Things They Carried Essay: Rebirth of a Spirit

976 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Describing war creative writing

Rebirth of a Spirit in The Things They Carried

Speaking of courage is a story found in Tim O ' Brien's The Things They Carried about a solider named Norman Bowker who has returned home from the Vietnam War. As Bowker circles the town's "source of pride" he comes to realize that the town that he left so many years ago will never be the same. While his life was paused by the war, theirs weren't. He also comes to understand that while the people he once knew have changed that he has also changed. He has been consumed by a war and it will forever alter his being.

When Norman Bowker returns to his hometown after the war things seem to have moved on without him. It seems that while his life was put on pause, his friends and family had moved on to their lives. His simple wish is for the past to be the present once again. He speaks of his friends Max Arnold and Sally Kramer. Now, Max was dead and Bowker refers to him as an idea. He talks of how things would be different if Max was around to listen to all his stories and how Max would have enjoyed them. The irony is that Max is gone. At one time Bowker had carried a picture of Sally in his wallet. He talked of how he would stop and talk to her when he saw her while driving. He decided that he might impress her with his knowledge that he had acquired during the war such as his ability to predict the time at any point during the day within 10 minutes. He repeatedly said "if she was to listen". Just like the others she did not want to think about the war, it was in the past. Page 143 makes a clear point that "The town could not talk, and would not listen.. It (the town) did not know shit about shit, and did not care to know".

As Bowker continues what seems to be a trip back to what is reality he circles the town lake nearly 13 times. This lake is the life of the town and is very symbolic in itself. On one side of the lake the houses are "modern, with big porches and picture windows facing the water" on the opposite side the houses were described as "handsome, though less expensive and on a smaller scale".

Show More
Related

  • Historical Fiction in B for Buster by Iain Lawrence

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    An example of courage, as the judgment that something else is more important than fear, is through the character of Kak in B for Buster by Iain Lawrence. In this novel, Kak is characterized as a young, determined boy, desiring to turn himself from a comic book reading boy into a World War II hero. Planning to escape his drunken, abusive father, Kak enlists himself in the Canadian Air Force although he is underage and only sixteen years old. During his first mission, he is becomes frightened of the risk of not coming home alive, but doesn?t show his emotions because of his austere, intrepid crewmen. During this mission, Kak did not have an absence of fear, but he felt that becoming a hero like the ones in his comic book, and accomplishing his dream of fly, was more important than his fear of dying.

    Read More

  • Speaking of Courage: The Norman Bowker Story

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today, we have a lot of veterans who are coming home from war that are being displaced. In this chapter it talks about a Vietnam War soldier named Norman Bowker who arrives home from the war. In the chapter, Speaking of Courage from the book ‘The Things They Carried’ written by Tim O’Brien, Norman feels displaced from the world and everyone there. A returning soldier from the Vietnam War is driving around a lake on the 4th of July in his fathers big chevrolet, but then realizes he has nowhere to go. He starts to reminisce about his father, ex-girlfriend, and his childhood friend. Norman talks about all the medals he had won. He starts to think about his fathers pride in those badges and he starts to have a recollection about how he had almost own the silver star but blew his chance. He continues to drive around the lake again and again. He continues to imagine telling his father about the story of how he almost won the silver star, but failed to do so. This paper will analyze Speaking of Courage with the new criticism/formalism lens.

    Read More

  • Death in The Things They Carried

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Things They Carried there are three instances in which the main character and author Tim O’Brien experiences first hand the tragedy of death. During his storytelling O’Brien describes the man he kills, next he describes the first death he witnesses in Vietnam and finally his first experience early in life with the death of Linda. O’Brien tells the reader how he has able to cope and learn with each experience of death. In the book, The Things They Carried O’Brien tells how he copes with death in his own way and how his understanding of death evolves throughout the novel.

    Read More

  • The Role of Storytelling in The Things They Carried

    2570 Words  | 6 Pages

    The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.

    Read More

  • The Donner Party: Survival or Principles?

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...reservation even with the Fort Laramie Treaty, which swore for the reconciliation amongst Native Americans and white settlers. The Manifest Destiny, the resettlement of the West, conveyed an abundant adjustment in the antiquity of the United States of America (PBS).

    Read More

  • Essay On The History Of Welding

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though welding has been around for a long time, most of the best inventors were around during the 19th century and have changed the way thing are done today. During the 20th century, many technological advancements developed and have made welding easier because of the different types of welding that have been developed. Welding impacted the world during World War l, because during the war armaments that were going to be utilized were ordered in tremendous amounts. Therefore, welding has been around since the Iron Age and has let people build strong steel and powerful armament such as Weapons, tanks, and planes. Finally, welding has had many advancements, and will continue to do so in the future, because the world needs

    Read More

  • Red Badge of Courage Essay

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    A newly enlisted rookie by the name of Henry Fleming battles his own wits as well as the attacking Confederate army in the fictional novel, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. Tormented by doubts of his own bravery, his fears come true, and he flees from battle. He runs from the scene only to be taken away to a day of weariness and struggles whilst making it back to camp. As the story progresses, he learns from his mistakes, grows out of his fears, and later turns out to be one of the bravest soldiers of all. In The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, Henry Fleming is determined, curious, and brave although first fearful.

    Read More

  • What Is Welding?

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some techniques of welding started a thousand years ago, it was not till 1800 modern welding started (“Welders”173). Welding had its major uproar in the start of World War I (“Welding and the Society”). In the beginning there was a very high demand for all metal ships, some of the first tanks, and planes. Col. Scott Ritchie said, “welding has done much to keep us above and ahead of the enemy” (“Welding and the Society”). Welding as played an important part in modern wars for America from from sea to air and the land between. On the other hand welding goes back to the year of 1877 resistance welding was first created (“Welders and Welding Technicians” 961). Followed by arc welding in 1889, which is the most used welding today, then came thermite welding in 1900 (“Welders and Welding Technicians” 961). As of today, there is twelve different types of welding used in everyday life ("AWS Revises Major Qualification Standard"). This includes oxyfuel gas welding, shielded metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, submerged arc welding, laser beam welding, gas metal arc welding, flux cored arc welding, plasma arc welding, electroslag welding, electrogas welding, electron beam welding and arc stud welding ("AWS Revises Major Qualification

    Read More

  • Loss of soldier identity

    2537 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Vietnam War was not a “pretty” war. Soldiers were forced to fight guerilla troops, were in combat during horrible weather, had to live in dangerous jungles, and, worst of all, lost sight of who they were. Many soldiers may have entered with a sense of pride, but returned home desensitized. The protagonist in Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible,” is testament to this. In the story, the protagonist is a young man full of life prior to the war, and is a mere shell of his former self after the war. The protagonists in Tim O’Brien’s “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” and Irene Zabytko’s “Home Soil,” are also gravely affected by war. The three characters must undergo traumatic experiences. Only those who fought in the Vietnam War understand what these men, both fictional and in real life, were subjected to. After the war, the protagonists of these stories must learn to deal with a war that was not fought with to win, rather to ensure the United States remained politically correct in handling the conflict. This in turn caused much more anguish and turmoil for the soldiers. While these three stories may have fictionalized events, they connect with factual events, even more so with the ramifications of war, whether psychological, morally emotional, or cultural. “The Red Convertible,” and “Home Soil,” give readers a glimpse into the life of soldiers once home after the war, and how they never fully return, while “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” is a protest letter before joining the war. All three protagonists must live with the aftermath of the Vietnam War: the loss of their identity.

    Read More

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in The Things They Carried

    2502 Words  | 6 Pages

    For Vietnam veterans, nothing could replenish the zest for life they had before the war. According to O'Brien's text, upon their arrival home the veterans imagine, even hallucinate, what things would have been like if they had not suffered through the war. Examples of such occurrences exist in the stories "Speaking of Courage" and "The Man I Killed." Norman Bowker in "Speaking of Courage" dreams and fancies of talking to his ex-girlfriend, now married to another guy, and of his dead childhood friend, Max Arnold. He lives out over and over his unfulfilled dream of having his Sally beside him and of having manly conversations with Max.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried - Themes

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bowker spends his days after Vietnam driving around in circles, unable to find that road that would steer him to a meaningful future. Bowker’s depression and inability to adjust to life after Vietnam leads him to the only path he could find. Suicide.

    Read More

  • Corn Craze: A Review of the Role Corn Plays in Life Today

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    Meadows, H, Donella.. "Our food, our future." Organic Gardening. 01 Sep. 2000: 53. eLibrary. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

    Read More

  • Character Comparison in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.

    Read More

  • Childhood Obesity in the United States

    2855 Words  | 6 Pages

    ...ading, Writing, and Obesity America’s Failing Grade in School Nutrition and Physical Education. Nutrition in Clinical Practice, 26(5), 553–564. doi:10.1177/0884533611416820

    Read More

  • The Competing Aims of Education

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Moltow, D. (2014, March 19). EMT 602: Ethics, Education and Professional Practice, Week 4 lecture. Lecture presented for the Master of Teaching, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia.

    Read More

More about Things They Carried Essay: Rebirth of a Spirit

Open Document