In reading the novel “The Things They Carried” in my english class this year‚ I have learned that most‚ if not all‚ people carry intangible and tangible things with them everyday. In my readings‚ I found that the soldiers in the novel carry their tangible things to help with what they are carrying intangibly. Regardless‚ the things we carry make us stand out in our own way; they make us who we are. I‚ for example‚ carry the emotional stress that attacks me everyday‚ and a ring that I love. In fact
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Families who lose their love ones especially in war experience great pain and grief which take a long time to heal. Tragedies can occur anytime anywhere. Humans have to realize the importance of losing their loved one. In the book “Things They Carried” the character Lavender and his group lose a lot of his soldiers during the Vietnam War and Lt.Cross faces a personal tragedy when lavender gets shot because he feels it’s his fault. In today’s world people are dying everywhere but especially in
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war is personal to everyone. Based on what each of the soldiers carry with them‚ he is able to understand their fears and what is important to them. This concept is demonstrated when O’Brien says‚ “It was very sad‚ he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do.” This quote exemplifies the impacts of war on a person’s individualism by saying that during strife‚ people only did what they thought they had to in order to remain alive. Their own thoughts and ideas
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The Things They Carried – Discussion Research 1. “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.” In his stories‚ Tim plays with the truth. He has been doing this since he was a young boy‚ wishing his girlfriend back to life. He realizes that if you try hard enough and are creative enough‚ you can bring the dead back to life in stories. It doesn’t matter whether the stories are exactly true--you can change the name‚ or location‚ or even parts
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Vicky Limbrick English 102 February 13‚ 2011 Instructor – Handy Symbolism Symbolism and other figurative speech in The Birth-mark and The Thing in the Forest Birth – Mark : First and fore-most the birthmark represents the fatal flaw of humanity‚ and that eventually we all fall into sin‚ sorrow‚ decay‚ and death. I think that the birthmark represents the desire for perfection or in this case the lack of. Georgina’s husband found her birthmark to be all consuming blot on her otherwise beautiful
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The Things they Carried is seen as one of the most honest depictions of the Vietnam War that has ever been written. Tim O’Brien has a way of creating Vietnam around the reader. However‚ despite the clear depiction of war‚ this novel raises the question‚ “What is true?”. Through analyzing this novel‚ it is clear the author believes that the happening-truth of a story is far less important than the emotional-truth. One of the central chapters of the novel is titled‚ “The Man I Killed.” However‚ only
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"The Things They Carried" “War is hell‚ but that’s not the half of it‚ because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead” (76). According to Tim O’Brien‚ all of these generalizations about war are the truth. However‚ as O’Brien continuously reshapes readers’ concept of truth throughout The Things They Carried‚ one
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soldiers. It’s different from all the other cliché‚ patriotic war movies. Like Tim O’Brien writes “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct‚ nor encourage virtue‚ nor suggest models of proper human behavior‚ nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral‚ do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted‚ or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste‚ then you have been made the victim of a very
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Defending your country is not an easy task. Having the determination to make it through the experiences of war is amazing at itself. While reading‚ The Things They Carried‚ by Tim O’Brien‚ it was acknowledged that men work through very tough situations for their country in Vietnam. The main characters in this novel show examples of the puritan work ethics due to the amount of strength they need to continue through tough times. The pride the men show off in the novel really shows
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Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a very uniquely written book. This book is comprised of countless stories that‚ though are out of order‚ intertwine and capture the reader’s attention through the end of the novel. This book‚ which is more a collection of short stories rather than one story that has a beginning and an end‚ uses a format that will keep the reader coming back for more. Typically‚ a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning‚ middle‚ climax‚ and the end. The beginning
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