history in which some great pieces of fiction were created. The Things They Carried‚ by Tim O’Brien is a great example of one of these pieces of fiction. A big part of this novel was O’Brien’s theme of metafiction. Metafiction is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction. This in another sense means that metafiction is the act of writing about writing. This literary device is used in The Things They Carried‚ as O’Brien’s method to systematically remind his readers that
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Essay: O’Brien’s The Things They Carried Throughout Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried true events and emotional truth were intertwined and often confused. War is confusing. It is clear that each person in the story interprets the truth differently. When telling a war story‚ the actual events‚ and the feeling the events create are not the same. The intensity of the emotion differs. Tim O’Brien chooses to express the truth in a war story by embellishing the events that occur. He
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In the first chapter of The Things They Carried‚ “The Thing They Carried”‚ Tim O’Brien uses the motif of intangible weights the men carry and how they have the strength to alter one’s performance and emotional state at war. The intangible weight of Martha’s love is like a barbell Jimmy Cross can never seem to let go of. Continuously carrying extra weight‚ Cross expresses how he "love[d] Martha more than his men" (6)‚ which results in the death of one of his men soldiers Ted Lavender. Cross’s love
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In the novel The Things They Carried the young soldiers are afraid of seeming weak. O’ Brien didn’t want to go to war. He was even considering fleeing to Canada. O’ Brien eventually decided to go because he was afraid of seeming like a coward to his family and town. He went to war out of fear of appearing weak to his peers. He believed it would be shameful if he didn’t go to the war. The soldiers in the novel were cautious to show any sign of fear. They were in an unpredictable and strange environment
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experienced many life changing things not just because the things that happened to them but the things they watch happen to others. While in the war there are many things that happens that will stick with people forever like deaths and life threatening injuries. People who have PTSD have many symptoms including flashbacks‚ social isolation‚
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or fellow citizens with the use of arms. War is the most powerful threat we have on earth today. War can accomplish a variety of things in a variety of ways but for the soldiers they are stuck with an experience unlike any other known to the everyday man‚ stuck with memories and images of what it’s like to be hunted by another man. Different people take different things away from war and are affected in different ways‚ but a change after a war is inevitable and for the vast majority it is difficult
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In the short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien writes about a group of platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War and the variety of personal items the soldiers carries with them besides their equipment. The story talks about how each of them carries a significant item that helps them to hide their fears and bring them comfort. The main protagonist is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who has an inner struggle between his civilian life and his current life of leading a group of platoon to
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In “The Hollow Men” and the story excerpt “The Things They Carried” both authors‚ T.S. Eliot and Tim O’Brien‚ utilize similar techniques such as imagery and tone‚ while having a different purpose for writing. In the poem “The Hollow Men‚” T.S. Eliot apples imagery and tone to help his audience apprehend how life without a purpose proves to be a waste when the world’s final hours are close. As for in the excerpt‚ “The Things They Carried”‚ the author uses his techniques to demonstrate the toll that
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allow people to re-experience events. The ability to tell stories is a valued skill that has been being practiced as far back as history dates. Everyone one is unique‚ and brings up different feelings and emotions to different people. In The Things They Carried‚ by Tim O’Brien‚ O’Brien lives upon narrative tales. Ever since the death of his childhood love‚ Linda‚ O’Brien uniquely uses the magic of storytelling in almost every facet of his life. Tim O’Brien ends his book about the Vietnam War with an
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reputation; it is people’s way of forming a premature opinion before having a formal introduction to the subject at hand. Due to this fact‚ people emphasize the importance of one upholding a respectable reputation‚ One of the central themes in The Things They Carried‚ is that fear of ruining one’s reputation served as motivation to the soldiers during the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien conveys this theme using anecdotes about Curt Lemon‚ Rat Kiley‚ and himself as examples. Curt Lemon’s experience with the dentist
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