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Rhetorical Devices In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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The first chapter of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried gives a detailed description of something each soldier carried. You’re presented with a photo First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries, the extra rations that Henry Dobbins carries and the tranquilizers that Ted Lavender carries and an explanation behind each object. In each explanation there are rhetorical devices used to intrigue the reader and help further develop each character. O’Brien, on page 143, is focusing on Norman Bowker in the town he lived in as a child. O’ Brien conveys this part of the novel by personifying, creating dialogue, and giving an illustration that appeals to sound and sight. The first device the reader sees is dialogue. “The Stink, that’s what got to me.” “If

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