Enemies By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

I can't take it anymore! I have had it! I need to get out of this place. I want my old life back, I want to be the James I was before the war. I don't like the person I have become. That sweet and innocent James everyone once knew is gone and will never come back. I've become this person who can't control himself and I can't tell what is was real and what is in my head. It's driving me crazy! I think I'll just end it….(boom). These similar emotions are represented throughout The Things they Carried, by Tim O’Brien. He uses these emotions to convey the readers the true realities of what war is. O’Brien focuses on the theme of war by using syntax, diction, and tone in order to convey there is no beauty in war. The author composes his words

In Enemies, two soldiers, Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen, get into a fistfight over a stolen knife. Jensen ends up with a broken nose and leaving Strunk to digest the fact that he may come back for revenge. O’Brien’s deceptive diction recreates the fear that races through Jensen’s head with word choices such as “skittish feeling” and “always on guard.” The word “ skittish” informs the readers that Strunk is afraid for his own safety not from the enemy soldiers but from his own comrades. He no longer believes that he is secure at his base and feels on edge in and out in of the battlefield. With these constant thoughts in his head, he cannot do anything properly and isolates himself. O’Brien’s telegraphic sentences are straightforward, which heightens the intensity of the fighting scene and creates an image of borderline insanity. These fast pace sentences such as “ He hit him hard. And he didn’t stop. Strunk’s nose made a sharp snapping sound, like a firecracker, but even then Jensen kept hitting him, over and over, quick stiff punches that did not miss,” “ Jensen couldn’t relax,” and “ Something must’ve snapped” allows the readers to create an image of the fight and feel the effect it has on

In Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, Mark Fossie innocent girlfriend, Mary Anne Belle, travels to Vietnam to visit him; however, after seeing what war is really like she transforms into a savage. O’Brien’s playful diction highlights how juvenile Mary Anne Belle is with phrases such as “... just to smile and stick out her tongue” and “like a cheerleader visiting the opposing team.” The phrase, “stick out her tongue” displays the childlike manner she carries. This childlike manner, reveals her youthfulness and that she lacks maturity. O’Brien’s illustrative diction depicts a form Mary Anne Belle adapts with phrases such as “new confidence,” “new authority,” and “the bubbliness was gone.” These words emphasize the transformation that occurs; she went from being bubbly and flirtatious, to a person who has power and can do anything. She has an epiphany moment where she understands that war is brutal, but gives freedom to roam the lands and become someone she always wanted to be. Mary Anne Belle is a person who is perceptive as an innocent child, but inside she knows she does not want to be that kind of girl. War allows her to be the woman she always want to be. O’Brien uses long transitional sentences give a back story of the events happening. He