It was fascinating to read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-5 after reading Tim O'Brien's "How to Tell A True War Story." While both writing styles were unique, unlike most anything I've read before, they held narrative similarities. The techniques used by both authors, which are common literary devices, really brought home the unique and terrible mental experience (ordeal) that war is to any reader.
The most apparent way the authors tell the story is by hardly presenting things in chronological order. Vonnegut's main character, Billy, time travels throughout different experiences in his life. His narrative is defined by how he can't keep memories or experiences separate from each other, and he feels jerked back and forth between them. With O'Brien's story, things are somewhat more coherent as he deliberately retells the same story, but details are changed constantly. This conveys how people actually think, as they focus on one memory and move to another. For one with PTSD, or anyone who's experienced a traumatic experience, moving from memory to memory must be a powerful and often painful experience.
Often, part of having PTSD means you are forced to review these memories and can't stop, and it becomes a repetitive and frustrating cycle. Both these authors use repetition repetitively! Vonnegut focuses on certain phrases and themes, that while at first may not make sense, become more understandable and almost like a motif. O'Brien repeats the story about the death of his friend, often changing details, focusing on specific different details each time, and even being very vague at some points. This must be what it's like to have a memory like that be repeated in your brain. You simultaneously can't remember what happened and can never forget it.
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