Yusef Komunyakaa takes a non traditional way in writing about the Vietnam in his book of poems called "Dien Can Dau". The poems express different themes on the effects of war. Some of these themes include innocence, PTSD,and the hearts of the Vietnamese. Komunyakaa's poem "Toys in the Field" represents the theme of the soldiers innocence. The soldiers who are fighting in Vietnam are still just boys, as if still paying with toys, instead they now need to be real weapons. At the end of the poem when it shows how the soldiers at then end of the war are still just boys who cannot escape what the war has done to them, when it states "Except for the boys with American eyes, who keep singing rat-a-tat-tat, hugging a machine gun" (p 56). Therefore showing emotionally they are unable to to recover from the devastation of the war.
The second poem, "Losses" shows the sense of hopelessness from suffering from PTSD. This is the sense of the soldiers got returning to their homeland after the war was over. They were changed people who could not fit into society and live the same way they had done prior to leaving for Vietnam. Where he still possesses the same instincts as being in the war that only drags him farther into hopelessness.
The third poem, "The Dead at Quang Tri", represents the strong heart of Vietnam. For example when the American soldiers make the reference to the Buddhist boy as gliding by like a white moon. Representing the Vietnamese as a moon where the scene of the moon can never disappear. Therefore showing the message to the American soldiers to whatever they do to the Vietnamese they never fully die away, from their strong hearts.
Yusef Komunyakaa takes a non traditional way in writing about the Vietnam in his book of poems called "Dien Can Dau". The poems express different themes on the effects of war. Some of these themes include innocence, PTSD,and the hearts of the Vietnamese. Komunyakaa's poem "Toys in the Field" represents the theme of the soldiers innocence. The soldiers who are fighting in Vietnam are still just boys by playing with toys that are real weapons. At the end of the poem when it shows how the soldiers at the end of the war are still just boys who cannot escape what the war has done to them, when it states "Except for the boys with American eyes, who keep singing rat-a-tat-tat, hugging a machine gun" (p 56). Therefore, showing the soldiers emotionally are unable to to recover from the devastation of the war.
ReplyDeleteThe second poem, "Losses" shows the sense of hopelessness from suffering from PTSD and being an African American in this time period. This is the sense of the soldiers got returning to their homeland after the war was over. They were changed people who could not fit into society and live the same way they had done prior to leaving for Vietnam. Where he still possesses the same instincts as being in the war that only drags him farther into hopelessness.
The third poem, "The Dead at Quang Tri", represents the strong heart of Vietnam. For example when the American soldiers make the reference to the Buddhist boy as gliding by like a white moon, this represents the Vietnamese as a moon, because the scene of the moon can never disappear. Therefore, showing the message to the American soldiers in whatever they do to the Vietnamese they never fully die, because of their strong hearts.