The Yellow Birds Literary Elements

war novel, meta-fiction

2004 Al Tafar, Iraq-war; 2003 New Jersey-enlistment ceremony; 2005 Germany; 2005 Richmond, Virginia-post-war time; 2009 Fort Knox, Kentucky-life in a cabin

first person narrator (Bartle)

tone-anxious, bitter, confused, depressed
mood-lonely, pessimistic

Bartle is the protagonist of the novel; he is a soldier that survived the war. War is the antagonist of the novel; it is given human traits and is chasing the young soldiers.

Bartle gives Mrs Murphy a promise-that he will return her son home.

Murph dies in a ridiculous way and Bartle is haunted by his death for a long time. By deciding to dispose of his body and to write a letter to his mother in Murph's name Bartle ends up having to go to prison because somebody has to pay for what happened.

"...and rubbed a rash the color of washed-out raspberries with two fingers. It covered a small oval from his sharp brow line
down onto his left cheek and seemed to follow the rounded path of his eye socket."
This foreshadows the way Bartle will find the dead body of Murph later, with his eyes gouged out and bloody eye sockets.

Bartle as a young soldier understates the war; he feels a sense of relief for not having to be responsible for anything while everyone else is reasonably afraid.

Allusion to the biblical story of Jonah-in the story Jonah is sent to preach to the people of Nineveh. The war is taking place in the Nineveh Province. Colonel mentions the story of Jonah while half-heartedly encouraging the soldiers for battle telling them they are the justice Jonah begged God for.

The most important imagery is that of decay in the city Al Tafar. There are decaying bodies and the smell overpowers everything else. The narrator describes his lack of emotions to the sight as it is something he sees often; the bodies almost became a part of the landscape.

"Now, I wish I could tell you that all of us are coming back, but I can’t. Some of you will not come back with us."
Seemingly contradictory statement by the colonel, as he at first includes himself into the lot that might not come back. The colonel is, of course, not risking his life and in a half-hearted encouragement speech he is forcibly trying to connect to the soldiers when that fact is already known.

At the beginning of the first chapter narrator expresses the urgency of war trying to kill people by repeating the words: "the war tried to kill us" multiple times.

little man-Sergeant Sterling calls Murph little man because Murph is small in frame

Death is personified at the beginning of the first chapter:
"While we slept, the war rubbed its thousand ribs against the ground in prayer. When we pressed onward through exhaustion, its eyes were white and open in the dark. While we ate, the war fasted, fed by its own deprivation. It made love and gave birth and spread through fire."