Vietnam Literary Journalism — Quiz

Question 19 • English Language Arts 11

Which excerpt from Dispatches contains a paradox?

Answer

And at night, all of it seemed more possible. At night in Khe Sanh, waiting there, thinking about all of them (40,000, some said), thinking that they might really try it, could keep you up.

If they did, when they did, it might not matter that you were in the best bunker in the DMZ, wouldn’t matter that you were young and had plans, that you were loved, that you were a noncombatant, an observer.

Because if it came, it would be in a bloodswarm of killing, and credentials would not be examined.

Anxiety was a luxury, a joke you had no room for once you knew the variety of deaths and mutilations the war offered.

Explanation

D contains a paradox by describing anxiety as a “luxury.” Anxiety is usually something people suffer from, not something they enjoy or can afford; in the context of war, the speaker suggests that fear over one’s fate seems insignificant compared with the many deaths and injuries the war brings. That apparent contradiction gives the statement its paradoxical effect.

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