The Things They Carried, a novel by Tim O’Brien, is a collection of war stories told from a fictional Vietnam veteran’s perspective. O’Brien elucidates the physical and emotional barrier war creates between men and women to help demonstrate the frustration soldiers have with women in war.…
Tim O’Brien is a very gifted author, but he is also a veteran of the Vietnam War and fought with the United States in that controversial war. Tim O’Brien was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1968. He served as an infantryman, and obtained the rank of sergeant and won a Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel. He was discharged from the Vietnam War in 1970. I believe that O’Brien’s own images and past experiences he encountered in the Vietnam War gave him inspiration to write the story “The Things They Carried.” O’Brien tells the story in third person narrative form about Lt. Jimmy Cross and his platoon of young American men in the Vietnam War. In “The Things They Carried” we can see differences and similarities between the characters…
A platoon of seventeen soldiers from America travel in booby-trap swamps and through the hills of Vietnam. “They been ordered to set ambushes, execute night patrols, and search out and destroy the massive tunnel complexes south of Chu Lai constructed by Viet Cong guerrillas” (McCarthy). On their voyage the men carry something with them; the things they carry have a meaning to each soldier which distinguishes them. The men are not completely prepared to deal with the stresses of war emotionally. The story circles around Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and the burden he feels for the death of Lavender, one of his soldiers. “The Things They Carried” reflects on each soldier and their way of trying to escape from the war. American writer Tim O’Brien had many outstanding works including “The Things They Carried”. This work illustrates O’Brien’s use of style,…
The Things They Carried” is a short story written by Tim O'Brien in 1990. This story is about several young American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. The main focus of O'Brien's story was the burdens that the soldiers each carried individually. The soldiers did not just carry tangible burdens like weapons, gear, and other essentials. The greatest burdens the platoon had to carry throughout the war, were the ones that they struggled with internally. Not only were these burdens heavy, but they could ultimately cost the soldiers their lives.…
The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is a book depicting the experiences of a soldier during the Vietnam War. As narrated by the author, the book contains real-life happenings. He served from 1969-1970 as an infantryman in the U.S. Army. The journey O’Brien takes is described through the stories he tells about the people he was stationed with. One member of his platoon, Kiowa, was fatally struck by a mortar.…
Many people tend to overlook the great obstacles and combats that our soldiers put themselves into in order to keep us safe,but have they looked deeper into the minds of each soldier and the story they carry. In the book The Things They Carried Tim O`Brien helps convey the true characteristics of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross throughout not only the Vietnam War but through the mental battle he suffers everyday dealing with the sorrows he carries.…
The Things They Carried, a collection of short stories written by Tim O'Brien and published in 1990, is a story which takes place during the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war was a battle originally between North and South Vietnam. The United States army was brought in on behalf of South Vietnam. The costs of the Vietnam war were extremely high with approximately three million Vietnamese killed, fifty-eight thousand Americans killed and three-hundred thousand wounded. The main character in the first short story is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, an American soldier. During war, or any situation, even the unrelated, the presence or lack of responsibility has a huge impact on all following events. As the happenings in the war are described, one may argue that Cross' personal value of responsibility is evident within The Things They Carried.…
Many traits of man¡¦s inner nature are revealed through war. In the novel The Things They Carried, the characters of this series of stories embody traits of soldiers in the Vietnam War. Through writing, the author, Tim O¡¦Brien, portrays his feelings as a Vietnam soldier through this novel. He describes the loss of three fellow soldiers, Ted Lavender, Curt Lemon, and Kiowa and depicts the guilt and blame these deaths evoke.…
The title of Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, paints a vague mental image of people carrying something – an image that is not yet complete for the reader to grasp the purpose of the novel. ‘Things’ are often assumed to be physical, in this novel, the ‘things’ that the soldiers carried were the mental burdens during and after the Vietnam War. Through the use of narratives of the different soldiers, O’Brien is able to follow each characters physical and mental weight that they carried. The…
He feels guilt because of the way the man dies. As he stares at the man, O’Brien thinks about the man’s life before any of the war happened. “It was entirely automatic. I did not hate the young man; I did not see him as the enemy; I did not ponder issues of morality or politics or military duty.”(126). O’Brien didn’t think about anything in that moment. He knew that he had to do his duty, but felt as if he had no control whatsoever. “At night, lying on his mat, he could not picture himself doing the brave things his father had done, or his uncles… He hoped the Americans would go away.”(119) O’Brien shows the man’s perspective of his life. Though he didn’t know who the man was or his life story, he showed the readers his interpretation of his life. It shows that everyone in the war had a life before the war. Everyone has a different way of understanding the war and the way they deal with it after is based on them as well. Though he never met the man, he feels remorse for killing him the way he…
In “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien takes us back to the Vietnam War. He demonstrates to the reader that not only does each United States soldier carry something physical with them, but they also carry an emotional burden as well. What each man carries is a combination of thoughts, emotions, and past experiences.…
Truth and non-truth are several aspects emphasized in Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried. Throughout the novel, O’Brien “[blurs] the lines between fiction and nonfiction” (Smith), and explores how using fiction to convey the war affects the readers more as they learn about the soldiers. By using juxtaposition and by incorporating fictional parts in the novel, O’Brien shows how truth is less important in war stories than non-truth since non-truth makes the reader look at war stories at a more emotional level than truth.…
The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, recounts the horrible experiences of soldiers at war in Vietnam. Throughout the novel, the author not only tells war stories, but tales about his own life, often referencing and dwelling on those who have made an impact on his life. He stresses the importance of these people and stories, often referring to them as “war stories” although many of these are not true. They serve as an outlet for O’Brien, allowing him to let go of these horrible memories but also letting him keep the importance that they had on his life. These stories and messages are emphasized through the symbols displayed in the novel, the imagery used throughout, and the anecdotes that recount his memories.…
An author commonly uses literary devices in their text to both interest the audience, and to create a bigger depth to their work. In “The Things They Carried”, there are a few different elements Tim O’Brien uses to captivate his audience. Imagery, symbolism, and theme were a few of the devices he chose to use in this work. Throughout the story, he explains what the men carried, and by doing so, created a depth to this story that wouldn’t have been shown otherwise. The things they carried were of importance to them, as well as important to explaining their story and their life at war.…
The novel “The Things They Carried” travels back to the time of the Vietnam War, and provides real-life experience from the author Tim O’Brien, as he and his fellow soldiers battle in Vietnam. This novel also describes the things that each soldier carries with them both literally and figuratively. What O’Brien may have been carrying after war compelled him to share his stories, and provide a truth behind the bloodshed.…