TOW #23 - "On the Rainy River" by Tim O'Brien

After winning the National Book Award in 1979 for Going after Cacciato, Tim O'Brien followed the masterpiece with The Things They Carries, a book of his experiences in war that shows him as the protagonist. "On the Rainy River" is an excerpt from the novel. O'Brien utilizes the repetition, alliteration, figurative language, and prose in order to emphasize how simple the emotional horrors of war are. His repetition allows him to draw the focus onto specific aspects of war the prove its overall negative connotation. He speaks of "a crushing sorrow, sorrow like I had never known before" (O'Brien 1077). The repetition of sorrow draws the reader to hopefully focus on the bone crushing despair war brings. His alliteration allows for the same effect when he writes, "a sudden swell of helplessness" (O'Brien 1076). The use of these rhetorical devices allows for O'Brien to simply show the toll war has on an individuals emotions. He also uses similes to compare the feelings of war to a way the reader may have felt before, so they can begin to relate and understand how horrible these experiences were. He feels "as if I had toppled overboard" (O'Brien 1075). The reader may possibly have felt this way at some point in their life, and once they realize that O'Brien and the other soldiers feel like this all the time during war and possibly even after, they open the door to truly comprehend how horrible war and its effects are. Lastly, O'Brien structures his story into long paragraphs, which allows the reader to feel to continuous dragging of that O'Brien felt by his emotions. This detailed retelling of war, "On the Rainy River", that helps O'Brien tell his journey of despair is made possible by his use of repetition, alliteration, figurative language, and prose.