Brianna Harden
English 214.05
Baldwin
April 12th, 2013

Emotional Consequences Faced By Veterans and Their Families

Many books, articles, or even essays that are read throughout one’s life, can at times be slightly unclear about what precisely the main idea is or what the authors true purpose is for writing that text. Most people do not understand that every writer uses rhetorical strategies throughout their writing to make their text clear and understandable for the reader. These rhetorical strategies are particularly important because they help with the clarity of complex ideas and assist the writer in getting their point across. In doing so, writers are able to make their text more effective for a wider range of people to read. In the article “Iraq, Afghanistan War Veterans Struggle With Combat Trauma,” by David Wood, and in the short story, “Gold Star,” by Siobhan Fallon, the authors use numerous amounts of rhetorical tools to help guide the reader through the text. While “Gold Star” is a short story about a wife who has lost her husband due to the war and “Iraq, Afghanistan War Veterans Struggle With Combat Trauma,” is an informative newspaper article about how the war can have severe consequences on not only the soldiers themselves but their loved ones back at home too, both text use emotive appeals that aim to inform the general public of the various emotional and psychological tolls faced by veterans and their families today.
Furthermore, throughout both texts the authors delivered a nearly identical purpose for their text. In “Gold Star,” and in “Iraq, Afghanistan War Veterans Struggle With Combat Trauma,” Fallon and Wood’s purpose are to expand on the common theme on how going to war can have severe emotional consequences on the soldiers, and as well as their families too. The authors work to get a clear message across about how the war equally affects both soldiers and their loved ones, and how the general public does not realize what our veterans and their families really go through when veterans either return back home from war or even worse, get killed fighting in the war. It is as if our veterans return back home as completely different people because they are so drained physically, emotionally, and mentally. They become so traumatized by the military and personal actions that they have done, such as dealing with the fact that they killed people and the excessive feelings of regret that come with killing people. Because of these things, the family members and veterans have a hard time adjusting and dealing with a number of emotional war wounds, both internally and externally.
However, even though both texts have very similar purposes, the authors talk from completely different point of views, which allows the reader to see the emotional struggles from both the veterans and family members themselves. For example, in “Gold Star” Fallon talks from the point of view of a wife who has just lost her husband due to the war. Throughout the whole story Josie, the wife, is reminiscing about her husband and trying to hold on to every memory that she can because she fears that she will forget him. It was like she wanted to be with her husband just one last time. She wanted it so bad that she searched for the same dusty smell her husband once smelled of, but nothing. She couldn’t find that same warm comfort that her husband once gave her, and by the end of the story she finally realized that her husband was really truly gone forever. Fallon used this approach very strategically in order to capture the reader inside the passionate feelings that Josie had for her husband. In doing so, the reader is easily able to connect and really recognize that war can, by the same token, emotionally affect family members of veterans. On the other hand, in “Iraq, Afghanistan War Veterans Struggle With Combat Trauma,” Wood gives the reader the total opposite point of view. He writes from the point of view of multiple returning veterans. In the article he explains how soldiers returning home from combat are faced with many challenges, such as relearning family traditions, rekindling relationships, finding employment, and overcoming the various amounts of emotional issues that come from going to war. And when the veterans return home, the soldiers are expected to make a quick transition from this “war mentality” into a “civilian mentality.” Some soldiers do not have the assistance to help them in this transition or to help them overcome their combat trauma, and because of that, this trauma most often develops into post-traumatic stress and other emotional issues. Wood uses his approach to capture the reader inside the stressful mind of returning veterans. By doing this, Wood is able to justify to the reader that soldiers really do go through dramatic emotional breakdowns because of going to war. Moreover, the strategy of using different points of views by both authors was very effective, because it enables the reader to have pure examples of how war affects both veterans and their family members. Not only does it provide the reader with specific examples, but it clearly validates Fallon and Woods purpose of each text for the reader.
The articles begin with a series of very strong and powerful images for the reader to take on. In “Gold Star,” Fallon is constantly painting the reader a vivid picture by her descriptive sensory detail and choice of words and phrases from the excerpts that specifically appeal to the reader’s sense of emotion. Whether it is when she comments about Josie’s appearance and says, “Composing her face into what she imagined an ordinary face looked like, tugging her mouth into a smile but then giving up.” (Fallon 209) By using the word choice, “ordinary face,” Fallon suggests that Josie desperately wants to fit back into society, yet she ultimately thinks she belongs to a group that is isolated because of the loss of her husband. Trying to make an “ordinary face” implies that Josie has distanced herself from the normal, because she feels like she is constantly being watched and critiqued about her every move, which causes Fallon to use the word “tugging.” The word “tugging” then suggests that Josie sees herself as some sort of display rather than just a normal person, because a person who is part of society is not concerned over something as simple as a smile, rather a smile is something that normal people do unconsciously. Using this particular word choice enables Fallon to emphasize the emotional struggle family members are forced to cope with. Therefore the reader is able to effectively feel the issues and the extent of those issues that family members must face. Fallon is always challenging the reader to express more vividly a thought or to bring out an emotion or two, which is why she uses such strong imagery to persuade her reader to think the way she would by making use of particular words to describe her ideas or thoughts. In addition Wood also does a particularly decent job at creating imagery for the reader by using phrases such as, “the soul-battering experience of war” and “tears welled in her eyes as she felt again the shock and grief that she had stuffed deep inside five years ago” (Wood 1). Once again, it becomes very noticeable that Wood is also very particular and meticulous about the choice of words and imagery that he uses because it is through this manner that he can convey his message to the reader. By using effective words and language as imagery, both authors were successful in being able to create an ambiance for the audience. Because of these things, they are able to feel the emotions that are set in the story and at the same time induce empathy from his or her audience, while also sharing the same sentiments of some characters in their text. Overall, both authors word choice as use of imagery was effective to get their message across about the difficulty veterans and their families have when trying to deal with their emotional trauma.
Although the authors use similar tactics for their use of imagery, it becomes noticeable where the authors start to shift in different directions because they use completely different styles of organization for their text. Wood organizes his style of text very spatially, whereas Fallons style leans more toward the chronological approach. It is actually quite interesting because Wood brings his reader from the outside of the periphery of the war life, to the heart of the veterans mind and their constant emotional turmoil’s that goes on internally, as well as externally. As the reader journeys through the war life and the veteran’s mind, he or she becomes completely tuned in with everything that is going on. From the shots that are being fired to the thoughts of suicide on a day to day basis, Wood truly captures the reader’s emotions because of his strategy to make the reader believe they are on the same emotional roller coaster as the veterans in the articles. On the other hand, Fallon’s style of organization acts as something completely different then Woods. Instead of organizing her story very spatially and step by step, she is chronologically throwing situations and events at the reader throughout the whole story. Although you might think this may be very confusing and not effective, it turns out to be a very positive and prosperous choice for Fallon. Fallon organizes her article consisting of Josie’s thoughts as always being flashbacks or memories of her husband. Fallon is constantly switching from the past to reality to show the reader how hard it is for Josie to let go of the past and live in the present. It is almost like Fallon wants the reader to know that Josie is so far stuck in the past that she cannot face her own reality because everything Josie does, she always finds a way to make it remind her of her husband. As the reader, it becomes to be very intriguing and enticing that you cannot help but to want to keep reading and knowing more. Fallon’s choice of organization, simply put, is the logical progression and completeness of ideas in a text.
With that being said, through the author’s different types of organizational approaches they wound up developing their own unique types of focus. Wood uses focus as his foundation for constructing his piece of writing, as well as his organization as a properly structural framework for that writing. As mentioned before, his organizational approach was very spatially designed. Because of that, Wood was able to really focus on drawing the reader in step by step, nice and slow. Wood strategically started off with a more external focus, which made the reader concentrate on the “great distances of war life,” hanging out in the hot “never ending desert,” and all of the external things that dealt with war (Wood 3). But as the article went on, Wood draws the reader to focus more on the internal emotions that the soldiers were dealing with, such as the thoughts of suicide or regret. By doing this, Wood is really able to focus the reader in, and show them the internal and external struggles that all veterans go through. By the end of the article Wood has totally captured the reader’s focus of emotions because he slowly lured them into the emotional turmoil that the veterans have to go through without the reader even knowing it. On the other hand, Fallon does the complete opposite and focuses on dumping the reader right into the chaos of the story. She persistently has event after event happening, which automatically is pulling the readers emotions in from the start. Throughout Fallon’s short story, the reader is by design feeling emotionally connected by each situation because the events are happening so quickly the reader has no choice but to have some sort of emotional reactions when reading. By doing this the reader is able to understand that organization is important to the effectiveness of a writers focus because it provides the readers with a framework to help them fulfill their expectations for the text. A well-organized or well-focused piece of writing supports readers by making it easy for them to follow, as Wood and Fallon do, while a poorly organized piece leads readers through a maze of confusion and confounded or unmet expectations.
In conclusion, the use of Fallon and Woods rhetorical strategies really helped their writing because they were able to create a strong and credible essay that analyzed the severity of emotional consequences that war brings upon veterans and their families. Through the many uses of rhetoric they were easily able to persuade the reader into thinking a certain way, and as well as feeling certain types of emotions. They were not only guiding the reader step by step through each text, but they were also assisting themselves and making it more assuring that they were getting there exact point across. By using the use of rhetoric to make the topic or central idea more clear is possibly the best way to reach the goal of clarity that every writer wishes to accomplish.

Works Cited
Fallon, Siobhan. “Gold Star.” New York, New York: Penguin. 2011. Print.
Wood, David. “Iraq, Afghanistan War Veterans Struggle With Combat Trauma.” Huffington Post. 4 July 2012. Web. 7 March 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/04/iraq-afghanistan-war-veterans-combat-trauma_n_1645701.html