Telling a good war story is a complicated a process, but both Vonnegut and O’Brien do a terrific job by keeping us interested and turning the next page to see what happens next. Both authors have similar styles when it comes to narrating their exiting tales of war. They use some basic elements that put you in there with the characters. For example both use “war buddies” as a tools to transition from scene to scene. In both pieces of literature the language that is used is blunt and direct to the point, a sort of war vocabulary if you will. There are phrases like “I’m goanna kick the living shit out of you” and “you are motherfucker” and in reality that is how soldiers talk. The authors don’t dress up the narrative with pretty word or tales of heroism is pure and true. The authors bounce around from story to story, this way thy always keep you entrained and it allows them to give you different perspectives of the same. Their attention to detail is extraordinary by giving you so much precise information, like the color of the sky or how bodies were the color of purple and blue because of the cold they allow you to live the story and just read about it. Vonnegut and O’Brien also use flashbacks to put in the action and direct you to where in time they want to be. They also make references to biblical themes, in How to tell a true war story Court Lemon is describe like if he were going to the heavens after he was killed because of the way the sun touched his face. Vonnegut on the other hand has a bit with the bulletproof bible and the story of shining shoes that if you stare at them you can see Adam and Eve. Their biggest themes are both death and the laps of time.