Anaphora

In the chapter How To Tell A True War Story, the title itself contains the repeated phrase. Throughout the entire chapter the phrase "true war story" is repeated in the first sentence at the beginning of paragraphs beginning a new thought or point. O'Bren becomes dark as he writes that "A true war story is never moral...If a story seems moral, do not believe it." The memoirs of a soldier prove to be bleak and dismal. "You can tell a true war story by the way it never seems to end," is a bold statement. The memories haunt the men in the novel and are constantly in the back of their mind. It is amazing to me the horrors these extremely young men were forced to experience; this novel continues to shock me to my very core. The retellings of war accounts, although fictional, might have actually occurred in one shape or form in Vietnam. The idea that in a true war story "...there is not even a point..." is almost unbelievable, but then I remember that the war is not fiction. It truly happened; therefore, these stories have no point. They are simply horrific memories written down on pieces of paper.