Literary Analysis Research Paper Imagine carrying the heavy memories of war, each one filled with the harsh realities of battle. Through his vivid storytelling, we gain a deeper understanding of the soldiers journey and the lasting scars left by war. In Kevin Powers’s novel The Yellow Birds, the events and plot are influenced by Powers’s real life experiences as a soldier. The time alignment of the main character Bartle’s wartime experiences in the Iraq war from 2004 to 2005 with Kevin Powers’s own military service from 2004 to 2005 enables Powers to employ biographical lenses in crafting the story and plot of The Yellow Birds. “September 2004 Al Tafar, Nineveh Province, Iraq” (Powers 1). This quote aligned parallel with Powers’s real life because “Kevin Powers joined the US army when he was 17 and served as a…show more content… Like in the novel, Bartle describes “a place I often come to as a child. A large boulder overhung the creek” (Powers 137). Which actually reflects Powers’s experiences that he incorporated into the novel to allow for a more accurate story. Kevin Powers draws on his own post-war struggles to shape Bartle’s experiences, as they both face the challenge of adjusting to civilian life after the Iraq war, dealing with the trauma. Bartle's powers show the lasting impact of war on soldiers like himself, showing the deep invisible wounds that they carry. When Bartle returned home from Iraq the first night he laid down and when a train came by he said it sounded “of motors trilled as they moved toward our house” (Powers 112).Also in the novel when Bartle was at the river contemplating life he was thinking “I wanted to die” (Powers 144). Powers said in an interview with the Guardian that he “wanted to show the whole picture”. It's not just: you get off the plane, you're back home, everything's
