“The Vietnam War was arguably the most traumatic experience for the United States in the twentieth century. That is indeed a grim distinction in a span that included two world wars, the assassinations of two presidents and the resignation of another, the Great Depression, the Cold War, racial unrest, and the drug and crime waves.”(Donald M. Goldstein) Tim O'Brien, the author of the book, The Things They Carried, goes into his memory to his time serving in The Vietnam War. It explains his experiences with his fellow teammates and everything they went through. Being a nonlinear book, it gives you an almost real experience to life while being a soldier in Vietnam. O`Briens intended audience was future generations and he discussed shame/guilt and morality/death.…
“I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it” (George McGovern). As said by George McGovern, the Vietnam War was a difficult war that was fought in Vietnam and caused many casualties and is thought to be a horrid war. The things that the American soldiers saw and experienced were unlike any other experiences. These experiences are shared in Tim O'Brien's book, The Things They Carry. Although many of these stories seem to be war stories at a first glance, they can actually be seen as love stories because of the emotional connection each character has with each other.…
The first of three themes is how the Vietnam Veteran father’s PTSD contributes to their marital problems. Secondly, the sons interpret the effects of PTSD on their fathers as contributing to their father’s comradeship. Finally, the girlfriend…
It has been known that the Vietnam War affected many American soldiers who were involved in the war physically and psychologically. The Vietnam War was one of the most memorable wars in history. Many Americans' lives lost for no objective at all. Chapter 10 informed us about how the Vietnam War started and what really happened during that time. It also gave us background information about Vietnam Veterans and nurses who were involved in the war and what they went through during the war. I had the opportunity to interview a Vietnam Veteran also.…
Life for many Vietnamese families during the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon were very traumatic and very difficult to capture. Há, a 10 year old girl, must flee her home with her family to escape the horrors of the war reaching her home. In the novel “Inside Out and Back Again” by Thanhha Lai, Lai describes Há’s grief for the markets, traditions, friends, and papaya going to be left behind using much imagery and amazing word choice.…
Throughout the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and the documentary “Dear America: Letters Home to Vietnam” the central feelings of fear and trepidation were prominent. As a reader, or viewer, I was able to take the feelings of the soldiers during the Vietnam War and translate it in a way to relate it to my own life.…
The story by Tim O’Brien shows how the soldiers are themselves and can also be serious. O’Brien also sees how Vietnam changes the soldiers and how they see the world now. There will be people that will ask if it’s true or not true they can asks what happened. There can be different ways to tell a story but they can ask what happen. O’Brien would know which story he really believes. O’Brien will give use by looking at Rat’s point of view, and Sanders point of view of Lemon death and how Rat copes with a letter. Here are three points’ that will go with O’Brien story the history, biography and literary criticism.…
There are many characteristics that help define a true war story. In The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, O’Brien explores these different characteristics to put together a strong collection of stories. In this collection of stories, the author shares stories from the points of view of many different soldiers in the Vietnam War. He shares different stories of life before, during, and after the war that change who these characters are as people. O’brien uses short stories with common themes of what makes a true war story to describe what a true war story is.…
Contrary to the protagonist “O’Brien’s” experiential insulation from Vietnamese culture, which is a kind of “uncivilized other” according to the terms of U.S. rhetoric that largely defined the war, Mary Anne Bell is a character who deliberately strove for cultural immersion. For “O’Brien,” the landscape and the Vietnamese occupying that landscape, such as the elderly Vietnamese men who watch him revisit the spot where Kiowa perished, are mostly incidental. Mary Anne actively sought out the ways of the Vietnamese, not just to observe from a distance, but…
To that extent, while history reduces the Vietnam story into a bare recitation of events, names and dates, Thuy attempts to restore these neglected heroes and give a voice to inaudible patriotic women who played a huge role during war time. With that in mind, she uncovers the overlooked history within History, with a lot of aphorism, insight and in such an appealing lyrical way.…
Cited: Ninh, Bao. The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam. Trans. Frank Palmos. New York:…
This novel portrays the hardships, struggles and "suffering" that a Vietnamese family endures through the years of approaching communism.…
Using powerful imagery and an interesting way of storytelling, Paradise of the Blind describes the Vietnamese people's idealistic hope of Communism and how that hope was betrayed. The novel is well-written in many ways, simultaneously questioning the faults of life in modern-day Vietnam in a stubborn manner and telling a tragic tale of family conflict. The descriptions of everyday life are plentiful and illustrative in ways that help move the story along. Author Duong Thu Huong has framed the story well by presenting much of it as flashbacks within flashbacks, enabling her to movingly expose the intricate weaving of events entwined with Vietnam's troubled history as all of this affects the present. While the book discusses the political aspects of Vietnamese life, it is not merely composed of observations on communism; Huong comments much more on family loyalty and the collision between traditional customs and the fast-evolving modern world.…
The Vietnam War was considered a true fight during 1945 through 1975, which was about 30 years of bloodshed and was considered the longest war that the United States has ever fought. This war was one of the first wars to be broadcasted on television in people’s homes. People then started to pay more attention to this war, than the previous ones. The public couldn’t swallow the realities of war, such as dying children, U.S. citizens being drifted one at a time, murders, and other horrors! Around the Vietnam era, many people started to react to this, and truly began to think about the war. The poem called Norman Morrison, by Adrian Mitchell, and the excerpt “The Man I Killed” in the novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’ Brien both show the breakdown of individuals under the stresses of the modern world – which in this case would be the Vietnam War.…
I understand there to be copious amounts of influential events which triggered trends in Vietnamese culture. The Chinese influence in Vietnam may have likely led to its communist political system. Vietnamese nationalism may have contributed to the difficulties the French faced during its colonization of Vietnam. However, I believe that the most relevant contribution to contemporary Vietnamese culture is the religious diversity and how it contributes to Vietnam's closed-door economic and political philosophies.…