Repetition and Contradiction

Tim O’Brien uses techniques of repetition and contradiction to attempt to show the reader how the mind functions after traumatic events. The death of Curt Lemon is a perfect example of how O’Brien utilizes both repetition and contradiction to portray a message.  Lemon’s death is brought up six different times throughout the short story. Each time, the death contains more detail and is portrayed more gruesomely. I think he wrote about the death so many different times to show what its like to have PTSD. This disease, which many soldiers suffer from, can cause the mind to have recurring, circular thoughts. I think he decides to tell the story of the death in different ways to show another struggle: the fact that memory is not a perfect source. The different retellings of Lemon’s death also tend to contradict each other. The first time he tells the story, he says, “it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree.” Later, when he talks about the death again, he describes the horrific process of peeling Lemon’s guts from the tree. I think the reason that O’Brien contradicts himself in his descriptions is again to show how one’s mind begins to think while enduring traumatic situations. Perhaps he contradicting descriptions are intended to show how the mind will try to make light of a dark situation and look for any glimpse of happiness or joy in an otherwise dark environment. This is how the techniques of repetition and contradiction are used to reveal the psychological repercussions of PTSD.