Michael Wang
ENG4U-09
Ms. Kelly
October, 8, 2015 Passage analysis test

Throughout The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien presents the horrific events, the average young American soldier experienced in the Vietnam War in a realistic and gut wrenching manner. In the chapter "The Things They Carried", O’Brien effectively employs syntax, detail and repetition and simile to vividly describe the tragic death of Ted Lavender and the sincere regret by the lieutenant Jimmy Cross.

The use of syntax and detail can be easily seen throughout the entire passage, especially in describing Ted Lavender’s death “[He] carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Thai Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than twenty pounds of ammunition, plus the flak jacket and helmet and rations and water and toilet paper and tranquilizers, and all the rest, plus the unweighed fear.” (O'Brien, 1990) By using compound-complex sentence and listing “twenty pounds of ammunition, flak jacket, helmet, rations, water, toilet paper and tranquilizers [and most importantly], the unweighed fear” (O'Brien, 1990), O'Brien demonstrates not only the physical burdens but also the emotional burdens that a young soldier endures to convey the reader that not only the weight each soldier has to carry in order to survive, but also the weight of their emotional burden. At the same time, Lieutenant Cross feels the pain and guilt because he could have done something to save the young man’s life. Instead, he is addicted in his fantasy towards Martha: “He pictured Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her.” (O'Brien, 1990) By providing a detailed description of Jimmy Cross’s fantasy, the readers are able to understand why Jimmy Cross doesn’t pay attention on Ted Lavender because he was too deep into his fantasy. Eventually he pays the price by losing one of his soldier, but it is too late to do anything now.

Also, the use of repetition serves a strong role in constructing the entire passage. O’Brien gives the readers another version of Lavender’s death by providing a third person point of view by the witness Kiowa. According to him, the death of Lavender “was like watching a rock fall, or a big sandbag or something-just boom, then down-not like the movies where the dead guy rolls around and does fancy spins and goes ass over teakettle-not like that…the poor bastard just flat-fuck fell.” (O'Brien, 1990) O’Brien compares Ted Lavender’s death with “watching a rock fall, a big sand bag” (O'Brien, 1990) and the deaths in movies to remind the reader that the war is real, not a horseplay. When people die in war, they just die, not special effect attached, “just boom, then down” (O'Brien, 1990)

In this chapter, O’Brien successfully uses syntax, detail and repetition to show the death of Ted Lavender and the regret and guilt of Jimmy Cross to expresses the big idea that war is cruel and ruthless, lives are fragile in war and the uselessness of regret which echoes with the later chapters in the book. (These are individual man not soldiers with dog tag number.)