Lights and The Things They Carried.

"But there were times-who knows why?-when drunk or high or stubborn or simply lost in the glide to somewhere else, the driver just kept driving in the dark, all down the block we'd hear yelling from doorways and storefronts, front steps, and other corners, voices winking on like fireflies: 'Lights! Your lights! Hey lights!'"

1. When I think of the word vivid, I think of a passage that evokes an intense emotion. I also think of something clear, concise, and creates a visual in your head of what is going on. I believe that this passage is very vivid. When Dybek writes adjectives such as drunk, high, and stubborn, an emotion is evoked. For me personally, it evokes an angry emotion. Dybek could have used other adjectives to describe the drivers that would not be so demeaning. He said high, drunk, and stubborn and it makes me think that he is frustrated with those types of drivers. The simile "voices winking on like fireflies" is also vivid to me because it portrays a visual in my mind of the civilians yelling at the drivers.

2. In the beginning of the short story, the author is relaxed and seems that he is just telling a story of the summer nights that he had when he was younger with his friends and neighborhood children. Towards the last paragraph, Dybek transfers his soft tone from before into a harsher, frustrated tone. The passage I chose for question one is the prime example for this. His tone is a lot harder and he sounds like he wanted the drivers to be safer.

3. The green plastic poncho stood out to me the most in The Things They Carried. It stood out to me so much because I feel like it would be the most useful of all items that were mentioned. O'Brien said that the poncho was used for a raincoat, a groundsheet, or a makeshift tent. This protects the soldiers from becoming sick, and providing shelter. The following sentence stood out to me very much because it says, "With its quilted liner, the poncho weighed aalmost 2 pounds, but it was worth every ounce." The fact that O'Brien said it was worth every ounce stood out to me the most because the soldiers carry so much already. Any extra weight could cause more of an issue rather than benefit the soldiers. Therefore, the poncho is the object that stood out the most because of the emphasis O'Brien puts on it on how useful it can be in different ways.