Point(s) of View.

Well I'm going to talk a bit more about the points of view that O'Brien uses. All of the novels that I've ever read have a single point of view in them, but this novel is different. The majority of the novel is told from first person point of view, but it actually starts in third person point of view. This is a very effective strategy for keeping the reader engaged. The first chapter or so sets up the stories in the novel. It explains the importance of the title as well as explains the setting and what it was like during the Vietnam War. Most sentences sound like the one that starts page five, "what they carried was partly a function of rank, partly of field specialty." Though O'Brien experienced this too, he does not use the first person word "I."
The rest of the novel after this is told mostly from the first person point of view. It involves O'Brien telling the stories as they happened to him. On page 74, he sets up a story by saying "this one did it for me. I've told it before- many times, many versions- but here's what actually happened." This is a prime example of the first person. He involves himself in the story and tells it as he saw it. It creates a much more personal account of the war.