Things They Carried Essay: Syntactic and Paratactic Style

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Syntactic and Paratactic Style in The Things They Carried

Many times, when an author writes a story, he will use different techniques to influence the way that the reader absorbs the work. Writers use both paratactic style and syntactic style. These two styles contrast each other greatly, but on the same term, they greatly compliment one another. In the book The Things They Carried, O'Brien uses both of these styles. In this essay, syntactic and paratactic style will be examined in the story "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". Examples in the story will be examined and described according to the two styles of writing. The syntactic style will be focused on more intensely however, because of the way that it effects the sections of the story that will be discussed. It will also show that the historical context of the story effects the styles of writing.

Historically, women have played a subservient role in society. This still proved true when this story was took place. During the years of the war, women began to play a stronger part in society, but were still looked upon as less than men. In the story of the sweetheart, the female character breaks the gender roles. The soldiers make her first introduction into the story by the. They describe her as "This cute blond-just a kid, just barely out of high school- she shows up with a suitcase and one of those plastic cosmetic bags. Comes right out of the boonies. I swear to God, man, she's got on these culottes. White culottes and this sexy pink sweater. There she is." ("Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong", 102) Without using the most ...

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...nbsp; This manner and tone would not have been used to write about other women. Because she succeeded in a male dominant society, she has "earned" the right to have the masculine attention.

Syntactic style plays a strong role in writing. Without it, an author can not leave anything for the reader to think about. If the writer strictly wrote using paratactic style and let the words say exactly what the story involved, interpretation would be useless. Both syntactic and paratactic style benefit the work best is they are used in conjunction with one another. In the absence of one style, the other has a hard time standing on its own, and if a piece tries to work that way, it makes for a very dull or confusing piece. Using various styles in one work makes it more dynamic and intriguing.

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