In the beginning of TTTC, I was intrigued at all of the descriptions of the weaponry that was used during Vietnam and the heartache with being in the war.
My first point is that O'Brien gave readers that aren't very knowledgeable on the Vietnam War a look into the lives of soldiers living there for months and years at a time. I was intrigued by the first two sentences: "First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack." - pg.1 [The Things They Carried]
My second point is that O'Brien was "switching gears" throughout the first four chapters and it did confuse me at first because I was still trying to get my head wrapped around that someone already died within the first few pages of the book. The "switching gears" gave the readers glimpses into the minds of these soldiers risking their lives. Each paragraph throughout the chapters either stayed in the present or flashbacked to the time they did this or that.
I was intrigued by the descriptions of what everyone "humped" during the war, based on specific traits of theirs: "Lieutenant Cross carried his good-luck pebble. David Jensen carried a rabbit's foot. Norman Bowker...carried a thumb that had been presented to him as a gift by Mitchell Sanders."
My first point is that O'Brien gave readers that aren't very knowledgeable on the Vietnam War a look into the lives of soldiers living there for months and years at a time. I was intrigued by the first two sentences: "First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack." - pg.1 [The Things They Carried]
My second point is that O'Brien was "switching gears" throughout the first four chapters and it did confuse me at first because I was still trying to get my head wrapped around that someone already died within the first few pages of the book. The "switching gears" gave the readers glimpses into the minds of these soldiers risking their lives. Each paragraph throughout the chapters either stayed in the present or flashbacked to the time they did this or that.
I was intrigued by the descriptions of what everyone "humped" during the war, based on specific traits of theirs: "Lieutenant Cross carried his good-luck pebble. David Jensen carried a rabbit's foot. Norman Bowker...carried a thumb that had been presented to him as a gift by Mitchell Sanders."
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