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Perusing The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, I grasped a new, profound sense of war from the soldiers’ perspective, varying tremendously from my previous notion of war through movies, often which simply depicted the strength and bravery in battle. In contrast, O’Brien creates a war story without a specific hero; apparently simply wanting to get his story told. However, heroes allow the writer to influence their audience, as readers embrace heroes as role models within society. As such, I question why O’Brien destroys the pre-conceived notions of a heroic soldier? The weapon weighed 7.5 pounds unloaded, 8.2 pounds with its full 20-round magazine…some carried the M-79 grenade launcher, 5.9 pounds unloaded, a reasonably light weapon except for the ammunition, which was heavy. A single round weighed 10 ounces. The typical load was 25 pounds. O’Brien intends for his nonmilitary audience to gain an understanding of the daily physical strain on the soldiers. Furthermore, he sets up a pathos appeal in which his nonmilitary audience feels sorrow for the physical strain of the soldiers. “The equipment was a stress on the lower back and shoulders, awkward to handle, often useless because of the shrapnel in the earth.” O’Brien intends for his audience to recognize the physical strength and subsequent weakness that the soldiers experienced, a characteristic that isn’t associated with a hero. “Dobbins carried between 10 and 15 pounds of ammunition draped across his chest and shoulders.” Through his specific description of his fellow soldier, O’Brien sets up an ethos of a soldier who has had the same experiences on the battlefield. Continuing, O’Brien moves forward to talk about the emotions that the soldiers carried going into the war. I began seriously thinking about Canada. The border lay a few hundred miles north, and eight-hour drive. Both my conscience and my instincts were telling me to make a break for it… I felt paralyzed… as if I were hurtling down a huge black funnel, the whole world squeezing in tight.
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