The Normality of Violence
Each day, there are more and more stories of horrific acts of violence and terror being
committed by people all over the world. It is evident that something needs to be done to
solve these issues but the solution to these problems is not always clear. In Tim O’Brien’s
essay, “How to Tell a True War Story”, he tells the story of the death of Curt Lemon and of
the impact of the Vietnam War on other soldiers. O’Brien writes of violence and warfare in
such a nonchalant manner that the reader forgets how truly gruesome death and violence
are. O’Brien’s tone and writing style offers insight into how shocking violence can be. In
Maggie Nelson’s piece titled, “Great to Watch”, she speaks of the flow of images and the
use of pop culture to educate others about a cause that does little resolve the more
important problems. She identifies the growing problem of violence and that even through
various resources are available people still refuse to take action and work towards a
solution. Azar Nafisi identifies with this in her selection titled, “Selections from Reading
Lolita in Tehran”, in which she creates a literature class to escape the absurd and strict
rules and laws that the Islamic Republic of Iran place on women. All three pieces
showcase different types of violence. Nelson tries to offer a solution, while O’Brien offers
no immediately evident solution and Nafisi comes up with a method of coping to deal with
her problems. Nafisi and O’Brien show that there is no prevention of violence because
people are so desensitized and distracted by outside stimuli. Desensitization directly
inhibits change and solutions by making acts, which should not be committed, seem
normal.
Sensitivity is lost at the precise moment that death and violence becomes normal. When
O’Brien explains the death of Curt Lemon, he does it in such a tasteful way that the reader
forgets O’ Brien is talking about death. O’Brien mentions, “I watched Lemon turn
sideways. He laughed…then he took a peculiar half step, moving from shade into bright
sunlight, and the booby-trapped 105 round blew him into a tree” (O’Brien 322). Instead of
focusing on the explicit and traumatizing death of his friend, O’Brien focuses on the
positive aspects. He sees Lemon’s death as beautiful and uses his tone to demonstrate to
the reader how unbothered he was with death in general. The lack of sensitivity in O’Brien
