Great Gatsby, This is a Man, The Things they carried

Quotes

This is a Man

Published in 1947

“The corporal saluted smartly and replied that there were six hundred and fifty ‘pieces’ and that all was in order.”

The quote appears in Chapter 1, “The Journey,” as the German SS organizes the Jews detained in Modena, Italy, for deportation to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The term “pieces” symbolizes the systematic dehumanization of the Jews by the Nazis. Instead of referring to the detainees as people, the Germans reduce them to objects—“pieces”—as if they were inventory or cargo.

a euphemism is being used here, a word such as pieces is being used instead of ‘prisoners’ or ‘victims’

Dehumanization and loss of identity: We had learnt that we had to undress completely, and run in front of the SS doctors, who with a glance decided our fate.”

Irony: “With a glance” conveys how casual and detached the act of deciding life or death becomes.

appears in the chapter titled “The Selection” in Primo Levi’s memoir.

Dehumanization: It is not possible to sink lower than this; no human condition is more miserable - Levi

Emotive language: “Sink” connotes being submerged or lost, reinforcing the idea of humanity being buried under suffering.

Hyperbolic diction: The absoluteness of “not possible” and “no human condition” emphasises the depth of moral and physical degradation.

“They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing… They carried the common secret of cowardice.”
— from the opening chapter: “The Things They Carried”

• “Grief, terror, love, longing” — abstract emotions

• Framed within the structure of "carrying", a physical action

• expresses vulnerability and suffering

• 2. Listing / Asyndeton

  • "Grief, terror, love, longing..."

  • This list of emotions is presented without connecting words like "and" (this is called asyndeton).

  • Effect: makes the emotions feel overwhelming and endless — like the soldiers are being buried under emotion.

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money.” - Chapter 9, F. Scott Fitzgerald

• It suggests that for the rich, social and emotional consequences don’t exist — others are collateral damage.

• You can argue that this diction encapsulates the brutal indifference of the upper class in 1920s America

• Fitzgerald’s choice of “things and creatures” is not casual — he deliberately avoids saying “people.”

• The term “creatures” suggests something less than human, perhaps wild, unimportant, or expendable.

“He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it…”

Idealized diction

• Words like “rare,” “eternal,” and “reassurance” create an almost mythical aura around Gatsby.

• His identity is built from others’ perceptions, not grounded in reality — it's fragile and performative.

• This poetic diction suggests that his persona is a fantasy,

• The line is dreamy, almost hypnotic — reflecting how Gatsby’s identity is a performance meant to charm.

“They carried the common secret of cowardice.”

• “They carried…” repeats throughout the chapter — creating a uniform identity for the soldiers.

• This voice removes individual names and instead emphasizes shared emotional burdens.

• It reflects how war replaces identity with function — soldier, not person.

3. Symbolism: “Carried”

• “Carrying” symbolises both physical weight and emotional trauma.

• The repetition of this word blurs the line between the literal (guns, gear) and the figurative (guilt, fear).

• It shows how war loads down the individual with experiences that reshape or erase who they were.

“For the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express this offence, the demolition of a man.”

. Diction – “offence,” “demolition”

• The word “offence” suggests something deeply wrong and morally unacceptable, not just physically violent.

• The word “demolition” is cold and mechanical — it’s not passionate or emotional. It sounds like a process — just like how the concentration camp system was designed to dehumanize people in a routine, emotionless way.

1. Metaphor – “demolition of a man”

• Levi compares a human being to a building that’s been torn down.

• This helps us visualize how the camp didn’t just kill people physically, but it destroyed their identity, dignity, memories, and even their will to live.

• It shows that the prisoners weren’t seen as people — they were reduced to things that could be taken apart.

“He did not know that it was already behind him…” Chapter 8, Nick says this

This is dramatic irony: Gatsby doesn’t realise the dream is dead, but we do.

• This line occurs during Nick’s narration about Gatsby’s belief that he can recreate the past with Daisy.

• Gatsby is waiting for a phone call from Daisy that will never come.

• He still believes that his dream — Daisy’s love, his new identity, their future — is ahead of him, but Nick reveals to us (the readers) that it’s already over.

“Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” Gatsby

• Gatsby is speaking to Nick Carraway, insisting that he can recreate the love he once had with Daisy — exactly as it was.

• Nick tries to tell Gatsby that the past is gone, but Gatsby refuses to believe this.

• This moment shows the depth of Gatsby’s delusion: he doesn’t just want Daisy’s love now — he wants to erase everything that happened since they separated and go back in time emotionally and socially.

"One of those real thick, real misty days... Everything's all sucked up inside the fog.”

The Things they carried

Literary Devices:

• Motif: Fog and mist appear repeatedly in the novel — used to symbolize confusion, loss, and trauma.

• Foreshadowing: Occurs just before Curt Lemon’s death — the dark imagery and stillness act as an omen.

• Symbolism: Fog = psychological trauma. Just as fog clouds vision, trauma clouds identity.

• Imagery: Tactile and kinaesthetic — the fog “takes you in,” suggesting that war consumes and disorients the individual.

• Theme: Trauma, disorientation, emotional numbing.

"I glanced behind me and watched Lemon step from the shade into bright sunlight... sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms.”

Furthermore, O’Brien uses a motif of light and dark, specifically sunlight and shade, in the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story”, to describe the events of the death of Curt Lemon. Here the death of the soldier is bathed in sunlight and the surroundings are described as dark and impenetrable. Through this subversion of the readers’ expectations, the author highlights the unpredictability of the jungle and the war. The resulting struggle with the physical surroundings leads to isolation and trauma.

"His jaw was in his throat... his forehead was lightly freckled...” "He loved mathematics.”

They carried the land itself—Vietnam, the place, the soil

• Tension between old (home) and new (Vietnam) worlds.

• Literary Devices:

  • Symbolism: "the land" symbolizes the overwhelming presence of Vietnam in their lives.

  • Hyperbole: exaggerating how much they carried to show emotional and physical burdens.

• Why it's good:
  Highlights how the environment (the "new") consumes and transforms the soldiers, pulling them away from their old identities.

Great Gatsby

The Things They Carried

1990

Great Gatsby

1925