"Dispatches"

Paper Summary:

"Dispatches" is not a history book written in conventional style. This paper examines Herr's graphic account of the horrors of war from a first hand perspective on the front line. It discusses how the fast moving, boldly descriptive style of the author fits the subject matter, an educational and stirring account of what Vietnam was about.

From the Paper:

"The section called "Hell Sucks" describing the Tet Offensive and the battle of Hue is especially effective in conveying the extremely bizarre nature of this war to someone unfamiliar with it's horrors. Perhaps the bloodiest battle of the war, the effects of the warped psychology created by this war of confused causes becomes clear. As we have heard for generations, War is Hell, but it quickly becomes apparent that this particular war creates a Hell beyond Hell . "Hell Sucks" is one of the slogans written on flak jackets and helmets, showing the perverse bitter humor of Vietnam. In it's irony this war is double hell. Not mere hell, but hell in the slang of the participants that truly deserves the descriptive verb "sucks" -- that pessimistically perfect example of everything negative and nasty and rotten."

More papers on "Dispatches":

• Book Review # 148114 : "Narrative Voice and Perspective in Herr's "Dispatches"
• Essay # 35659 : "Dispatches" by Michael Herr"
• Analytical Essay # 16682 : "Confederate in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War?"

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