How Does Tim O Brien Use Anaphora In The Things They Carried

Within the passage, Tim O’Brien uses anaphora and asyndeton to emphasize and embody the pain and struggle that the soldiers in The Things They Carried. Throughout the book, we witness the long and treacherous journey that these soldiers have undertaken. These are the soldiers who risk their lives every day even when applying for the military, and we see its effect in the passage. The author’s description, and usage of anaphora, of the everlasting and detrimental movement, represents the feelings they have on this path as "they moved like mules…they marched for the sake of march… they plodded along slowly." The author wants us to truly understand what the soldiers have gone through. With this repeated usage of "they," we can gain an overall

Through the book, the author has ensured that we, the reader, understand that these soldiers were in it together. They are the ones that suffered. That is why they are "they." The reader is also shown the burden that these soldiers are forced to carry and how much it looms over them throughout the book. They constantly struggle with both the physical and mental damage that has been caused. The possible PTSD and shell shock caused by the Vietnam War will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We see this with the author’s usage of asyndeton to describe the effects the war has had on the soldiers: "Their principles were in their feet. They had no sense of strategy or mission…they searched the villages without knowing what to look for, not caring, kicking over jars of rice." The asyndeton demonstrates to the reader how the war has affected the soldiers. The back-to-back devolution of the soldiers’ sanity truly shows the intensity of the war. O’Brien is clearly emphasizing the true culture of war. He does this to illustrate the development of a soldier’s mind from when they first apply to the military to after they do (or don’t) survive and come back