Essay On The Things They Carried

“The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien is a novel whose theme is not only related to soldiers but to everyday people as well. The theme of this novel lies in the struggles that soldiers bear, both physically and emotionally. The title —The Things They Carried— and most of

The Things They Carried is a book about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his platoon of soldiers that describes what they carried along the entire Vietnam war, whether it was physical, or mental these men had to endure it all year long. One way or another, whether

In the story The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien shows the reader a sense of depressing love. O’Brien uses the physical weight carried by the soldiers as a motif for the emotional burdens they must endure while fighting in Vietnam. A love of which is portrayed in the story with a soldier loving a woman more than his fellow soldiers. But this woman does not love him in the same way. O’Brien uses many literary devices throughout the story, and shall be covered in this text. The tone in the text is very prevalent, and O’Brien gives the reader easy access to find and understand them.

The Things They Carried is about a group of soldiers set during the Vietnam War. We are first introduced to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross in the jungle setting of Vietnam. At first glance the reader is submerged into his secrete obsession with a women named Martha. He carries letters from her enjoys fantasies involving the two and even has gone as so far as to lick an envelope just because she did all in the name of love or his version of it. Love is an emotion felt by every human being no matter age or period of time.

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

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien portrays a detachment of soldiers serving in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War starts amid the 1960/70's in the nation of Vietnam. It is a curiously severe war, and numerous veterans experience for a long time after their awful encounters. The author recounts every one of the things they carry from weapons to the passionate weight of wartime. Short memories evoke, and bits of knowledge to the characters create as everything the soldiers carry reveals. The author describes stories of a significant number of the soldiers' missions and tricks. The Author viably utilizes the components of fiction: tone, style, and imagery to enable the peruser to comprehend the soldiers' hardships in the Vietnam War.Tim O'Brien utilizes the tone of the story to improve the perspective of the hardships the soldiers confront. All through the story, an officer named Ted Lavender specified. An enemy murders him, and his death addresses frequently. The author utilizes a cold, dispassionate tone to make Ted Lavender's passing a typical subject. O'Brien expresses in the story that “Ted Lavender a soldier. He was scared at that moment, and he got shot in the head while carrying thirty-four rounds at the place Than Khe. He died, and there was no twitching or flopping (325).” The levelness communicates by the author utilizes to demonstrate the hardships of the fighter's mental state. O’Brien states again that “Another soldier named

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 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. 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

The Things They Carried, a novel by Tim O’Brien, tells stories of soldiers in the Vietnam War. Some of the characters, all soldiers of the Alpha Company, include Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Tim O’Brien, Rat Kiley, Kiowa, Mitchell Sanders, Ted Lavender, and Norman Bowker, among others. In the beginning, the author describes all the things that soldiers of the war carry. He includes everything material and intangible, including the universal objects: weapons, a poncho, letters, fears, and expectations. Each of the soldiers also carries specific and unique objects. For example, Henry Dobbins carries his girlfriends pantyhoes around his neck because of his superstitious nature, Ted Lavender carries marijuana and tranquilizers because of his nervousness, and Kiowa carries a New Testament Bible because of his father’s religiousness. The Lieutenant carries letters and photos from Martha, a college girl he fantasizes about. Because he becomes so engrossed in thinking of her, he loses focus on the important tasks of war at hand.

In the short story “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien writes about a group of soldiers during the Vietnam war. Tim O’Brien goes into detail on what the soldiers carry. Most of the items are necessary for war, such as weapons, ammo, and medicine. Other items that the soldiers carry are more for comfort, such as a loved one’s photo, a lucky pebble, or a rabbit's foot. However, most of what the soldiers carry are not physical objects but are emotional tolls that the soldiers must carry wherever they go.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is "an anxiety disorder, characterized by distressing memories, emotional numbness, and hyper vigilance, that develops after exposure to a traumatic event" (Doyle-Portillo, Pastorino 490). Traumatic events include physical abuse, rape, military combat, death of a close friend or family member, natural disasters, or witnessing events such as terrorist attacks, a violent crime, or a horrible accident (Doyle-Portillo, Pastorino 490). All these different events lead men and women to have nightmares, flashbacks, and tormenting memories, especially the men who fought in the Vietnam War. Around "19% of Vietnam veterans developed PTSD at some point after the war" (Doyle-Portillo, Pastorino 491) from the events they witnessed out in the Vietnamese jungles during combat that it would have been highly unlikely for them not to develop PTSD.

Tim O’Brien wrote a collection of related short stories titled The Things They Carried, that follows a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War and when they return to their homes. Throughout the novel, O’Brien uses real names and includes himself, as the protagonist, to create a style that ebbs and flows from fiction to non-fiction without realization. According to Kathleen Laura MacArthur, it is “through this process and these stylistic innovations, the reader might then experience this trauma secondhand and, perhaps, relate this trauma to one’s own personal traumatic experience” (26). At first, the reader is introduced to the narrator First Lieutenant Tim O’Brien; he begins to talk about his love for a woman named Martha and how he carries her letters and good-luck pebble with him. As O’Brien continues, he explains all the various things the men of the company carry. In most cases, these “things” are physical objects and depend on factors such as the individual’s priorities and necessities. In addition, he talks about items that are universal among the men, such as mosquito repellent, chewing gum, matches, C rations and a multi-use poncho. These possessions serve as an opportunity for us to see into the emotional burdens each soldier carries. As the title of this novel refers to the things, or “weight,” the soldiers carry, the soldiers are changed from lively, young people to hardened and cold throughout the war by the tragic events they go through, tasks they must

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien contains many themes involving the impact of war, which are very prevalent in the lives of the soldiers and Tim himself; their very being in the war influences their thoughts and actions. Because of the nature of the war, these stories revolve around men and how their direct contact with the war changes their lives. While it is easy for women to be omitted from a story about war, especially the Vietnam War, O’Brien still incorporates them into his. In the novel The Things They Carried, there are very few women represented in both passing and the direct action; however, these women are used to allow the reader to further understand major messages about war: hope and motivation to persevere, the change that people undergo, and the general pointlessness of it.

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien is a story in which the author details the possessions the emotions and the memories which were carried by the soldiers into the Vietnam War. The accuracy fact fullness and the attention to details make this story a truthful experience, riding on a thin line between fiction and a reality. It embodies the transformation that a soldier in a war zone undergoes. The author being a war veteran himself captures the events in a vivid manner. The two works of literature serve as an authentic and knowledgeable depiction of men fighting a war. They not only carry the weight of weaponry and ammunitions and supplies needed but also the weight of the struggle and the violent deaths that surround them which weigh heavier than the items they carried. The outcomes of war for the side that wins or loses results in devastation of the people but the soldiers are the ones who carry with them the memories of pain and struggle long after the war ends. Every war is partly fought on the ground and partly in the mind of soldiers.