Characteristics of the text

There are a few elements which need to be analyzed so you can have a better view of Caputo’s purpose with “A Rumor of War”. In what follows, we will present some of them.

Direct argumentation

One of the characteristics of a memoir is the use of direct argumentation. Through direct argumentation, the author’s message is clearly formulated and explicit, and readers do not have any difficulties in understanding it.

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Rhetorical devices

Rhetorical devices are in general used when the author tries to persuade the audience or when he tries to evoke emotions in the audience.

Similes are rhetorical devices through which one element is compared to another and help to make the text more vivid and relatable for the reader, like in the following examples: “thorny hedges as cruel and unyielding as barbed wire fences” (p. 220, ll. 4); “as maddening as the barbed hedges and the head of the raging fire” (p. 223, ll. 23-24); “feeling as if I were watching myself in a movie” (p. 223, ll. 37-38); “we passed through the village like a wind” (p. 223, l. 44). Similes are particularly important in this text as they help the reader, who is unlikely to have experienced Vietnam or warfare themselves, to understand the places and events the writer describes through comparison to things they know.

The following extract contains a metaphor which associates heat with machinery: “The heat inside the village was terrific, a blast-furnace that seared our lungs” (p. 221, ll . 40-41). We also find the metaphor of the “wall of flame” (p. 223, l. 4) or that of the “collective emotional detonation” (p. 223, ll . 25-26).

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Forms of appeal

Ethos, pathos, and logos are forms of appeal which are meant to persuade others. In the case of “A Rumor of War”, ethos is meant to convince the readership of the credibility of the sender. Because Caputo has served in the Vietnam War and has even gained medals for bravery, readers respect his point of view and are more likely to believe the stories he tells in his memoir. What is more, pathos is also present in the text, and it helps the audience form an emotional reaction to Caputo’s stories of war. For instance, the following extract of the text presents the sudden change in the soldiers, but also the lack of morality in warfare.

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Choice of words

As you have seen, the text of “A Rumor of War” comes across as a piece of literature. Mostly, this happens because the text is constructed in a similar way to short stories; we get the illusion that we have an exposition, a rising action,...

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