Individual versus Machine Any number of critics have noted that one of Ellison’s favorite themes is the relationship between humans and the machines they create. Certainly, “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” explores what happens when people create machines “because our time was badly spent.” Like other dystopian writers of the 1950s and…
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I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: Characters
AM Although not human, the computer, which calls itself AM, is perhaps the main character in the story. Originally, AM was one of several national computers designed to fight wars for the nation that owned it. Eventually, the computers learned to link themselves to each other, forming one supercomputer. When this supercomputer awoke, or became…
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: Summary
“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” opens with a terrifying image of Gorrister hanging upside down with his throat slit. Almost immediately, however, Gorrister returns to the group and the reader understands that the opening image has been created by the supercomputer, AM. Ted, the narrator, continues to describe the situation: five survivors…
How to Tell a True War Story: Analysis
The Things They Carried, the collection in which “How to Tell A True War Story” appears, received rave reviews from critics and readers alike when it appeared in 1990. Many of the stories in the collection, including “How To Tell A True War Story,” had previously won awards following publication in periodicals such as Esquire,…
How to Tell a True War Story: Setting
The Reagan Years: 1981-1988 In 1980 Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter for the presidency of the United States. Although the country could not yet know it, this was the year that the Gulf War really began, when Iraq invaded Iran. Because Iran held a group of Americans hostage, the United States initially favored Iraq in…
How to Tell a True War Story: Literary Devices
Point of View and Narration One of the most interesting, and perhaps troubling, aspects of the construction of “How to Tell a True War Story” is O’Brien’s choice to create a fictional, first-person narrator who also carries the name “Tim O’Brien.” Although the narrator remains unnamed in this particular story, other stories in the collection…
How to Tell a True War Story: Themes
Memory and Reminiscence Because “How to Tell a True War Story” is written by a Vietnam War veteran, and because Tim O’Brien has chosen to create a narrator with the same name as his own, mosl readers want to believe that the stories O’Brien tells are true and actually happened to him. There are several…
How to Tell a True War Story: Characters
Stink Harris Slink Harris has a very small role in this story, although he figures in other stories in The Things They Carried. Dave Jensen Dave Jensen is a minor character in this story, a fellow member of Tim’s platoon. Rat Kiley Ral Kiley is another member of Tim’s platoon. The story opens with Tim…
How to Tell a True War Story: Summary
“How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’Brien is not a story in the traditional sense. It does not follow a straight, chronological path from start to finish. Rather, it is a collection of small stories interspersed with instructions about “true” war stories. The story opens with the words,’ “This is true.” The…
The Harvest by Tomas Rivera: Analysis
Rivera’s “The Harvest” is a brief story, covering in some editions no more than three pages. However, springing up from this spare narrative are the archetypal themes of initiation and search, and one archetypal character, that of the Wise Old Man. These structural patterns are archetypal in the sense that they recur in many different…