Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis

Throughout “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien tells stories about the lives of young men during the Vietnam war with a fictional twist on each one. He not only tells the stories of those men around him, but of his own life too, often dwelling on those people who have made a significant impact on his life as a soldier. He sheds light on the tangible and intangible things while the soldiers trudge through the gruesome war for years. Through the stories told, O’Brien explores multiple specific narrative elements and rhetorical devices to depict the themes within the book. In this novel, O’Brien’s primary purpose for compelling these war stories is to describe the burdens they carried through usage of polysyndeton and asyndeton. While also

This quote explains more of the physical burdens they carried, “Among the necessities or near necessities were P-38 can openers, pocketknives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, military payment certificates…” (O’Brien, 2). Usage of Asyndeton speeds the reader up and it can help the reader feel more in the moment and connected with what is going on without distracting them from the content. In this example O'Brien uses only commas to emphasize the pure number of things the men carried in a long list. This quote explains the environmental burdens they carried, “The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity,” (O’Brien, 14). This quote emphasizes the fact that not only did the soldiers have the war materials to carry, but also the weather that they had to stick through because the fate of Vietnam was resting on their shoulders. The biggest argument he is trying to make here is that they were fighting against more than just people, they were also fighting against the horrific weather. Overall, by using asyndenton O’Brien clearly gets across his point that the soldiers carried much more than just a few guns and medical

This quote tells the reader about the man that one of the soldiers killed, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star shaped hole…there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear …his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him.” (O’Brien, 118). This quote contributes to the larger argument that O’Brien is trying to make that while in the war the soldiers had to witness things like no other. The wording in this quote allows the readers to vividly picture what was happening right in that moment in time. This quote vividly describes the muck hole, “There were flares and mortar rounds, and the stink was everywhere-it was inside him, in his lungs- and he could no longer tolerate it,” (O’Brien, 143). In this quote O’Brien uses sensory details such as “the stink” (smell) and “flares and mortar rounds” (sight) to create a depiction of the event in which the soldiers had lost Kiowa. It also creates a sense of realism and authenticity that draws the reader into the story while making the soldiers’ experiences feel more immediate and tangible. Overall, by O’Brien including these examples of imagery into his novel it allowed the reader to feel the trembling fear that every one of these