The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Literary Analysis

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In the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien conveys colorful literary devices to illustrate the beliefs and values of the characters’ cultures. Many times throughout the book O’Brien finds ways to express the characters’ personalities without forgetting important details that will stick out to the readers. Some of the most prominent literary devices that reveal the character’s morals and values are vivid diction, detailed dialogue, and descriptive imagery.
O’Brien utilizes literary devices such as diction. There are countless devices he fuses into The Things They Carried. In the letter that Bob (Rat) Kiley “pours his heart out” (65) to the dead friend, Curt Lemon’s sister, Rat includes many run-on sentences to expose all of his rapid thoughts spilling into the letter. One of the run-on sentences begins with Rat describing Lemon as “a real daredevil, he liked testing himself.” (64) which demonstrates how quick his mind was trying to process every little bit of information he wanted to unveil. One of Rat’s beliefs that is demonstrated here is his belief in brotherhood. Even though his best friend just died, he still writes Lemon’s sister to …show more content…
The very extensive variety of diction is prominent in his book because they catch the reader’s attention in a clever way. Some may think diction is just using different words to describe their topic, but O’Brien takes diction a step farther and throws in syntax tactics to spice it up. The dialogue between characters is compelling because it lets the reader see how the men communicated while being stressed out to the max. Lastly, the imagery helps construct what the author is trying to get across to the reader. All three components - diction, dialogue, and imagery - work together to establish a real-life experience for the
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