Exercise 1 The Things They Carried
EXCERPT ①
1. How is the term common secret typical of the phrasing of this whole passage? How is run or freeze or hide also typical of the excerpt's phrasing? In which sentences does O'Brien's phrasing seem especially clear, direct, and simple, and why is such phrasing so effective? How would you describe the tone of this passage? How might the tone easily have been quite different? For instance, how could it have been highly emotional and melodramatic? Why do you think O'Brien chose to avoid that kind of tone?
One of the most significant features of the phrasing is conciseness. As a reader first time reading this book, I seldom find it difficult to understand the words or sentences, because the
“They sneered at sick call.””Pussies, they’d say. Candy-asses. ” Readers could hear their daily talk and see their sarcastic faces. The style here is brutally conversational. It feels like something you would hear on the street. It enhances the authenticity of the story.
3. Can you summarize and illustrate the authorial style or other stylistic features of this excerpt
(1)Anaphora and repitition. Large number of sentences begins with “they carried” or “they” to emphasize the heavy burden carried by soldiers and create depressive atmosphere.
(2)Parataxis. The author used conjunction “and” and “or” frequently to present the tense, rapid and endless of military life during the war.
(3)Irony. Some ironic and anticlimactic expressions can be found in the text. The author wants to make people meditating on the moral meaning and ethical significance of war and peace, escape and insistence and so on.
(4) Paradox. Some narration in the passage is paradoxical if we take a deep thought. For instance, the soldiers feel guilty to become coward, that means they forced themselves to take up courage and win the battle, which makes them seem less guilty.
(5)Outside-inside mixed description. The soldiers’ outside action movement and language and inside thoughts are both written by the author. “They crawled into tunnels and walked point and advanced fire.” ——This is a sentence of movement description. “They were too frightened to be coward”