Language

Choice of words

The style of language in the short story “Ambush” by Tim O’Brien is informal, closely resembling spoken speech. There is a brief use of dialogue in the beginning as the narrator’s daughter asks him whether he has killed anyone in the war, and the narrator replies “Of course not” (l. 4). The use of contractions helps convey natural speech patterns, for instance: “Someday, I hope, she’ll ask again” (ll. 5-6), or “Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t (ll. 65-66).

Some of the sentences are short and fragmented, perhaps conveying the narrator’s broken state of mind: “I wanted to warn him. The grenade made a popping noise – not soft but not loud either – not what I’d expected – and there was a puff of dust and smoke – a small white puff – and the young man seemed to jerk upward as if pulled by invisible wires. He fell on his back.” (ll. 50-53). The flashback is also introduced by a short, fragmented sentence: “Or to go back” (l. 13), followed by a very long paragraph which contains the whole of the flashback. This conveys the impression that the narrator is letting it all out “in one breath”. It also suggests that the narrator has difficulties organizing his thoughts and memories of t...