the amount of death that soldiers encounter. During the Vietnam War‚ soldiers saw their brothers and enemies getting violently killed every day. Before war‚ the soldiers had never been around so much death and destruction. In the novel The Things They Carried‚ the narrator focuses on important deaths and analyzes them from different points of view. A death is a huge event‚ and not something that can be classified as an absolute. The way you view a death one day can be vastly different from the way
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Tim O’Brien’s semi-autobiographical novel‚ The Things They Carried‚ illustrates the trauma and horrors veterans face during war‚ especially during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War ushered in a new era of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder‚ but unlike the veterans of wars before‚ there has been more research to help those suffering from the mental disability. O’Brien‚ like many veterans‚ uses writing as a medium to help ease the pain of the trauma he has suffered through the war
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Shame is a reoccuring theme throughout The Things They Carried. Shame makes people do things they don’t want to do just so they can get rid of the fear of shame. It drove soldiers to do acts they would’ve never done. Many of the characters have shame as a primary motivator. It leads them to war and it keeps them there. It is the one thing that keeps them from shooting themselves in the foot so that they would be discharged from the army or some similar such act. But some characters‚ like Curt Lemon
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Leonard Cheah 814725425 “Material Allies” In the short story The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien‚ First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross leads a band of his men through the hills and swamps of Vietnam while dealing with the psychological agony of both his love for Martha and the safety of his men. In wartime however‚ it is known that your fellow man is anything from safe. Much of the men have camaraderie‚ but know that at any moment the person sitting next to them could be killed. This is where the
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“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.” (80) This passage is very significant to the reality of the soldiers in the Vietnam War and brings to life the setting of the entire novel. The soldiers were primarily teenagers and young men in their early twenties
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In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien the author tells about his experiences in the Vietnam war by telling various war stories. The quote‚ "It has been said of war that it is a world where the past has a strong grip on the present‚ where machines seemed sometimes to have more will power than me‚ where nice boys (girls) were attracted to them‚ where bodies ruptured and burned and stand‚ where the evil thing trying to kill you could look disconnecting human and where except in your imagination
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Worth The Weight? “War is hell‚” a famous quote from General William Tecumseh Sherman. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien‚ we perceive the hell that men in war undergo. This enticing story is about the personal‚ mental‚ and physical hardships of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The title is revealing to the story itself by describing the items the soldiers carried. The tangible items that they lugged around are listed to the reader‚ but we are also shown the emotional burdens that lay deep in
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English 102 1 February 2013 The Burden In The Things They Carried “The Things They Carried”‚ a short story written by Tim O’Brien‚ displays an unfolding sequence of events that strongly examines the physicical‚ psychological‚ and emotional damage the soldiers beared during the Vietnam War. Not only did they carry the weapons needed for battle‚ but they carried personal items to get them through the rough times. The story might seem like a never-ending list of the physical belongings
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Evan Wann 5/20/13 Things They Carried Essay For my essay I chose to do it on Henry Dobbins. Henry Dobbins was a soldier in the Alpha Company that had carried physically his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck‚ extra rations‚ M-60‚ ammunition and Black flag insecticide. Henry Dobbins figuratively carries the weight of memory and guilt. Henry Dobbins shows that he is feeling guilt and maturing as the book goes on in the chapter “Style”. Throughout the book Henry Dobbins was seen “wrapping his
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The Things They Carried 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
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