The Soldier Within
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is not so much of a novel about the Vietnam War as it is a story about the soldiers and their experiences and emotions that are brought about from the war. O'Brien makes several statements about war through these dynamic characters. He shows the violent nature of soldiers under the pressures of war, he makes an effective antiwar statement, and he comments on the reversal of a social deviation into the norm. By skillfully employing the stylistic technique of specific, conscious detail selection and utilizing connotative diction, O'Brien thoroughly and convincingly makes each point. The violent nature that the soldiers acquired during their tour in Vietnam is one of O'Brien's predominant themes in his novel. By consciously selecting very descriptive details that reveal the drastic change in manner within the men, O'Brien creates within the reader an understanding of the effects of war on its participants. One of the soldiers, "Norman Bowler, otherwise a very gentle person, carried a Thumb. The thumb was dark brown, rubbery to touch. It had been cut from a VC corpse, a boy of fifteen or sixteen" (13). Bowler had been a very good-natured person in civilian life, yet war makes him into a . . .
O'Brien's use of specific and connotative diction enhances the same theme, the loss of sensitivity and increase in violent behavior among the soldiers. By phrasing his views in such a manner, O'Brien is able to convey the idea that there is enough opposition to the war that a negative slang has been implemented frequently, hence the term dumb jingo. Once they carried a corpse out to "a dry paddy and sat smoking the dead man's dope until the chopper came. Rat displays a severe emotional problem here; however, it is still the norm. very hard-mannered, emotionally devoid soldier, carrying about a severed finger as a trophy. The effect produced on the reader by this contrast is one of horror; therefore fulfilling O'Brien's purpose, to convince the reader of war's severely negative effects. Azar has become demented; to kill a puppy that someone else has adopted is horrible. The VC from which Bowker took the thumb was just "a boy. ” (13), giving the image of a young, innocent person who should not have been subjected to the horrors of war. While thinking of escaping to Canada, he says: "I was drafted to fight a war I hated. He labels his stereotype belligerent a "dumb jingo.
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