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The Things They Carried Structure ((The motif of carrying/letters, Jimmy…
The Things They Carried Structure
Turning point (Ted Lavender's death)
Shift from love and daydreaming/pretending to guilt and shame
This occurs in the
middle
of the text
"Right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing."
The way the soldiers cope with the situation of obscene behaviour is with correspondingly obscene behaviour
e.g.: Mitchell Sanders cutting off the thumb of a Viet Cong teenager and gifting it to Henry Dobbins.
"They burnt everything."
The motif of carrying/letters
Jimmy Cross would, "hold them with the tips of his fingers"
After the turning point, "No more fantasies."
"There was that new hardness in his stomach. He loved her but he hated her."
"On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha's letters."
"Holding the photographs over the tight blue flame with the tips of his fingers."
"Lavender was dead. You couldn't burn the blame."
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This could also be identified as irony
Contrast between Jimmy Cross' and Martha's lives.
Beginning:
Juxtaposition of Jimmy Cross (at war) and Martha (back home)
This juxtaposition is continued in the
middle
of the text
Contrast, presented through the motif of carrying.
Ted Lavender's death is foreshadowed (technique)
"In April. . .when Ted Lavender was shot, they used his poncho to wrap him up."
The structure of the text includes the opening, development of ideas and ending. It can also include devices such as important events, turning points, foreshadowing, juxtaposition, flashbacks, motifs and repetition.
O'Brien structures his narrative around two key aspects:
1.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross' love and longing for Martha
2.
The death of Ted Lavender. He uses devices such as foreshadowing, motifs, turning point and juxtaposition (contrast) to develop these key aspects.
Beginning:
O'Brien introduces the setting and situation of the characters through the motif of carrying.
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