Many states of mind are represented in Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. The respective authors not only depict states of mind, which we are familiar with, such as Delia’s sense of hopelessness in Sweat, but also mind-sets that challenge our perception. This is especially true in The Things They Carried, which focuses on the emotional detachment of soldiers during the war. Throughout both stories, we see how a single yet sudden change in the characters’ environment alters their scruples and their emotional evolvement. Both stories rely heavily on the character’s internal frustration, as Delia struggles to understand Sykes’ cruelty towards her whilst Cross tries to deal with his unrequited affections for Martha. Both Hurston and O’Brien focus more on a symbolic representation of the characters’ mental development rather than a series of extreme confrontations amongst characters. From the onset of both texts, we are immediately plunged into the mind-sets of the respective characters. Delia is immediately conveyed as “squatt[ing] on the kitchen floor... Humming a song in a mournful key” (Hurston, 353). Even this setting reflects her mental stance, a slave to Sykes, their relationship a shadow of their fleeting marital bliss has ultimately “become the struggle for autonomy” (Lupton, 46). Her determination to continue working conveys that she subconsciously bends to Sykes initially. Despite the physical and mental torment he inflicts upon her, she would prefer to “resume her work and not answer him” (354) in order to maintain a dignified stance, in order to maintain their relationship. Her state of mind appears to be tormented, as she tries to silently uncover where her relationship went wrong. N... ... middle of paper ... ...ible aspect of humanity to be the cause for the most immense changes in the characters’ lives. Bibliography: Hurston, Zora Neale, and Cheryl A. Wall. Sweat. Rutgers University Press, 1997. O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Harcourt: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. Chen, Tia. "Unravelling the Deeper Meaning": Exile and the Embodied Poetics of Displacement in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried." ". Contemporary Literature. 39. 1 (1998). Gelfant, Blanche H. (Editor); Graver, Lawrence (Assistant Editor). ‘The African American Short Story’ from the Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001 Hupton, Mary Jane. “Zora Neale Hurston and the Survival of the Female” from the Southern Literary Journal. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Fall, 1982). University of North Carolina Press.
In The Things They Carried, an engaging novel of war, author Tim O’Brien shares the unique warfare experience of the Alpha Company, an assembly of American military men that set off to fight for their country in the gruesome Vietnam War. Within the novel, the author O’Brien uses the character Tim O’Brien to narrate and remark on his own experience as well as the experiences of his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company. Throughout the story, O’Brien gives the reader a raw perspective of the Alpha Company’s military life in Vietnam. He sheds light on both the tangible and intangible things a soldier must bear as he trudges along the battlefield in hope for freedom from war and bloodshed. As the narrator, O’Brien displayed a broad imagination, retentive memory, and detailed descriptions of his past as well as present situations. 5. The author successfully uses rhetoric devices such as imagery, personification, and repetition of O’Brien to provoke deep thought and allow the reader to see and understand the burden of the war through the eyes of Tim O’Brien and his soldiers.
The novel, “The Things They Carried”, is about the experiences of Tim O’Brian and his fellow platoon members during their time fighting in the Vietnam War. They face much adversity that can only be encountered in the horrors of fighting a war. The men experience death of friends, civilians, enemies and at points loss of their rationale. In turn, the soldiers use a spectrum of methods to cope with the hardships of war, dark humor, daydreaming, and violent actions all allow an escape from the horrors of Vietnam that they experience most days.
Another unique aspect to this book is the constant change in point of view. This change in point of view emphasizes the disorder associated with war. At some points during the book, it is a first person point of view, and at other times it changes to an outside third person point of view. In the first chapter of the book, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien writes, “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity (2).
The title of the book itself couldn’t be more fitting. The Things They Carried is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Tim O'Brien about soldiers trying to live through the Vietnam War. These men deal with many struggles and hardships. Throughout this essay I will provide insight into three of the the numerous themes seen throughout the novel: burdens, truth, and death.
Written by author Tim O’Brien after his own experience in Vietnam, “The Things They Carried” is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in “The Things They Carried” guides the reader through the complex development of characters by establishing their humanity during the inhumane circumstance of war, articulating what the men need for emotional and spiritual survival, and by revealing the character’s psychological burdens.
One of the key components of literature is the usage of elements, these elements of literature provides readers underlying themes that authors put into their story. Without these elements of literature, the author would have no way to convey their true messages into their works. In Zora Neale Hurston’s story “Sweat”, Hurston uses many elements of literature to convey the seriousness and true relationship of couples that have a history of domestic violence. However, a specific element of literature that Hurston uses are symbols which give readers a clearer understanding of domestic abuse and most importantly, the characteristics of the victim and perpetrator of an abusive relationship. The symbols that Hurston uses in her story are what fortifies her plot and characters in “Sweat”. The symbols that Hurston uses are necessary because it destroys the typical gender role stereotypes between men and women. This is necessary because there is such a difference between the portrayal of men and women, men often being superior to women. Hurston uses through her symbol to show some equality between men and women or at points women can also be superior against men.
In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, numerous themes are illustrated by the author. Through the portrayal of a number of characters, Tim O’Brien suggests that to adapt to Vietnam is not always more difficult than to revert back to the lives they once knew. Correspondingly the theme of change is omnipresent throughout the novel, specifically in the depiction of numerous characters.
In Delia’s case she is a women with a job, but even with work she is still powerless to Sykes, her husband. As a woman her freedom is still robbed from her by men’s overpowering force, which in her case is Sykes’s abusive behavior towards her. It also shows that men in society disagree with women working at jobs, as shown through Sykes’s words, “Ah don’t keer if you never git through. Anyhow, ah done promised Gawd and a couple of other men, ah ain’t gonna have it in mah house. Don’t gimme no lip neither, else Ah’ll throw’em out and put my fist up side yo’ head to boot” (176-77). Sykes claims emphasize that men including God are in agreement with him that they too also do not approve of women performing work. Women who have work means that they have equal standing as men, which goes against society’s views. Also, Delia’s marriage represents the binding of mental and physical freedom to her husband, which she has endured with for many years.
As students we are brainwashed by ancient myths such as The Iliad, where war is extolled and the valorous warrior praised. Yet, modern novels such as Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried (THINGS) challenge those very notions. Like The Iliad, THINGS is about war. It is about battles and soldiers, victory and survival, yet the message O'Brien gives us in THINGS runs almost contradictory to the traditional war story. Whereas traditional stories of war take place on battlefields where soldier battles soldier and the mettle of man is tested, O'Brien's battle occurs in the shadowy, private place of a soldier's mind. Like the Vietnam War itself, THINGS forces Americans to question the foundations of their beliefs and values because it calls attention to the inner conscience. More than a war story, O'Brien's The Things They Carried is an expose on personal courage. Gone are the brave and glorious warriors such as those found in the battle of Troy. In THINGS, they are replaced by young men who experience not glory or bravery, but fear, horror, and a personal sense of shame. As mythic courage clashes with the modern's experience of it, a battle is waged in THINGS that isn't confined to the rice-patties, jungles, and shit-fields of Vietnam. Carrying more than the typical soldier's wares, O'Brien's narrator is armed with an arsenal of feelings and words that slash away at an invisible enemy that is the myth of courage, on an invisible battlefield that is the Vietnam veteran's mind.
James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.
Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston are similar to having the same concept about black women to have a voice. Both are political, controversial, and talented experiencing negative and positive reviews in their own communities. These two influential African-American female authors describe the southern hospitality roots. Hurston was an influential writer in the Harlem Renaissance, who died from mysterious death in the sixties. Walker who is an activist and author in the early seventies confronts sexually progression in the south through the Great Depression period (Howard 200). Their theories point out feminism of encountering survival through fiction stories. As a result, Walker embraced the values of Hurston’s work that allowed a larger
Before we explore Zora Neale Hurston’s literary content of “Sweat” in relation to feminism theory, we must first understand the meaning behind feminism theory as well as the Author and setting in which this short story takes place. I intend to use multiple sources from scholarly peer-reviewed journals and websites that help back my sentiments of Zora Neale Hurston using her literature to illustrate a time of women empowerment. While some may argue that this story paints a picture of great sorrow for women, I believe that it is that very argument that can used to show how women still thrive after being mistreated with inadequate respect in comparison to men overall. There are many aspects of “Sweat” that allows the woman to not be depicted as
Larsen, Nella. “Quicksand.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd ed .Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2004. 1085-1167. Print
The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War that the author, Tim O’Brien, uses to convey his experiences and feelings about the war. The book is filled with stories about the men of Alpha Company and their lives in Vietnam and afterwards back in the United States. O’Brien captures the reader with graphic descriptions of the war that make one feel as if they were in Vietnam. The characters are unique and the reader feels sadness and compassion for them by the end of the novel. To O’Brien the novel is not only a compilation of stories, but also a release of the fears, sadness, and anger that he has felt because of the Vietnam War.
Black Fiction: New Studies in the Afro-American Novel since 1945. Ed. A. Robert Lee, a.s.c. London: Vision Press, 1980. 54-73.