The Things They Carried Syntax Analysis

In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien makes use of a very unique form of rhetorical syntax that keeps both the attention of the reader, and a constant pace throughout the novel. The form of syntax he uses, in both dialogue context as well as the content of the book itself follow a very similar pattern. Both sentence length and word order follow a consistent pattern that is very noticeable through the duration of the book. “She was quiet and steady” (O’Brien 93). This type of subject/verb/object sentence structure is a common occurrence in most of the sentences in the novel. The sentences themselves, with some exceptions, are usually fairly short in length as shown by the example. This isn’t to say that O’Brien doesn’t make any

use of more complex sentence structure or length however. “When she laughed now, which was rare, it was only when something struck her as truly funny” (O’Brien 95). Even though this sentence isn’t drastically complex or particularly long, O’Brien does break away from his standard pattern of simple sentences.
As part of being a war stories based novel, The Things They Carried tends to center the greater bulk of its content on monologue: however, the dialogue in the novel follows a pattern fairly similar to the monologue. “‘ Everything I want’ she said ‘is right here’” (O’Brien 94). Dialogue length is short and broken up by the “said insert character name here” as shown by this dialogue piece. In doing this, O’Brien does make use of his dialogue for important interactions between the characters, and makes the dialogue itself feel more realistic and humanlike. The dialogue isn’t overtly romanticized, therefore it continues the war story environment the novel focuses on. Another important aspect of the dialogue is that it never occurs between the narrator and the other characters in the book. These pieces of character interaction are almost always brief, where on the contrast, the monologue occasionally expands into lengthier portions with more complex sentence structure.
One of the other important parts of O’Brien’s syntax in this novel pertain to his use of punctuation.

The sentences within both the dialogue and the the monologue usually end in a period, with quite a decent amount of commas in the sentences themselves. This does deviate at points, as there are question marks obviously for the sake of asking questions. Exclamation points are however extremely scarce in the book. “Mary Anne,” he whispered. “I can’t find her.” (O’Brien 95). Even when the characters are at points of high tension, O’Brien still uses periods. For a war story, this may seem rather strange at first glance, as the situation the characters are in is usually one of high action. When you think about this specific facet of the syntax of the book a little deeper, it makes sense that O’Brien would choose to use primarily periods. O’Brien’s punctuation and sentence structure both tie into what makes the book easily readable and enticing. By using a majority of short sentences with mainly periods, the flow of each of the war stories is consistent, and the suspense is maintained by unveiling the plot piece by piece. “Even in the dim light it was clear that the boy was in trouble. There were dark smudges under his eyes, the frayed edges of someone who hadn’t slept in awhile” (O’Brien 95). There is nothing particularly interesting about the structure or punctuation of these sentence, and yet, the content remains interesting because O’Brien is building up the plot to the next couple of lines.

The Things They Carried certainly succeeds in providing a far different literary experience, in many fields including its syntax. The “average conversation” feel the sentence structure provides makes the reader feel as though he/she is being told a story or even just having a conversation. O’Brien’s style of syntax is perfectly matches the story he tries to tell, and makes the book a viable read for anyone

interested.