Sneaky Simplicity (Question 11)

In his "Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead," Andrew Hudgins writes extremely simply yet effectively. Throughout the poem, the speaker discusses his and his father's views of death in extremely simple sentences, summing up their differing views on death in five words: "He's ready. I am not." Yet the fact that Hudgins' writing style is simple and sparse does not mean that it lacks literary skill. The speaker's simple descriptions are reflected in his use of an extended metaphor which compares the journey from death to a possible afterlife with a boat trip. Note that Hudgins makes this comparison with an implied metaphor, the simplest form of analogy; it does not require extra words of comparison, as a simile does, but instead simply implies the two are similar. Hudgins takes this simplicity a step further. He does not focus on this comparison, but instead focuses on his and his father's opposing stances and simply uses the metaphor as backup support for his main point. This simplicity of approach reflects the simple clearheadedness of the speaker's argument. Although Hudgins' writing may seem overly simple, it is anything but.

Death, Part II--As If One Wasn't Enough (Understatement)

“Death sucks.”

-The Things They Carried, p 230

Why yes, it does. This one two-word sentence is quite possibly the biggest understatement I have personally heard. Yet this is what the entire novel has been about. O’Brien does not trifle himself with grandiose or gruesome images of war, nor does he disregard the severity and brutality of battle. He simply yet powerfully describes war as he has experienced it, nothing more and nothing less. By doing so, though, O’Brien accomplishes his goal more successfully than many writers who attempt to write about war. The reader can sense the truth in his words. Even when the phrases are short and the accounts terse, the power of his writing remains.

In many ways, Vietnam cannot be described in grandiose terms; it simply was not a glorious war. A war of such vapidity should be described in a straightforward manner. That is what makes O’Brien’s writing so effective. This honest, abrupt style of writing in which the author can simply say, “Death sucks,” and actually have it carry immense weight and power, embodies the mood of the Vietnam War itself.