Tim O'Brien in his book "The Things They Carried" is a very emotional heart-tugging book filled with horrifying war stories. The book takes place during the Vietnam War and is told through the soldiers point of view. The book utilizes an enormous amount of symbolism which can make the story sentimental and form connections with the reader. The symbolism utilized can be things that keep the soldiers comforted and give them the satisfaction of being at home or in their happy place. A great example in the story would be Jimmy Cross and his sentimental letters from Martha. During the war Jimmy Cross has letters from Martha that mean the absolute world to him. Jimmy Cross carries the letters as a reason to live and go home to her. He
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.
Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” presents the central idea that during the Vietnam ...
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.
A work's infallibility cannot be defined by imagination's input, facts become false when they are exaggerated. The Things They Carried, is a collection of short stories that revolve around The Vietnam War. Tim O'Brien takes the reader back in time to the late 1960s, and contemplates on experiences that emotionally scarred Vietnam soldiers. O'Brien shares multiple war stories that are claimed to be authentic during the war, and migrates to the 1980s in states like Iowa and MA to discuss how these stories have influenced his life. The Things They Carried, is a collection of false war stories, the stories' authenticity is altered in hopes of evoking strong emotions from readers.
“The Things They Carried” is a story about the Vietnam war, in the simplest of terms. It focuses on one particular team of soldiers and their experiences during the war. O’Brien’s writing is complex and has many layers. In the story, O’Brien lists the items the soldiers physically carry in a stark comparison to the things they carry mentally throughout the war. The author uses symbolism, metaphors, and imagery to show the soldiers loss of innocence and the effects of war on an individual.
The Vietnam War was one of the biggest and the most impactful war that affected the society, especially in the US. Draftees often came back with mental and physical illnesses such as post traumatic stress disorder. Many came back with a missing limb because of the fights that they had to go through as a soldier. These soldiers also got trauma from the war because of the deaths and the dangers that they faced during the war. These psychological effects impacted the way many veterans lived and many of those ex-soldiers went to drugs abuses just to be able to cope with their situation during the war. Tim O’Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, had special way of coping with the psychological impact of his experience in the war. He expressed his thoughts and his emotions by writing this book. Through the themes, motifs, and the stories that are told through this novel. Although it is known as a piece of fiction, the stories that O’Brien tells show how he was coping with his situations.
Written by author Tim O’Brien after his own experience in Vietnam, “The Things They Carried” is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in “The Things They Carried” guides the reader through the complex development of characters by establishing their humanity during the inhumane circumstance of war, articulating what the men need for emotional and spiritual survival, and by revealing the character’s psychological burdens.
In Tim O' Brien's, The Things They Carried, he talks about the Vietnam war and how it changed many things and reminded him of many events in his past. O' Brien uses the psychological approach to tell his experience towards Death. The things that they carried had all represented a part of each soldier and past memories. Tim O’ Brien indicates the psychoanalytical approach in “Lives of the Dead” that can be related to the psychoanalytic criticism by Lois Tyson. O’Brien uses “The Lives of the Dead” to illustrate that his war narrative has a larger purpose than simply showing readers what it was like to be in a war and how it may feel to lose someone, a friend or family that was loved dearly. Throughout this story their are smaller stories about death in Vietnam that lead back to the story of O’Brien himself, a man who writes in order to make sense of his life, especially in relation to other deaths that had occurred in his presence.
Tim O’Brien, the author of many war novels and short stories such as The Things They Carried, is a worldly man whose many influences include his love of learning, his special bond with his family and his experiences during the Vietnam War. Tim’s unique style of writing, known as verisimilitude or blending of fiction and non-fiction, lends itself to stories of an almost autobiographical nature, however Tim makes changes to make the writing more interesting. Tim uses the aptly names character of Tim O’Brien to express the connections of himself and his character namesake. Over the course of the many short stories in The Things They Carried O’Brien directly and indirectly compares many important aspects of his own life such as his childhood and family life, his military experiences and his love of education to that of his character Tim O’Brien.
Fear plays a very large part of life, and when faced with high risk situations it makes a mountain out of a molehill. The Things They Carried is a series of vignettes written by Tim O’Brien that tells his story as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Many of the vignettes he tells are deeply disturbing. They express the fear O’Brien and the men in the Alpha Company felt while stationed in Vietnam. O’Brien shows this through the use of flashbacks of the travesties he witnessed. He uses the unfamiliar setting and the intense, rapidly changing mood to strengthen them. These three elements of style truly bring out O’Briens writing, and show the emotion behind his words, helping the reader fully understand his experiences.
In the book “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien uses symbolism, to convey depth and meaning into this story about the Vietnam War. The narrator lists things that the soldiers carry with them, both tangible and intangible. O’Brien’s purpose for storytelling is to show contrast and explain how the soldiers have gotten to where they are now. These objects will be further explained later in the book to help establish the story line. The personality of each character becomes a clear image, and in doing so the characters become more defined. Each item exemplifies where the soldiers are at in their journey.
In Tim O’Brien’s, The things They Carried, he explores many ideas, like the loss of innocence in young people at war, the effects of losing a friend at war, the dehumanization of soldiers at war and even soldiers superstitions at war. The things They Carried tells the story of young soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. It shows how difficult the war is for them as well as how difficult returning home can be when they do not fit in anymore because of their experiences. In his collection of short stories, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien explores the effects of war on young people and how war can affect people permanently.
“War is hell, but that’s not the half of it...” (76), states Tim O’Brien in the novel The Things They Carried. The short stories throughout the novel describe and express how the soldiers are fighting not only a war in Vietnam but are also battling with their own self-conscience. Since the men arrive home, they bask in the times spent in Vietnam, bringing back the past and refusing to forget the horrific memories and the guilt that will forever be in their minds. The Things They Carried contains symbols and oppositions that justify how the physical and emotional burdens each soldier carries are too big to satisfy the stereotypes of American society.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a wonderful and personal look into one of this countries darkest times. The vivid imagery that the author uses lets the reader actually experience the feeling of actually being in the war. By using the cultural studies method of literary criticism, we can use the social conditions during the time of the writing to explore beneath the surface. What we find underneath just might be more interesting than the story itself.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a short novel composed of twenty-two short stories told by the author himself. The stories are primarily about the Vietnam War but also heavily emphasize the importance of stories. The novel is an account of O’Brien’s life, yet it is not an autobiography. It is classified as fiction because not all of the stories are completely true and there is a clear difference between the author Tim O’Brien and the fictional character Tim O’Brien.