A Farewell To Arms Analysis

Tim O’Brien writes about both the physical objects they carry as well as their emotional burdens. The objects that these soldiers carry serve as a symbolism for what they are carrying in their hearts and minds. The soldiers carry items varying from pantyhose, medicine, tanning oil, and pictures. Jimmy Cross is an inexperienced sophomore in college, he signs up for the Reserve Officers Training Camp because his friends are doing the course. Jimmy Cross doesn’t want anything to do with the war or anything to do with being a leader. The item that Jimmy Cross carries with him are pictures of his classmate named Martha.

O’Brien uses imagery to enhance the story. Several examples of imagery are found in the chapter. One example is “To the north and west the country rose up in thick walls of wilderness, triple-canopied jungle, mountains unfolding into higher mountain…” (87). This quote gives the reader a vivid image of Vietnam and it’s natural beauty. Another example is “ The place was never mortared, never taken under fire…” (88) in which describes the military compound. O’Brien also uses imagery to describe looks and expressions of characters. An example of this is “Even with the cooling night air Fossie’s face was slick with sweat. He looked sick. His eyes were blood shot…” (103).

One literary technique prominent in The Things They Carried, particularly in the story by the same name, is symbolism. Throughout this story, O’Brien mentions all the things that the soldiers carry with them, both physical and emotional. However, the physical items that the men carried is more than just

In The Things They Carried, Tim O 'Brien uses a variety of stories to explain the life experiences that he and many of his fellow soldiers endured during a single year in Vietnam. He tells these stories in a way that we can connect to these experiences. We never spent time in Vietnam, but O 'Brien wants us to feel like we were there. O 'Brien uses what he calls "story-truth" to write these stories. The outcome or the people may be different but the feeling is real; that 's the truth in the story, the feeling. He wants us to feel what he felt, see what he saw. He doesn 't just tell us what was happening exactly; he tells a fictional story that conveys the same emotion. He plays with the truth, that 's the reason why this book is a work of

The book opens with Tim O’Brien listing items that the soldiers needed to carry with them for life in Vietnam, such as a P-38 can opener, mosquito repellent, C rations, dog tags, and many more necessities, weighing around twelve to eighteen pounds in total. Many men also had the added weight of weapons needed for combat, which then added another five to twenty-six pounds depending on what weapon and the amount of ammunition necessary. On average, most men carried around thirty pounds, but the load was much higher when considering the emotional and psychological weight put on their shoulders from the impact of these items. Early on in the book Tim O’Brien states, “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent

O’Brien used imagery to illustrate the war in a sense to make you feel as if you were there with the soldiers. While staying short and simple, he was also very specific of the details. “Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye. The cheekbone was gone” [423] is a perfect example of how O’Brien used imagery. This passage makes you see in your mind what the soldiers seen through their eyes.

Usage of imagery in The Things They Carried is what introduces a reader to the emotion that was felt by O'Brien. In this novel, imagery goes hand in hand with repetition. In The Man I Killed, O'Brien is constantly repeating the image of the boy that he killed in his mind, which allows the reader to get a clear view of the boy. This is only a story-truth, it is true to the reader because that is simply what we are told to picture. Imagery is important because it describes the setting and place, and what importance that played in the big picture of O’Brien’s war. Even though it is not the exact truth, it expressed truth in the form of emotion. The emotion that his images create in us is similar to the emotion that O'Brien felt at the time of the event.

Our introduction stated that in “The Things They Carried,” author Tim O’Brien tells us not directly of the soldiers of Vietnam, or the situations they find themselves in, but about the things they carry on their shoulders and in their pockets. These “things” identify the characters and bring them to life."  I find that to be true as the author unfolds the stories about war and the uncommon things one carries in to war both inadvertently and on purpose.   As it was noted: "Stories about war – especially today – usually emphasize heroism and supporting our troops. Yet, these are completely absent in “The Things They Carried,” again I find this to be true also.  In attempting to Analyze why there is an absence of heroism and heroic acts in “The Things They Carried” I discovered that the author comes at his stories from a completely different view point and it is complex.  Example: he names himself as a fictional character and a Protagonist.  Although this is a fictional story it reads like a biography or a set of memory 's from the war in Vietnam, in which all the stories connect.  An unnamed narrator describes in third person the thoughts and actions of Lt. Jimmy Cross, a lieutenant in the Army.  Lt. Cross thoughts are of a woman named Martha, who he dated, her letters seem to serve somewhat as torture as he wonders if she feel the same way about him as he does about her, the letter give him no clue and make him wonder even more.   Lt. Cross is a inexperienced, somewhat

In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien uses this story as a coping mechanism; to tell part of his stories and others that are fiction from the Vietnamese War. This is shown by using a fictions character’s voice, deeper meaning in what soldier’s carried, motivation in decision making, telling a war story, becoming a new person and the outcome of a war in one person. Tim O’ Brien uses a psychological approach to tell his sorrows, and some happiness from his stories from the war. Each part, each story is supposed to represent a deeper meaning on how O’Brien dealt, and will deal with his past. In war, a way to

Throughout the chapter, O’Brien uses unendurable imagery. He creates images of the obstacles that the soldiers are going through and how hard it was to get through these obstacles. For example, the soldiers had to walk during the nights when it was pure black and so dark you couldn’t even tell you were blinking, “the blackness didn’t change,”(209). During the trail walks, Henry Dobbins and Norman Bowker were afraid of being separated that they rigged up a long piece of wire and tied it to their belts between them. O’Brien also creates images of the dead soldiers lying on the

Tim O’Brien wrote “The Things They Carried” from collected anecdotes given by Alpha Company during and after the Vietnam War. O’Brien’s work is considered fictitious, as it does not rely solely on factual accounts. The equipment listed give a mental image of the weight soldiers carry, and by using a narrator, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, readers see the emotional turmoil those who serve carry.

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a non fiction body of fiction writing. While names, characters and situations are imaginary, the circumstances encountered by the people represented in the war depicted are very much real.There is an intriguing story line beneath yet another story that is being told and with each sentence the more it resonates. There is the story of unrequited love, unabashed bravery, and unfathomable pain. Throughout all of this turmoil and what is the very essence of discomfort, the story moves forward and the reader is compelled to follow. In relating the layers of stories wrapped into the writing O’Brien masterfully uses the techniques of repetition, pattern and indirect style of writing to emphasize that no amount of physical weight compares to the mental and

In these two chapters, two very important things occur. First is Sol’s gift to Alex. Sol tells Alex to use the key he gave him to open up his locker, and Alex would know what he was looking for as soon as he found it. Alex obliged, and found a 1954 D’Angelico guitar in Sol’s locker, a very special guitar, which Sol tells him is now his own. Alex plays the D’Angelico as Sol falls asleep, and a nurse tells Alex he might not be around much longer, because of partial heart failure. Alex is depressed about this, so he goes to Laurie’s house and finds out she’s having a crisis of her own. Laurie’s mother is having a baby with a man that isn’t Laurie’s father, and Laurie is so mad that her bedframe now has a huge crack, courtesy of her arms/legs.

Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms covers a romance that takes place during World War I. The novel itself came out shortly after the war, and was the first of Hemingway’s books to become a best-seller. Essentially, the novel contrasts the horrors of war with the romance of Henry and Catherine. Throughout the plot, Hemingway, a World War I veteran himself, uses the events of the book to make a statement about his thoughts on war. The core message of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is that war damages the soldiers who fight in it both physically and emotionally, which is primarily illustrated by the number of deaths caused directly and indirectly by the war, the actions Henry is forced to take over the course of the book, and Henry’s growing cynicism towards war.

Ernest Hemingway's WWI classic, A Farewell to Arms is a story of initiation in which the growth of the protagonist, Frederic Henry, is recounted. Frederic is initially a naïve and unreflective boy who cannot grasp the meaning of the war in which he is so dedicated, nor the significance of his lover's predictions about his future. He cannot place himself amidst the turmoil that surrounds him and therefore, is unable to fully justify a world of death and destruction. Ultimately, his distinction between his failed relationship with Catherine Barkley and the devastation of the war allows him to mature and arrive at the resolution that the only thing one can be sure of in the course of life is death