Details, Details, Details

On page 118, there are so many great details. A few examples are: "his eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman's eyebrow" , "clean black hair was swept upward into the cowlick at the rear of the skull, his forehead was lightly freckled", and "the blood there was think and shiny".
All of these phrases I find as perfect examples of how detailed this story was. O'Brien did not leave much to the imagination. He pretty much wrote out every detail of the situation. The reader did not have to wonder what was going on or what they saw or smelt because he wrote everything that a reader would ever want to know. Sometimes this meant even some gruesome or graphic images, such as the ones above that deal with the man Tim shot. I really liked this about the book because details always make me feel like I am there in the story. Also, most people never have experienced the things that take place in the book, but O'Brien makes us feel like we have after reading his intricate writing. I think this mad the book very good. Details make the reader feel one with the characters.

Superstitions

A lot of the things the soldiers carried had a special purpose for certain situations they may face. While this is true, some of the things they carried were merely for moral support, luck, or superstitions. They felt like having a good luck charm they would be safe from danger. When Dobbins' girlfriend broke up with him, you would expect him to get rid of the stockings he used almost as a scarf. Wrong. He kept them and continued to use them even after they ended. He said "The magic doesn't go away"(page 112). He believed that the stockings are what kept him safe in dangerous situations. This is purely superstition because I doubt it was due to wearing some stockings around his neck that he was kept alive. This part really reminded me of my dad. He is very superstitious about things like Dobbins. He wore the same shirt for every Colts football game until they won the Superbowl. He thought that if he didn't wear it then it would affect how they played. I just found it funny how Dobbins did kind of the same thing.

Dead and Alive

This book has a lot of stories pertaining to death. One phrase that caught my atttention was on page 78 when O'Brien says "you're never more alive than when you're almost dead. You recognize what's valuable". This really was interesting to me because we always hear about how people see things in a life/death situation. In Dear John, John has a near death experience when he is shot. He tells his father that right before he blacked out, he saw coins and his dad. Coins was a memory he had with his father, so pretty much he just thought of his dad. He sees what was truly important to him throughout his entire life. The person that had been there for him no matter what. In addition, I read a book this summer called Secrets of a Shoe Addict. I honestly didn't like this book at all, but when reading The Things They Carried I was reminded of a scene in this book. One of the women in the book reveals that when she had a near death experience she did not see anything. She said it was then she realized she had nothing important or worth living for in her current life so she changed the way she lived. She became more holy and pretty much forgot her life before. I hope to never have this sort of experience, but if I did I hope that I see what I find most important to me.

BIG decision

On page 53, Tim must make a life changing decsion of whether to go to Canada and avoid the war, or leave home for the war. He must choose what he wants to do on his own. This decision reminds me of Julius Caesar and the Rubican River. He had to make a decsion where either outcome would change his life and cause a problem either way. Similarly, Tim is making a decision where he is about to change his life forever. Whatever he decides to do, he will not be the same person he once was. The reason I was reminded of Julius Caesar is when he says he crossed " that dotted line between two different worlds"(page 53). Caesar is the same way when he has to decide whether to cross the River or not. Both of these decisions are hugely important to the story. If Caesar hadn't crossed the river, the story would have been completely different. If Tim hadn't gone to war, there would be no stories about war, which means there would be not book called "The Things They Carried".

Literary Term #10

Hyperbole

• page 198: "I weighed less than nothing."

This hyperbole is obvious in this phrase. The reason I wanted to blog about this is the context it was in. It was used to show how Tim changed. He changed from hating Jorgenson and wanting revenge, to putting himself in his position. He begins to relate to the person he once hated with a passion. This hyperbole is effective because it provides a clear transition of Tim changing his feelings of the past to his newfound feelings and thoughts. He puts himself into a different point of view. In addition, this hyperbole reminds me of a Christmas Carol when Scrooge is like a ghost and goes to the past, present, and future seeing everything going on. I think of this part as the spirit, which is like a ghost, of Tim going and watching Jorgenson while his physical body is sitting there getting revenge. It is providing the reader with an understanding of why he changes his mind of the revenge.

Literary Term #9

Assonance

• page 151: " A guy who can't get his act together and just drives around town all day and can't think of any damn place to go and doesn't know how to get there anyway."

Assonance allows for description. Details is an important part of this book because it is what draws the reader in. It yet again engages them in the story because they feel as if they are a part of the story. Instead of reading, they are taking part with the chracters. Experiencing what they experience. This example of assonance shows how O'Brien used different ways to make his work flow smoothly and catch the reader's attention. I noticed this because I am used to seeing alliteration all over, but assonance is not usually there. This is just a different way for him to write, which is good because it keeps us reading. Also, it makes the book not mundane. Rather, I found it interesting because I like to see how the author uses different techniques for description, characterization, and sentence flow.

Literary Term #8

Anecdote

• page 82: "I want to tell you a quick Curt Lemon story." Page 84:"The dentist couldn't find any problem, but Lemon kept insisting, sot he man finally shrugged and shot in the Novocain and yanked out a perfectly good tooth."

This is an anecdote that comes about because Lemon is killed. The anecdote is a way to show the kind of person Lemon was since we did not hear much about him before. Also, this anecdote is used to show the effect of embarassment on a soldier. Earlier in the story we heard about how a "soldier's greatest fear..was the fear of blushing"(page 20). This emphasizes this point made. The only reason that Lemon had his tooth removed was because he needed to undo the embarassment he had from fainting in the dentist office. He could not live with such an unimportant occurance. Yeah it is embarassisng, but things can be forgotten or just not mentioned. Instead of this, he tried to get rid of the embarassment, not caring the pain it could cause. He had his tooth pulled merely to serve as an excuse for his fainting spell. This provides support for the theme of the story concerning fear, embarassment, and a soldier. A soldier could not deal with any sort of embarssment. They were to be seen as tough and having no faults, or so they thought this. This anecdote provides the reader with how strong of an impact embarassment had on them.