Read the poem "Facing It" by Yosef Komunyakaa. It is written about a Vietnam veteran visiting the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. After reading the post and viewing the photos, please find a portion of The Things They Carried which connects to the ideas and emotions Komunyakaa expresses in his poem and explain the connection you see.
Additional information about the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is available here.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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22 comments:
I think Facing it relates to the Field Trip portion of the book where O’Brien goes back to visit where Kiowa died. They both are reminiscing about the war, although Yusef doesn’t really describe the experience, you know it is there and there is an implication of sorrow when he tells himself not to shed tears. He touches the name Andrew and then he sees the booby trap and white flash that perhaps killed his friend. O’Brien describes the past and in the end brings himself to peace by going for a swim in the water in the area that had sucked his friend away. They go back to a place that holds memory to both of them and their minds drift back to people who died and were important to them
Mimi-
A worthwhile comparison of scenes. However, you say that O'Brien "brings himself to peace"; could you say the same thing about the narrator in Komunyakaa's poem? Does he find "peace"?
Bubar, I don't think he found a peace like O'Brien did at that moment, but Komunyakaa's poem is his attempt to find peace. He seems to have prepared himself for this visit, because he curses at himself saying that he wouldn't cry. He couldn't go back to the place of hurt, but went to a place that brought back those memories. I think he tried to sort it out, and make sense of the events, what happened to the person, who's name he touched, bringing him further into a peaceful state of mind.
I believe that the poem Facing It connects to the ideas and emotions of the section titled Speaking of Courage. In this section, Norman Bowker realizes how hard it is to return to life after the war. He realizes that while he was at war, life went on for those who were not fighting in the war, and he realized how much he has been seperated from the world that he lived in before the war.
In the poem Facing it, Yusef Komunyakaa is feeling the sorrow that came from the death of his friend. He is also realizing how much of a toll the war has taken on those who were not fighting in it.
Norman and Yosef are both dealing with emotions that they did not connect with during the war, and they are realizing that life did go on while they were fighting in the war. They are also having troubles going back in to their 'normal' lives, post-war.
Like Mimi I also think the poem Facing It relates to the part where Tim O'brien goes back to the place where Kiowa dies. This is the only direct comparison that i could think of, but i really feel that the whole book relates to the poem. Throughout the book O'brien tells of all his war experiences he has flashbacks of all the bad and good experiences. When talking about the bad experiences O'brien acts as if it does not upset him at all sort of like he is trying to hide his emotions. This is similar to the line in the poem "I said I wouldn't, dammit: No tears." Both the poem and the book are about coming to peace with the war and what happened to them. I do not think that Yusef Komunyakaa comes to peace with the war by the end of the poem, but I do believe that by telling all of his stories O'brien comes to peace with his war experience.
The poem Facing It By Yusef Komunyakaa relates to the Things They Carried, when Tim O’brien goes to the place were Kiowa dies, with his daughter, like Mimi and Paul said before. When O’brien goes back to the swamp he is trying to bring peace to him self and he is trying to live a life with outside of the war many years later. When O’brien goes to the swamp he leaves and seems to be at peace. Yusef goes to the Vietnam Memorial; he shares his memory of Andrew Johnson, about the bobby trap, the white light. At the beginning of the poem he is says I “said I wouldn't, dammit: No tears. I'm stone” he is trying to be strong and ‘face’ his friend, but at the same time he is hurting inside. Yusef in my opinion seems some what to come to peace with himself by the end of the poem, one line of the poem is “A white vet's image floats closer to me, then his pale eyes look through mine.” I think that Yusef has come to peace about Andrew Johnson’s death,by going to the Memorial, but not about the war all together.
The poem “Facing It” mainly reveals the gruesome vestiges of war and feeling of longing for those of people who have died in war. Like Mimi, Paul, and Sam mentioned, this poem can be a portion of the book when O’Brien visits the place where Kiowa died. O’Brien looks back on the spot where Kiowa died and thinks of that dreadful situation. He feels longing and sorrow for Kiowa and feels some guiltiness that he has survived. Also, the feeling of Kiley and Fossie toward Mary Anee could be a portion in the book that relates to idea poem. They both love Mary Anee but lost her. And that feeling is what the poem is trying to reveal. Although there was no direct portion in the book, I consider the poem represents everyone who has lost their people in war. They can be soldier’s family member, a love, or just anyone. ‘Andrew Johnson’ in the poem represents anyone that narrator feels longing for. Basically, poem shows the dismal remark of war, reflecting the side effect of it.
In this poem Yusef again sees what he saw during the Vietnam War. He can see the booby trap that killed Andrew Johnson and remembers the war so clearly. O'Brian does this a few times throughout the book. In the story "How to Tell a True War Story", O'Brian talks about how he remembers Curt Lemon activating a booby-trapped 105 round. He goes on to talking about how Rat Kiley took out his anger and sadness on a baby VC water buffalo. This connects to the ideas of the poem in two ways. First both Johnson and Curt Lemon dies by activating booby traps, and second how both Yusef and Rat Kiley took the deaths. Yusef still remembers what happens and wants Johnson to still be alive but cannot do anything about it. Like Yusef, Rat shoots at the water buffalo to try and make himself feel better but still cannot change what happened.
Both “Facing it” by Yosef Komunyakaa and The Things They Carried express Vietnam as a sort of lingering emotion that stays with you forever. This lingering emotion is demonstrated in the lines “but when she walks away the names stay on the wall”. I think those lines and the poem in general best connect to the chapter titled Speaking of Courage. The chapter basically tells of how despite being back in his quiet hometown far away from Vietnam Norman Bowker can’t stop thinking about it. For example, Norman Bowker fantasizes nonstop about having various conversations about Vietnam throughout the chapter.
I think both Mimi, Paul, Sam, and Jaemun's scene selection was a good choice. Despite being out of Vietnam for awhile now the memories of Kiowa's death were so vivid that O'brien was able to locate the exact spot where they laid down Kiowa's corpse. Yosef too has vivid memories of a comrades death much like O'brien but I think he still seeks closure where as O'brien already has it.
Sean, you make a very good point about the vivid memories that both O'Brien and Yusef have about the Vietnam war. While i chose a different scene to compare these two pieces, you make an interesting comparison of both a similarity (the vivid remembrance) and a difference (in the degree of closure).
Sean-
You talked about 'lingering emotions' that are felt in both 'Facing It' and The Things They Carried. I think that this can relate to the other question in this blog regarding The Things They Carried. Mr. Bubar's question asked what the multiple meanings of the word 'carry' were in the book, and Robby responded by asking if it is harder to carry things physically than it is emotionally. Sean, I think that your response to this question is a very good support as to why it is harder to carry things emotionally than it is physically. Obviously after the war was over the soldiers did not continue to carry their equipment but in situations such as Norman Bowker's they cannot seem to let go of the emotions that were forced upon them throughout the course of the war.
As Robby said above, I mostly agree with his idea. Like Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem, “Facing it,” it is a scene when Curt Lemon stepped on to the booby trap and died. “I see the booby trap's white flash.” This line shows that Andrew Johnson was also a similar situation with Curt Lemon, and Yusef is very sad about it. So this instance is like when Rat Kiley, who is the best friend of Curt Lemon, coming to see the Vietnam Veteran Memorial.
Since Yosef shows a misery of death and war, once I saw 'Facing it', I felt that it is almost related to 'Things They Carried'. O'Brien also treats about how miserable the war was through his feeling. However, especially, 'Facing it' reminds me of O'Brien's visiting place where Kiowa died because Yosef talks about scene what he saw and seems he misses Andrew Johnson. O'Brien also feels guilty about Kiowa's death and misses him similar to Yosef describes event in ¡®Facing it'. I also feel that they are looking for appeasing their sorrow. For example, O'Brien goes back to the place where Kiowa died and also talks about the story with his daughter. Talking to someone else may soothe his feeling. O'Brien works hard to soothe himself and seems that he succeeds but 'Facing it' does not show much about Yosef's alleviation.
Norman Bowker seems to obsess over the war, he always thought of it even when he was at home many miles away from Vietnam. “Facing it” by Yosef Komunyakaa seems to have more of a feeling of having a hard time dealing with what happened in the war. As if the writer was trying to block it out and not think about it. “Facing it” and the things they carried both hold a similar feeling. Overwhelming feeling of guilt or sadness and regret come strongly across to me in both of these selections. Guilt to me came across during the poem by Yosef when he spoke of the trap, maybe he feels a bit of guilt for the fact that he could’ve saved his friend. "Facing it" can be related to the field trip portioon of The THings They Carried, where O'Brien finally brings himself to revisit the place where Kiowa died.
The reminiscent feeling of this poem is overwhelming. This has obviously taken a great deal of preparation for Yosef to be able to come to the memorial and touch on the memories has had perhaps tried to block out for a while. I think the flash of the trap was a part of that memory where his friend was killed. This time brings peace of mind for him and he can go back and think of his friends. This is where I agreed with Minsoo, where he might finally be able to soothe himself.
I agree with Sean that the both works want to say that memory of loss of the friend is too shocking to get rid of it. I also feel so too because if my friend or close person dies in front of me, I would never forget that.
"Facing it" is a form of therapy for Komunyakaa as "The Things They Carried" is to O'Brien. They are both dealing with what they went through, through a form of writing. I agree with Mimi, Paul, Sam, and JBang when they compared "Facing It" to the chapter "Field Trip". O'Brien goes back to the place where his friend, Kiowa, died. In my opinion Komunyakaa was looking to find something that O'Brien has expressed; "... I looked for signs of forgiveness or personal grace or whatever else the land might offer." (page 207) The only difference was O'Brien went back to Vietnam and Komunyakaa went to the memorial.
Brie-
I am curious as to why you picked the chapter "Speaking of Courage" to relate to the poem. At first I did not see the connection but as I read on I just realized you read the poem in a different way (which is perfectly fine). So I read the poem again and came to the conclusion that I would have never caught that until you brought it to my attention. And I wanted to thank you because now I understand "Facing It" in more than one way.
Paul-
I agree with your opinion that O'Brien visiting Kiowa's death place relates to poem. I also think this scene is the only portion that reveals similar imigery as poem. The scene shows same feeling as well, longing, missing, and reminiscing about the past.
Page-
I beg to differ when you say that "Norman Bowker seems to obsess over the war" I don't think that he is obsessing over the war, I think that it's just a memory that he cannot seem to erase. After all, he was fighting in a war, and once he returned to his normal home life it was a complete turn around from what he had gotten used to. Someone who obsesses over something does so willingly, while Norman Bowker is merely haunted by the memories of his past. After all, war is a very extreme experience to go through, many soldiers have even been known to experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when they return home.
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