Syntax For The Things They Carried

.   “They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom on his rucksack. In the late afternoon, after a day’s march, he would dig his foxhole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending” (1).

O’Brian takes syntax to a whole new level in this paragraph in order to express Lieutenants obsession with his “lover.” He combines many different actions into one single sentence and it shows how infatuated he is with her. He is not capable of focusing on anything else but her and it creates a passionate, yet frantic mood. This all relates to O’Brian’s purpose to illustrate Lieutenant Cross’s character and to give the reader a better understanding of his character’s background.    

.   “The whole country—the dirt, the death—I just want to swallow it and have it there inside me. That’s how I feel. It’s like the appetite. I get scared sometime—lots of times—but its not bad” (106).

In this paragraph, O’Brian uses interrupted order and telegraphic sentence structure in order to show the purpose of writings. Marry Anne is trying to express her feelings and by using interrupted order, it shows her frantically trying to figure out a way to say what she is feeling. This creates a frantic and overwrought mood. The telepathic sentences show how meaningful and intimate the conversation is. This influences the style of the piece in that it shows the author’s attitude toward its subject and creates a connection between the author and his story.   

Rhetorical Strategies For The Things They Carried

O’Brian uses many rhetorical strategies throughout his book in order to describe the many different events that occur throughout the story. These rhetorical strategies each have their own unique effect on the text and the author’s style. For example, O’Brian incorporates a rhetorical question when introducing Jimmy Cross’s obsessive love for Martha. Jimmy thinks about his college lover constantly and asks himself questions about her such as, “Why poetry? Why so sad? Why that grayness in her eyes?” (11).  By showing each of the characters individual thoughts, it adds to the author’s unique style of writing and allows for the reader to better understand each of the characters. These rhetorical questions make the reader stop and think about what Jimmy is experiencing, and makes it easier for the reader to be able to relate to his situation. An anaphora is then used when O’Brian is speaking of the time he fled to Canada in order to avoid from being drafted into the war—a war in which he did not support. He starts off the beginning of this tale by claiming that he had spoken of this event “not to [his] parents, not to [his] brother or sister, [and] not even to [his wife]”(O’Brian 37).  By repeating the phrase “not to”, it adds to the effect of how important and exclusive this one story is to him, and it shows how ashamed he was to have done such a thing. He also incorporates metaphors throughout his book such as when speaking of what happened to Marry Anne Bell. He describes how the war took over her and “had the effect of a powerful drug”. Then, —through an extended metaphor—he continues to say that it “makes you become intimate with danger”(109). This metaphor helps the reader understand how powerful war can be and see the impact that it can have on a person.  By O’Brian comparing war to something that is so serious and impactful as drugs are, it shows his style and exemplifies the importance of war to him. He makes it clear to the reader how powerful he believes war can be. Finally, through the use of repetition, O’Brian expresses the importance of the things that each of the soldiers carry. Throughout the novel he continuously refers to these “things they carried” and each symbolize something significant to each of the characters. It helps develop each of the characters personalities and allows for the reader to get a much deeper understanding of their values.

Diction For The Things They Carried

Throughout the novel, O’Brian uses colloquial diction and profanity when describing certain events and characters.  Since most of the events take place during the Vietnam War, such diction helps depict the time period of when the story takes place and allows for the reader to get a better understanding of the context. O’Brian uses terms that would have been exchanged between him and his fellow soldiers such as the word “humped” which is said to mean “to carry something” or “to walk”(O’Brian 3). Through this colloquial diction, the reader is able to connect more with the characters by being able to understand their backgrounds and relate to their circumstances.  The prolific amount of profanity also adds to this effect. Swearing was also a vey popular trend with men at war and by incorporating such cursing into his writings, O’Brian helps set the dismissive tone he has towards the characters and of the Vietnam War. It also helps depict the personality of the soldiers and make them seem older than they really are. Even though they are young in reality, they consider themselves to be “men” because they are off fighting at war; and by using profanity it makes them appear older and more mature. 

Text Connections For The Things They Carried

Between two different chapters, O’Brian talks about the man he killed during the Vietnam War. In “The man I Killed” he speaks with sympathy and distress, and imagines what the boys life would have been like had he not killed him. He wonders about his childhood and how his life used to be before he entered the war. O'Brian also describes him in less gruesome detail than he does in the next chapter titled “Ambush.” In this chapter he tells of the same event but imagines that he is telling it to an older version of his daughter Kathleen.  In this version of the story he goes into much more detail about the killing rather than looking at the dead body after the fact. In this text-to-text connection, O’Brian tells of the same event but from a different perspective; and the comparing of the two allows for the reader to get a deeper understanding of his experience. This also shows O’Brian coping with his guilt in that when he first describes the event he speaks of how things would have been if he did not taken the boys life. He then begins to realize the consequences of his actions. In the second version of his story he goes back and relives this horrible nightmare that he has been avoiding for so long and finally takes responsibility for his actions. 

Personal Review For The Things They Carried

In the fictional story of The Things the Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author tells the tragic war story of the men in the Alpha Company troop during the Vietnam War. In this twisted tale, narrator Tim O’Brian speaks of the many different events that occurred during his experience in the war and describes the deaths of the many men—some of them were members of his troop and others were ones that he encountered at battle-- that were killed during the war. I really enjoyed this book and felt that the author’s style of writing was very compelling; it kept me on my toes and allowed for the storyline to be unpredictable. I especially enjoyed the chapters of “The man I Killed” and “Ambush” and the way in which the author wrote the same story from two different points of view. I also enjoyed the uniqueness of the way in which the author tied things together. He starts off the book by listing off the things each of the soldiers “carried” while off at war and within each chapter he explains the significance of each of the objects and how they relate to an event that each of the soldiers experienced.  This allowed for me as the reader to understand each of the characters better and learn more about each of their personalities. Overall, I thought the story was very entertaining and engaging and would highly recommend it.