Question

Read this excerpt about the Vietnam War from "Ambush" by Tim O'Brien:

When she was nine, my daughter Kathleen asked if I had ever killed anyone. She knew about the war; she knew I'd been a soldier. "You keep writing war stories," she said, "so I guess you must've killed somebody." It was a difficult moment, but I did what seemed right, which was to say, "Of course not," and then to take her onto my lap and hold her for a while. Someday, I hope, she'll ask again. But here I want to pretend she's a grown-up. I want to tell her exactly what happened, or what I remember happening, and then I want to say to her that as a little girl she was absolutely right. This is why I keep writing war stories: He was a short, slender young man of about twenty. I was afraid of him—afraid of something—and as he passed me on the trail I threw a grenade that exploded at his feet and killed him. . . . Even now I haven't finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don't. In the ordinary hours of life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I'm reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I'll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog. I'll watch him walk toward me, his shoulders slightly stooped, his head cocked to the side, and he'll pass within a few yards of me and suddenly smile at some secret thought and then continue up the trail to where it bends back into the fog.

How does the author's specific word choice and stylistic devices affect the excerpt's tone? Be sure to use specific details from the text to support your answer.

I need help ASAP please!!!

Answer 1

The author uses a specific word choice and he artfully crafted his piece that affects the excerpt's tone by describing his feeling and his imagination accurately. You would feel that its as if you are the sufferer instead. That he is being haunted by the crimes of the past and he could not share it with his daughter yet because she is still so young.

Answer 2

Answer:

The passage portrays the man he executed in very adapting words. He doesn't portray him as a foe or a creature, as delineations of "the foe" frequently do. He portrays him as a young fellow, short and thin. His purpose behind executing him is out of dread, which is for the most part not the thought we have when we picture troopers at war, battling for their nation.This sets up an ethical multifaceted nature to the demonstration of executing in war.  

Another intriguing piece is his speculative thought of the man living and proceeding not far off. Once more, he paints this image in accommodating terms. He depicts him as having "bears marginally stooped", likely exhausted from the difficult day's walk and the consistent worry of war. He envisions him "all of a sudden grinning at some mystery thought" as though he is conscious of the possibility that destiny has saved him, and he is permitted to "proceed up the trail as it mixes into the mist".

The second 50% of this sentence, about the trail and the mist, could be an analogy for the two men going down their very own different ways like ships going in the night, hugy affecting the life of the other, however not knowing where the other will go from that point.