The Man He Killed Comparison

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“The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy and "The Man He Killed” by Tim O’Brien both revolve around a man that the narrator kills. Both of the men that are killed are similar to the narrator. In "The Man He Killed”, the narrator explains that the man he killed would probably be his friend if he met him in a different circumstance, like a bar. The narrator also describes the man as similar to him, they both enlisted in the war because there was no work. The narrator also remains feeling guilty over the death he caused, which is seen by the pause after the because and then repetition of because when explaining why he killed the man. In "The Man I Killed", the narrator describes the man he killed as a parallel to himself. Both the narrator and the …show more content…
In "The Naming of Parts", the first voice is giving a lecture on a rifle. The voice speaks about the rifle in steps, devoid of personality. The second voice is distracted by the garden around him and instead focuses on that. Reed uses a voice that focuses on the rifle and a voice that focuses on the garden to make it increasingly obvious just how machinelike the men are. A garden is alive and follows no precedent, and the man giving the rifle lecture is just another cog in the machine following orders. In “The Things They Carried”, the soldiers are “humping” along and focusing on what the commander Jimmy Cross is saying. The way the soldiers hump along is similar to the way the man is describing the gun; with a lack of passion and out of duty. “The Things They Carried”, also uses the land of Vietnam to contrast to the mentality of the soldiers. Vietnam is described as unpredictable (page 15), conscious (page 71), and alive (page 192), and the soldiers are just trying to make it through another day. These two texts highlight the true life of a soldier and how depressing it is to be