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adjective American in describing the war seems as though O’Brien believes the Americans are making the war revolve around themselves, instead of the Vietnamese. While also criticizing Americans, he manages to once again question the necessity of United States involvement in the war. Also connotatively enhancing the antiwar theme is the word bodies to describe draftees; while an accurate evaluation scientifically, it gives the reader the impression that the young men that are being brought into the war to become statistics, part of a body count. O’Brien shows very effectively the massive destruction of innocent human life brought on by Vietnam. In contrast with his sympathy toward draftees, O’Brien utilizes informal, derogatory diction to describe the war’s advocates. He labels his stereotype belligerent a “dumb jingo”(44), or moronic national pride enthusiast. By phrasing his views in such a manner, O’Brien is able to convey the idea that there is enough opposition to the war that a negative slang has been implemented frequently, hence the term dumb jingo. The skill with which O’Brien illustrates his views is very convincing throughout their development in the novel; his antibelligerence focus is very effective.

The social deviance that has become the accepted norm in The Things They Carried is brought out by O’Brien in the form of the soldiers’ drug usage. O’Brien wants to convey the idea of negative transitions brought about by the war with a statement about marijuana’s public, widespread, carefree use in Vietnam. He includes several anecdotes that illustrate to which degree the substance is abused. A friend of O’Brien’s, Ted Lavender, “carried six or seven ounces of premium dope”(4), which indicates not only the soldiers’ familiarity with the drug, but their acquired knowledge of the quality of the drug. The discouragement of marijuana, as well as other drugs, was previously the accepted view of Americans; however, according to O’Brien, is has become the norm for Americans in Vietnam. The war has completely reversed their morals. Once they carried a corpse out to “a dry paddy. . .and sat smoking the dead man’s dope until the chopper came. Lieutenant Cross kept to himself”(8). Even the squad’s supervisor, the platoon leader Lieutenant Cross, is unaffected by the soldiers’ blatant use of an illegal substance; he has become so used to the occurrence that he no longer condemns its use. For even a leader of men to be morally warped by the war is an effective idea in O’Brien’s discouragement of war.

As George Carlin once said to a New York audience, “We love war. We are a warlike people, and therefore we love war”(Carlin 1992). This view is common today among Americans since the advent of long-distance warfare and bright, colorful explosions; however, in the guerrilla warfare of Vietnam, the grudging participants loathed the idea. Tim O’Brien very effectively portrays their hatred and the severe negative effects the war had on American soldiers in his excellent, convincing novel The Things They Carried. The skillful choice of details and several types of diction that reveal his theme of induced violence, his anti-war statement, and his view of the reversal of morals among GIs are effective in presenting O’Brien’s views in this, “The Last War Novel”(McClung 96).



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