Genre
Nonfiction
Setting and Context
The action takes place during the Vietnam war and the actions are placed in different locations in Asia and Europe.
Narrator and Point of View
The events are narrated from a third perspective objective point of view.
Tone and Mood
Dream-like, humorous, tragic, confusing
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists are Berlin and the rest of his battalion and the antagonist is Cacciato.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is an internal one and is given by a sense of duty to one’s country and the desire to escape from war.
Climax
The story reaches its climax when Berlin comes face to face with Cacciato.
Foreshadowing
The scene when Berlin sees Cacciato flying foreshadows the other fantastical scenes that will take place later on in the novel.
Understatement
The soldiers in the squad chosen to go after Cacciato mention numerous times the idea that Cacciato is dumb and mentally challenged. This however is an understatement as time and time again Cacciato avoids being caught both by his former squad and by the enemy.
Allusions
It is alluded in the novel that the only people who can find peace and remain peaceful during a war are those who are mentally ill. Thus, Cacciato is able to remain calm and seemingly unaffected by the events around him because it is suggested that he is not sane and is mentally retarded.
Imagery
One of the most important image in the novel is that of the three women, with their hands above their head, scared and disoriented when the soldiers shoot one of their buffaloes without any reason to do it. The image is important because the three women here symbolize more than just three individual people and stands for the innocent population that was affected in one way or another by the war.
Paradox
Cacciato’s actions are presented as being at times paradoxical as even Berlin notes. He remembers in the first chapters some of Cacciato’s actions and he notes how he one time saved a woman and then killed a child. Thus, even though his actions may appear at first as being honest and selfless, it is quickly discovered that he is not as good as those around him make him to be.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
In chapter 33, "There was great quiet. A very noisy quiet,".
