Revelation through Experience in Heart of Darkness, Going After Cacciat

Revelation through encounter in Heart of Darkness, Going later on Cacciato, and The Things They Carried Foreign lands seemingly feature by repulsiveness spirits as well as evil men, ammunition stockpiles, expend subject extremities and splintered, non-expendable limbs carpeting the smoking husks of burnt-out villages, the intoxicating colour of burning napalm, and courage mixed with cowardice in the face of entire peril. These are just a few examples of the spell-binding images presented in the novels read in the class entitled The Literature of War at Wabash College. These images and their accompanying stories do far more than fill the mind with fantastic ideas of war and valiancy they force the reader into uncomfortable situations thereby compelling the him or her to reverberate and evaluate his or her own personal ideas of valor, honor, decency, morality and mortality. While narration these stories, the reader is not only thrust interior the hearts and mind s of the characters as he or she accompanies them upon their physical and/or mental journeys, but he or she is also forced to explore the darkest corners of organism that exist inside every human being, male and female. Almost all of the novels are check off during wartime and focus on the trials and tribulations faced by the common soldier. In his obtain The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell suggests that war literature force out generally be broken down into three make ups the first being the naturalness stage before the soldier goes to battle, the second being the impairment of innocence precipitated by experiencing the horrors of war, and the third stage being the consideration stage where the soldier is removed from the war and contemplates his experiences. (Fussell). ... ...d Tim OBrien have lost their innocence and in doing so, they have unwittingly destroyed the blissful ignorance that made their front lives possible. One of the only means that t hese three men find to exempt their pain is in the telling of stories. By voicing their feelings and experiences, they are able to continue living and cope with the awful truths they have learned active the war and more importantly the truths they have learned about themselves. working CitedConrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Penguin Group. London. 1995.Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory. Excerpts from In-Class handout. 2002.OBrien, Tim. Going After Cacciato. Broadway Books. New York. 1978.OBrien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Penguin Group. New York. 1990.Remarque, Erich M. All Quiet on the westerly Front. Ballantine Books. New York. 1930.