Characters In Tim OBrien's The Things They Carried

Jimmy Cross being the immature lieutenant is affected being responsible of his men, and carries much of the war’s burden. Every time one of Cross’s men dies, he experiences deep regrettable feelings that he should have been a better

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

In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien created several allusions that each character endured during the Vietnam War. Throughout the story were vast representations of the things soldiers carried both mentally and physically. The things they carried symbolized their individual roles internally and externally. In addition to symbolism, imagination was a focal theme that stood out amongst the characters. This particular theme played a role as the silent killer amongst Lt. Cross and the platoon both individually and collectively as a group. The theme of imagination created an in depth look of how the war was perceived through each character which helped emphasize their thoughts from an emotional stand point of being young men out at war.

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

In the story Lieutenant Cross makes both of the changes after the death of Lavender. He changes his values by acknowledging that Martha was not in love with him and now he would not be in love with her and he also burnt the pictures and letters so he was not looking at them anymore. The guilt that they all felt altered how they acted. Some of the men made jokes about tense situations that were not funny because joking made them feel better. The situation grew lighter by laughter, even though the men knew nothing was funny about their situation, and this knowledge made them feel guilty about their insensitive acts because it violated their values. The way the men dealt with their guilt was by passing the blame or trying not to think about how wrong it was, even though they knew. These kinds of strange reactions to normally tense or tragic situations are a way to ease the fear of death.

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

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 Vietnam War was a gruesome war that left many soldiers reeling in constant psychological turmoil not only in the years of the war, but in the years following the war as well. The terrifying events that occurred in Vietnam forced the soldiers to become different people with only one thing on their mind, survival. In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, it is seen how the war negatively impacted the soldiers of the Alpha Company and changed their personalities severely. One of the main changes that is seen in the men is the loss of innocence that accompanies them as they move through the war. In times of war, boundaries are crossed and morals are thrown out the windows. The dangerous situations that the men are thrust into cause

One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way

In The Things They Carried, minor characters play major roles in developing the plot and theme of the novel. The three minor characters that stand out are Elroy, Marry Anne Bell, and Kathleen. These characters may not be shown routinely in the novel, but the effect that they have on the environment and characters in the story are powerful. Having these minor characters interact with the major ones further develop the theme that Tim O’Brien is aiming for in this novel.

The minor characters featured in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried are incredibly important to the plot of the overall novel. Because the novel features individual stories in a non-chronological order, the main character of a specific story might only be a minor character in the overall plot. However, these characters, although minor, are essential to the novel because O’Brien uses them to help convey several messages to his readers. Several of the characters are likely fictionalized. Their appearances in the novel are not meant to recount actual events but to symbolize a specific theme.

A soldier 's survival in war depends on what he wears, and his life is just one step away from death. However, a soldier not only carries supplies, weapons, and equipment; a soldier also carries memories, amulets, ghosts of the past, and trivial objects that do not let him forget that there is another life beyond war. The Soldiers of Alpha Company, who fought in Vietnam, carry everything they could. And, those men and things are making their appearance in the story The Things They Carried by Tim O 'Brien, which also fought in Vietnam. Mr. O 'Brien tells how, after fleeing to Canada he decided to return to his community and agreed to go to war for shame, because he felt that, otherwise, he could not stand the looks of the people in his community, for whom a deserter was forever a traitor (O 'Brien 37). The Vietnam War was also a milestone in the history of the United States. The defeat was a deep blow to American pride and the belief that their nation was invincible; affected the confidence in their citizens. This feeling was also extended to the soldiers returning from Vietnam who were not welcome in his country, nor received a treatment like heroes. Many of these soldiers went through great difficulties readjusting to family life; according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, half a million of them suffer psychological changes related to the experiences of war. The Vietnam syndrome left indelible marks on a