Vietnam Literary Journalism

Question 2 • ELA 11B-CR

Which excerpt from A Rumor of War contains the best example of sensory language?

Answer

Having been among the first Americans to fight in Vietnam, I was also among the last to be evacuated, only a few hours before the North Vietnamese Army entered the capital.

America seemed omnipotent then: the country could still claim it had never lost a war, and we believed we were ordained to play cop to the Communists’ robber and spread our own political faith around the world.

The discovery that the men we had scorned as peasant guerrillas were, in fact, a lethal, determined enemy and the casualty lists that lengthened each week with nothing to show for the blood being spilled broke our early confidence.

Weeks of bottled-up tensions would be released in a few minutes of orgiastic violence, men screaming and shouting obscenities above the explosions of grenades and the rapid, rippling bursts of automatic rifles.

Explanation

Sensory language appeals to the senses by helping readers imagine what something looks, sounds, feels, smells, or tastes like. Choice D uses vivid sound details, including men “screaming and shouting,” grenade explosions, and the “rapid, rippling bursts” of rifles. The other excerpts mainly describe events, beliefs, or realizations rather than giving such a strong sensory impression.

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