Question

I touch the name Andrew Johnson;
I see the booby trap’s white flash.

—“Facing It,” Yusef Komunyakaa

The grenade made a popping noise — not soft but not loud either — not what I’d expected — and there was a puff of dust and smoke — a small white puff — and the young man seemed to jerk upward as if pulled by invisible wires.

—“Ambush,” Tim O’Brien

How are the two passages similar?

Both describe an explosion.

Both contain sensory language.

Both are flashbacks.

Both describe the death of a soldier.

Both use personification.

Answer 1

Correct:
- Both describe an explosion. (Komunyakaa’s “booby trap’s white flash” and O’Brien’s grenade/puff are explosive images.)
- Both contain sensory language. (Sight, touch, sound, and motion are invoked in both lines.)
- Both are flashbacks. (Each speaker is recalling a wartime moment.)

Incorrect:
- Both describe the death of a soldier. (O’Brien’s lines imply a man is killed; Komunyakaa’s line evokes a traumatic moment and a name on the wall but does not itself state a death.)
- Both use personification. (The passages use vivid metaphor and sensory detail rather than clear personification.)