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Symbolism in the things they carried short story
Symbolism in the things they carried essay
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How can one tell if something is true or not? How can one tell if what you hear or read is pure fiction or reality? These are questions I often asked myself when I read “The Things they Carried” by Tim O’Brien. You begin to ask these questions throughout the book, but begin to realize that these types of questions don't matter. What matters is the deeper meaning that the author is trying to convey. O’Brien often describes this as “accurate representation,” he does this throughout his book within his portrayals of each individual story or character. What I mean by this is that the author gives a truthful story of what happened, he may add a few extra details, but at the end it is the truth in the way he perceives it and the way he wants his …show more content…
readers to see it. All of what he says in my belief is authentic. There are numerous authentic portrayals that the author writes about in his stories how war can change a person, he shows how they could be affected in the war and after the war when they return to their civilian life. To begin with, I will start off with how the author (Tim O’Brien) views how a true war story should be told. This will give us a deeper understanding of his perspective of an authentic portrayal. He believes that a true war story is what the author perceives to be true or the person telling it. He explains that you can add more or less detail so that the reader will understand the true meaning behind the story. This creates a more authentic acquire portrayal because it is done to get to the real truth. On page 81 it states “All you can do is tell it one more time, patiently, adding or subtracting, making up a few things to get to the truth.” That is why all of the portrays that O’Brien presents us is all accurate because he does these things to get to the truth. To add on, an accurate portrayal that the author presents in the book is how people could be affected during the war. He presents an accurate portrayal in the chapter nine (Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong). This is a story about a girl named Marry Anne Bell, she is the girlfriend of Mark Fossie (a soldier who's part of the medical unit) and apparently she was brought over to Vietnam because he sneaked her to his station. But as Marry Anne stays in Vietnam she starts to hang out with the special forces unit, she begins to change from an innocent bubbly girl to a person who lusts for war and death. She didn't have the same look, Rat describes her change on page 102 “ I saw those eyes of her, I saw how she wasn’t even the same person, no more.” On page 106 it shows the difference in personality by just the words she chose to say “Sometimes I want to eat this place. the whole country - the dirt, the death - I just want to swallow it and have it there inside me. That’s how I feel.” You may not believe that a civilian girl was allowed to stay in the military and hanged out with special forces, but it is authentic. Authentic in the way where this a accurate portrayal of how someone an average soldier could be affected by war psychologically, changing their personality to the complete opposite of what it was. To continue, another accurate portrayal that the author presents in the book is how people could be affected during the war is in the story of Rat Kiely. In chapter twenty-one (The Night Life) it describes of how soldiers needed to live the “night life.” In order from being seen from the enemy soldiers were required to travel in the night of Vietnam while they slept in the day. But except in Vietnam when you traveled at night it was like seeing nothing but total blackness, Sanders described it as you couldn't tell when your eyes were close or open. This darkness had a total effect psychologically on Rat. He went crazy thinking he might get lost in the dark and die, imagining his corpse getting eaten by bugs. On page 211 Rat states “I start seeing my body. Chunks of myself. My own heart, my own kidneys. It’s like - I don't know - its like staring into this huge black crystal. One of these nights i'll be lying dead out there in the dark and nobody’ll find me except the bugs - I can see it - I can see the goddamn bugs chewing tunnels through me - I can see the mongooses munching on my bones. I swear, it’s too much. I can't keep seeing myself dead.” This is a very sad, accurate portrayal that could happen to a soldier, you go mentally crazy where you can't take it anymore like poor Rat Kiely. Lastly, an accurate portrayal that the author presents in the book is how people could be affected by after the war when they return to their civilian life.
This is presented in the chapter sixteen (Notes). This chapter is mainly about Norman Bowker’s letter detailing his life after the war as a civilian. Bowker describes his life as meaningless now, he is no longer accustomed to the civilian life, he is never stable with jobs and he really doesn't have anyone to talk to. He is constantly living in the past full of the memories and guilt of the war. On page 150 he states ““The thing is,” he wrote, “theres no place to go. Not just in this lousy little town. In general, My life, I mean. It’s almost like I got killed in Nam … Hard to describe.” This is a sad reality for most soldiers they feel like they no longer have a place in this world after going through such trauma. This is as authentic as it gets, with how a lot of veterans feel at home.
In conclusion, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien gives some authentic portrayals throughout the book of how soldiers could be affected by the war. The stories may not be all true to the teeth, but they are authentic to the point where this could really happen and has happened to countless of soldiers. O’Brien gives us an inside view of a true authenticity to what has happened and what could happen to all the characters in his
story.
For Vietnam veterans, nothing could replenish the zest for life they had before the war. According to O'Brien's text, upon their arrival home the veterans imagine, even hallucinate, what things would have been like if they had not suffered through the war. Examples of such occurrences exist in the stories "Speaking of Courage" and "The Man I Killed." Norman Bowker in "Speaking of Courage" dreams and fancies of talking to his ex-girlfriend, now married to another guy, and of his dead childhood friend, Max Arnold. He lives out over and over his unfulfilled dream of having his Sally beside him and of having manly conversations with Max.
The Things They Carry: Character Changes. One of the main points in The Things They Carry, by Tim O’Brien, is that war changes people. This is evident in the behavior of Norman Bowker, Bob “Rat” Kiley, and the character Tim O’Brien. They each started out as kind young men, but near the end had become very distraught.
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.
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.
The things they carried, by Tim O'Brien. "Oh man, you fuckin' trashed the fucker. You scrambled his sorry self, look at that, you did, you laid him out like fuckin' Shredded Wheat." I chose to start off my essay with this particular extract from the book because I think that it very much represents the story in itself. Azar said this, after Tim (supposedly) killed a Vietnamese soldier with a hand grenade. It shows that in times of war, how callous men can become. However, callousness varies, whether they choose to be apathetic, like Tim shows us after his grenade episode.
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a very uniquely written book. This book is comprised of countless stories that, though are out of order, intertwine and capture the reader’s attention through the end of the novel. This book, which is more a collection of short stories rather than one story that has a beginning and an end, uses a format that will keep the reader coming back for more.
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
The title of the book itself couldn’t be more fitting. The Things They Carried is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Tim O'Brien about soldiers trying to live through the Vietnam War. These men deal with many struggles and hardships. Throughout this essay I will provide insight into three of the the numerous themes seen throughout the novel: burdens, truth, and death.
The Things They Carried is a classic because it approaches the gruesome subject of war in a way that is truly unique and honest. O’Brien’s unique point of view results in a book that is revered by the majority of its readers. “Now and then, when I tell this story, someone will come up to me afterward and say she liked it. It’s always a woman. Usually it’s an older woman of kindly temperament and human politics. She’ll explain that as a rule she hates war stories; she can’t understand why people want to wallow in all the blood and gore. But this one she liked” (pg.65-66). Many soldiers come home from war and try to hide the brutality of war from the rest of the population. Tim O’Brien allows readers in on the horrid truth of war! Throughout the novel, Tim O’Brien depicts how his fellow platoon members are held captive by their subconscious minds. “He shot it in the hindquarters and in the little hump at its back. He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn’t to kill; it was to hurt. He put the rifle muzzle up against the mouth and then shot the mouth away. Nobody said much. The whole platoon stood there watching, feeling all kinds of things, but there wasn’t a great deal of pity for the baby water buffalo” (pg.75). It would be impossible for someone who has not experienced war to understand how the subconscious mind can imprison a soldier. However, O’Brien’s stories are so vivid that the reader feels that he or
In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien the author tells about his experiences in the Vietnam war by telling various war stories. The quote, "It has been said of war that it is a world where the past has a strong grip on the present, where machines seemed sometimes to have more will power than me, where nice boys (girls) were attracted to them, where bodies ruptured and burned and stand, where the evil thing trying to kill you could look disconnecting human and where except in your imagination it was impossible to be heroic." relates to each of his stories.
Vietnam War a war that took many lives. A war that change the people,the nation and our views. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien, symbolism is the key into getting the reader understand life behind the line. Tim O'Brien writing give the readers the vivid image through the fact the war has a deeper meaning than one can believe. In this story we see how everyday life through symbols are used in literature writing.
Bowker spends his days after Vietnam driving around in circles, unable to find that road that would steer him to a meaningful future. Bowker’s depression and inability to adjust to life after Vietnam leads him to the only path he could find. Suicide.
Symbolism in stories is dependent on how the author writes, the title, and the characters. Titles in literature are very important to the symbolism of a story an example of this is Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”. As the story goes on it shows not only the literal meaning of what they carried but also symbolically the burdens that they had mentally.
Imagine walking through a rainy, humid tropical rain forest with forty to fifty pounds of precious luggage strapped to your back wondering where and when the next shot will be fired. Wondering whether or not you will live to see another day of combat with your brothers. American soldiers carried this burden with them every day while in combat during the Vietnam War. In the short story, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he explains the positive and negative effects of the things that soldiers carried with them during the Vietnam War.
The soldiers feel that the only people they can talk to about the war are their “brothers”, the other men who experienced the Vietnam War. The friendship and kinship that grew in the jungles of Vietnam survived and lived on here in the United States. By talking to each other, the soldiers help to sort out the incidents that happened in the War and to put these incidents behind them. “The thing to do, we decided, was to forget the coffee and switch to gin, which improved the mood, and not much later we were laughing at some of the craziness that used to go on” (O’Brien, 29).