What narrative techniques does Powers use to emphasise the power of war in 'Yellow Birds'?

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Powers uses an array of narrative techniques such as imagery, personification, alliteration and varying sentence structure to emphasize the power of war from the first sentence on page three to "We stayed awake on amphetamines and fear," on page five.
Powers personifies war throughout the first page and extends it to the next, this is an example of a semantic field. For instance "the war rubbed its thousand ribs against the ground in prayer" and "the war fasted, fed by it's own deprivation." This emphasises the power of war because and gives it a body, a shape, "war" is no longer just an occurence or situation, it is a being. In addition Powers uses anaphora with his constant repetition of "The war" in linked clauses creating a powerful, pulsing effect. The first line: "The war tried to kill us in the spring" highlights the power of war because the sentence is so short and without embellishment; Powers states the fact plainly, making it clear to the reader that there is no doubt war is brutal and murderous. The sentence "The war had killed thousands by September" is also short and unfeeling. Powers offers no opinion or emotive language, he does not attempt to save the reader from facing the true horrors of war. Also in the first line Powers juxtaposes death with "spring" the season of new life; emphasising that no good force can hinder war, it is merciless, unstoppable and very powerful.
Then, in the sentence immediately after, Powers is describing Al Tafar in summer in a soft tone with longer sentences flowing into each other, which quickly makes the war a personal one i.e "me and Murph". This language contrasts with the sentence before, making the first line even more arresting and intensifies the beauty of the season that th...

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... against the power of war.
To add to this, Powers describes the platoon as "grey streaks against the predawn light." The soldiers appear as shadows of men compared to the omnipotent war and perhaps Powers is foreshadowing death approaching the soldiers. Also in the line "the war sent its citizens rustling into the shade" Powers uses the possessive pronoun 'its' to show the war controls the citizens, they belong to it, it has power over them. "The faces puffed and green, allergic now to life" the war left the bodies of its victims strewn in its wake, it has no pity and no mercy. War even reverses the very core function of the human body, to contain and preserve life, so the body becomes "allergic to life." Powers very effectively conveys the horror of the wars' unstoppable power to the reader through his use of language, sentence structure and many literary devices.

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