Storytelling in The Things They Carried

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Recommended: War narrative writing

Storytelling has been used throughout history to pass on stories and legends to other future generations. Tim O’Brien is effective in using storytelling as a theme constantly over the course of his novel. Storytelling is a brilliant way to allow readers to understand his experiences and memories of the Vietnam War. O’Brien is able to look beyond the gruesome and horrific details of the war and instead, uses storytelling as a way to share his own story and the lives of people he has known. He also is successful in writing and handling multiple stories in his novel. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien develops the theme of storytelling, which is used extensively throughout the novel, through the use of syntactical repetition for effect, polysyndeton, and imagery.
Storytelling is a consistent theme throughout the novel and O’Brien uses syntactical repetition to explain that stories are everlasting and bring emotion to people. In “Spin,” O’Brien states, “Stories are for joining the past to the future…late hours in the night…are for eternity…” (p. 38). He uses the repetition to highligh...

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