In Response to "The Things They Carried p.1-110"

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The Things They Carried -- Tim O'Brien
This post is in response to “The Things They Carried -- P.1-110” on A4 Book Group A’s blog. I agree with their point that the book is hard to engage with. At times, such as when O’Brien lists off characteristics and types of weapons, can be very “dull” and “[monotonous].” The disjoint stories as separate chapters can be hard to follow and keep track of -- here is almost too much going on. However, I think that this structure shows the detachment of feelings from actions that can overcome a soldier in a war.

However, I am able to remain engaged with the text because of O’Brien’s unique prose. He favors shorter sentences, reserving longer ones for thoughts that are idealistic. The text is filled with figurative language and purposeful stylistic choices. I dislike his use of repetition, because I think that it is overused. The linguistic styles of O’Brien are engaging and one of the reasons that I chose this book for the first book group.






Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 17, 2019 at 1:54 PM

    I agree that O'Brien overuses repetition. While reading, I felt that sometimes his repetition was predictable and didn't add anything to my reading experience. I often found myself skimming sentences where excessive repetition was placed because I didn't need to or want to spend any more time on the ideas O'Brien was drilling into his writing so excessively.

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