LITERATURE ANALYSIS #1 (AP English)

The book I read for this class is "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.). Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
 Exposition: in the first chapter, the reader knows what each soldier LITERALLY carries in their backpacks. The reader also learns that all of them carry the same things. After the first chapter, the author does not follow a chronological order of events, that's why the reader can say that the climax is not a specific one. I think that the purpose of this book was to show the reader that someone can not TRULY tell a war story because "what is story-real is not always happening-real."

 2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
Themes: instincts vs what is thought of right: when the narrator gets drafted, he does not want to go to the war but is also scared of what people are going to say if he DOESN'T go.
Truth: when O'Brien reveals that, the events are not real, he explains that in order for something to be real, they have to feel real. That's why he invented all the extra events that never truly happened.

 3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
tone: melancholy/reflective. (1) “They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory and dishonor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor.” (2) “He wished he could’ve explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be. The distinction was important.” (Page 153)   (3) “Twenty years. A lot like yesterday, a lot like never. In a way, maybe, I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d finally worked myself out. A hot afternoon, a bright August sun, and the war was over.” (Page 187)

 4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)
1. symbolism:
2. foreshadow
3. symbolism
4. irony
5. diction
6 Juxtaposition
7. Imagery
8. allusions
9. flashback/flash-forward
10. narration