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Importance of courage
The importance of courage
Mental and physical effects of war
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Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried follows a platoon of soldiers in the vietnam war. The war reveals traits in the soldiers. O’Brien displays that war reveals traits such as boredom, fear, and bravery. War reveals boredom in people. O’Brien describes most of the Vietnam war during the interim of battles. Most of the time between battles provides little entertainment, O’Brien writes, “If you weren't humping, you were waiting. I remember the monotony.” (O’Brien 34). O’Brien displays contrast between battle and peace, this contrast bores soldiers during peace because they become used to the excitement of battle. The soldier’s perception of beauty in war also reveals boredom, O’Brien writes, “war is drudgery […] You admire the fluid symmetries of troops on the move, the harmonies of sound and shape and proportion […] You hate it, yes, but your eyes do not” (O’Brien 80). This displays boredom because the untraditional beauty the soldiers see results from drudgery and insipidness. Clearly war creates a sense of boredom. Tim O’Brien displays war fosters fear. O’Brien describes war as multi-faceted and includes fear, he writes, “War is hell, but that's …show more content…
War reveals bravery through personal achievement, O’Brien writes, “He wished he could have explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be. The distinction was important.” ( O’Brien 153). . Tim O’Brien shows internal bravery when he deals with weakness, O’Brien writes, “[Azar] looked down at me with a mixture of contempt and pity. After a second he shook his head. "Man, I'll tell you something. You're a sorry, sorry case." I was trembling. I kept hugging myself, rocking, but I couldn't make it go away.” (O’Brien 216). Azar calls Tim weak for dealing with fear with tears, however this shows Tim’s real bravery because he deals with his problems openly. Clearly O’Brien displays that war reveals
Tim O’Brien states in The Things They Carried that “Stories are for joining the past to the future” (36). Early in this novel, O’Brien adds “I sit at this typewriter and stare through my words and watch Kiowa sinking into the deep muck of a shit field, or Curt Lemon hanging in pieces from a tree, and as I write about these things, the remembering is turned into a kind of rehappening” (31). In this quote O’Brien foreshadows some of the approaching short stories. But the recurring struggle that O’Brien goes through when reliving these awful memories causes him to describe the details in a way you will feel what he has felt. Making the past with the present and the truth blurred with the fiction. His purpose, is to write about his struggle to write these war stories, including his obsession to continue to write them. O’Brien uses himself to illustrate the emotional and physical weight of his obsession to write war stories about Vietnam.
In “The Dentist” Curt Lemon had a more than healthy tooth ripped out to prove he was brave. This wasn 't really a form of courage but more of a shield to protect himself from the fear and weakness that drove him to dislike the dentist in the first place. In “On the Rainy River” Tim does not believe in the war. He has no clue why the war even began in the first place, and has no idea who the president of North Vietnam is for that matter. Tim believes that he is “above” the war but the pressure from his community forces him to be shipped off to war. Hesitant to go, Tim knows he must go so that he does not look like a coward in front of his family and friends. He does not believe that men go to war due to there overwhelming urge to fight for their country or to show off their bravery but to show that they are courageous instead of cowardly. Although soldier’s are glorified as brave and strong, they still fear embarrassment and shame. When Tim lost his first crush due to a fighting battle with cancer, he never recovered from the affects death had on him. O’Brien’s shows that his fears ran deeper than being cowardly— he feared death more than
The truth behind stories is not always what happened, with each person 's perspective is where their truth lies. In the beginning of the novel, you start to think that it is going to be the same old war stories you read in the past, but it changes direction early. It is not about how the hero saves the day, but how each experience is different and how it stays with you. From his story about Martha, to how he killed a man, each one is so different, but has its own meaning that makes people who have not been in war, understand what it is like. Tim O’Brien can tell a fake story and make you believe it with no doubt in your mind. He does this throughout the novel. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien distinguishes truth from fantasy and the
The title of the book itself couldn’t be more fitting. The Things They Carried is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Tim O'Brien about soldiers trying to live through the Vietnam War. These men deal with many struggles and hardships. Throughout this essay I will provide insight into three of the the numerous themes seen throughout the novel: burdens, truth, and death.
The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is not just a book about what soldiers carried during the Vietnam War, but a book about what they carried with them for the rest of their lives. The book also describes the traumatizing deaths which caused many soldiers to start to blame themselves.
Tim O’Brien’s story depicts human nature of mistakes, guilt, humility, personal responsibility and things we can safeguard against. It doesn’t always mean that we can control life’s events, but we can make choices to prevent these things. It also shows how we cope with the difficult challenges that we face. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross uses Martha to cope, while Ted Lavender uses dope. Henry Dobbins uses food, while Kiowa relies on his faith. The story gives us insight on war, but also insight on human nature itself.
The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien centers around O’Brien and the soldiers in the Alpha Company during the Vietnam War. O’Brien uses point of view, imagery, and details to create suspense and make his experiences more real to the reader.
Finally, Tim O’Brien conveys how society’s view on courage plays an important part in the creation of guilt for soldiers in the Vietnam War. At the start of “On the Rainy River”, Tim O’Brien is drafted to be in the Vietnam War against his will. O’Brien says, “I was drafted to fight a war I hated...the American War in Vietnam seemed to me wrong.,” (40). However, regardless if one was against the war, they were forced to anyway. In adhesion, society developed one stance on the war pertaining to courage, which is that the man needs to do the bravest thing, which was to go to war and fight. Although this also ties with the theme of masculinity with men being tough, it more importantly exemplifies courage in going to risk your life for the good of the country.
O’Brien is overwhelmed by everyone going to war and is pressured to go, even when it is against his beliefs. He informs the reader that he is against the war from the beginning by saying “A million things all at once. I [am] too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything” (O’Brien 39). The war slowly breaks Tim down, which results in him losing himself and killing a young soldier. Tim drowns in guilt and regret thinking about what kind of life the soldier is living. Kiowa reassures O’Brien and says, “ask [yourself] what the dead man would’ve done if things were reversed” (O’Brien 127). Mary Anne, Norman Bowker, and Tim O’Brien all changed immensely in the duration of the
Tim O'Brien's story, "Speaking of Courage," is an allegory that opens up the hearts of soldiers. O'Brien's use of metaphor allows the reader to relate on a personal level with the soldiers of the war. Men who fight for their country and die on the battlefield are more than just a number or a casualty. These men all have a bond that most of the world does not understand.
The Civil War, World War I, the Vietnam War, World War II, and the conflict in the Middle East are all wars that have been fought over the difference of opinions, yet come at the cost of the soldier 's fighting them; Humans killing other humans, and death is just one of the many emotional scars soldiers of war face. Why do we go to war when this is the cost? For many it is because they are unaware of the psychological cost of war, they are only aware of the monetary cost or the personal gains they get from war. Tim O 'Brien addresses the true cost of war in "The Things They Carried". O 'Brien suggests that psychological trauma caused by war warps the perception of life in young Americans drafted into the Vietnam War. He does this through Lieutenant
In conclusion the soldiers use dark humor, daydreaming, and violent actions which all allow an escape from the horrors they had to go through in Vietnam. These coping mechanisms allowed the men to continue to fight and survive the war. They wouldn’t have been able to carry on if it wasn’t for the outlets these methods provided. Without humor, daydreaming, and violent actions, the war would have been unbearable for the men, and detrimental to their lives going forward.
The Things They Carried represents a compound documentary novel written by a Vietnam veteran, Tim O'Brien, in whose accounts on the Vietnam war one encounters graphical depictions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Thus, the stories "Speaking of Courage," "The Man I Killed," "How to Tell a True War Story," "Enemies" and "Friends," "Stockings," and "The Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong "all encompass various examples of PTSD.
The Things They Carried is a funny little book in the sense that it isn’t told how most books are. It goes from war to camping on the borderline of Canada, back to war, and then into present day times. It works marvelously well, showing you what actually happened and then what he thought about what happened and what he could have done to change the outcome. There are many things that I think people can learn from his experiences in the Vietnam war and the way he tells those stories and lessons really bring you along for the ride.
The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War, but in reality, the book centers around the relationships the men make, their connections to the world they left behind and the connections that they formed to Vietnam. The stories are not war stories, but stories about love, respect and the bonds made between men when they spend day after day fighting just to stay alive.