Job 2.

1. “It wasn’t a question of deceit. Just the opposite: he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt. For Rat Kiley, I think, facts were formed by sensation… multiplying by maybe.” (O’Brian 89-90)

This text creates a mood for understanding Rat Kiley’s version of the truth through the sense of humor of Tim O’Brian. Tim makes Rat’s stories sound like exaggeration but not the lying type but the type that is blown our of proportion because that is how he experiences it.
O’Brian uses words like heat up the truth and make it burn so hot. I noticed these words because you never associate heat with the truth, but the author wants you to feel that truth is full of hot air and is unbelievable. I also thought it was very funny that he comes up with a math formula subtracting superlatives, finding a square root of an absolute and multiplying by maybe. O’Brian creates a mood of amusement at Rat Kiley’s stories.

2. “Near the end of the third week… but then weren’t they all?” (O’Brian 104-105)

The author’s choice of phrases like: seemed to accept, restless gloom, at the edge of, shoulders hunched, blue eyes opaques, and seemed to disappear, create the mood that someone is present physically, but emotionally they’re somewhere else. You feel that something is wrong. He also says a haunted look, partly terror, partly rapture, caught in that no man’s land- these words all create a mood that there is something trouble Mary-
Anne.
By using these words and expressions, O’Brian paints a sad picture of Mary Anne’s mood. The reader can understand how Mary-Anne is feeling and that helps the reader to have pathos for her sadness. He says, “ Just a child, blond and innocent,”(O’Brian 105) This sentence sounds like a description of a sweet little girl so the reader feels that she has been hurt by someone stronger than her.

3. “Across the room a dozen candles… but the high voice was Mary Anne’s.” (O’Brian 109-110)

With this text the author creates a mysterious, spooky mood. He has candles burning, echo sounds, and music that is described as tribal. He describes a smell from some exotic smokehouse to make it smell foreign and not belonging there. He also says a powerful stench to make it sound like it stinks. The smell is described as paralyzing your lungs- strong words to indicate a shocking smell. It is thick and numbing. The stink of the kill. He uses words like decayed, skin dangled, stacks of bones -all description that give you the creeps.
The author goes on to use capital letters, “ ASSEMBLE YOUR OWN GOOK!! FREE SALMPLE KIT!!.”(O’Brian 110) He uses capital letters and exclamation marks in twos and threes to grab the readers attention. He also says, “ The images came in a swirl Rat said, and there was no way you could process it all.” (O’Brian 110) This lets the reader feel that the situation was overwhelming.

4.“ It was his one eccentricity, The panty hose,… and let the magic do its work.” (O’Brian 117-118)
This text creates a mood of disbelief that the pantyhose of Henry Dobbins’s girlfriend was considered by him to have powers to protect him from danger. The author describes this as properties of a good luck charm, and the way an infant sleeps with a flannel blanket which creates a mood that the pantyhose makes Henry feel safe. He uses words like secure and peaceful. It is a talisman. It is like body armor.
This description of a soldier creating a ritual of wrapping a girl’s pantyhose which is a feminine object is unexpected but the truth of what happens makes the reader question this doubt. Maybe it was able to keep him from being hurt. “Dobbins was invulnerable. Never wounded, never a scratch.” (O’Brian 118) The author creates a mood of believing in the power of the pantyhose.

5.“ Oh man, you fuckin’ trashed that fucker… this particular individual gets A-plus.” (O’Brian 125-126)

This text creates a mood of having to describe something in which you cant even find the right words to describe them. Azar is trying to describe the man that Kiowa had killed. The body is so badly destroyed, but the author describes it in words that just don’t belong with describing a person who has been killed.
The author uses words liked Shredded fucking Wheat, oatmeal, and Rice Krispies. These are names of breakfast cereals that have no similarities at all with a person that has been destroyed. Breakfast cereals are words of a fresh start at the beginning of the day and not the end of a life. The author also says, “ On the dead test, this particular individual gets A- plus.” (O’Brian 126)The reader is left wondering who says something like that to describe a man who is killed. The mood is that the death of this man doesn’t even matter.