Week 5 Post A

Vocab-

 gook: a native of the Southeast Asia to the south pacific, esp. when a member of an enemy military force. 

 swank: dashing smartness, as in dress or appearance;style. 

Figurative Language-

1) "Rat pours his heart out"(68), is a metaphor used to describe this man's passion for what he was doing. You can't literally pour your heart out, but it is a common phrase to describe letting your feelings out. 

2) "A deep pinkish red spilled out on the river[...]"(71). This quote may be considered some sort of personification because in the context he is talking about the color of the sky reflecting onto the river's water. So the sky is not literally poured into the river, but the author uses this term to describe what it looked like. 

3)  One of the soldiers is telling O'Brien of these men that hid in the mountains and began hearing noises like a radio, and the soldier says that it' s like "[...] like the mountains are tuned into Radio ------- Hanoi"(73)., but the mountains can't play music from a radio themselves so he uses personification to describe what it was like. 

Quote-

" In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way"(71). I really like this quote because he makes an interesting point. It has a real genuine feel to it, and it makes me feel like i'll never know what the war is really like no matter how many stories i hear. It's a "you had to be there" kind of thing, and he makes that apparent to the reader here, and at the same time it makes the book that much more interesting.

Theme-

Not knowing what the war  was really like, and never knowing what it was really like. Also, companionship in the army and how it was so unique.