Poetry is the fruit of love and, although Lieutenant Cross does not appear to have a formal background in balladry, thoughts of his beloved inspire in him a heightened state of thought. "He would feel himself rising. Sun and waves and gentle winds, all love and lightness." (430) Here the beginnings of meter take shape. This takes place again some paragraphs later, "he wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered." (431)
Metaphor and simile pervade the paragraphs of The Things They Carried. "The poor guy dropped like so much concrete...Like cement." (429) Instead of personifying an inanimate object by giving it human characteristics, the author O'Brien dehumanizes Lavender by turning his lifeless body into something as bland and void of emotion as cement. This is consistent with the narrative's bleak tone. "They all carried ghost." (430) These men are now beyond the veil of their previous existence. Their former lives, friends, and family are wispy spirits, no longer completely part of reality. Even Lieutenant Cross says of his flame, "...she belonged to another world, which was not quite real..."(434) Because everything has become abstract -an act- the cold sting of reality no longer bites quite as hard. These men are numb and becoming only more so with time.
Context? Please introduce what you are analyzing and do not expect readers to be class members who have just all read the same thing. Some good application of literary terms, something you could build upon if you were to grow this into a more formal analysis with a claim.
ReplyDeleteYeah I definitely could have just switched up the structure and it would have made more sense. Will do in the future.
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