WHERE HAVE YOU GONE CHARMING BILLY By Tim

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, CHARMING BILLY? By Tim O’Brien

STEALTH • (noun) Cautious or secret action or movement • The soldier moved with stealth across the countryside so that they would not be spotted by the enemy.

FECUND • (Adjective) producing much growth; fertile • In spite of all of the bombing it had suffered the land they traveled through was still fecund.

DIFFUSE • (adjective) unfocused • In their nervousness, it was hard to bring their diffuse thoughts back into clear focus.

INERTIA • (noun) tendency to continue to do what one has been doing • They relied on inertia and force of habit to keep them on the path

WE WILL ALSO SEE EXAMPLES OF THESE LITERARY TECHNIQUES AND DEVICES IN THIS SELECTION:

REALISM TRUTHFUL IMITATION OF ORDINARY LIFE Speech (diction) • Short, questions - line 30 • Short answers – line 31 • Interjections-(Hey!) • Informal diction – You got a lot to learn, buddy • Shortened words – sleepin’ Sensory details • Smell: straw, cattle, mildew, dark smells, perfumy graveyard, nice smell • Sound: dog barking, quiet place • Sight: conical-shaped burial mounds, tiny clay and stone altars, paddy, hedgerow (might also be known as Imagery)

repetition sequence point of view Repetition involves the repeated use of any language element: Present in Vietnam, marching at night. This story is told from the third-person limited point of view. • sounds, • words, • phrases, • clauses, • sentences, or • rhythmic patterns. How many times does the author repeat “he would? ” Flashback to the past when he was a little boy, camping with his father. Foreshadowing to when he will tell his father that he was not afraid. Final Flashback The narrator describes Paul’s thoughts and feelings. This helps the reader • to develop a strong attachment to Paul, and • to understand his struggle to cope with his intense fear.

Onomatopoeia Irony …stepped He was scared he was gonna die – so scared that he had himself a heart attack…. . on a land mine, and it made a tiny little sound – poof- Simile … and leeches as big as mice

OTHER LITERARY DEVICES assonance imagery flashback Repetition of vowel sounds in words close together in a phrase or sentence He would tell his mother how it smelled: mud and algae and cattle manure and chlorophyll …pretending …. . agile, mobile, hostile …. . better alert than inert he was not in the war, pretending he was a boy again.