The Things They Carried Essay Questions Directions: Choose one of the following essay questions to respond to and develop a critically thoughtful‚ analytical essay. 1. Tone is an important aspect of writing in war literature. Examine the stories again and analyze the most prevalent tones O’Brien uses throughout the book. How does the use of these tones help to establish the meaning behind these stories and an overarching theme to this collection? 2. Consider the role of the narrator throughout
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In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien there were many characters that could be considered a “lead character” but by far First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was the character who demonstrated an enormous amount of leadership‚ courage‚ and determination. Throughout the story it is difficult to see where First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross gathers his strength from. In the beginning of the short story‚ he seems very strong but towards the end of the story he also seems to still be gathering strength
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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a semi-autobiographical novel based on O’Brien’s experience in the Vietnam War. In the book‚ O’brien tells about the events leading up to him being drafted‚ war stories‚ and some narratives about his comrades. He says that he did not join the war because of morals‚ but because he was scared not to. Throughout the book‚ the characters have been coping with death/mortality‚ social obligations/pressures‚ guilt/shame‚ and moral conflicts. O’Brien shares his thoughts
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Most people don’t know what surrealism is. Surrealism is when things are real but exaggerated. For example when you watch a sci-fi movie not all of it can be true. Surrealism pertains to these chapters in” The Things They Carried” because it talks about war stories that might be true or have some facts that are stretched out. One chapter is called “How to Tell a True War Story” It’s about all these stories that his friend rat told and how some of them might be real our fake. There was one story
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Analysis of “The Things They Carried” 1. O’Brien’s story‚ “The Things They Carried‚” is about a Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross mesmerizing and describing the memories he had of his fellow soldiers. Throughout the story‚ O’Brien talks about the love Lieutenant Cross had for a girl named Martha and the past stories of Lieutenants fellow soldiers. O’Brien went back and forth with Martha and the soldiers but most importantly‚ he described all the things the fellow soldiers carried with them before
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The Things They Carried analysis paper Themes in The Things They Carried “In a story‚ which is a kind of dreaming‚ the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world‚” writes Tim O’Brien in his novel The Things They Carried (225). Throughout the story‚ O’Brien discusses themes such as death‚ the loss of innocence‚ and truth. Not only does O’Brien successfully thematically connect his final story “The Lives of the Dead” to the rest of his book‚ he also creates a “true war story‚” as
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The excerpt of “The Things They Carried” inspired me to write about minimalism and the burden that excessive amounts of possessions can create and how ultimately it can weigh down an individual’s happiness. It inspired me to write about this topic by listing off all the things the soldiers in the story had to carry and how much each thing weighed. It made me think about how unhappy carrying the heavy equipment might have made each soldier and how unhappy I was with the things weighing me down. To
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purposes. In The Things They Carried‚ a novel about war stories in Vietnam‚ Tim O’Brien uses many recurring details to support the central theme of death and its impact on the characters and the way they execute things from there on. The impact of the many deaths in the novel involves modifying command‚ haunting of dead body details‚ and a want to change something from the past. The first body to drop in the novel is that of Ted Lavender. Ted Lavender was a petrified soldier‚ one that carried 34 rounds
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The Greatest Fear Is Not Death Have you ever thought of what decisions you might do if you did not care of what others might say about you? “The embarrassment must have turned a screw in his head”(84). Tim O’Brien the author of the novel “The Things They Carried” a novel that debates the topic of truth vs. fiction all through the end using a generative idea of a soldier but at the same time using experiences not to generalize war since according to O’Brien it’s almost impossible to generalize‚ a novel
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Dialectical Journals of The Things They Carried Idea/Stylistic aspect | Quotation | Response | Truth | “Among the men in Alpha Company‚ Rat had a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement‚ a compulsion to rev up the facts…it was normal procedure to discount sixty or seventy percent of anything he had to say.” | The narrator‚ in making a seemingly offhanded comment about Rat’s tendency to lie‚ reveals another major point of the novel: the truth of a particular story is differing from person
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