PAB BLOG KOMUNYAKAA

The Vietnam War, like any other war, transformed soldiers into mindless killing machines. Because of the draft, young men were forced from their lives of peace to a new life of inhuman killing as well as emotional and physical torture. Although it seems like the soldiers of the Vietnam War have lost their human emotions and sense of sympathy, Yusef Komunyakaa's "Dien Cai Dau" poetically describes the opposite in a few instances.
Komunyakaa describes powerful moments in the war; these moments are powerful because of the sharp juxtaposition between the tragedy of war and the nature of humanity. One of the earlier poems to do this is titled "2527th Birthday of the Buddha". The poem depicts the scene of a monk, Quang Duc, sitting in a street and setting fire to his own gasoline-drenched body. This self-destruction was caused by the events and emotions caused by the war. As the "breath of peppermint oil soothed someone's cry”, the monk was burned alive. He was completely burnt to ash except for his heart which remained intact. This poem presents powerful metaphors. Quang Duc was influenced so much by the effects of the war that he was pushed to the point of suicide. Because Buddhists believe in reincarnation, Quanc Duc must have decided that his human life would be compared as inferior to any other animal's life he might become. In this act of passion, his entire body disintegrated except for his heart. This unburnable heart represents the idea of human emotions. The effects of the Vietnam War will destroy men's bodies and minds, but their emotions and passions (their hearts) will be as strong as ever.
Similarly, the poem "Sappers" tells the story of Vietnamese suicide bombers. Komunyakaa asks "what is it in the brain that so totally propels a man?" As the naked bombers are being shot at, they continuously get up and run in order to "fling themselves into our arms". This phrase that ends the poem brings about emotions that were absent from the rest of the poem. To 'fling' oneself into someone's arms is an act of love or friendship. These suicide bombers are seemingly described to be fighting through gunfire to show the shooters their affection. This reminds the reader that the soldiers from both sides still love certain things and appreciate certain people and things. These things are never observed in war.
"Toys in a Field" presents one of the most powerful images in the entire book. Children play on gun mounts and with broken guns. They play quietly in expensive and broken down helicopters. The activities of these children are almost parallel with what the soldiers are doing. For the most part, the American soldiers are not adults. Seen as children, it is reasonable to say that they are merely playing quietly with these expensive toys just as the children are doing. Unlike the soldiers the children have an air of innocence about them. There is no actual death in their games, although they do imitate it. They are quiet “except for the boy with American eyes who keeps singing rat-a-tat-tat, hugging a broken machine gun”. This young boy with American eyes could represent many things. This boy could stand as a metaphor for the young American troops searching for something in the war that can keep them emotionally sane. Just as the boy hugs his broken gun, which is his toy, the soldiers hug their guns to keep themselves alive. Also, gripping a broken gun might represent one’s futile or fake effort at fighting in a war. If the gun cannot function, how can he fight?
These three poems can be tied together by the theme of the prevalence of human nature even in times of war. War might seem to strip away all that is human, but these poems shed some light on the aspects of humanity that are not removed. Quang Duc’s emotions push him to make a passionate decision regarding his own life; it was so passionate that his heart remained after his cremation. The suicide bombers are described in a way that reminds the reader of how every soldier loves something and could once share that love. The children playing in the ruined equipment displays man’s desire to find peace and relaxation despite his surroundings of death. The war suppresses what makes us human, and Komunyakaa observes this fact.