Analysis of Sound Craft - A Literary Paper Example

The sound craft that OBrien employs in his stories includes alliteration and diction. Alliteration refers to the repetition of the initial sounds of some words in a sentence. Diction is speech sound that impacts on the tone. Alliteration and diction sound crafts in OBriens story Field Trip are evident in the sentence "At the same time. However, she'd seemed a bit puzzled (OBrien 57). The sound s comes out from the words same, shed and seemed thus creating an emphasis. A combination of diction and hyperbole in field trip is seen in the words "ghosts of Vietnam." Equally, the story On the Rainy River uses sound craft which helps to propel the events into the plot. Alliteration is evident when the narrator in On the Rainy River says a sudden swell of helplessness (OBrien 91). Also, alliteration is established in the sentence was a sense of shame. Hot stupid shameI was ashamed to be thereI was ashamed of my conscience, ashamed to be doing the right thing (OBrien 61). The repetition of the word shame coupled with the use of other words such as a sense of shame, conscience create a sound wordplay of the consonant s. This is used to heighten the effect and emphasize the point. Diction sound craft also has an impact on word choice and syntax, and it conveys a certain mood, tone, and atmosphere to their readers.

Impact of Sound Craft in Story Telling

The sounds used have an impact on the storytelling. They manage to evoke strong emotions in the reader, and also they engage the person and thus pull the reader into the action. Besides, the sounds create mood and rhythm which drew the attention of the reader. The engaging diction and alliteration create a sound craft. Hence it is able to explore the personal nature of memory as well as expand the distance between the reader, OBrien, and Kathleen. Indeed, O'Brien manages to put the reader in Kathleens predicament and brings out the setting of Vietnam in order to affect the reader. Notably, the sound craft reconciles the sensitive issues of introducing children of veterans to war experiences. Alliteration has an effect of focusing on the reader's attention in a certain section and creates a rhythm that arouses a given mood hence impact on the storytelling. The connotations of the sounds are also significant in creating emphasis. For instance, the repetition of sound s is used to suggest that the encounters of war are certainly dehumanizing. The repetition of similar sounds and mainly the consonant at the start of series of words in a sentence makes the storytelling enchanting.

The rhythm and meter in words carry the story forward and hence help to set the pace of the events in the plot. The emphasis given to certain words are used to underscore the theme that centers on war and drives it to climax. The sound craft also creates the tone of the prose work, and this also contributes to the mood of despair, pain, and devastation. The word choice used by O'Brien alludes to the meter in the stories and also deliver a lyrical or bouncy sound effect from the wordplay. The effect of diction in O'Brien's storytelling cannot also be underestimated. The sound craft makes him manage in creating strong feelings in the reader. It also conveys emphasis. Again, this figurative language of sounds has achieved by exaggeration a truth which has been a significant factor that OBrien employed in distortion of the truth.

Work Cited

O'Brien Tim. The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1990.