The Things They Carried --- Rhetorical Strategies

Rhetorical Strategies

·         “When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying, because in a curious way it seemed scripted and because they had their lines mostly memorized” (19).

Tim O’Brien uses a euphemism to undermine the nature of death for a soldier. As soldier who was constantly surrounded by bloodshed, death for O’Brien becomes less foreign and almost quotidian for him. As O’Brien grows with his conviction that death is inevitable, death is not as tragic as when he first experienced it, which is apparent by his euphemism. The style of O’Brien is very witty and craft, even when describing something as dreary as death.

·         “They spent six trillion dollars on firepower” (72).

This hyperbole is utilized to describe a barrage that the author had undergone. When describing any form of combat in the war, O’Brien is very descriptive and he creates realistic imagery. Although a gargantuan amount of bullets is said to be fired, yet probably not true, it still adds emphasis on the heavy fire that the platoon had taken, creating a sense of realism for the reader.

·         “You’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead” (78).

The author is able to create a wily antithesis from his almost near-death experience. Tim O’Brien relies on personal experiences to convey a certain message. This antithesis is used to challenge the prevailing assumption that they period right before death causes the most the most pain in one’s life. According to O’Brien, that period is when one feels the most liberated and lively. As a writer with an excellent sense of style, this is just one of the many examples where O’Brien puts a crafty twist on language.

·         “Jimmy Cross had been trained to treat [the soldiers] as interchangeable units of command” (156).

Tim O’Brien uses to simile to show what the true worth of a soldier is. As a leader of the platoon, Cross knows that men are going to be lost in his group. He does not show sympathy for the soldiers’ well-beings; he just sees them as being expendable. This is also a ploy used by O’Brien to enhance the reader’s respect for a soldier, who is treated nothing more than unit that can be disposable.