A soldier is trained to defend our country. They are to have no emotion, discipline, strength, courage, and loyalty. The Things They Carried By Tim O’Brien is a book about Tim O’Brien’s experience of the Vietnam War, when he was drafted to fight. The losses of friends, the people he’s killed. Tim O’Brien also talks about his life after the war. The remembering, the changes that occurs to him. Does he suffer changes? What happens when the soldier arrives home? Are they the same? O’Brien talks about many stories in that change the lives of him and his friends that do change their lives, the constant battle after war. Although he ended his term with the war, the war never left him. They are now in a new war, a war with their memories. Although one might think they c unchanged, they would not …show more content…
understand until they have gone through the same experiences.
Ted Lavender, a comrade of O’Brien, was killed in Than Khe. However, the way he died was not what O’Brien expected. “...it was like watching a rock fall, or big sandbag or something...just boom…the bastard just fat fuck fell’’. O’Brien never realized how different death is from what he’s seen, which wasn’t a lot before the war. The problem entering war is trying to come back home, meaning arriving back the same way you left.“In a way, I guess she is right: I should forget. But the thing about o Although one might think they c unchanged, they would not understand until they have gone through the same experiences. Ted Lavender, a comrade of O’Brien, was killed in Than Khe. However, the way he died was not what O’Brien expected. “...it was like watching a rock fall, or big sandbag or something...just boom…the bastard just fat fuck fell’’. O’Brien never realized how different death is from what he’s seen, which wasn’t a lot before the war. The problem entering war is trying to come back home,
meaning arriving back the same way you left.“In a way, I guess she is right: I should forget. But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget” (34). It seems he is implying that even if he wanted to forget, he can’t. It seems O’Brien suffered some sort of PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One thing that affected O’Brien the most was that he did not think the war was correct. “...to stop a Hitler... I would’ve willingly marched off to the battle. The problem, though, was that a draft board did not let you choose your war. Beyond all this...was the raw fact of terror. I did not want to die” (44). It seems O’Brien did not believe what he was fighting in. All he knew was that he had to go to war and kill...do the dirty work. It seems O’Brien suffered some sort of PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One thing that affected O’Brien the most was that he did not think the war was correct. “...to stop a Hitler... I would’ve willingly marched off to the battle. The problem, though, was that a draft board did not let you choose your war. Beyond all this...was the raw fact of terror. I did not want to die” (44). It seems O’Brien did not believe what he was fighting in. All he knew was that he had to go to war and kill...do the dirty work. Some may argue he did not want to fight, he would have fled somewhere else and not fought. However, there was a paradox effect to this decision. He would have gone to jail if he had fled and came back. If a man* is to be drafted, he must go to war. If not, he is subject to jail time for refusing to comply. Also, back then, it was a proud thing to be drafted. It showed manhood. Therefore, if he had not gone, he would’ve been known as a coward. So, there was only one choice for him, going to war, although it would have meant putting his life on the line. So, in conclusion, Tim O’Brien, along with other soldiers, never came back from war in a sense. They left the war, but the war never left them. The memories were stuck in a rotary constantly turning and replaying. There was no way in escaping the war for O’Brien and he was unable to flee because he would have been known a coward, useless, not manly.
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.
In the book “The Things They Carried” four female characters played an important role in the lives of the men. Whether imaginary or not, they showed the power that women could have over men. Though it's unknown if the stories of these women are true or not, they still make an impact on the lives of the soldiers and the main narrator.
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 word "hero" is so often used to describe people who overcome great difficulties and rise to the challenge that is set before them without even considering the overwhelming odds they are up against. In our culture, heroes are glorified in literature and in the media in various shapes and forms. However, I believe that many of the greatest heroes in our society never receive the credit that they deserve, much less fame or publicity. I believe that a hero is simply someone who stands up for what he/she believes in. A person does not have to rush into a burning building and save someone's life to be a hero. Someone who is a true friend can be a hero. A hero is someone who makes a difference in the lives of others simply by his/her presence. In Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, the true heroes stand out in my mind as those who were true friends and fought for what they believed in. These men and women faced the atrocities of war on a daily basis, as explained by critic David R. Jarraway's essay, "'Excremental Assault' in Tim O'Brien: Trauma and Recovery in Vietnam War Literature" and by Vietnam Veteran Jim Carter. Yet these characters became heroes not by going to drastic measures to do something that would draw attention to themselves, but by being true to their own beliefs and by making a difference to the people around them.
When O’Brien first arrives to Vietnam, the men of the platoon show him how the grief of war can be covered up by humor. As the men were patrolling near a village off the South China Sea they suddenly started to encounter sniper fire. The firefight only lasted a few minutes but Lt. Cross decided to order an airstrike on the village anyways. After the strike was over, the platoon proceeded to the smoldering village to find nothing but “…an old man who lay face up near a pigpen at the center of the village. His right arm was gone. At his face there were already many flies and gnats.”(). To many, this image of a destroyed village and the mutilated old man would cause horror and plight. Instead of that normal reaction, “Dave Jensen went over and shook the old man’s hand. “How-dee-doo,” he said.”(). The other men of the platoon also went up to the dead man’s body and shook his hand while adding a comment. This disturbing response the men have to the dead old man isn’t one of disrespect, it is their coping mechanism for realizing what they just did. Because O’Brien was new to Vietnam he had yet to understand why the men were all doing this. He was awestruck by the actions...
The point of stories it to tell a tale and inflict certain emotions onto the reader. Tim O’Brien uses this in his novel The Things They Carried. These stories were fictional but true, regaling his experiences of war. In the last chapter he writes that stories have the ability to save people. He does not mean “save” in a biblical sense, but as if a person saved the progress on a game they have been playing.
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.
By allowing the reader the "[privilege of] the soldiers experience" (Chattarji) it shows how difficult it is to get rid of the weight as begins to define you and the more it becomes a part of a person the harder it is to remove an aspect of yourself. In his repetition, O'Brien wants to give readers a deeper meaning into the everyday struggles of soldiers. He portrays the ways that soldiers were effected in the war and focused on the burdens that developed. O'Brien highlights how war changes those involved as "[the individual dreams of soldiers rise and fall and] their hopes riddled by disillusionment, their fantasies broken by shrapnel edged realities" (Timmeran). Wartime altered soldier’s perception and caused them to develop these emotional and physical weights that followed them for years. When many solider returned they were now stuck with daily burdens that had started since the day they landed in Vietnam. Constantly, these soldiers endured the long lasting results of participating in the war and unable to escape or forget the weight that they endure. "The Things They Carried" serves as a constant reminder to readers about the true realities of soldiers and the impact of war. How soldiers are not stable as they return home because of these weights that have become a part of them and how simple acts such as carrying around a weapon has now manifested itself into an emotional burden that will not leave. Often the realities of being a soldier are not portrayed accurately but O'Brien attempts to put into perspective what it really is like to go through warfare by drawing on his own experiences as a foot
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.
... now. In the final chapter, the platoon searched through a burned down village and some of them came across some corpses. “Rat Kiley bent over the corpse. “Gimme five,” he said,” (page 149). Kiley gave the corpse a high five!?! The soldiers are no longer normal people. Their attitude toward death is literally considered insane. The characters react to death in a multitude of ways in the novel. O’Brien showed the impact war has on our minds with an extreme subject such as death.
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.
O’Brien’s unique verisimilitude writing style fills the novel with deep meaning and emotion. Analyzing the novel through a psychological lens only adds to its allure. Understanding why characters act the way they do helps bring this novel to life. The reader begins to empathize with the characters. Every day, the soldiers’ lives hang in the balance. How these soldiers react to life-threatening situations will inspire the reader. Life has an expiration date. Reading about people who are held captive by their minds and who die in the name of war, will inspire the reader to live everyday as if they are currently in the
One of the hardest events that a soldier had to go through during the war was when one of their friends was killed. Despite their heartbreak they could not openly display their emotions. They could not cry because soldiers do not cry. Such an emotional display like crying would be sign of weakness and they didn’t want to be weak, so they created an outlet. “They were actors. When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying because in a curious way it seemed scripted”(19). Of course things were scripted especially when Ted Lavender died. It had happened unexpectedly and if they didn’t have something planned to do while they were coping they would all have broken down especially Lieutenant Cross. Cross...
Although being alive was a miracle in certain instances, a sense of guilt filled their minds. "They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, then quickly hiding it. As if in slow motion, frame by frame, the world would take on the old logic-absolute silence, then the wind, then sunlight, then voices. It was the burden of being alive (O'Brien 604). The idea of being shot at was not something that was unfathomable. The men had to rediscover or come to reality whenever shots rammed into their bodies. To give into a wound or death was easy. There would be no fight to be fought. Although giving in required less energy, the men were ashamed to be alive. To check and recheck for injuries was a repetitive action of the soldiers. It seems as if to be shot was less of a shame because if a man was not shot he would have to continue on without all of his men. Also, the guilt of moving on without fellow brothers was deeply felt. Rena Korb states that "Cross will become a real solider, that is the only way to carry the weight of his guilt." Jimmy Cross cannot sit and wallow about those who have died. He was a leader to everyone else, and to let them down would be breaking a tradition he was bound to uphold. A part of Jimmy Cross may have perished when Ted Lavender was shot, but Jimmy Cross was still alive because of the men that
The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War that the author, Tim O’Brien, uses to convey his experiences and feelings about the war. The book is filled with stories about the men of Alpha Company and their lives in Vietnam and afterwards back in the United States. O’Brien captures the reader with graphic descriptions of the war that make one feel as if they were in Vietnam. The characters are unique and the reader feels sadness and compassion for them by the end of the novel. To O’Brien the novel is not only a compilation of stories, but also a release of the fears, sadness, and anger that he has felt because of the Vietnam War.