Preview

Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
492 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis
Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, applies multiple techniques in his memoir in order to produce the theme of horror in war. He utilizes word connotation, literary/rhetorical techniques, sentence structure, and overall structure in the memoir. In an excerpt on page 199, O’Brien employs the combination of anaphora, metaphor, and negative word connotation to illustrate the horror of the Vietnam War. O’Brien often uses anaphora to emphasize his points within the sentences. Additionally, he combines anaphora with metaphor in the excerpt on page 199. The repetition of the phrase “I was” occurs eight times, which in turn conveys a sense of intensity and emphasis. This intense, passionate tone works to further enhance and define the purpose of the excerpt, which is to display the horror of war. Following each “I was”, O’Brien states certain inanimate nouns that he sees and experiences during the war, that he physically cannot truly be. These metaphors ultimately create detailed imagery in the reader’s mind so that he can understand what O’Brien is describing in the excerpt. Arguably the most important metaphor in the excerpt is “I was Nam- the horror, the war” (199). O’Brien sees and portrays himself as the war. He is so wrapped up in it that he states that the cruelty and hardship of the war is himself. O’Brien’s use of …show more content…
O’Brien combines the techniques of anaphora, metaphor, and negative word connotation to do so. The combination of these three rhetorical techniques evokes a fearful mood for the reader, but also grabs his attention. The metaphors with the negative word connotation create detailed imagery of what O’Brien is discussing. All of these techniques together make the excerpt more intense, passionate, and consequential. Ultimately, they emphasize the overall main point of the excerpt- the horror of the Vietnam
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Erich Maria Remarque, August Stramm, And Tim O Brien
    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Analysis Of Erich Maria Remarque, August Stramm, And Tim O Brien

    This paints the horrible reality of war by restating the fact that their walking ground is a shit field. O’Brien uses personification to show that soldiers are nearly identical by having the same motives and witnessing the same gruesome images of bloody corpses and missing limbs or the heartache of losing a close friend. The idea of dead bodies everywhere and literal shit underneath their feet “seemed to erase identities, transforming the men into identical copies of a single soldier,” they are not only having to spare their emotional peace of mind by entering the threshold of war, but the conditions could not be any worse (O’Brien 1). They are so extremely mistreated that they basically turn off, they become robots following what their leader tells them and taking lives without a thought in mind that the enemy is human and has a family. The soldiers have to put a brave foot forward and block out gory of blood and the unbearable pain of gunshot noises that pierce through the sky.…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Tim O'Brien
    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Tim O'Brien

    A platoon of seventeen soldiers from America travel in booby-trap swamps and through the hills of Vietnam. “They been ordered to set ambushes, execute night patrols, and search out and destroy the massive tunnel complexes south of Chu Lai constructed by Viet Cong guerrillas” (McCarthy). On their voyage the men carry something with them; the things they carry have a meaning to each soldier which distinguishes them. The men are not completely prepared to deal with the stresses of war emotionally. The story circles around Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and the burden he feels for the death of Lavender, one of his soldiers. “The Things They Carried” reflects on each soldier and their way of trying to escape from the war. American writer Tim O’Brien had many outstanding works including “The Things They Carried”. This work illustrates O’Brien’s use of style,…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam Soldier In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Vietnam Soldier In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    Many traits of man¡¦s inner nature are revealed through war. In the novel The Things They Carried, the characters of this series of stories embody traits of soldiers in the Vietnam War. Through writing, the author, Tim O¡¦Brien, portrays his feelings as a Vietnam soldier through this novel. He describes the loss of three fellow soldiers, Ted Lavender, Curt Lemon, and Kiowa and depicts the guilt and blame these deaths evoke.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    O Brien Rhetorical Analysis
    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

    Soldiers looked for ways to communicate their experience to those who were not soldiers. O”Brien, Komunyakka, and Owen are soldiers who each wrote a text describing soldiers at war from their personal point of view. O”Brien writes to get others to understand the physical, mental, and emotional things soldiers carried during war. Komunyakka writes to get others to understand how the soldiers must face death and reality at the same time while also having emotions as any other human does. Owen writes and exhibits his frustration with the condition that the soldiers were in and the point of view of people who haven’t experienced war first hand. All three soldiers wrote to better communicate with the world the conditions and reality to those…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis Essay
    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    Tim O’Brien authored the novel “The Things They Carried” a novel filled with short stories about the Vietnam War. The first passage in the collection lists the numerous things the solders in O’Brien’s platoon carried. Varying from weapons, to thoughts of loved ones back home. Distorting the line between the tangible and intangible, O’Brien writes about the things like bibles, pantyhose, moccasins, and pictures. Things the men carried tangibly, but are used to give them something to think about other than the waning darkness of the war, that making them intangible. The intangible things are used to escape the war; weighing heavier than anything tangible possibly could. Specifically, they are burdened with death. The men carry the intangible burden of death, something always on their minds and weighing more than anything tangible they could ever carry. They did what they could not to acknowledge death, each using their own techniques try and put a spin on and lift the emotional baggage of war and war’s mortality.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Theme Of Metafiction In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Theme Of Metafiction In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    Although O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is considered fiction in many ways it is Metafiction. "Metafiction is a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality” (Waugh 2.) Once in an interview O’Brien admitted to his conscious blurring of fact and fiction by way of using Metafiction to generate stories that are “more real” (Sawyer 117-126.) O’Brien’s practice of using Metafiction indisputably makes the events and stories conceivable for the reader. The reality of O’Brien’s description of the intangible items each man carried has been noted to have long-term implications for those who have had to lug around the psychological affects of war. According to an article in BMC Psychiatry, “Combat exposure is the factor most consistently associated with mental disorders and symptomatology. Research with Vietnam veterans demonstrated substantial associations between combat exposure and PTSD” (Kewley 1). In another article findings that suggest, “...Vietnam veterans are much more likely to report problems associated with posttraumatic stress disorder including ‘‘nightmares, loss of control of behavior, emotional numbing, withdrawal from the external environment, hyper alertness, anxiety, and depression”(Card 7). The way in which Tim O’Brien represents each character with both the physical and emotional baggage that he carries lends itself to constructing characters that become personal. The characters by way of these items that they carry have become believable. It is because of this believability that the reader can visualize the weight of each character. O’Brien’s ability to blur the lines between fiction and fact with the items carried in war ensures…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    Tim O’Brien constructs a meticulous narrative in order to portray a true representation of war through his writing. It is well known however that truth always becomes a casualty through war resulting in a challenging approach for O’Brien. Although deemed a work of fiction, many of the stories within The Things They Carried reflect an almost autobiographical outlook through the characters combined with metafiction. O’Brien does well to create a distinction between the truth of the narrative and that of the truth of the events taking place. Therefore it is this conciliation of truth that he uses to recreate his discourse of Vietnam using fictional form combined with a clear exhibition of facts and figures such as in “The Things They Carried” (O’Brien, 3-21). Nevertheless O’Brien still faces an infinite obstacle in regards to trauma. Herman states that ‘The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma.’ (Herman, 2) In effect the survivors of such ordeals retell their stories in a heavily distorted account due to emotional stress often controverting…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Things They Caried
    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Things They Caried

    In "the things they carried" Tim O'Brien defines a fine line between fiction and non-fiction in the form of story telling and the memories he has accumulated from his participation in the Vietnam war the way they "seemed" rather than "what happened" because that’s how you tell "a true war story" and that’s how the book effectively engages the reader throughout the whole book because nothing is ordinary, not even the way the book is put together, you just can’t anticipate anything and therefore leaves you glued on to the book wondering what he'll throw at you next. In order to put together such war stories Tim O'Brien uses many rhetorical devices to put the reader in the characters shoes such as flashbacks and great detail in imagery to drag you into the scene. He also uses symbolism in order to develop his characters and express their qualities of who they are, in addition to using anecdotes throughout the story and hyperbole in order to tell a "true war story".…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Field Trip Symbolism
    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Field Trip Symbolism

    In Conclusion O'Brien's overall purpose for writing the book “The Things They Carried” is to tell his stories that will give the reader a great understanding of vietnam but also help Tim cope with the…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Things They Carried Irony Analysis
    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Things They Carried Irony Analysis

    In the novel “The Things They Carried” author, Tim O’Brien, uses shifts in mood and irony to successfully exposes guilt of the items the men carried physically and emotionally which led to the fatal decisions while at war.…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Virginity In The Things They Carried
    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Virginity In The Things They Carried

    In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” the raw realities of the cruel and unforgiving Vietnam War are authentically depicted. Just in the first five paragraphs sex, narcotics, and death, largely controversial topics in this country, are reasonably apparent. One character, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, may be physically present but conveys every sign of distraction. He seems to be in a more copacetic quarter of his mind. In this quarter he finds elation and comfort when he thinks of the (so he thinks is) unrequited love he has for a fine young woman named Martha.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Fiction In The Things They Carried Essay
    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Fiction In The Things They Carried Essay

    In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien uses fiction to create his own war story. His feelings and experiences are expressed through less than true events.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Things They Carried
    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Things They Carried

    Throughout his novel, the things The Carried, author Tim O’Brien uses a plethora of strategies to give the reader a deeper incite into the day to day life of an American ground soldier during the Vietnam War. O’ Brian shares with us his extensive knowledge and first hand experiences throughout the novel. Being a veteran of the Vietnam War helps O ‘Brian gives us a look into American’s longest war, not often given. Aside from recalling past events, he uses many unique techniques that we may be less used to. The first is the use of characters and objects as representations. This is one of the tactics most often used in the book. Another way that O ‘Brian uses rliterature to emphasize a point is the use of meta-fiction. This is basically telling the truth in a lie. Lastly, his knowledge and experiences add another dimension to this book that can really engage the reader. All of these components working together are what has mad the Things They Carried, such a critically acclaimed book.…

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Marxist Literary Analysis
    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Marxist Literary Analysis

    In many respects, Tim O 'Brien 's The Things They Carried concerns the relationship between fiction and the narrator. In this novel, O 'Brien himself is the main character--he is a Vietnam veteran recounting his experiences during the war, as well as a writer who is examining the mechanics behind writing stories. These two aspects of the novel are juxtaposed to produce a work of literature that comments not only upon the war, but also upon the actual art of fiction: the means of storytelling, the purposes behind them, and ultimately the relationship between fiction and reality itself.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism of Items in “the Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien
    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Symbolism of Items in “the Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien

    In “The Things They Carried,” a short story by Tim O’Brien, the reader is able to see, in great detail, each of the characters ways of dealing with the atrocities of the Vietnam War by what they choose to carry; how symbolically they use these objects as a means for remembrance of what they have left behind, to escape what they deal with each day, and for some, a false sense of security and/or control over the violence and death that surrounds them.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics