Local Color

"To provide a dramatic frame, I collapsed events into a single time and place, a car circling a lake on a quiet afternoon in midsummer, using the lade as a nucleus around which the story would orbit...For the scenery I borrowed heavily from my hometown. Wholesale thievery, in fact." Page 152

This passage references the previous chapter 'Speaking of Courage'. It specifically talks about the local color used in the chapter. He used this strategy very effectively. He states that the purpose was to provide a dramatic frame. I think he definitely succeeded. 'Speaking of Courage' was actually one of my favorite chapters. It was intriguing and suspenseful. I don't think I would have liked it as much if he had not written it as a single event at a specific place. The scenery kept me questioning. For a while, I was just trying to find out the purpose of the lake and scenery. With the use of local color, O'Brien really drew the reader in and made the story dramatic.