The story begins with the items that were carried by the soldiers to make their life in Vietnam a little more tolerable. Lt. Jimmy Cross carries letters from a young girls named Martha, Henry Dobbins carried extra food, Dave Jensen carried all the necessary items to remain in good hygiene, Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers,…
1. The book I selected was Myrer, Anton. Once an Eagle. New York: HarperPerennial, 2002. Myrer enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and participated in the invasion of Guam where he was wounded and later discharged. Interestingly, he was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, not far from For Devens. This book has been described by some as an anti-war novel. Given the experiences of the author, there are understandably many real and graphic descriptions of the effects of war on the Soldier, physically and mentally. As the Foreword of the book stated, “no one who has experienced combat directly, or even vicariously, would seek it.”…
“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien puts the reader in the mind of a few characters who fought together in the Vietnam War. Throughout the story it becomes apparent that these “men” are nothing but children, children who have no business being in the jungles of Vietnam. A war with an unclear purpose in a very foreign land is one that children are least suited for. They do a very unsatisfactory job fighting the war, and the war just leaves them incredibly scarred for the rest of their lives if they make it out alive.…
All the characters in “The Things They Carried” carried different things that meant the world to them. All of the soldiers were terrified of death and were even more scared to show it. They joked after each enemy bombing that they almost peed their pants and such. They really almost did each enemy encounter, and they all knew it. They would turn into a young man and fear for their life, and ask god to please take them far away from this horrible place, but when the firing stop they would stand up and turn into soldiers again. All of these young men carried the emotional baggage of men who might die. They all carried thoughts of grief, terror, love, and longing. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardness. These young soldiers killed, and they died, all because they were embarrassed not…
“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.…
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.…
First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a good example of how the stories in The Things They Carried are love stories. Lieutenant Cross loved a girl named Martha and the chapter ¨Love¨ is based on his love for her. Jimmy Cross also has emotional ties to the soldiers in his squad. When one of his soldiers, Tim Lavender, takes a bullet in the head and dies the Lieutenant can't handle himself and takes full responsibility. ¨The lieutenant is in some deep hurt. I mean that crying jag - the way he was carrying on - it…
The story conveys physical, mental and emotional strain that soldiers must endure during times of war. The reader is asked to consider each and every aspect of war and what soldiers leave behind them as they go overseas. The Items They Carried, talks about items issued to them by the military and the personnel items they carry. The story began with Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who carries with him letters and photographs of Martha, a college student in New Jersey. Throughout the story, Lt. Cross carries her letters and photographs signifying a bond and love her has for Martha. Lt. Cross is constantly daydreaming and…
The fiction novel written by Tim O’Brien called The Things They Carried uses a lot of nonfiction stories within the novel. O’Brien also uses characterization of the soldiers in the platoon to illustrate the emotional weight that they carry. Tim O’Brien in The Things They Carried mentions,” By and large they carried these things inside, maintaining the masks of composure”(21). He focuses on Jimmy Cross, Mark Fossie, Kiowa, Curt Lemon and several other soldiers in the platoon including himself.…
Tim Obrien’s The Things They Carried is written about the horrors of war. In war soldiers go through many things such as death of a friend or even having to kill someone themselves. Everyone deals with these things in different way. Tim Obrien writes story’s about the people he has lost or killed to keep them alive himself. Thought the entire novel most chapters are about the people in the war and the things they carried. But in the final chapter of the novel he doesn’t talk about war. He brings up an old child love of his. A girl named Linda who died when Tim and her we very little. He talks about how he keeps her alive in his head. Even though he knows she isn’t really there.…
Kiowa is in awe of Lavendar’s death because he was the only one to see it happen. He and the others realize that death can take them at any time, even when they think they are safe. Kiowa could not get his mind off the event and repeats the story to the other men, revealing his thoughts and fear of death. In order to deal with death, he dehumanizes Lavendar by comparing him to cement, thus making death seem less personal. Even though Kiowa is portrayed as not feeling emotions, it is this detachment from death that enables him to hide his fear.…
What do you carry? Your honor, your love, your sudoku book, or a packet of cigarette? They carry all of them at Tim O’Brien’s masterpiece, “The Things They Carried”. By the way what does Tim O’Brien carry? He carries different writing and storytelling techniques. For Tim O’Brien or for a reader of “The Things They Carried”, the war includes a lots of different personalities, memories and lives such as Kiowa, Jimmy Cross, Ted Lavender… In a word, the war includes “variety” and it is complicated. This different personalities and sophistication of war has caused to O’Brien used different storytelling and structural techniques . Tim O’Brien makes an invisible bridge between readers and stories by using different type of story telling techniques like “story-truth” or making complicated sentences… This book is not about what happened at war, this book is about what is telling us about war.…
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is about the experience multiple soldiers go through during the Vietnam War. There are stories about the love, hardships, friendships, and loss all the soldiers go through. By going to war, the soldiers all lose a part of themselves. I believe the message Tim O’Brien is trying to convey in his novel is people who do not go to the war, do not understand what it is like. I think throughout this novel, O’Brien tries his best to give the people who are not a part of the war an opportunity to understand. There are multiple examples throughout, The Things They Carried, demonstrating there is no clear understanding from the people at home for what it is like at war. In addition to the disconnection, Tim…
Throughout his novel, the things The Carried, author Tim O’Brien uses a plethora of strategies to give the reader a deeper incite into the day to day life of an American ground soldier during the Vietnam War. O’ Brian shares with us his extensive knowledge and first hand experiences throughout the novel. Being a veteran of the Vietnam War helps O ‘Brian gives us a look into American’s longest war, not often given. Aside from recalling past events, he uses many unique techniques that we may be less used to. The first is the use of characters and objects as representations. This is one of the tactics most often used in the book. Another way that O ‘Brian uses rliterature to emphasize a point is the use of meta-fiction. This is basically telling the truth in a lie. Lastly, his knowledge and experiences add another dimension to this book that can really engage the reader. All of these components working together are what has mad the Things They Carried, such a critically acclaimed book.…
The short story I chose to write my essay on is "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. The soldiers in the story had to deal with not only accepting the deaths of those they became close with, but also dealing with the knowledge that they took another human beings' life. The author shows how they had to carry not only their equipment; but the emotions that came along with being in a war. The emotions I speak of are ones that come from knowing they were mere grunts-and as such, were replaceable. That moment where they silly cease to exist could arrive when they least expected it. This analysis is about the way Cross and his soldiers dealt with the war, not physically but emotionally.…