Reader To Li Van Hgoc example essay topic

Going After Cacciato, an epic novel written by Tim O'Brien, is about a platoon of men going away without leave (AWOL) searching for a young man named Cacciato in the imagination of a man of the platoon named Paul Berlin. In Going After Cacciato the "tea party", between the AWOL platoon and Li Van Hgoc contributes greatly to the novel by adding to the confusion and teaching the reader how to deal with the war and the 'noise. ' The first thing that this "tea party" does is that it introduces the reader to Li Van Hgoc. The response of Paul Berlin to Li Van Hgoc and his party was a "falling feeling, a slipping, and... being high in the tower by the sea". This sets the novel as never truly being stable, but as "slipping" and "falling".

Li Van Hgoc helps to establish the confusion in Going After Cacciato. He shows the madness of people during wartime, the madness of war, and the madness of the world. Since this, "tea party", is an obvious allusion to Alice in Wonderland, it also helps to add to the 'noise' and confusion of the novel. The tea party helps to establish that the world has just become more complicated and confusing to the platoon.

That they didn't just fall in a hole on the road to Paris, but that they were "Falling Through a Hole on the Road to Paris". They weren't just in a hole, but they fell through a hole. Going through the hole the men of the platoon reached the other side leaving their world and sanity behind them. To make an allusion to Alice in Wonderland, the platoon was having tea with the mad hatter, Li Van Hgoc, and they had just left the real world to enter their own "Wonderland", filled with confusion, curiosity, and madness. Through meeting Li Van Hgoc the reader learns the "true enemy" in the novel.

According to Li Van Hgoc, "The land is your true enemy". He mentions that the soldier is the representative of the land and the land is also fighting a battle. Through listening to Li Van Hgoc at the "tea party" the platoon realizes the land actually is the enemy and notices the natural defenses: the tunnels, dangerous trails, the land mines, the hedges and paddies, and the jungle itself. The platoon thought that their enemy were the Vietcong, but they began to come to the realization that the Vietcong used the land; what they were protecting, why they were fighting, how they were fighting, to destroy foreign troops sent there. Li Van Hgoc telling the platoon of "Xa", meaning community, soil, home, that "a man's spirit is in the land, where his ancestors rest and where the rice grows", helped show that the land was the "true enemy". Also through Li Van Hgoc the reader learns one of the most important lessons of the novel, to "Look closer.

Concentrate". Going After Cacciato is a confusing mess filled with 'noise' in the background, foreground, and whatever middle ground there may be. The reader of this novel must read between the lines to understand. They must "Look closer. Concentrate". In order to order the facts, to put the chapters in order, to put a timeframe in mind, to know 'who are you... ?' the reader must, "Look closer.

Concentrate". throughout the novel. The reader must ask themselves to who, what, when, where, why, and how to truly understand Going After Cacciato in the events and in the entirety of the novel. In Going After Cacciato the "tea party" definitely helps to define the novel as a whole by letting the platoon know that they weren't "in Kansas anymore", to make an allusion to The Wizard of Oz, but that they had entered their very own 'Wonderland", like Alice. Through the 'tea party' the reader met Li Van Hgoc, a very important character in teaching lessons to the platoon as in the land being the enemy and that they need to look closer and concentrate along with the reader. The "tea party" set the table for the confusion, curiosity, and madness for Going After Cacciato.