In a short response, discuss how the perspective of the narrator impacts
the story. How does [the shift from 3rd to first person] change the
story?
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Third person reduces O'Brien's proximity to the war and to his troop.
When he talks, in the first chapter, about Jim Cross, he appears to be
a completely unbiased or impartial narrator because most of the
statements he makes are rooted in fact or related to a statement which
is factual ("the things they carry" are often physical objects, and
when they're not---like Cross's love for Martha, they're evidenced by
physical manifests).

First person narration loses the illusion of an impartial and completely
"reliable" narrator. O'Brien's metanarration on how he doesn't want to
write the chapter "On the Rainy River" or "don't mention---" with Cross
shows that later chapters are more strictly his emotions and how he
perceives himself and his comrades. Some components do remain the same,
however. Mournfulness at Lavender's death is constant, and the war is
treated as a terrifying occasion regardless of the perspective O'Brien
uses.

Also, in the first person chapters we've read, O'Brien's memories appear
to be less sharp---like his inability to recall exactly what Elroy said
as a goodbye and what he wrote when he was going to drive toward the
border. This may be from the fact that it was a much shorter period of
the time than the war, but it appears that his precise memory of the
components of war (guns, tools, mines, memoranda) are significantly more
pronounced because his memory is less clouded by emotion and repeated
recall in the first chapter.