Language

As the short story deals with events that take place during the war in Vietnam, the text is dominated by technical military language. There are several lengthy excerpts which present different kinds of ammunition used in the war, but we will limit ourselves to giving just one as an example:

At various times, in various situations, they carried M-14s and CAR-15s and Swedish Ks and grease guns and captured AK-47s and ChiComs and RPGs and Simonov carbines and black market Uzis and .38- caliber Smith & Wesson handguns and 66 mm LAWs and shotguns and silencers and blackjacks and bayonets and C-4 plastic explosives. Lee Strunk carried a slingshot; (p. 5, ll. 1-6)

Because the story is filled with detailed information about ammunition and its particular use, it becomes clear that the narrator has extensive knowledge regarding military terms. This is reinforced by the fact that the story is based on the author’s real experiences during the war in Vietnam, suggesting that the technical details are accurate.

An important feature of the short story is the occasional structure that resembles the narrative device called stream of consciousness (when a character’s thoughts and reactions are presented in a continuous...