Michael Herr: "Illumination Rounds"

Immediately, the reader is involved in the war with the author. Written in first person, the author provides real-life experiences from Vietnam War. The battles, the soldiers, and the stories the author hears are all relayed to the reader to show the war’s psychological and emotional effects on people. Like the title of the essay, Herr illuminates and reveals the hidden sights of war. By offering a different perspective of the Vietnam War, the reader is able to have a better understanding of the atrocity that is called war.

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Illumination Rounds is from Michael Herr’s memoir, Dispatches. As seen in the picture on the left, Herr was a military correspondent during the Vietnam War. He stayed there for over a year, sharing the sights he saw, the men he encountered, and the gruesome effects of war. Because Herr was actually there, his memoir is realistic and believable.

Because Michael Herr has experienced, first-hand, the horrible effects of war on the soldiers, he is raising awareness. From the perspective of the reader, many do not understand how much a war affects its soldiers. We only hear stories about amputations, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc., but Herr explains stories from the Vietnam War vividly. Therefore, Herr is targeting the audience of the common people, the average Joe. The common people cannot begin to imagine the gut-wrenching sights and battles soldiers have went through. Yet, from Herr’s successful descriptive story-telling, the reader begins to understand only a small fraction of what the soldiers have went through.

Diction is evident when the soldiers’ speak vulgarly and casually. The author’s diction for the dialogue of the soldiers is irreverent and detached. From their cursing the reader is able to see how hatred, a common sight in war, has influenced their speech. Also, the detached words of the soldiers are frightening. Casually, the soldiers speak of depressing, gory events. This detachment shows how the soldiers became “used to” such events. This shift is seen in the narrator himself. In the beginning, Herr writes, “A dark spot the size of a baby’s hand showed in the center of his fatigue jacket…And it grew-I knew what is was, but not really… this isn’t anything at all, it’s not real, it’s just some thing they’re going through that isn’t real” (328). The shock of first entering the war changes when the author writes, “At 800 feet we knew we were being shot at” (331). The casualness and change is evident in the author’s diction and tone.