Throughout English literature authors would carry a theme throughout the story. Themes express the lesson, conclusion, they can carry messages, and even show discipline. From the Author Andre Dubus writing “Killing”, “Stone Matters,written by Margaret Atwood and to “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien share the same theme “revenge”. Although revenge can teach us that justice may be owned the characters in these stories can also teach us that if we all take “an eye for an eye” the world would be blind.
The story “Killings” by Andre Dubas demonstrates the theme of “revenge” the character Matt, who seeks revenge that has lead him into the feeling of anger and guilt. Matt is the father of Frank 21 years old who had been murdered by Richard Strout (the ex husband to Mary Strout) who had a relationship with Frank. Matt then shows his loyalty and love for his son by murdering Richard “Driving south to Boston, wearing both gloves now, staying in the middle lane and looking often in the rearview mirror at Willis’s headlights…the turn of Strout’s back, and the kick of the gun, the sound of the shot. When he walked to Strout, he still existed within the first shot, still trembled and breathed with it. The second shot and the burial seemed to be happening to someone else, someone he was watching” (line 114 Dubas). The revenge he had taken into his own hands left Matt depressed, in result to this he couldn’t make love to his own wife “She was holding him, wanting him, and he wished he could make love with her but he could not. He saw Frank and Mary Ann making love in her bed, their eyes closed”(line 467 Dubas). By looking at the path that Matt made,you can learn that revenge isn’t the best path to take, leaving Matt with a silent in his heart.
Very often, when someone does harm to you, you cannot think of anything else but revenge. In “Stone Matters” written by Margaret Atwood the character Verna,who wants to take revenge on Bob who had raped her while she was drunk 5 decades ago and had gotten her pregnant “Verna’s labor was long and difficult. The baby was taken away from her immediately so that she would not get attached to it.”(Atwood). Varna then plans not to run away from Bob again taking manner into her own hands. She was no longer that weak girl she was now the girl who had planned the perfect crime. Verna puts on gloves on at one point when Bob turns around while on the trip “She knows better than to swing widely. She brings the stromatolite up hard, a short sharp jab right underneath Bob’s lower jaw. There’s a crunch, the only sound. His head snaps back. Now he’s sprawled on the rock. She holds the stromatolite over his forehead, lets it drop. Again. Once again. There. That seems to have done it….Bob looks ridiculous, with his eyes open and fixed and his forehead mashed in and blood running down both sides of his face. “You’re a mess,” she says. He looks laughable, so she laughs. As she suspected, the front teeth are implants”(Atwood). The act of revenge is never fully satisfying with the weight of a dirty criminal.
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By The soldiers in The Things They Carried suffer many painful and horrific experiences, and some attempt to get revenge on others.“The Ghost Soldiers” is all about the revenge O’Brien wreaks on a young medic who he thinks didn’t treat him in time when he was wounded.
