The Things They Carried

 The first story of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.  O'Briens writing was something I found very captivating to read.  I noticed a style were the pace and flow of his writing tends to reflect the content giving the narrative more depth.  an exert taken from page fifteen of ' The Things They Carried" displays this style in O'Brien's writing.   

They searched the villages without knowing what to look for, not caring, kicking over jars of rice, frisking children and old men, blowing tunnels, sometimes setting fires and sometimes not, then forming up and moving on to the next village, then other villages, where it would always be the same(15).

 The long series of actions listed in this passage represent a very mechanical process and way of thought, which can be applied the actions of the soldiers O'Brien mentions. This style in his writting makes the narrative more interactive and enstills the redaer with a clearer sense of the emotion O'Brien is trying to provoke.

Comments

[Bernie H.]

That's a great passage that illustrates your point, Emma. The syntax and sentence structure -- O'Brien uses matter-of-fact phrasing and asyndeton (the repetition of phrases without conjunctions) -- to get across that "mechanical" going-through-motions feeling.

O'Brien's style, in some ways, seems so straightforward, but it has, as you've noticed, a very subtle complexity.

[Bernie H.]

A couple of quick format issues. Don't indent the paragraphs and come up with a more engaging title for the post. Also, don't forget to give your post a category.

[Lucy M.]

I agree about O'Brien's flow and pace in the stories. He doesn't exaggerate to get the point but the emotions in the actions of the soldiers are well displayed. I agree with you, Emma, the style makes things pretty clear.

[Matt G.]

I agree that O'Brien's style of writing is very interactive. One particular thing that i noticed while reading was the use of the sentence and paragraph structure to convey a sense of action and motion, similar to the constant action and motion in war.

I also agree with the idea that the writing style helps enstill a clearer sense emotion in the audience, which is the goal in a piece of literature such as this one that deals with emotional topics.

[Eric B.]

I agree with Emma, as well as everyone who commented. I feel that Tim O'Brien's writing and story telling puts the reader in the specific event and creates that sense where we are there with the characters, but are only observing their actions.

[Kioto A.]

As with everyone, I do agree with Emma. I never actually realized that, or even thought to look for that kind of pattern. Alot of what the soldiers do are mechanical and I think that it's kind of cool that you can 'feel' their actions through the words.