Karl Marlantes Vocabulary

Karl Marlantes’ careful choices of words help bring his audience directly into the point in time of which he is speaking about. His meticulous vocabulary allows for the reader to clearly imagine a scene or feel the same emotion Marlantes would like for us to experience. His use of repetition, vocabulary, and writing style allows for us to re-experience these memories alongside Karl Marlantes. Karl Marlantes’ distinct choices of words paint clear pictures into the minds of his audience. Something as simple as Him using the word “kid” to describe the young adults joining the Marine Corps gives us a sense of how young and innocent these teens were as they were making an oath to enter a gruesome war regime. Marlantes also created a funny sense of compatibility

For example, on page 135 lines 9-11, when he uses the term “Cocktail Critics” to describe people that “bitch” about things but have never had to face a hard choice in their life. This relaxed tone and vocabulary allows for the audience to be able to feel as if they were speaking to that young adult at the time. Marlantes tends to come up with words to describe situations he has encountered. Such as his word “groupthink” on page 142, line 17. This word “groupthink” describes the phenomenon that happens to the morality and judgment of those that are part of a group such as the Marines. He believes that people are more likely to “go with the flow” or not make any individual decisions due to the fact that they do not want to take responsibility for the pain that they have caused to others. Imagine taking a command to attack a city. A city full of young children, wives, husbands, the elderly, etc. It would be much more simple to accept the command and “groupthink” than to go above and beyond of what is needed and feel the dragging weight of the remorse