Colloquialism

" 'Shit, man,' he said. 'Don't you got music?' (pg 210)."

With this particular quote, colloquialism is particularly relevant. The majority of soldiers, especially at that time when the draft right out of high school was especially prominent, were not college-educated. The dialogue in this novel reflects this perfectly. Also, the language of soldiers is infamously peppered with inappropriates. Again, this quote serves this observation exactly. Still, being around people who speak in this manner certainly does not help. This is, of course, a generalization that can be proven false in many circumstances, but, then again, so can most generalizations. I believe the language of a soldier is racy and crude mainly due to the fact that there is no one around whom they would like to impress. You will notice that whenever a woman is around a veteran or anyone of the sort, they become respectful and use proper language. This is of little importance, but I found it interesting. The author added this colloquialism to make the story more realistic. Having these men walk around with perfect grammar would make the story unbelievable and sketchy at best.