A Short Story 'Speaking Of Courage'

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In the short story “Speaking of Courage” Tim O’Brien creates the quality of weight through connotations and imagery in order to show how even the shortest amount of time could prevent death. The weight he creates is death and he does this through the importance of time, “... he heard somebody screaming...The sound was ragged and clotted up, but even so he knew the voice. A strange gargling noise...He heard the valves in his heart. He heard the quick, feathering action of the hinges. Extraordinary, he thought. As he came up, a pair of red flares puffed open, a soft blurry glow, and in the glow, he saw Kiowa’s wide-open eyes settling down into the scum. All he could do is watch.” (O’Brien 142). The word screaming gives the connotation of pain,

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