Comparing Comrade and Tây Tiến

Prompt: Compare Comrade and Tây Tiến

4 exemplary essays comparing Comrade and Tây Tiến

Sample Essay 1: Comparing Comrade and Tây Tiến

Quang Dũng and Chính Hữu are both renowned revolutionary poets of the Vietnamese nation. The values embedded in their works carry profound significance in the art of language usage, resonating with deep layers of meaning. These works not only evoke a range of emotions in readers but also embody essential spirits in each piece.

Both being talented artists with remarkable skills in language and distinctive features in artistic style, Quang Dũng and Chính Hữu have created immense value in their works. The poems share similarities in their focus on revolution and the pursuit of a mass society. The entire value of the work aims for significant and meaningful aspects, contributing to the overall happiness and importance for every individual.

Quang Dũng's exceptional use of language in his artistic style has created immense value in shaping the persona of individuals. The significance of these values lies in the vibrant moments relived, portraying soldiers in his poem Tây Tiến as heroes, displaying perseverance to overcome challenges and dangers, making meaningful and powerful contributions.

Through the artistic use of character imagery and language, exemplars of characters and art in the work are employed strongly and meaningfully:

Sloping in a winding bend steep and deep
Pigs sniffing clouds, guns smelling the sky
Thousand steps ascending, thousand steps descending

The best comparative essays on Comrade and Tây Tiến

With witty and clever language, brimming with vibrant colors and rich values, the highest level of danger in the poem has been depicted, adding a level of abstraction in language use. The value created brings vivid colors to heroic and meaningful moments.

Especially in Chính Hữu's unique poem, a completely different style emerges as realistic art and social reality unfold in the author's life. These works not only leave behind strong and distinctive values but also reflect the lives of revolutionary soldiers who must leave their homeland to go to new lands. Our soldiers come from all over, forming a large, strong family that thrives in every moment. Each piece brings bright and colorful verses, creating the rhythm of the lives of revolutionary soldiers.

After years of resilient fighting, our soldiers have risen to create the strongest and most meaningful values for every individual. Much love is expressed and lives within the verses of the author, with belief and love harmonizing under one roof. Soldiers from distant places have gathered here to together achieve historical feats.

United, the soldiers have created glorious moments, and this is a joyful and colorful life that builds strong meanings and the happiest and most meaningful lives:

Guns by the side, heads together
Night chill shared under the same loyal friendship.

Languages rich in color yet profoundly authentic have shaped lives with the most meaningful and powerful values for every individual. Circumstances of the soldiers in the poem Comrade originate from farmers who day by day face difficulties and strive to achieve significant results for the nation. Their challenging situations, with shaky thatched roofs and leaving fields for loved ones to plow, create sacred moments, serving as motivation for them to strive and create historical and meaningful moments for the Vietnamese nation.

Both poems exhibit distinctive features in language usage to highlight the entire work. The values in these works offer humanity the most characteristic and powerful traits. The language in these two works may show differences, with Tây Tiến boasting heroic and vibrant symbolic language. In contrast, Comrade's language is simple and values color, highlighting the entire work with two entirely different but purposeful language skills, while the artistic use of language by the characters remains consistent.

With distinctive and remarkable features, it enriches the author's artistry in his own work. Prominent images in the work emerge deeply and with vibrant colors, creating the most meaningful and vivid images and values.

Above is the section Comparing Comrade and Westward March, the next article for you. Prepare to answer textbook questions, Compose Comrade, and along with Compose Westward March to study Vietnamese Literature better.

2. Sample essay 2: Comparing Comrade and Westward March

Write about the theme of soldiers in the resistance against the French, not knowing how many poems and stories have been written on this theme. Among the authors writing about this theme, we can mention two names: Quang Dũng and Chính Hữu. The two works Westward March and Comrade are still beloved by readers and highly praised by critics. Write about the theme of soldiers during the resistance against the French, but the soldiers in the two poems not only have similarities but also many differences.

The first difference is in their backgrounds. The soldiers in the two poems have different backgrounds, leading to different personalities.

The valiant soldiers of the Western Frontier, inspired by the poet Quang Dung, mostly hail from the intellectual youth of Hanoi. Answering the call of patriotism, they sacrifice personal happiness for the well-being of the nation. This imbues them with a romantic soul,

'Hanoi nights, graceful and fragrant in dreams'

Despite the harsh and arduous conditions of fierce combat, the romantic spirit within these young soldiers remains undiminished. They fondly recall the beloved women in their lives, using thoughts of them to embellish and balance the harsh reality. They immerse themselves in the majestic and poetic landscapes of the Northwest mountains, where the rifles pointed high seem to touch the sky. Moreover, these soldiers possess a cheerful and youthful spirit.

The soldiers in Comrade's poem by Chinh Huu don't originate from the educated class but rather from the simple, rustic lives of rural farmers in quaint villages:

'My homeland, brackish waters, fields with sour soil,
My village, impoverished, cultivated rocks and stones.
You and I, strangers in this vast expanse,
Destined by fate, yet not acquainted at all.'

They are the farmers from humble villages, cultivating rocky and sour lands, and dealing with brackish waters. They are both resilient and generous. While in the past, their lives revolved around farming and toiling the fields, for the nation, fueled by animosity towards the enemy, they casually abandon their homes to join the battle. Leaving behind ancient wells and brown fabric clothes, these peasant soldiers don the military's green uniform, exchanging plows for guns to avenge their homeland.

Sample essay Comparing Comrade and Western March

The second contrast among the soldiers in the two poems lies in their physical beauty.

The Western March soldiers, as portrayed by poet Quang Dung, exhibit a unique physical beauty – frail yet resilient:

'In the Western March battalion, not a hair grows
The army, green like the fierce jungle
Eyes staring, sending dreams across borders
In Hanoi night dreams, a graceful and fragrant figure'

Due to the harsh conditions of war and scarcity, the Western March soldiers, amidst the sacred forests and isolated waters, are depicted with bald heads. The green army refers to the camouflage of leaves or possibly the uniform color, and it may symbolize a greenish complexion due to nutritional deficiencies. Nevertheless, these soldiers are far from weak; on the contrary, they are 'fierce and formidable.' They display a beauty of determination with 'staring eyes,' conveying hatred towards the enemy. Even in their sleep, the Western March soldiers send dreams of victory to the border.

In contrast to the Western March soldiers, the peasant soldiers of Chinh Huu possess a rustic, hearty physical beauty. Adorned in tattered clothes and patched trousers:

'His shirt torn at the shoulders
My pants patched here and there
Laughs freezing cold
Feet bare, no shoes to wear
We care for each other, hands clasped!'

The physical appearance of the peasant soldiers is not emphasized by the poet on facial or bodily features but rather on the deficiencies of their clothing. Clad in torn shirts and patched trousers, standing side by side in the morning mist, barefoot, they share laughs in the chilly night. They appear not only simple but also filled with genuine love. Despite the cold and worn-out clothes, it becomes a reason for the camaraderie to grow warmer.

Both poems depict comradeship and solidarity, but the way soldiers express this camaraderie differs in each poem.

The Western March soldiers are intellectuals, expressing their emotions discreetly. The poet doesn't explicitly describe their care for each other, but through the memories shared, the strong bond becomes evident. It binds so strongly that the Western March soldiers willingly say:

'Who ventured to the Western March that spring,
Their souls to Sam Nua, never to return downstream'

Meanwhile, the peasant soldiers are directly depicted by poet Chinh Huu in terms of comradeship. For them, comrades are strangers who come from distant places, yet:

'Guns next to guns, heads leaning close in the cold night
Shared warmth under the same blanket, becoming steadfast comrades
Comrades!'

Or

Clasping hands, caring for each other!
Tonight, the wilderness is filled with salty mist
Standing side by side, awaiting the arrival of the enemy
Moonlight hanging over gun barrels'

From here, we can observe the different beauties of the soldiers during the resistance against the French in the poems Western March and Comrade. With their artistic talents, Quang Dung and Chinh Huu have crafted distinct images for their soldiers. However, these unique characteristics contribute to a collective beauty for the soldiers of the anti-French resistance, and Vietnamese soldiers in general. Regardless of their background, origin, or identity, they all embark with the common goal of protecting the nation, sacrificing for the happiness of the people.

3. Sample Essay 3: Comparing Comrade and Western March

Soldiers are central figures in the literature of resistance. In each historical period of every war, soldiers in real life and in poetry exhibit different traits. At the beginning of the resistance against the French, there were two types of soldiers: those from a peasant background as depicted in poems like Remember by Hong Nguyen, Fish, Water by To Huu, and Comrade by Chinh Huu; and those from the urban petit bourgeoisie (during the movement to join the battle) like the soldiers in Western March by Quang Dung. Both share the common ideal of patriotism and exhibit a selfless spirit for the homeland and people.

The soldiers in the poem Western March are crafted with a touch of romantic inspiration. The romantic style often manifests through the extraordinary. The settings of the soldiers' activities are extraordinary:

Climbing steep slopes, deeply nestled in the curvature
Pigs squealing, clouds of gun smoke sniffing the sky
A thousand steps up, a thousand steps down
Whose house in Pha Luong hears the distant rain.

The heights, the abysses, and the squealing pigs only enhance the heroic aura of the soldiers rather than posing a threat. Nature holds secrets and dangers within:

In the majestic evening, waterfalls roar and scream
Every night, tigers in Muong Hich mock the humans.

The depiction of the soldier is indeed extraordinary. The Western March soldiers are akin to knights with a noble cause, yet they are flesh and blood individuals enduring hardship in the early days of resistance.

In the Western March battalion, not a hair grows
The army, green like the fierce jungle
Eyes staring, sending dreams across borders
In Hanoi night dreams, a graceful and fragrant figure.

Analyzing and Comparing Comrade and Western March

The portrayal of the soldiers' hardships in the jungle is vividly realistic—lacking food, lacking medicine for fever, to the extent of losing all their hair. However, the romantic style of writing doesn't weaken the soldiers; instead, it adds to their majestic and proud character.

Even death is heroic, soaked in the sacrificial spirit of a knight:

Scattered along the border, graves in a distant land
The battlefield marches forward without regret for youthful lives
A cloak replaces the shroud, bringing him back to the land
The Song Ma River roars in the solo journey.

The Western March soldiers carry the elegance of the Hanoi youth who fought during that era, including Quang Dung. The military atmosphere is tinged with a romantic hue:

The camp bursts into a festival of blossoming torches
Look, she in her silky dress since when
The flute plays a charming melody, she coyly smiles
Music echoes, building the soul of poetry
The one heading to Chau Moc in that misty evening
Does the spirit feel the shore's lingering soul?

Humans seem to wander into the dreamy nature, getting lost in a foreign land, often found in romantic inspiration.

The dreams of the soldiers mirror the dreams of the Hanoi youth, brimming with romantic spirit:

Eyes staring, sending dreams across borders
In Hanoi night dreams, a graceful and fragrant figure.

The image of the soldier in Comrade by Chinh Huu is portrayed with a realistic style. The soldiers appear in all their simple, rustic glory, dressed in military attire. They are people of the fields, from impoverished villages, meeting in the ideal of saving the nation:

My homeland, salty waters, sour fields
My village, poor, with fields plowed on rocky soil.

From class love, they elevated it to comradely love, a novel connection:

Guns next to guns, heads leaning close in the cold night
Shared warmth under the same blanket, becoming steadfast comrades
Comrades!

As the blanket is spread, their inner thoughts unfold, understanding each other's circumstances deeply:

Fields, my brother plows with love
Storms shake the house, but he cares not for the swaying winds.

Outside the battlefield, hearing the unmistakable swaying wind from each pillar of their homes, the soldiers, who deeply love their families and homeland, endure countless hardships, primarily driven by a noble cause. In this knightly spirit, they are closely aligned with the Western March soldiers.

They are willing to endure the utmost hardships of the resistance:

His shirt torn at the shoulder
My pants patched in several places
A frozen smile
Feet bare
We love, hands holding each other.

Comrade love nurtured the souls of the soldiers, turning it into a fighting force.

The descriptive techniques differ. A detail in the poem: Quang Dung's coat is described as a knight's cloak, while Chinh Huu describes his torn shoulder shirt as very realistic.

From class love, they collectively rise to the pinnacle of comradely love:

Tonight, the wild forest is misty and salty
Standing side by side, awaiting the enemy
Moonlight hanging over the gun barrels.

Sharing a blanket is comradeship; my torn shoulder shirt and your patched pants is comradeship; tonight, amidst the wild misty forest, standing side by side, waiting for the enemy is comradeship. Strangely, the gun and the moon are also comrades: Moonlight hanging over the gun barrels.

This comradeship speaks of the other comradeship, expressing the specific and evoking immensely. The gun and the moon, near and far, 'You and I, two strangers, from opposite corners of the sky, no appointment but acquainted.' The gun and the moon, rigid and gentle. The gun and the moon, soldier and poet. The gun and the moon represent the sublime essence of comradeship.

The combination of vivid realism with revolutionary romantic spirit is the unique beauty of the soldier's image in Chinh Huu's poem 'Comrade.'

4. Sample number 4: Comparing Comrade and Tay Tien

The image of Vệ quốc quân - Soldier of Uncle Ho - is vividly portrayed in numerous poems by various authors. In the early stages of the resistance against the French, the soldier's image in each poem exudes allure, encouragement, and with its unique beauty, stands out in inspiration. Chinh Huu's 'Comrade' primarily draws inspiration from reality between scenes and people; Quang Dũng's 'Tay Tien' develops a romantic inspiration to depict the extraordinary, majestic, and heroic nature of the soldier.

'Tay Tien' embraces the hero in the classical aesthetic ideal, while 'Comrade' accentuates realism, simplicity, the rustic nature of genuine, kind-hearted peasant soldiers who have no intention of becoming heroes or seeking heroism. They find strength in comrades, comradeship, in a sacred, lofty, and fresh sentiment among farmers who have awakened to become soldiers.

In the poetry of Quang Dũng and Chinh Huu, there is a 'changing of the guard' for the 'I' of sentiment. The 'I' in poetry is a dual concept, comprising two aspects: one is the 'I' as a subject of perception, cognitive activity, and the other is the 'I' as a perceiving object with an objective role. In war poetry in general, the 'I' is fundamentally in the observational, perceptive dimension, resonating with the larger life. This creates a new feature in poetry, an expansive breath of life, immersing itself in the zeitgeist, this fusion adds diversity and richness to the poetry.

The indomitable spirit of the soldier in 'Tay Tien' carries a grand, majestic, and mysterious aura amidst the rugged, intense, and harsh backdrop, yet profoundly dreamlike within the specific space of the Northwest mountains:

Climbing the winding ridge profoundly,
Pigs snorting amidst clouded hills, guns scenting the sky.
A thousand steps ascending, a thousand steps descending,
Whose house in Pha Luong sees distant sea rain.

With just four lines, it unveils a panoramic painting with a complete sense of wilderness, ruggedness, fierceness, and extreme peril on the marching path of the Tay Tien soldier. A series of richly descriptive words form a highly pictorial language with sculptural elements, lines, and colors. 'Climbing the winding ridge' and then 'Profoundly'; poignant words like 'snorting,' 'profound,' 'winding' act as distinctive touches creating impressions of steep ascents and deep valleys. They depict the height when climbing and the expansive space when descending: 'Whose house in Pha Luong sees distant sea rain.'

Comparing Comrade and Tay Tien, the best literary model

In the face of challenges, the unwavering will, determination, and vitality of the Tay Tien soldier are never crushed. Their beauty persists with a powerful, unfading impression over the years:

Tay Tien, troops without a strand of hair,
Green army, the color of leaves, fierce and majestic.

Quang Dung adeptly chooses words, with fallen hair, the green skin of the emaciated soldier (thin but not weak), yet never losing the proud and heroic demeanor, still exuding a 'fierce and majestic' aura amidst mountains and rivers. Even the 'departure' is gentle, typical of glamorous heroes, a high ride: 'Changing the bao robe as my sheet returns to the land.' Three times addressing sacrifice in various circumstances of the Tay Tien soldiers, yet not once resorting to the words 'sacrifice' or 'death.' Quang Dung, with his skillful pen, employs phrases like 'soul returns,' 'abandoning life,' 'returns to the land' – simple terms to naturalize, normalize death, in line with the idealistic notion of students, soldiers armed in the early days of resistance, brimming with enthusiasm.

With a romantic writing style, a talented and heroic style both as an author and in the work itself, Quang Dung has engraved poetic language into history, the image of the heroic soldiers of the Fatherland Defense.

With a distinctive touch, the Fatherland Defense soldiers in Chinh Huu's 'Comrade' are unpretentious in contemplation yet 'profound to the startling' (Xuan Dieu). The raw material of life brought into poetry is just enough to create an emotional intoxication and elevate the generalization.

The August Revolution not only resurrected a nation, ushered in an era, and created new spiritual value systems but also bestowed upon each individual a new life; constructing new relationships and emotions unprecedented in history, in the cultural behavior of the community. That is the comradely relationship. This novel relationship and emotion create unique beauty in the spiritual portrait of the Fatherland Defense soldiers.

Not as peculiar as the 'troops without a strand of hair,' or 'eyes sending dreams across borders' in Quang Dung's poetry. The Fatherland Defense soldiers in Chinh Huu's poetry are exceedingly plain, gentle, and unpretentious. The picture of the two Fatherland Defense soldiers is outlined with the raw material of rural life, against the backdrop of 'salty water and sour fields,' 'land plowed up on rocky soil' of those who share the same fate; from different rural areas across the country facing common poverty. These farmers, sharing the same scene, same sympathy, hence have the same heart and the same comradeship in choosing the purpose of dedication and combat. The poem begins with the encounter of two people sharing the same scene:

My homeland, salty water and sour fields
My village, poor land plowed up on rocky soil

The similarity in circumstances creates harmony in the bonds of attachment:

You and I, two strangers
Destined by heaven, no prior acquaintance

However, the hardships and poverty of people in different regions do not make them inferior (poor but not humble). It means not being bound by the plight of poverty; farmers rise above fate, surpassing circumstances, stepping into the battle on the stage of hardship.

Our army originates from the people, and most Fatherland Defense soldiers rise from farmers. In the soldier's kit, they carry the poverty that binds them together: 'In the cold night, shared blankets become bonds of brotherhood.' The cold in the deep forest, the cold in the enemy's rear, the mentioned cold reflects in many war poems. It not only conveys the harshness of the climate but also contrasts the warm scene of comradeship, the comradeship of military and civilians. Chinh Huu's verse reveals a reality of the deficiency of Fatherland Defense soldiers in the war, but more importantly, another reality: The cold forged bonds of brotherhood between two shared blankets.

In war poetry in general, and Chinh Huu's poetry in particular, the intimate 'I' is not simply the personal 'I', mood, expressive 'I', or narrative 'I'. It is the 'I' of the generation, the 'I' of the citizen, the 'I' of the epic. Here, the 'You-I' transforms within the scope of the collective 'We', the 'We' that is the majority:

His shirt worn and torn at the shoulders
My pants patched with a few scraps

But not because of that did the soldier lose faith, lose optimism; still loving life, loving people in comradeship:

Frozen smile on the lips
Feet without shoes
Caring for each other, hands holding tight

Two Fatherland Defense soldiers in comradeship, in many verses, have two lines but one situation. Hence, sometimes only one circumstance but readers associate it with both. Sometimes a verse talks about the situation of one person as if it's about both:

In the 12th-grade Vietnamese Literature curriculum, the analysis of the poem 'Tây Tiến' holds significant importance for students. They are encouraged to comprehensively analyze Quang Dũng's poem 'Tây Tiến'.