The Things They Carried
by Tim O’Brien

The Things They Carried: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

In The Things They Carried, O'Brien's style is shaped by the combination of rich figurative language and the narrator's honest, conversational tone. The stories contain a large amount of similes, metaphors, and personification, and O'Brien balances descriptive and reflective narrative portions with dialogue. Although the stories are mostly narrated in the past tense, the narrator occasionally uses the present tense when reflecting on his own storytelling.