Where Have You Gone Charming Billy?

Tim O'Brien makes readers feel sympathetic towards PFC Paul Berlin by creating a sorrowful mood through his diction and setting. The setting takes place at night in a rice paddy possibly in Vietnam during the war. O'Brien uses words such as "shadows", "vanishing", "dark", "eyes closed" and "war" to paint this dark, tense aura. This aura in turn makes the readers feel sorry for PFC Paul Berlin, as he is stuck in a place that seems so dreadful. The soldiers seemed almost forced to complete their tasks. Words like "single file", "stopping" ,"kneeling", each show the difficulty of the job.   The author has decided to make the setting and mood sorrowful to invoke this emotion of pity on PFC Paul Berlin. He does so perfectly by choosing words that have a negative connotation to them, like "war" and "shadows". War is always associated with violence and many would be afraid if put into the situation of war. Also, shadows are very mysterious and once again, can invoke fear in someone as they are very dark and are always associated with the unknown. The diction combined with the story told and setting make the readers feel sorry for PFC Paul Berlin. He is trapped in war, and often wants to escape as seen through his childhood memories, however, he knows that those memories are all in his head and the war is what is reality. That realization helps to make the sorrowful mood and the readers sympathetic.