Coping Methods in the Things They Carried

869 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Creative writing about war

1. How does O’Brien use The Things They Carried to cope with the psychological impact of his experience in the war?

In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien uses this story as a coping mechanism; to tell part of his stories and others that are fiction from the Vietnamese War. This is shown by using a fictions character’s voice, deeper meaning in what soldier’s carried, motivation in decision making, telling a war story, becoming a new person and the outcome of a war in one person. Tim O’ Brien uses a psychological approach to tell his sorrows, and some happiness from his stories from the war. Each part, each story is supposed to represent a deeper meaning on how O’Brien dealt, and will deal with his past. In war, a way to discover and to invent new ways to release oneself from the pressure of it, O’ Brien’s writing is all about it; this stories will makes the reader understand his burden.

A deeper meaning into what a soldier carried along to the war from which it was necessary supplies to good luck charms or something that reminded one of home. The things each person carried shows more into who the soldier really is or who he wants to be in front of the other soldiers-trying to become someone else. The different pieces each carry will remind them of home “Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha…Mitchell Sanders carried condoms…Kiowa…carried an illustrated New Testament…” (Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried pg. 3) Every soldier carried what was necessary like food, guns, bullets etc. but the personal things they carried made everyone different form that crowded but big space between each soldier. Tim O’Brien uses this description to introduce the characters and how each one starts from one po...

... middle of paper ...

... encountered; it is almost as a memoir to make the novel more cope able. A physical and emotional burden carried by a platoon from the war. Things everyone carries, tells many things about once person, the book inclines more into an emotional and spiritual through one’s life, especially a changing one as a soldier would experience it. O’Brien Stories goes beyond the war; it goes more in depth of each event, each character, and each place, as a diary to write out everything to cope with the experience, wondering someone else will read it. Tim O’Brien let his imagination flow; he wanted to integrate his own stories, along with stories that were close to him. At last it doesn’t matter if it’s fictional, or not, it is a part of him in every chapter of The Things They Carried, that he chose to share with each reader

Works Cited

Tim O'Brien- The Things They Carried

Show More
Related

  • Post-Traumatic Stress In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although their physical loads did not weigh the soldiers down, they definitely became their necessities. Certain physical burdens became items that helped them escape from the reality of being at war. Even though these men had things they had to carry, they elected to carry more. The items they carried were intended to illustrate aspects of their personality. All of them carried great loads of memories, fears, and desires. These abstract objects were an essential part of them and therefore could not be put down. They continued to carry these emotional burdens along with them throughout the war. And as Lieutenant Jimmy Cross came to realize, “It was very sad…the things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Things They Carried, an engaging novel of war, author Tim O’Brien shares the unique warfare experience of the Alpha Company, an assembly of American military men that set off to fight for their country in the gruesome Vietnam War. Within the novel, the author O’Brien uses the character Tim O’Brien to narrate and remark on his own experience as well as the experiences of his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company. Throughout the story, O’Brien gives the reader a raw perspective of the Alpha Company’s military life in Vietnam. He sheds light on both the tangible and intangible things a soldier must bear as he trudges along the battlefield in hope for freedom from war and bloodshed. As the narrator, O’Brien displayed a broad imagination, retentive memory, and detailed descriptions of his past as well as present situations. 5. The author successfully uses rhetoric devices such as imagery, personification, and repetition of O’Brien to provoke deep thought and allow the reader to see and understand the burden of the war through the eyes of Tim O’Brien and his soldiers.

    Read More

  • Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

    1720 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tim O’Brien is a very gifted author, but he is also a veteran of the Vietnam War and fought with the United States in that controversial war. Tim O’Brien was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1968. He served as an infantryman, and obtained the rank of sergeant and won a Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel. He was discharged from the Vietnam War in 1970. I believe that O’Brien’s own images and past experiences he encountered in the Vietnam War gave him inspiration to write the story “The Things They Carried.” O’Brien tells the story in third person narrative form about Lt. Jimmy Cross and his platoon of young American men in the Vietnam War. In “The Things They Carried” we can see differences and similarities between the characters by the things they hold close to them.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried Character Analysis Essay

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, each soldier carries many items during times of war and strife, but each necessity differs. This short story depicts what each soldier carries mentally, physically, and emotionally on his shoulders as long, fatiguing weeks wain on during the Vietnam War. The author Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam War veteran, an author, the narrator, and a teacher. The main character, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a Vietnam War soldier who is away at war fighting a mind battle about a woman he left behind in New Jersey because he is sick with love while trying to fulfill his duties as a soldier to keep America free. Tim O’Brien depicts in “The Things They Carried” a troubled man who also shoulders the

    Read More

  • Stories of the Vietnam War Illustrated in O’Brien’s The Things They Carried

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Things They Carried describes real objects American soldiers carried during the war. They carried an M-60, a .45-caliber pistol, an assault rifle, ammunition, compass, maps, code books, the PRC-25 radio, sandbags, tanning lotion, toilet paper, tranquilizers, rabbit’s foot, Purple Hearts, diseases, the wounded, the weak, and the land itself. Many soldiers experienced horrific events in Vietnam. War affects the mind. O’Brien said, “We all got problems.” (O’Brien 18). O’Brien relates one example of the war’s negative effect when a soldier shoots a baby water buffalo. He not only wants to kill the animal, but to make it suffer. Silence disturbs soldiers. Many times soldiers think they hear something which results in a bad decision. O’Brien describes a group on night watch who hear noises, go crazy...

    Read More

  • Coping Mechanisms Used for Survival in The Things They Carried

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    O'Brien's repeated use of the phrase "they carried" attempts to create a realization in the reader that soldiers in wars always carry some kind of weight; there is always some type of burden that servicemen and women will forever hold onto both throughout the war and long after it has finished. The specification of what the soldier bear shows that the heaviness is both physical and emotional and in most cases the concrete objects carried manifest into the continued emotional distress that lasts a lifetime (sentence about what they carry from novel) "The Things They Carried" emphasis this certain phrase in order for those that do not have the experience of going to understand the constant pressure of burdens they are under. O'Brien draws on

    Read More

  • O'Brien's Things They Carried Essay: Experiences and Emotions

    1608 Words  | 4 Pages

    Experiences and Emotions in The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is not a novel about the Vietnam War. “It is a story about the soldiers and their experiences and emotions that are brought about from the war” (King 182). O'Brien makes several statements about war through these dynamic characters. He shows the violent nature of soldiers under the pressures of war, he makes an effective antiwar statement, and he comments on the reversal of a social deviation into the norm. By skillfully employing the stylistic technique of specific, conscious detail selection and utilizing connotative diction, O'Brien thoroughly and convincingly makes each point.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before O’Brien introduces the characters, he introduces the items they carry as symbols of their humanity. The reader has a chance to develop curiosity for the depth of each character presented and is not instantly alienated by the war setting. In the first paragraph O’Brien introduces the letters Lieutenant Cross carries by writing, “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping” (O'Brien 337). The letters are one of the most prominent symbols the reader encounters and at the story’s opening, act as a symbol of home, youth, and hope. Because he carries these dainty baubles, Cross seems more vulnerable, therefore, more human. The reader sees this again when introduced to more of the soldiers inventory, “Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosqui...

    Read More

  • The Emotional and Psychological Burdens in 'The Things They Carried'

    803 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tim O’ Brien alternates between narrative and descriptions of the tangible items that they soldiers carry. He remembers seemingly everything that his squad mates were carrying and provides an “emotionless recitation” of the weights of each of the items the soldiers carried into the field. He frequently uses the term “humping” to describe how the soldiers carry their gear; making them appear more uncivilized, like animals. As he switches back to mentioning the intangible items, such as the experiences of his leader Jimmy Cross and his love Martha, the emotional weights of each soldier is felt by the reader. This contrast in style affirms that they soldiers are human and provides emphasis to the weight these intangible objects have on the soldiers.

    Read More

  • Truth in The Things They Carried by Tim O´brien

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Tim O’Brien’s novel, “The Things They Carried,” imaginations can be both beneficial and corrosive. This novel consists of story, truth and real truth. Throughout the novel, imagination plays a big role. Tim O’Brien wrote his book about the war, mainly based on his memory of the war. He did not remember every detail of the war, thus he made up some false details to the stories to make it seem more interesting.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried - Themes

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, numerous themes are illustrated by the author. Through the portrayal of a number of characters, Tim O’Brien suggests that to adapt to Vietnam is not always more difficult than to revert back to the lives they once knew. Correspondingly the theme of change is omnipresent throughout the novel, specifically in the depiction of numerous characters.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In 'The Red Convertible'

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    The main symbol in “The Things They Carried” is the necessities they carried as well as personal belongings. Each item tells a story that shows the past life on the soldier. Rat Kiley, the medic, carried M&M’s with him at all times. They were not to snack on during breaks. He brought them to provide as a placebo for soldiers who weren’t critically wounded and weren’t going to make it. The candy made some soldiers believe it was a painkiller and actually kept them alive and importantly quiet Ted Lavender’s tranquilizes and dope help reduce his fear. Kiowa carried an illustrated New Testament. For Jimmy it is his letters from Martha, it symbolizes the life that he wishes he could be living back at home with her. However, all of them carried one thing in common, the coward trait, the instinct to run at any given moment. Piedmont-Marton argues in her critical essay, “The things they carry on their bodies creates the illusion of unity and collaboration, but the fragile collective is always compromised by the things they carry inside and by the meanings and emotions attached to the smallest and most private of artifacts” (Para 3). She shows that the things that weigh the most have the least amount of meaning to them. The only thing getting them through times and not putting a bullet in their foot is the weightless mementos they have that give them

    Read More

  • The Importance of Friendship in The Things They Carried

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the significant concepts in The Things They Carried is that of the importance of certain objects or feelings used by the soldiers of Alpha Company to survive the war. Some examples of these items are the picture of the girl carried by Jimmy Cross, the Bible carried by Kiowa, and the stockings carried by Henry Dobbins. All the items helped the respective soldier to survive from day to day and to continue fighting the war. One of the most important things that helped the soldiers is their friendship with each other. This bond that the soldiers form helped them to survive, excluded someone who was outside their group, and helped the men of Alpha Company to cope with the war after they returned to the United States.

    Read More

  • Postmodernism In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, expresses his journey throughout the Vietnam War via a series of short stories. The novel uses storytelling to express the emotional toll the men encountered, as well as elucidate their intense experiences faced during the war. The literary theory, postmodernism, looks at these war experiences and questions their subjectivity, objectivity, and truth in a literary setting. It allows the reader to look through a lens that deepens the meaning of a work by looking past what is written and discovering the various truths. O’Brien used the storytelling process to illustrate the bleeding frame of truth. Through his unique writing style, he articulates the central idea of postmodernism to demonstrate the

    Read More

More about Coping Methods in the Things They Carried

Open Document