In the book Dien Cai Dau, Yosef tells his story about his experience in the war through a series of poetry. Dien Cai Dau is translated to mean "crazy" which is what the Vietnamese men use to call the American Soldiers. This shows the connection between Yosef and the Vietnamese and how they both look at the American Soldiers in a negative light. Just how previous wirters expressed their stories through novels and short stories, this authors takes a different direction and illustrates these poems through the character of Yosef.
The first poem I wanted to talk about was "Toys in the field". The author of the book shows children playing on a old gun mound sourrounded by helicopter remains instead of a original scene like a playground where one would suspect children to be playing in because of the saftey and innocense of a place like the playground. The games that the children play is similiar to how the soldiers live their life in the field. This takes away the innocence of the children and compares it to a violent action, something that would be more related to soldiers, not children. The author discribe playful actions as silent. "Their play is silent as distant rain". Children playing shouldnt be silent majority of the time, but it was a connection to how soldiers walked through the fields of Vietnam so they wouldnt be noticed in combat or just to hide themselves from danger.
The next poem I looked at was "Thanks". This poem just showed the gratitude of the ability of the soldiers being able to stay alive through the war. It shows different situations where the soldiers are saved from dying because of nature. In one situation, a soldier was saved by grass just because he was able to hide in it. The soldiers had to use their surroundings alot because they werent as skilled of soldiers like the americans so they were already at a disadvantage but using their home land as a war tatic helped them survive. Komunyakaa talks about how the American soldiers should have learned from the vietnam but they were to hard-headed to do so.
The final poem I looked at was "Roll Call". This poem paid a tribute to all the dead soldiers and brothers that Komunkayaa lost in the war and whats left of one. This poem goes in detail imagery wise on the horrors of death and the efffect that it had on the soldiers. "those five pair of boots" which reconized the five dead soldiers. Its shows how difficult it is for being a soldier and sleeping on your bunk bed and not seeing the man sleeping on the bed beside you anymore because he died in combat. Its crazy because he woke up with you that morning and your never going to wake up next to him again.
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In the book Dien Cai Dau, Yosef tells his story about his experience in the war through a series of poems. Dien Cai Dau translated to english terms mean's "crazy" which is what the Vietnamese men use to call the American Soldiers. This shows the connection between Yosef and the Vietnamese and how they both look at the American Soldiers in a negative light. Just how previous wirters expresse their stories through novels and short stories, this author takes a different direction and illustrates these poems through the character of Yosef.
ReplyDeleteThe first poem I wanted to talk about was "Toys in the field". The author of the book shows children playing on a old gun mound sourrounded by helicopter remains instead of a original scene like a playground where one would suspect a child to be playing in because of the saftey and innocense of a place like the playground. The games that the children play is similiar to how the soldiers live their life in the field. This takes away the innocence of the children and compares it to a violent action, something that would be more related to soldiers and not children. The author discribe playful actions as silent. "Their play is silent as distant rain". Children playing shouldnt be silent majority of the time, but it was a connection to how soldiers walked through the fields of Vietnam so they wouldnt be noticed in combat or just to hide themselves from danger.
The next poem I looked at was "Thanks". This poem just showed the gratitude of the ability of the soldiers being able to stay alive through the war. It shows different situations where the soldiers are saved from dying because of nature. In one situation, a soldier was saved by grass just because he was able to hide in it. The soldiers had to use their surroundings alot because they werent as skilled of soldiers like the americans so they were already at a disadvantage but using their home land as a war tatic helped them survive. Komunyakaa talks about how the American soldiers should have learned from the vietnam but they were to hard-headed to do so.
The final poem I looked at was "Roll Call". This poem paid a tribute to all the dead soldiers and brothers that Komunkayaa lost in the war and whats left of one. This poem goes in detail imagery wise on the horrors of death and the efffect that it had on the soldiers. "those five pair of boots" which reconized the five dead soldiers. Its shows how difficult it is for being a soldier and sleeping on your bunk bed and not seeing the man sleeping on the bed beside you anymore because he died in combat. Its crazy because he woke up with you that morning and your never going to wake up next to him again.