#7 Dialect

On page 19 the author introduces to us the us of the harsh vocabulary that the soldiers used while fighting. "Greased", "offed", "lit up", "zapped while zipping", and "Nam" are only a few mentioned in the book. O'Brien describes them as actors and used this dialect when ready to fight. However, I think that in war new ways of speaking come about. Each side has to have their own dialect to reassure that they are for the same victory. Dialect is a way of speaking that is a characteristic of a certain social group. In war, their social group is all the soldiers and commanders who fight for a specific reason. The author stated that, "they talked grunt lingo" and told stories in the same dialect. Most of this hard dialect came from death. They hide their sorrow and saddness by means of speaking. Eventhough they were the only ones to fully understand what was being said, it gave them comfort by the words being spoken.