“The Things They Carried” is a story about what is most important to a soldier‚ practical and emotional. Jimmy Cross tells how pictures‚ letters‚ bibles‚ and journals were just as important as guns‚ medical supplies‚ and radio contact. A soldier couldn’t do what he does without some ties to real life‚ beyond the war. As Jimmy Cross said‚ “It wasn’t cruelty‚ just stage presence. They were actors and the war came at them in 3-D.” The letters and pictures helped them stay grounded‚ a hope for a life
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Written task 2 Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is quite a different novel from most and stands out from the variety of other books concerning the Vietnam war. Unlike most books which are classified as fiction or nonfiction The Things They Carried is surreal and fits neither category. O’Brien uses the Vietnam war as his baseline for his story The Things They Carried but he exaggerates and throws bits and pieces of fiction in there to make the story more enticing. It makes you wonder
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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien uses narratives to evoke various thoughts within the reader. Yet Mary Anne Bell’s story is a cautionary tale of the influence the battlefield has on a person. One of the medics‚ Mark Fossie‚ decides to bring his high school sweetheart right into the war‚ not comprehending the cost of his action. The war turns innocent‚ naïve soldiers into brutal‚ desensitized killers; Mary Anne being no exception. Her tale illustrates how the war physically and mentally alters
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In “On the Rainy River‚” by Tim O’Brien‚ a twenty-one year old Tim must decide between fleeing to Canada or staying in America to fight in Vietnam. Tim is a pig declotter in America‚ when he receives a draft notice. The draft notice causes Tim much grief and trouble. He drives around his comfy‚ conservative town thinking about it and even has a harder time working. In his 1968 world Tim must choose between shame and war. This story is a coming of age story because Tim must influence the future of
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The Things They Carried By Tim O’Brien Describe your speaker. What do you know about him/her? What do you NOT know about him/her? What makes your speaker an effective story teller? What character in the novel do you believe to be the least effective? Why? How does the speaker relate to this character? I know that the speaker is conscious of what he writes about‚ meaning that he knows he writes only about the Vietnam War and that it has consumed his writing career yet can’t help
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Merriam Webster dictionary‚ or by the opinion of an English Professor. Humanity is defined by the individual‚ and so the focus here is on the Kurt Vonnegut’s‚ and Tim O’Brien’s definition of humanity‚ which is characterized by human spirit‚ heart‚ and empathy. In Slaughterhouse-Five and The Things They Carried both Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien describe the destruction of humanity caused by war. However‚ Vonnegut highlights how powerless in war leads to decimation of humanity within a solider‚ while
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Tim O’Brien’s novel‚ The Things They Carried‚ revolves around the frequent theme of courage however‚ his perception of courage is ignorant considering the actual meaning of courage. O’Brien uses courage as an antidote to the physical and moral weakness in the soldiers of Vietnam creating character obsession over his interchangeable perception of courage and weakness. Not going to war when drafted is perceived as weak‚ but O’Brien believes that going to war when one wants to flee is Canada is arguable
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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is based on the hardships of soldiers when they returned from war. This story is told by 22 chapters‚ each chapter contains a story‚ all of the stories are linked together. In the beginning of the story the author describes and lists the items that soldiers carry in combat. These items consisted of matches‚ food‚ pictures‚ money‚ ammo‚ grenades‚ etc. In “Spin”‚ O’Brien talks about all of the ordinary things soldiers do while they are at war‚ such as playing
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In the short story Where Have You Gone Charming Billy‚ Tim O’ Brien‚ examines a conflict with the main character Paul Berlin and his internal fear of dying. The story takes place around 1965-1973 during the Vietnam War. It is Paul’s first day at the war and he has been fighting his anxiety. He has already seen one of the twenty-six soldiers in his platoon die of a heart attack because of tripping a mine bomb. Many soldiers continuously tell Paul to just get used to the fear of the jungle however
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In the novel‚ The Things They Carried‚ the narrator is revealed to be obedient yet a sensitive character. We see Tim O’Brien as an obedient person in the chapter Ambush. He explains how it was just instinct for him to throw the grenade at the man. “I had already pulled the pin on a grenade. I had come up to a crouch. It was entirely automatic.” (page 126). This quote shows that when he saw the man‚ with a weapon‚ walking on the trail‚ he only did what he was trained to do which was to the man. However
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