When reading Ambush by Tim O'Brien, I was a little thrown off. It seemed to start very abruptly and I wasn't too clear on the direction it was going. There was no real background information, like which war it was about, or even an introduction, so I had to read the first two paragraphs over again to get a better idea. As the story developed, I noticed the way O'Brien lead into it, particularly how he set the scene and then used very engaging imagery to illustrate a better picture. For example, "Very gradually, in tiny slivers, dawn began to break through the fog.." The way he describes the setting made me feel like I was right there in the story and watching it all happen. The more detail he used in his writing, the more suspense there was towards what would happen next. Then as he began to recall the systematic way he was thinking, it gave a full understanding of the thoughts going through his mind, and the time frame they happened in.
             O'Brien then explains how he "...did not hate the young man; I did not see him as the enemy; I did not ponder issues of morality or politics or military duty..." What I found most interesting was the way he structured his sentences in brief, separate verses, just as his thoughts would have been at the time; very sporadic and inconsistent. This made it more interesting, especially when he balanced out the shorter sentences with longer more descriptive details further along in the story. Then he even continues with a different style of sentence form, switching to dashes: "The grenade made a popping noise-not soft but not loud either-not what I expected and there was a puff of dust and smoke-a small white puff-and the young man seemed to jerk upward as if pulled by invisible wires. He fell on his back." I think the way he structured this sentence, in particular, was to portray the panic he was feeling, and how quickly it all happened. Then after the worst is over, he ends it with another simple sentenc...