The character I chose to analyze from the book, “The Things They Carried” written by Tim O'brien was Martha. I chose to analyze her because she is an interesting, emotional, relatable, and impactful character that has a short timeline in the book.
I can relate myself to Martha personally because both of us have similar personalities. A couple of positive traits that we both have in common are generous, big heartedness, and selflessness. For example, as a future art teacher, I like to give back to society in an positive way by volunteering in nearby public schools and helping the students with arts and crafts projects. In addition, I like to teach and pass on my artistic skills such as sculpture, photography, drawing and painting to students.
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This way these students that I pass down my skills to can pass it down to the next generation of students. In the book, Martha was affiliated with a protestant based organization where she volunteered her services as a medical caregiver to help people in countries that are in need. (O’brien, 27). Based on the information given in the book from the author, this character uses what she knows to help others that are less fortunate than her. Plus, she uses these skills to help save lives and make society more beneficial. Another interesting trait that Martha and I share is that we have is similar body language when it comes to being uneasy and fearful.
For instance, when I am in an uncomfortable situation such as walking downtown at night in a unfamiliar place, I usually feel really scared. Firstly, my body gets tense and rigid like a tree. Secondly, my eyes gets wide opened like an owl. Thirdly, my hands get closed up into tight fists where I feel my nails imprinted in my palms. Fourthly, my mouth and jaw gets locked up. These things help me to deal with the uncomfortable situation that I am in. According to the book, “Martha shut her eyes. She crossed her arms at her chest, as if suddenly cold, rocking slightly, then after a time she looked at him and said she was glad he hadn’t tried it”. (O’brien, 28). Based on the information given in the book from the author, the character showed a certain level of discomfort with physical signs that she has already shown. In addition, she is traumatized from something she went through before. As a result, I connected with this with this character through positive characteristics such as being kind and giving to others. However, I also connected with this character because we share similar body when it comes to fear and
discomfort. I believe Martha represents many things in the book. Firstly, she represents women in the real world who've unfortunately experienced being attacked, traumatized and afterwards fearful. Secondly, Martha represents people that guarded and closed off from other people. In my observations, I have seen a couple of my closest friends in my life that have gone through a traumatic events in their lives that made it harder to get close to them. In the book, she is heavily guarded and protects herself from getting vulnerable with Jimmy Cross. (O’brien, 28). Thirdly, this character represents people that are trying to heal and cope from traumatic events. Lastly, Martha represents fear. As mentioned before, this character was traumatised by what she had gone through and is afraid that might happen to her again. In the beginning, I viewed Martha as a piece of artwork. For example, I viewed her as a beautiful porcelain vase because she was beautiful, innocent and nothing was wrong with her yet. Towards the end, I viewed her as the same being broken and glued back together. that has bashed and shattered in millions of pe Another way I viewed her artistically was rel has many relatable qualities that is relatable to the real world. she made a huge impact to a lot of people in a short period of time.
Martha?s day was a pretty long one and consisted of many jobs to do, anything from cleaning the house to delivering a baby. The fact that she never lost a mother during any of the childbirths is astonishing in itself since it was the number one cause of death in women. Among those jobs she also spun, raised her children, worked on her farm, and treated illnesses, coming up with her own remedies. For example when Parthenia was sick and she had her drink the last milk from the cow in hopes of her getting better which unfortunately she wasn?t able to make her get better and Parthenia died. Martha?s own children however all lived into their adulthood which was also a very rare thing to add to her list of unique facts.
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
In Wendell Berry’s “Pray Without Ceasing”, there are many characters described by grandmother Margaret that would be a positive model for the way we might live our lives. Many have role model worthy qualities and characteristics about them, but the one that stands out the most to me is Martha Elizabeth Coulter. Martha Elizabeth is the daughter of Thad Coulter, the antagonist of the story. She stands out to me because of her love, patience, thoughtfulness, determination, and her ability to forgive. These great characteristics are shown in a couple different parts of the story.
The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War, but in reality, the book centers around the relationships the men make, their connections to the world they left behind and the connections that they formed to Vietnam. The stories are not war stories, but stories about love, respect and the bonds made between men when they spend day after day fighting just to stay alive.
The genre fiction brings the audience into a new experience they have never experienced before in their lives. It introduces different types of people and places one can only imagine. A fiction uses fantasy as a way to reel us into a story as if we, the audience, are part of it. In which it can have an effect on our memory because the brain uses only bits of pieces of information from our memory to tell a story we want to believe. In his novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses fiction as a way to make Vietnam seem like a fantasy. He uses beautiful imagery, almost as if it is a fairytale, to capture the reader’s attention. He wants the reader’s to feel and see Vietnam from his vision, as more than just a war; he
The role of women in the book The Things They Carried is an important one. These men have various views and feeling about the women they love, the women they hate, and the women that they may not know and can only dream of. While the text given to the ideas of women is small is stature, it is quite significant in meaning. There are three main women that enter and disrupt the lives of the Alpha company; Mary-Ann, Martha, and Henry Dobbin's girlfriend, who remains unnamed. The men carry letters, rocks, and even pantyhose to remind them of the women back home, and that which they hope to return to. The relationships between the men of Alpha company and their significant females are not always as they might hope, and in fact, seem to be as much of a burden and a problem as they are a reminder of what it is they want.
The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger once said “Perjor est bello timor ipse belli”, which translates to: “the dread of war is worse than war itself”. With this quote, Seneca identifies that war has both its physical and mental tolls on its participants. The psychological and emotional scars of war do much more damage to a solider than the actual physical battles. Tim O’ Brien repeats this idea many years later in his novel “The Things They Carried”, by describing how emotional burdens outweigh the physical loads that those in war must endure. What keeps them alive is the hope that they may one day return home to their loved ones. Yet, the weight of these intangible “items” such as “grief, terror, love, longing” overshadow the physical load they must endure since they are not easily cast away.
“In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” - John Steinbeck. Curley throughout the story, whenever he came in, there was always a negative vibe going on. Events he’s in, usually goes downhill for him or some other major character, he’s always bringing out bad events in the story, from when he wants to kill people, from when he wants to hurt people, Curley is someone who brings bad events to him, and the characters around him. Curley’s actions throughout the story has proved him to be a belligerent, unemotional, and cocky character.
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.
In all, the women in The Things They Carried were important to make it apparent to the reader the different emotions that O’Brien was trying to show, remembering the fallen and learning to forgive yourself and moving on. The most prominent women within the novel used to express these points being Martha, Kathleen and Linda. They were essential in showing the key parts in O’Brien’s life that lead to the turning points which lead to the creation of this novel and his ability to be at peace with what had happened in Vietnam. He finally accepted what ad happened and embraced it instead of avoiding it.
of her own life as well as a critical study of characters and events during the
Martha’s actions throughout the play can be seen as her attempt to act like a typical American female during 50s and 60s. During this time period, women were expected to have a child and to be good wives. However, Martha doesn’t have children. If a woman didn’t have children, she was ultimately a failure. She says, “I disgust me. I pass my life in crummy, totally pointless infidelities...” Martha thinks herself that she is a failure due to lack of reproduction. Martha created the story of a son because she truly wants a child. She also creates the story because she wants to fit into society. She wants to become a woman that society expects. Because she does not want to society to view her as an inadequate woman, she is tremendously irrational about her illusional son. Martha and George start to create a story of their son with precise details from Martha’s delivery, son’s physical appearance to his experiences at school and summer camp, with some contradictory details. Martha explains that her son is a balance between George’s weakness and her “necessary greater strength.” When George finally ann...
In The Things The, O’Brien talks a fair amount about himself. It becomes clear that he was affected greatly by his experiences of the war and that he still has to try to cope with them everyday. Also clear is that he leaves whether or not the characters of this book are real or not as ambiguous. He leaves this ambiguous to make the point that the truth of the story doesn’t matter. What actually matters is the feelings his characters make him and the readers feel. He makes this clear by dedicating his book to his characters, by writing a conversation between himself and one of these characters, and by actually telling us that what is factually true doesn’t matter, rather an emotional truth does matter. Also clear is that in order to cope with the guilt from the war, Tim O’Brien writes The Things They Carried.
While the American Revolution went on Martha had notice that she would have to be spending a lot more time alone without any help to care for the children. As she went on she had started to develop two big qualities that would always be with her as long as she lived, Courage and leadership. She was always recognized by everyone around from how kind she was to the least fortunate.
There is one clear main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard. The story is almost entirely focused on her, her feelings, and her personal mental journey from being a prisoner and a shell of a woman, living in an oppressive, patriarchal society within the confines of a marriage to the elation of newly acquired freedom and a rebirth of that that, for the first time, belongs to her solely.