Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Things They Carried: Dialect-Page 139 &159

"I mean, we were camped in a goddamn shit field."
"Some lieutenant," "Camps us in a toilet. Man don't know shit."

With any book, there are many different types of characters and people. There are many ways in which a reader can distinguish characters in a story, but one way that stands out to me is dialect. When I am reading a book, dialect helps me learn more about the characters and their backgrounds. In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, there are numerous types of dialects incorporated. Although this is true, the dialect of the soldiers who have fought in the Vietnam War stuck out to me and caught my interest the most. Just from reading some of the conversations of the soldiers who were with O'Brien, I feel like I have a better understanding of what life at war was like. I could sense the anger, frustration, and fear from the way they spoke. I could mentally picture how terrible and hostile the war could be at times, and I grasped how men who fight change because of it. Just through dialogue, I learned how influential and powerful war is and how it can affect every aspect of life. Looking at how these men talked to one another, I understand how war leaves its mark on people, even after it's over and done with.

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