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. Every soldier carries the standard military issued equipment with them‚ which is their physical burden. Their emotional burden is very individualized. For instance‚ “Lieutenant Jimmy
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Pride Many of the characters in The Things They Carried exemplify tremendous pride in their actions‚ causing them to do good or bad things that they would not have the courage to do otherwise. O’Brien’s personal experience shows that the fear of being shamed before one’s fellow soldiers is a powerful motivating factor in war. He does not want to fight in a war he believes is unjust‚ but he does not want to be thought of as a coward. This same attitude among numerous characters sets a consistent
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The Things They Carried In Jim O’Brien The Things They Carried the book is introduced as a war story‚ but quickly shifts to a love story. The shift from the first war story that the author tells us to the first love story is surprising to someone who was expecting the whole book to be a collection of short stories. Usually‚ in a book‚ it is not likely that there would be a change in the narrator as well as time period chang all at once. So this is why some people believe that this novel is a love
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In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien‚ many negatives of being a soldier are presented. These negatives‚ being shown as emotional burdens‚ are prevalent throughout each character in The Things They Carried. More intensely shown is Norman Bowker. He carried strong burdens throughout the story as well as the end of it. The social aspect of the Vietnam War affected the soldiers in The Things They Carried by forcing them to get involved with illegal drugs‚ and find themselves stuck with emotional
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Lions for Lambs and TTTC Essay War novels can be one of two things: vivid accounts and harrowing tales‚ or instructional accounts and heart wrenching tales. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is without a doubt an exemplar of the latter. In parallel with O’Brien’s book‚ philanthropist Robert Redford directs and produces his film Lions for Lambs to this very same end. Lions for Lambs features a similar brand of invocative‚ yet gravely reformative storyline. As a result of these similarities
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Both Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried" and T. Coraghessan Boyle’s "Greasy Lake" display characters’ similar reactions to violence‚ but in different settings and circumstances. In "The Things They Carried‚" Fist Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a soldier in the Vietnam War who finds solace and escape in fantasies of a young woman from home. One of Cross’s soldiers dies due to his daydreaming and forces him to abandon these fantasies. In "Greasy Lake‚" the main character finds enjoyment in picking
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watching people die in front of you‚ getting shot at and having to come home and return to “normal”. That is what Tim O’Brien had to go through. It took him 20 years to be able to come to terms with memories and write a novel. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a nonlinear book‚ which is a book that is told out of order. O’Brien made the novel this way because that is how memories work. He wanted a place to gather his thoughts and feelings about vietnam. This novel is about his memories
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AP English Language 21 September 2010 O’Brien’s Diction The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a historical fiction novel that presents a variety of anecdotes and dialogues exposing the reality and impact of the Vietnam War. The stories of several characters let the readers understand the wide impact of the war. O’Brien presents all these stories by the use of dialogue‚ and he does this successfully by maneuvering his diction. By the use of slang‚ soldier jargon‚ and vulgar language the author
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The Power of the Truth Novelist Tim O’Brian once said “A lie‚ sometimes‚ can be truer than the truth‚ which is why fiction gets written.” In his novel The Things They Carried‚ O’Brian argues that “story-truth is sometimes truer than happening-truth” (171). O’Brian opposes the idea of absolute truth‚ and believes that all truths are subject to change. He believes that a fictional story can be more true than an actual event. However‚ a story‚ no matter what story‚ cannot be more true than an actual
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The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha‚ a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters‚ but Lieutenant Cross was hoping‚ so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack. In the late afternoon‚ after a day’s march‚ he would dig his foxhole‚ wash his hands under a canteen‚ unwrap the letters‚ hold them with the tips of his fingers‚ and spend the last hour of light pretending
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