Vietnam Literary Journalism — Quiz

Question 23 • English Language Arts 11

Which excerpt from Dispatches is an example of paradox?

Answer

And at night it was beautiful. Even the incoming was beautiful at night, beautiful and deeply dreadful.

One hit anywhere in the chopper would bring you back, bitten lips, white knuckles and all, and then you knew where you were.

At night you could lie out on some sandbags and watch the C-47’s mounted with Vulcans doing their work.

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.

Explanation

A paradox combines ideas that seem contradictory but are both presented as true. In choice A, the incoming fire is described as both “beautiful” and “deeply dreadful,” pairing beauty with something terrifying. The other excerpts describe events or feelings without this striking contradiction.

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