. One of the most obvious motifs is water. It not only separates Vietnam and America but the word itself is the same word for homeland. Thus, even though the narrator and her parents are in the United States, they are always reminded of life back home. The photograph is another motif that unsettles the family, especially the narrator’s mother. She feels very emotional when she looks at it but the narrator does not. Thuy shows how one thing can evoke different emotions from different people. The narrator is not as attached to Vietnam as her mother is, who feels the picture is her. The narrator cannot connect to it because her mother
In Tim O’Brien’s “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy”, the contrasting moods of the nightmarish rice patty and rejuvenating sea show that you can never leave your trauma behind when you come of age. Paul Berlin is a new soldier, fighting in the Vietnam War, afraid of being caught out, Paul and his troops had to head to the sea, but on their way, they had to pass a rice patty, it was all “mud and algae and cattle manure and chlorophyll, decay, breeding mosquitoes and leeches as big as mice, the fecund warmth of the paddy water rising up to his cut knee”. The use of imagery to describe the rice patty illustrates the effect of the disgusting rice patty have on Paul Berlin which create a nightmarish mood. Disgusted and afraid, Private First Class
...but scared children who are alone and lost in the world, the kids who fought battle in Vietnam went to war thinking they knew all of the answers and somewhere in the middle of it all they realized that they are scared kids who don’t understand what is going on the world around them. They wish only to be in the safety of their mothers home. Everything in the story symbolizes and relates to the truth in war, attitude and actions that cause war are the same that take place with the characters inGreasy lake. The changes that the narrator goes through at Greasy lake are similar changes that happened in young kids who fought in the Vietnam War.
...ut the hidden thoughts and feelings of the narrator are the real things that need to be examined. The Vietnam War is so colluded with uncertainties that it's meaning and questions of why are still lingering in the minds of citizens of the United States.
Pham’s trip however has the opposite effect. He shows us the Vietnamese culture through the eyes of an assimilated Vietnamese American trying to get back in touch with his roots. He hopes to get in touch with his roots mostly through interaction via food. In Pham’s case that’s exactly what he does, with disastrous results bringing to light his inability to...
...He is still anchored to his past and transmits the message that one makes their own choices and should be satisfied with their lives. Moreover, the story shows that one should not be extremely rigid and refuse to change their beliefs and that people should be willing to adapt to new customs in order to prevent isolation. Lastly, reader is able to understand that sacrifice is an important part of life and that nothing can be achieved without it. Boats are often used as symbols to represent a journey through life, and like a captain of a boat which is setting sail, the narrator feels that his journey is only just beginning and realizes that everyone is in charge of their own life. Despite the wind that can sometimes blow feverishly and the waves that may slow the journey, the boat should not change its course and is ultimately responsible for completing its voyage.
In the beginning we find the family and its surrogate son, Homer, enjoying the fruits of the summer. Homer wakes to find Mrs. Thyme sitting alone, “looking out across the flat blue stillness of the lake”(48). This gives us a sense of the calm, eternal feeling the lake presents and of Mrs. Thyme’s appreciation of it. Later, Fred and Homer wildly drive the motor boat around the lake, exerting their boyish enthusiasm. The lake is unaffected by the raucous fun and Homer is pleased to return to shore and his thoughts of Sandra. Our protagonist observes the object of his affection, as she interacts with the lake, lazily resting in the sun. The lake provides the constant, that which has always been and will always be. As in summers past, the preacher gives his annual sermon about the end of summer and a prayer that they shall all meet again. Afterward, Homer and Fred take a final turn around the lake only to see a girl who reminds Homer of Sandra. “And there was something in the way that she raised her arm which, when added to the distant impression of her fullness, beauty, youth, filled him with longing as their boat moved inexorably past…and she disappeared behind a crop of trees.
The symbols that stand out to understand the central concern of the poem are the camera, the photograph of the narrator and the photograph of the narrator’s grandmother. The camera symbolizes the time that has passed between the generations of the grandmother and the narrator. It acts as a witness of the past and the present after taking the photos of the narrator in the bikini and the grandmother in the dress. Her grandmother is wearing a “cotton meal-sack dress” (l. 17), showing very little skin exposure, representing
The things this reader likes about this book is that it was interesting in the fact that it had real stories from real veterans in the war. Some of the stories were explained in gruesome detail in which this reader thought was very disturbing. It is disgusting to know what happened to some of the Vietnamese and veterans during that war. What this reader also liked was how they explained the war while showing the opinions of some of the veterans. The least thing this reader liked about this book was that it didn’t keep you on the edge. Even though this was a war story it didn’t captivate me as much as I would have wanted it to. It became boring at parts when they explained how the war started and how the Chinese were trying to take control of Vietnam. What the author should have done was explain the war with minimum detail and have many comments from the people who were actually involved in it.
This novel offers an intriguing viewpoint that is not often explored when discussing a war. Le Ly Hayslip, through her account, allows readers to experience the Viet Nam War from a Vietnamese point of view. And not only to we get the unique view of a Vietnamese person but she is also a woman, and that in itself crosses many barriers. Most war accounts come from men that fought in a particular war; however, Le Ly was a civilian woman. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places shows, through her memories, how she struggled to survive and find peace, in spite of the tragic events that surrounded her. She is a strong woman and her strives to help her country have made drastic changes in the quality of life for many Vietnamese.
The author not only emotionally depicts the young narrator as struggling with her identity, from acknowledging the cultural differences and coping with the various losses in her life, she also does so in a manner that is relatable to other young first generation immigration assimilating to American society. Furthermore, I appreciate how Lê Thi Diem Thúy makes note of the narrator’s innocence, constantly using her imagination as a means of escape and understanding her new home, while also haunted with trauma from her past of Vietnam and her family’s history. As stated in page 87, the narrator was breathing in war and Ma is never able to “never it out” of her, meaning war will always be with the young narrator- even after the war, she still suffers. The novel is also heavily layered with the symbolic use of water. As stated in the novel before the story begins, “In Vietnamese, the word for water and the word for a nation, a country, and a homeland are one and the same: nu’ó’c.” The use of water is used in every chapter. In “Suh-top,” the narrator often asks about the beach, where she asks about her mother back at the beach in Vietnam; and she thinks about the ocean water during naptime in class. Additionally, it is where the narrator, Ba, and the uncles journeyed on a small fishing boat to America. Mr. Russell’s dream also involved the ocean. In “Palm,” he mother is frustrated that the landlord emptied out the pool and filled it with rocks and cement, ruining her view and thus, a connection to their homeland, Vietnam. In “The Gangster We Are All Looking For,” the pieces of murdered woman’s body is thrown and arrived onshore. In “The Bones of Birds,” it is mentioned that the United States Naval ship picked them up from their fishing boat. Finally, in “Nu’ó’c,” the narrator’s older brother dies at sea and her grandfather says that the
First, the scene in the image was manipulated through stage-managing, a common practice in photojournalism. While the image of the migrant mother, Florence Thompson, appears to the viewer to be a genuine and unprompted look at the hardship and deprivation of a dejected migrant woman. This, of course, was the reality of Ms. Thompson’s personal situation at the time. But the scene itself was micromanaged to appear in a lucid and vivid form in the image, including editing Ms. Thompson’s older children from the image to create the more poignant scene of a mother holding a small child and using a pose in which the woman is looking out into the distance, with the two children told to lo...
The way that the author explains at the beginning what she had on and how she was so ready to pump the gas. Laux explains how the girl in the poem gets splashed by gas that came out of the pump because of the air bubble that was made in the tank. The image of her on the floating grey cloud to find was love was pretty visible. This poem definitely expressed a lot of imagery.
Since 1968, there have been at least 25 films made that portray the events of the Vietnam War. Historians have to ask themselves when watching these films, "Did the fictional character represent historical figures accurately? Is this how a soldier would react in this situation?" The point of view of the director of the film can change with simple alterations in camera angles. For example, a view from the ground of a battle seen can show how the innocent people had the war in their own backyards. The view from a helicopter can show Viet Cong firing rounds at American troops and the troops can't tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy. The audience feels empathy and sympathy for the person from whose point of view the camera is showing. Historians compare the trueness of one film to the rest, and they have found that every film is at least somewhat fabricated, and at least somewhat true.
First, the story begins with the main character discussing items that involved with every day’s life. These items are so important to clear out character's personality and to provide background information to the audience. Also all the items that make life in Vietnam more valuable. The first list of items are including chewing gum, tobaccos, juice, and lighters. Henry
Towards the beginning of the poem, the author Jungmin used an aggrieved and ambivalent tone throughout the story to make the reader have sympathy for the speaker. She successfully creates this tone by using words such as sinking, wrong, clumsy, alien. These words from the poem are very relatable to people in real life when they are in a dark spot in their life, thus making them feel sympathy for the speaker in the poem. By creating this common place between the reader and