Beyond The Things They Carried

Written by author Tim O’Brien after his own experience in Vietnam, “The Things They Carried” is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in “The Things They Carried” guides the reader through the complex development of characters by establishing their humanity during the inhumane circumstance of war, articulating what the men need for emotional and spiritual survival, and by revealing

“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)

The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War that the author, Tim O’Brien, uses to convey his experiences and feelings about the war. The book is filled with stories about the men of Alpha Company and their lives in Vietnam and afterwards back in the United States. O’Brien captures the reader with graphic descriptions of the war that make one feel as if they were in Vietnam. The characters are unique and the reader feels sadness and compassion for them by the end of the novel. To O’Brien the novel is not only a compilation of stories, but also a release of the fears, sadness, and anger that he has felt because of the Vietnam War.

While the Vietnam War was a complex political pursuit that lasted only a few years, the impact of the war on millions of soldiers and civilians extended for many years beyond its termination. Soldiers killed or were killed; those who survived suffered from physical wounds or were plagued by PTSD from being wounded, watching their platoon mates die violently or dealing with the moral implications of their own violence on enemy fighters. Inspired by his experiences in the war, Tim O’Brien, a former soldier, wrote The Things They Carried, a collection of fictional and true war stories that embody the

The Vietnam War was sparked by the United States wanting to contain communism after World War II. The author Tim O’Brien writes in his short story “The Things They Carried,” using personal experiences from his time serving in the Vietnam War. Jimmy Cross, the main character who did not believe in the war, was drafted in June 1968. Being commissioned to a foreign territory to fight for your life and the freedoms of others is a life changing experience. Soldiers often bring items from home that give them hope of motivation to survive in order to return home. The short story “The Things They Carried” gives an insight on what soldiers carry with them throughout the war. Each man the story carries different items, including comic books, a

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 it was impossible to be heroic." relates to each of his stories.

In "The Things They Carried," O'Brien made reference to the Vietnam war that was closely associated with the physical, psychological, and emotional weight the soldiers beared.  The overall method of presentation of this story incorporated many different outlooks on the things the soldiers carried, dealt with, and were forced to adapt to.  In addition to this, O'Brien showed us the many reasons why and how the soldiers posessed these things individually and collectively and how they were associated directly and indirectly.  The strong historical content in "The Things They Carried" helped emphasize the focus of the story and establish a clearer understanding of details in the

The novel, The Things They Carried is a story of one man’s accounts resulting to his tour of duty in Vietnam. Many of the men that are discussed in the book continued to be effected by the war, long after they returned home. Men were left emotionally scared, even if they managed to get out of the war physically unharmed. The

The Things They Carried Writing Prompt What do you carry on the regular basis? Could it be a pencil, your favorite book, or a lucky charm bracelet? One thing for sure is that if you had to go off to war, that isn’t the only thing you’ll carry with you, instead you’ll think twice about it.

The Vietnam War. A war that many Americans believed unfair and unnecessary. “Why am I being sent off to fight in a war I don’t know anything about? Will I ever return again?” Many draftees asked themselves these questions hoping to find comfort in the answers. But there was little to no hope, and they knew it. They were being drafted and they could do absolutely nothing about it, only hope that at the end they would be returning to the enlightened faces of their loved ones, something that not many Vietnam soldiers expected to ever see again. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, portrays his experience in the war along with his fellow squad members, in their fight for survival against the Vietcong. In The Things They Carried, each

In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien made note to the Vietnam War that was mixed with physical, mental and emotional that pressured the soldier’s carried. The overall method of display of this story integrated many different ways on the things the soldiers carried. In addition to the current, Tim showed North American nation the various reasons why and the way the troopers possessed these items one by one and together and the way they were associated directly and indirectly. The robust historical content in "The Things They Carried" helped emphasize the main focus of the story and establish a clearer understanding of details within the narrative

“The Things They Carried” shares many stories from the Vietnam War. The author Tim O’Brien often shares several perspectives about the war through his fellow brothers in arms. Often it seems to O’Brien the act of storytelling becomes more important than the stories told. The Vietnam War was a historical era marked by confusion and conflict, from the disagreement over the war to the inconsistent and unstructured war of attrition that soldiers were asked to fight.

Tim O 'Brien 's novel The Things They Carried is meant to display the effects of Vietnam on both American soldiers as well as the boys they once were. Vietnam is a society where human decency is left behind, and death is embraced as either a joke or an escape--where the horrors of reality are turned comical and exaggerated in order to keep going. Tim O 'Brien shows how Vietnam turns him from a boy unknowing of death, to a young man unwilling to face it, to a soldier laughing in the face of it, to a veteran unwilling to leave it behind, and finally, to an author left to make sense of it all.

O’Brien is a very talented author. The word choice and description he chooses, paints the scene for the Vietnam War. “O’Brien unites meditation on how to tell war stories with discussion of the epistemological constraints of knowledge and experience.”(Vernon, 177) His past is what gave him inspiration for the story “The Things They Carried.” O’Brien was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1968. While he served as an infantryman, he obtained the rank of

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is an amazing collection of stories about the struggles of O’Brien and his company during the Vietnam War and its effects on their entire lives. O’Brien makes the reader decide between fact and fiction by creating detailed stories that seem so realistic, even when the narrator contradicts his own viewpoints. The reoccurring theme that O’Brien continually expresses is the bond between the characters, which includes the narrators, and the reader. The items that O’Brien’s characters carry have many separate meanings.