Brotherhood In The Thing They Carried

In The Things They Carried, the reader will learn a lot about the thoughts and emotions of the soldiers. The author will discuss what they think and do to not look weak or scared. “ They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were too embarrassed not to” (O’Brien,21).The soldiers fear being seen as weak or dishonorable by their fellow soldiers and families.

For countless of people today, the Vietnam war is just something from the past, but for Tim O’Brien, the Vietnam War will endlessly be with him. This one year in Vietnam changes the lives of this platoon from emotional pain, physical pain, as well as muscle pain will commence to cloud their vision. The weight of the things that they carried takes great effect on them that they have to continue to endure on this one year trip in Vietnam and remember these memories for the rest of their lives..

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story written about the Vietnam War. The title has two meanings. The first is their duties and equipment for the war. The second, the emotional sorrows they were put through while at war. Their wants and needs, the constant worry of death were just a few of the emotional baggage they carried. During the Vietnam War, like all wars, there were hard times. Being a soldier wasn’t easy. Soldiers always see death, whether it be another soldier or an enemy. In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien explores the motivation of solders in the Vietnam War to understand their role in combat, to stay in good health, and accept the death of a fellow soldier.

The Vietnam War began in 1954, consisting of many extensive, horrific years of battle that seemed to create more harm to the United States and its soldiers rather than to North Vietnam. The 500,000 United States military personnel returned home with the loss of the war and the loss of their friends on their minds. Although the physical and emotional experiences that the men went through is unfathomable, Tim O’Brien does a great job portraying what life as a soldier was truly like in the Vietnam War. In the book The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien depicts the unstable emotional and psychological condition of the American soldiers through the symbolism of their belongings and personal anecdotes from their lives.

To label something timeless implies that no matter the decade, era, or period the item will still have as much relevancy as is it did during the time in which it was created. I consider the book “The Things They Carried” by author Tim O’Brien an item that can be labeled as timeless. Although the book was written in the early 90s and about men during the Vietnam War both periods of time many of us may not have been alive for Obrien’s imagery and descriptiveness makes it possible for the reader to feel certain emotions. Along with just playing on ones emotions topics like war and personal struggle can also be seen and are both things we as human beings see in our lifetime.

“The Things They Carried,” seems to be a literary contradiction, as Tim O’Brien uses obscure paradoxes and skepticism to keep his readers guessing. In his novel, O’Brien throws around doubt like confetti and contradicts himself so often, that seems he is speaking gibberish. While many authors use intense plots or relatable characters to capture an audience, O’Brien tends to use the reader’s own mental apprehension against them, causing them to second guess every detail of the novel. This method of bibliophilic retention, cruel though it be, is obviously a successful one, and his knack for erudite discrepancy is one of the reasons his book is so widely admired. While reading this particularly enthralling juxtaposition of admonitory fiction

The symbols in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” are essential to understanding the soldiers and their lives during the Vietnam War. At the opening of the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross would dig into his foxhole and read the letters while imagining romance with Martha; however, at the end of the story after the death of Ted Lavender, he “crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters” (402). The inner feelings of Cross would be mistakenly ignored without the help of symbols throughout his travel through Vietnam. O’Brien uses the emotional and physical weight carried by the soldiers as a representation of their personalities and how they prefer to cope with the war. The

The text, ‘The Things They Carried', is an excellent example which reveals how individuals are changed for the worse through their first hand experience of war. Following the lives of the men both during and after the war in a series of short stories, the impact of the war is accurately portrayed, and provides a rare insight into the guilt stricken minds of soldiers. ‘The Things They Carried' shows the impact of the war in its many forms: the suicide of an ex-soldier upon his return home; the lessening sanity of a medic as the constant death surrounds him; the trauma and guilt of all the soldiers after seeing their friends die, and feeling as if they could have saved them; and the deaths of the soldiers, the most negative impact a war

     In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, numerous themes are illustrated by the author. Through the portrayal of a number of characters, Tim O’Brien suggests that to adapt to Vietnam is not always more difficult than to revert back to the lives they once knew. Correspondingly the theme of change is omnipresent throughout the novel, specifically in the depiction of numerous characters.

Guests of the Nation and The Things They Carried Compared Guests of the Nation by Frank O’Connor and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien have a lot in common, and also a lot that sets them apart from each other. They both focus on the theme of a soldier’s duty, and use point of view great effect. Whereas Guests of the Nation uses first person, the relevant portion of The Things They Carried uses third. In Guests of the Nation, O’Connor explores and develops the theme of duty more successfully than O’Brien does in The Things They Carried, but O’Brien uses point of view more effectively than O’Conner. The main theme in Guests of the Nation is duty.

“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)

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,” by Tim O’Brien the theme of “carrying” both physical and emotional objects by the main characters can be found in the novel. While these men carry the same standard physical army gear, they differentiate with personal tangible and intangible items. From Lieutenant Cross’s responsibility of his men, to Henry Dobbin’s girlfriend’s pantyhose for its magic, each man faced the war with these things attached.

This quote helps O’Brien to portray the theme of motivation by shame. Curt Lemon fainted in a scene before the last one where he got a good tooth pulled out. He was afraid of the dentist that was on sight, and because of this he was embarrassed because he fainted. He didn’t want to face the other guys because he knew that they

Shame is a constant theme in The Things They Carried. Soldiers felt like they had to go to war, but fear of embarrassing themselves, their families, and their towns if they ran. This embarrassment was helped by the guilt of not being "masculine" enough or not being brave, heroic, and patriotic enough. the author reflects how he thought he had a secret reserve of bravery and heroism stored away, waiting for the moment when he would be called into war—if that day ever came—in chapter 4, and how in reality no such reserve existed.