Literary Term #3

Dialect

• Page 19: "They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness, Greased they'd say. Offed, lit up, zapped while zipping."
• Page 119: " 'You fuckin' trashed the fucker,' Azar said. 'You scrambled his sorry self, look at that, you did, you laid him out like Shredded fuckin' Wheat.' "

The dialect of the soldiers is a major part of the story. I think that the dialect throughout the story makes the reader feel like they are more connected to the soldiers since they are hearing the true way they speak. Also, I think the dialect is a way of how the soldiers deal with the terrible things occuring around them, such as death. They use harsh language as a way to coop with the sad and distressing situations they face. On page 19, they use these types of phrases to make the death of Lavendar not so tough on them. By making some humor, they are trying to keep their minds off how terrible it is that one of their men died. On page 119, Tim killed a man and Azar is trying to lighten the mood by making a somewhat humorous comment. He knows that Tim must be in shock and saddness of what he did, but Azar wants to make him treat this as just any other situation they've come across.