11. Diction

The quote “The routine, daily stuff-just humping, just enduring” brought me back the thoughts I had at the beginning of the novel when the two words were first introduced to us. (pg 135, O’Brien). There is an extreme difference between carry and hump. Carry seems to refer to the actual non-tangible emotions, feelings, memories, and burdens these men kept with them. On the other hand, to hump is the actual process of being in motion and carrying tangible objects. Carry has a larger meaning in that the word itself has to be used to describe to hump. But one would not use hump to describe carry. The word carry fits itself into the theme, because it is the actual memories that haunt these men weeks, months, and years later after Vietnam. Carry, is the reason O’Brien writes. Hump, as Bowker says is the daily stuff, not the ideas that follow you for a lifetime. Because of the abandoned feeling Bowker carries, he must hump to endure his daily life.