First off, O'Brien starts the chapter "The Man I Killed" with a long sentence, depicting a gruesome image of a dead man. The syntax can be connected to The Sun Also Rises when Hemingway used long sentences to show guilt of Jake Barnes; O'Brien may have been feeling similar guilt.
The unwavering image of the dead man's "one eye shut, the other a star shaped hole" reoccurs during several instances throughout the rest of the book (pages 118, 120, 124 127). The image is used as a motif, as a constant reminder of the image O'Brien can't shake of the dead Vietnamese man. Another motif O'Brien uses is the colors red and yellow. He uses it when describing on page 104 "the panes dancing in bright reds and yellows..." where Mary Anne was hiding out with the Greenies. And then again on page 120: "The star-shaped hole was red and yellow." These colors seem to come up when crazy things are happening in the book: Mary Anne changed to the point of no return, O'Brien killed a man.
I have to say, I didn't notice the colors red and yellow being a motif. Props to you. =] Also, the whole star-shaped hole puts this nasty image in my head. I think his discription here has done its' job.
ReplyDelete