When trying to properly express respect to those who served and died in a war, using a nonlinear narrative is better than say, a cenotaph.
While cenotaphs are great for war memorials, and give us a place to go to remember those who died, there is one thing they lack; details. In a nonlinear narrative, you get to see everything that happened. You get to walk a mile in the soldier's shoes. You get to see what they saw and hear what they hear. Most of all, you get to share in their triumphs, and struggle with them during their losses. With a cenotaph, all you see are names and stone.
The novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is an example of a linear narrative that helps an average citizen understand what the lives of the soldiers were like. Close to the beginning of the book, O'Brien describes the time when one of his fellow soldiers was killed. He says, "Right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye" (O'Brien). This gory scene shows how in any moment during the war, things could turn from happy and carefree to deadly. This quote reveals the dark side of war and helps the reader understand what exactly is happening during combat. A cenotaph could never do that.
In conclusion, all these reasons help explain why a nonlinear narrative is almost always better than a cenotaph, and why more people should use them when trying to unveil the truth about war. You can never really understand what these people went through, but a nonlinear narrative does a lot better than a cenotaph when it comes to comprehending all the trials these men went through.
While cenotaphs are great for war memorials, and give us a place to go to remember those who died, there is one thing they lack; details. In a nonlinear narrative, you get to see everything that happened. You get to walk a mile in the soldier's shoes. You get to see what they saw and hear what they hear. Most of all, you get to share in their triumphs, and struggle with them during their losses. With a cenotaph, all you see are names and stone.
The novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is an example of a linear narrative that helps an average citizen understand what the lives of the soldiers were like. Close to the beginning of the book, O'Brien describes the time when one of his fellow soldiers was killed. He says, "Right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye" (O'Brien). This gory scene shows how in any moment during the war, things could turn from happy and carefree to deadly. This quote reveals the dark side of war and helps the reader understand what exactly is happening during combat. A cenotaph could never do that.
In conclusion, all these reasons help explain why a nonlinear narrative is almost always better than a cenotaph, and why more people should use them when trying to unveil the truth about war. You can never really understand what these people went through, but a nonlinear narrative does a lot better than a cenotaph when it comes to comprehending all the trials these men went through.
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