Charming Billy
...is gives the image that the soldiers are almost nonexistent. By comparing them to smoke, he projects the idea that they move so quickly and quietly that they can hardly be perceived. The writer’s tone in this section is sorrowful and also matter-of-fact. By using these descriptive literary devices, O’Brien is able to communicate a feeling of sorrow and depression. The next metaphor, however, changes the tone and conveys to the readers a feeling of loneliness as well as sorrow. “Strangers on a long street, and he felt quite separate from them. . .” By comparing himself and the other soldiers to “strangers on a long street,” the author creates the feeling and image of people who see one another, who are in close proximity, but who do not know one another. This separation is one of the ways the soldiers attempt to deaden the pain of war. If they are all merely “strangers on a long road,” then the death of one will not create such a dramatic sense of loss as if they were close friends. In the third paragraph, the author again changes his tone, this time from one of sorrow and loneliness to one of encouragement. He does this by, for the first time, using dialogue between the soldier from whose point of view the story was written and another soldier. “Don’t think it’s always so bad,” the soldier whispered. “You’ll get used to it. . .They’ve been fighting for a long time, and you’ll get used to it”. The soldier’s attempt to encourage the other man changes the tone of the selection. Instead of giving the readers a feeling of loneliness...