War’s impact on Humanity As humans, we fight for what is thoroughly criticized of our beliefs without facing the long-term threats that are bound to come along the journey. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, shows how war can impact a person’s humanity. The soldiers witness so much agony trying to survive the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien gives us an insider of war and its influence on the soldiers and the environment. Stories by Tim O’Brien, Rat Kiley, and Norman Bowker reveal that war can negatively influence a person’s humanity and mortality. Tim O’Brien experiences war’s impact on his mental health, where he feels guilt and shame that leads him to mix fact and fiction. “I was a coward” (O’Brien, 65). As can be seen in the book, O’Brien …show more content…
A bigger picture is seeing that he is not the only one going through this. He feels like he should almost emasculate himself because he can’t face his struggles. “None of it happened, it didn’t happen in the mountains” (O’Brien 78). Another example is O’Brien’s perception of reality, which also twists his storytelling abilities. He takes a moment of realization that this didn’t happen, but could’ve just been somewhere else. To my understanding, war can traumatize a person to the point they rather bury their experience in the back of their head, so they can’t recall that memory. Rat Kiley’s story goes more in-depth into the psychological scars of war and the result of participating and witnessing violence causing emotional tolls. Rat Kiley was a good medic but also had times of deception. He had times when he lied about his abilities and the things he pursued. “Curt Lemon was dead, Rat Kiley had lost his best friend in the world” (O’Brien 75). Rat lost someone close to him. Rat most likely didn’t see Curt Lemon as a best friend, but a …show more content…
Rat was angry and felt like he needed to get something off his chest. When a person goes through something that causes hurt, humans always try to find someone or something to blame due to the fact it's human nature. He most likely took his frustration out on the baby buffalo. Norman Bowker has trouble finding his purpose in life after facing trauma to his well-being. “He followed the road past the handsome houses with their docks and wooden shingles” (O’Brien 140). Norman is most likely looking for something to inspire him again. Norman probably didn’t know what his purpose was, he must have thought winning medals helped him boost his self-worth. Medals only celebrate short-term achievements, not the feeling of longevity and happiness with one’s self. How the rain never stopped. How the cold worked into your bones, sometimes the bravest thing on earth was to sit through the night and feel the cold in your bones” (O’Brien 141). Norman expresses that even the bravest can be brave to a certain extent. A person can have bravery until external or internal factors change the trajectory of the situation. Tim O’Brien is affected in a way that his mentality isn’t the same
Tina Chen’s critical essay provides information on how returning soldiers aren’t able to connect to society and the theme of alienation and displacement that O’Brien discussed in his stories. To explain, soldiers returning from war feel alienated because they cannot come to terms with what they saw and what they did in battle. Next, Chen discusses how O’Brien talks about soldiers reminiscing about home instead of focusing in the field and how, when something bad happens, it is because they weren’t focused on the field. Finally, when soldiers returned home they felt alienated from the country and
War changes people, with some changes being very dramatic and very quick. This is evident in the behavior of Norman Bowker, Bob “Rat” Kiley, and Tim O’Brien. These changes affected each person differently, but they all had dramatic changes to their personalities. These changes had very severe effects on each
In the book “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien uses imagery, figurative language and repetition to convey his message. O’Brien’s purpose for story telling, is to clear his conscience of war and to tell the stories of soldiers who were forgotten by society. Many young men were sent to war, despite opposing it. They believed it was “wrong” to be sent to their deaths. Sadly, no one realizes a person’s significance until they die. Only remembering how they lived rather than acknowledging their existence when they were alive.
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 is a funny little book in the sense that it isn’t told how most books are. It goes from war to camping on the borderline of Canada, back to war, and then into present day times. It works marvelously well, showing you what actually happened and then what he thought about what happened and what he could have done to change the outcome. There are many things that I think people can learn from his experiences in the Vietnam war and the way he tells those stories and lessons really bring you along for the ride.
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.
In the book The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses many themes to help draw connections between the book and the reader. O’Brien’s “On The Rainy River” chapter contains countless motifs that make this chapter so compelling. “On The Rainy River” describes his decision whether to enter the draft or to flee to Canada where he would not get condemned. The main theme in this chapter is embarrassment. First Lieutenant Tim O’Brien goes insane from the embarrassment he would face if he did not enter the draft.
War is often thought about as something that hardens a soldier. It makes a person stronger emotionally because they are taught not show it and deal with it internally. People say that death in war is easier to handle because it is for the right reasons and a person can distance themselves from the pain of losing someone. However, there is always a point when the pain becomes too real and it is hard to maintain that distance. In doing so, the story disputes the idea that witnessing a traumatic event causes a numbing or blockage of feelings. Rat Kiley’s progression of sentiment began with an initial concern for the buffalo, transforming into an irate killing of the animal, and then ending with an ultimate acceptance of death. These outward displays of feeling suggested that witnessing the death of a close friend caused him to become emotionally involved in the war.
Just as the pivotal moment arrived, in which O’Brien was to decide if he would go to Canada or not; fragments of his past and future arrived in front of him. These hallucinations were mainly what kept O’Brien from jumping overboard and swimming to the Canadian shores. The idea of everyone who was important to him no longer respecting him due to his conviction to his ethics, or even the idea that one of the decisions could lead to him not ending up with the family that he would later call his own. Moreover O’Brien could not handle the “audience to [his] life” judging the mental task at hand. A fear of embarrassment took precedence over all else with the eyes of the world looking back at him urging him one way or the other. Tim O’Brien had made his decision to go to war because he was afraid not
Tim O’Brien wrote the novel The Things They Carried in 1990, twenty years after the war in Vietnam.In the novel,Obrien takes us through the life of many soliders by telling stories that do not go in chronical order. In doing so we get to see the physical and mental things the soldiers carry throughout the war in Vietnam.Yet the novel is more than just a description of a particular war. In the things they carried Tim O’Brien develops the characters in the book slowly, to show the gradual effect war has on a person. O’Brien shows this by exploring the life of Henry Dobbins, and Norman Bowker.
Throughout the chapter O’Brien uses a technique known as point of view. The point of views in the novel comes from three characters- Azar, Kiowa, and Tim O’Brien himself. The three characters perspectives on war are interpreted entirely different. Tim O’Brien is illustrated as the most sensitive solider out of the three. “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole…” (124). Tim’s sensitivity is revealed when he shows how bewildered he is as he stares at the lifeless Viet Cong body. Tim allows the readers to see that he has remorse about how he took action to stop the Viet Cong solider as he thinks repetitively about the repugnant attack. Tim is also shown as the character that never really talks and is very quite which in turn shows that he is guilty and ashamed. Azar happens to be the solider that is there to complete his job and does not show any sorrow for any actions that may occur. “Oh, man, you fuckin’ trashed the fucker” (125). In the novel, Azar shows that he actually enjoys the work of war and it does not really seem to bother him. Kiowa is more sensible in realizing and understanding what Tim is experiencing. “Tim it’s a war. The guy wasn’t Heidi—he had a weapon, right? It’s a tough thing, for sure but you got to cut out that staring” (126). He knows that what Tim is feeling is really hard for him to grasp because of the astonishment “Take it slow. Just go wherever the spirit takes you.” (126). It is shown that Kiowa has an understanding of Tim but he knows how to deal with the situation at hand.
Life has no meaning, except for the meaning we create for ourselves. In the memoir, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien details the 20-year war between Vietnam and America (1955-1975) from the account of a soldier who shared the same name as the memoir’s creator. Tim O’Brien goes into the lives of these soldiers in the Alpha squad, as they venture through the treacherous and dangerous Vietnam. Tim O’Brien goes on to explore the lives of the surviving members of the Alpha squad, after the Vietnam War had ended, showing how characters such as Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, O’Brien, and Norman Bowker were affected by the war. The saddening truth of the loss of a sense of meaning becomes more apparent, as the surviving characters live out their days
Through the use of characterization, Tim O’Brien illustrates the varying effects war can have on people. An
Exploring the Psychological and Existential Dimensions of War: A Critical Analysis of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried In Tim O’Brien’s seminal work, The Things They Carried, the author delves deep into the distressing environment soldiers endure, unpacking the psychological trauma they face as the war unfolds. Through poignant narratives and reflective introspection, O’Brien vividly portrays the existential struggles of soldiers grappling with the uncertainty of war, the haunting memories of comrades lost, and the profound sense of disillusionment upon returning home. This thesis investigates how O’Brien masterfully captures the dissonance between the utility of the war and the psychological torment endured by drafted soldiers, ultimately