"The Things They Carried," is a fiction story-telling book about the Vietnam War by Tim O'Brien that describes the physical and emotional burdens the men carry not only during their time in Vietnam but also years after leaving the warfront. The book is a series of stories told with O'Brien as the main narrator. O'Brien tells of the journey he takes alongside his unit, revealing his fight for courage and decision to commit to the serving in the war. It is a groundbreaking meditation on war, memory, imagination and the redemptive power of storytelling.
O'Brien describes the variety of encounters him and the Alpha Company experience while in Vietnam. O'Brien also describes the various items his fellow soldiers carried. Most of these things are physical items such as pocket-knives, dog tags and matches. Other things the men carried are burdens of emotional fear and guilt. O'Brien's many descriptions of what is carried on these men's backs makes the reader feel the weight of what these men were fighting for. This powerful writing also makes the reader feel as though they too are walking next to the Alpha Company in the battle field.
The "things" each man carries are literal and figurative. The physical load each man carries oversees the emotional load. Henry Dobbins carries items belonging to his girlfriend which symbolizes his desire for comfort and affection. Jimmy Cross also carries the emotional burden of desire seen from the letters from Martha, a college love, who it seems will never give the love and affection Cross desires. O'Brien touches on the burdens carried after the war in "Love" and "Notes." Survivors of the war may hold the gift of seeing the sun shine every day but are also reminded everyday of the grief and conf...
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...d also made Americans distrustful of government decisions. Even though the war is long over, Americans are still divided about the issues that arose during this time.
Overall the story provides a personal and emotional look on the Vietnam War. The main theme is that of carrying which is carried out throughout the text and first introduced in the title. The complete and extensive lists of items the men carried seemed tedious and irrelevant at times, but the reader realizes that each soldier’s humanity is emphasized. This idea is further supported with the addition of the ordinary items carried such as cigarettes, chewing gum and wristwatches. The carrying metaphor ultimately is crucial to the work giving the idea that the things we carry, inanimate or emotional, help each of us to carry on with life even when thrown what may seem the most difficult of challenges.
I wonder what it was like to witness the Vietnam War firsthand in combat. Well, in the short story, “The Things they Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, the theme was portrayed as the physical and emotional burdens that soldiers had to deal with during the Vietnam War.
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 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.
Tim O’Brien was an infantryman in during Vietnam War. He used those experiences to write many short stories including The Things They Carried. The story portrays how, “the things they carried” were weightless in comparison to their feelings of love and loss, fear and shame, and the torturous memories of death. “They all carried emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing- these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.”
This story concentrates on the death of one of the platform members and the horrific conditions of Vietnam during the war. This story's topic is a very unique. All the characters are carrying backpacks with full of items like food, clothing, weapons, and even pictures of loved ones. However, they are also carrying full of emotional baggage that driven by negative feelings such as fear and loneliness, plus, the story is written as if the narrator is working up the courage to talk and relieve about his thoughts and emotions. The list of things they carried are way for the narrator to discuss the more emotional issues.
In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien brings to light the effects of war on soldiers, both physically and psychologically. The title of the story would lead the reader to believe the story is only about the provisions and apparatus a soldier would physically carry into war. After reading the entire story, it becomes evident that there are many burdens seen and unseen that soldiers face during times of war.
The Things They Carried is a story about Tim O'Brien a vietnam war veteran who is and was emotionally damaged by this war. He then describes what the men each carry with them. Some carry things personal to them such as a love letter, or alcohol or some of that Dank Kush to cope with the tremendous stress of the war. They all carry something with them that has some value to them or they think that it will help them survive and or protect them from the things to come. Through a series of semi-true stories, "O'Brien" illuminates the characters of the men with whom he served. He describes Jimmy Cross as an inexperienced and ill-equipped leader of the Alpha Company. Years after the war, the two spent an afternoon together reminiscing on their friends
“The Things They Carried” was written by Tim O’Brien in 1990. It is about the physical, psychological, and emotional burdens that the soldiers carried during the Vietnam War. During times of stress, people carry more than just physical burdens. The things they carried were mostly necessities. “Pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum” (O’Brien 367). O’Brien portrays that everyone carries a burden of emotions in life and exceeding emotions can have negative effects.
The story The Things They Carried is written by Tim O’Brien in the late 1980’s in Massachusetts. The author bases all the events during the Vietnam War. O’Brien uses figurative language and imagery to show his message about the Vietnam War, and how a platoon carries on with their baggage. The message behind the story is how Jimmy Cross matures from a naïve little boy who seems to have no experience but as well is a victim of a love story. To a grown man with his rank, what can come of true leadership is asked?
In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” first lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his soldiers are faced with shame and guilt of their lives while fighting in war. This story isn’t just about the war, it's about the experiences and the emotions of the soldiers. In “ The Things They Carried ” The soldiers all have some kind of connection to their former lives such as items like Jimmy Cross carried letters which he thinks are love letters from a girl named Martha, Kiowa carried a copy of the New Testament, Ted Lavender carried Tranquilizers, they also carried dignity, shame, fear, guilt throughout the war. One thing I liked that they carried was their friendship, how they cared for one another.
In the fictional story, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien describes an event that occurred during the Vietnam war. The story itself is so fascinating in so many ways, it sorts of studies the nature of young men in the time of war. The thing you first notice about this story is how it goes about character development, and how it exhaustedly it lists all of the things that the men’s carry. With the profound irony being that it’s not the physical weight of all of the things they are carrying that are going to cost them problems in life but it’s the non-physical things that they carry, the emotions, experiences, memories, regrets, and problems that are going to be the baggage which will be distracting.
The novel, “The Things They Carried”, is about the experiences of Tim O’Brian and his fellow platoon members during their time fighting in the Vietnam War. They face much adversity that can only be encountered in the horrors of fighting a war. The men experience death of friends, civilians, enemies and at points loss of their rationale. In turn, the soldiers use a spectrum of methods to cope with the hardships of war, dark humor, daydreaming, and violent actions all allow an escape from the horrors of Vietnam that they experience most days.
The novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien takes place in the Vietnam War. The protagonist, Lieutenant Cross, is a soldier who is madly in love with a college student named Martha. He carries around photos and letters from her. However, the first few chapters illustrate how this profound love makes him weak in the war.
Taking place in the middle of the Cold War Era, the Vietnam War was a war not only over land but for many a battle to protect democracy and to fight communism. Much like any other account of a war, the details are gruesome and it is even more difficult to imagine. However, following the Vietnam War one author, who served in the war, decided to take up the task and make an historic account of one of them most grueling wars ever fought. Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam veteran who wrote the novel The Things They Carried. There is a fine line to be walked when writing the accounts of the war in a way that not only informs but also entertains; however, Tim O’Brien walks it successfully. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, his use of symbolism and Metafiction helps portray the events that befall the soldiers fighting in Vietnam. The novel is one that not only gives insight into the war itself, but also reflects on the effects that it had on those who participated in it.
In today's culture we hear countless stories about countless wars but we never know the facts unless we experienced the events Very view war stories can be proclaimed true, these few are special, they are separate from any other piece of literature. In the novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien illustrates the complexity of a true war story. Tim O'Brien uses the characters Mitchell, Rat, and Curt to tell real stories about the Vietnam War. O'Brien focuses on their humility, their immoral characteristics, and their unreliability to portray the components of a true war story.