The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis

” Jose Garcia
Prof Correll
Eng 112 -008
Oct 22 2014

In “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien describes a more personal experience of the difficulties soldiers face during war. In the other hand, Komunyakaa tells us in his poem the type of challenges veterans have long after they were in war. Although sometimes when we think about war, we think being the strongest physically can be enough to be a warrior, but we tend to forget that mentally we need to be equally strong. Komunyakaa uses vivid imagery, diction, and a sad tone throughout his poem and is able to show the reader his sadness and confusion while the speaker is visiting the Vietnam Veteran Memorial. O’Brien uses diction, imagery and a burden tone to connect with the reader in a more

For instance, in “Facing it”, line one, Komunyakaa describes his black face fading (1), and “hiding inside the black granite” (2). The sad tone he says it with, shows some shame he has of making it out alive while thousands of others did not. He feels shameful for existing among the names listed. Half way down the poem, Komunyakaa begins to scroll “down the 58,022 names/, half-expecting to find/ his own in letters like smoke” (lines 14-16). This shows that he feels guilty he survived while so many did not. In the same way, O’Brien shows how Cross feels guilty for the death of Ted Lavender. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He loved Martha more than his men and as a consequence Lavender was now dead” (1009).He uses diction and a burden tone to get his point across the reader by repeating “he”. He blames Martha, but at the same time he blames himself for loving her so much. He burns Martha’s letters and photographs because according to him she is the reason he has been in another world (O’Brien 1013). You also see some symbolism when Cross realizes he can’t burn the blame (1013). In an article written by Rena Korb, an English major who has written for a wide variety of educational publishers, Korb states that “Jimmy Cross’s ideals of home, fantasies of a girl back home, simply

In “The Things They Carried” after a long period of negligence, Jimmy Cross is determined to perform his duties (O’Brien 1014). Cross seems to be more concentrated, he knew “it wouldn’t help Lavender but from this point on he would comport himself as a soldier” (O’Brien 1014). After all he is been through Cross still finds courage to keep doing his job. On Paragraph 2 O’Brien describes how Cross is going to overcome Martha’s memories and fantasies, by using repetition. He uses “he would” seven times to convince the audience Cross will bury Martha’s love for good (1014). In an article written by Rena Korb, an English major who has written for a wide variety of educational publishers, Korb states that “Jimmy Cross’s ideals of home, fantasies of a girl back home, simply serve as deadly distractions.” Similarly, In “Facing it”, Komunyakaa obviously had terrible experiences regarding his close friends, for instance, “I touch the name Andrew Johnson (17), I see the booby trap’s white flash (18). As he scrolls down and comes across with the name “Andrew Johnson” he remembers him being killed by a bomb. The use of Imagery on these lines is important because the use of color white and the flash brings the bomb’s explosion to life.