Essay On Women In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

In this book there are three major women Linda, Martha, and Mary Anne. Linda's role is positive yet very saddening because she in a way has given Tim O'Brien the power to tell stories so in depth using memories. Mary Anne's role is encouraging because she comes to Vietnam and throughout the journey she discovers herself; she redefines the typical role of women. Martha's role in this book could be considered positive because she is keeping up Jimmy Cross's morale but, at the same time it could be negative because she leads him on. So the role of women in the book is very influential in a positive way.

“When we first got here-all of us- we were real young and innocent… but we learned pretty damn quick” (O’Brien 93) . In the novel “The things we carried” by Tim O’Brien he shows that many young Americans lost their innocence as soon as their boots hit the ground in Vietnam. The Vietnam War took many things away from the men who walked throughout the jungles arms, legs, and innocents. One character named Mary Anne was changed dramatically with the war on how she saw things and acted in her daily life. Mary Anne changed immensely from how she came into the war and how she left.

     How does death affect the behavior of people? Although death affects everyone's behavior differently, knowledge of one's imminent death is a main force behind behavioral changes. This knowledge causes emotions that motivate people to act in ways that they normally would not. In Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried,'; the knowledge of death and its closeness causes the men in the story to alter their behavior by changing they way they display power, modifying emotions to relieve guilt, and by exhibiting different actions to ease anxiety.

The short story that will be discussed, evaluated, and analyzed in this paper is a very emotionally and morally challenging short story to read. Michael Meyer, author of the college text The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, states that the author of How to Tell a True War Story, Tim O’Brien, “was drafted into the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart” (472). His experiences from the Vietnam War have stayed with him, and he writes about them in this short story. The purpose of this literary analysis is to critically analyze this short story by explaining O’Brien’s writing techniques, by discussing his intended message and how it is displayed, by providing my own reaction,

In Tim O'Brien's narrative, The Things They Carried, characters are shown going through excruciatingly difficult war struggles. There are many intriguing themes that O’Brien is sharing in the text, but the most striking is the differences between the way each person handles war. People in the story cope by imagining things for motivation and pleasure. Imagination can help soldiers, but also does not help in war when the coping distracts one from important situations. The most common coping mechanism in the war stories has to do with women because they were used as security blankets during war. Soldiers use women, imagined and real, to offer an escape from war, but due to their inability to understand the war, the women cannot help them cope.

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

Characters in The Things They Carried felt pressured by society to be strong by hiding their fear. Along the south china sea Tim O'Brien's platoon gets a dentist to do the usual check up and fix any damaged teeth, but Curt Lemon is deathly afraid of Dentists. All of the men go to get a check up but Curt just can not do it and goes off on his own. Later, Curt kept beating himself up about not showing how strong he was and showing weakness for being afraid of the Dentist. Curt couldn't handle it anymore, “The embarrassment must've turned a screw in his head… He switched on a flashlight, woke up the young captain, and told him he had a monster toothache” (O'Brien 84). Curt Lemon feels so much embarrassment for not being society's view of strong

The decision to go to war is not a decision that is taken lightly. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien faces cultural, social and political push factors that end up leading him to forgo his plan to dodge the draft, and to report as instructed, a mere yards away from his destination of Canada. In Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Rocky and Tayo, two young Native American men, experience cultural, social and political pull factors that draw them into the Army, fighting the Second World War for a country that considers them less than human. The stories of these characters are not unique, they are stories that are representative of the stories of young American men at the time, that faced cultural, social, and political push and pull factors during both conflicts. The purpose of this inquiry essay is to determine what those push and pull factors were, and why they lead these men to willingly engage in two of the most destructive conflicts in human history.

The author beings the story by discussing items that were carried, which were everyday life things, such as cigarettes, matches, sewing kits, and water. These items made life in Vietnam bearable for the time being. Colleagues, Henry Dobson carried canned peaches and pound cake, while Dave Jenson carried extra hygiene supplies. Tim O’Brien also mentions Lieutenant Cross’ obsession with a girl named Martha and how he carries her letters. This shows the author’s lack of expressing his true emotions by only discussing non-military items, however, he mentions the soldier who died, Ted Lavender. He was so scared that he carried tranquilizers and in mid-April he was shot in the head. Although this was a vital pathos rhetorical device, it was described

39. O’Brien meticulously incorporates this chapter directly after “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” to portray the counteracting ideals of the role of women and femininity in both sections. In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” the entire chapter is dedicated to discussing Mary Anne’s somewhat bolstering and heartening presence for Mark Fossie. It demonstrates the ideal view of women’s comforting role during the war and how they provided devoted their entire being in making their counterparts happy. In contrast,“Stockings” demonstrates the ideal of how soldiers were still reassured and remedied by women on the homefront who present the bare-minimum effort. This is ideal is exhibited by Henry Dobbins who is consistently alleviated and invigorated by his girlfriend’s stockings, yet in actuality, she hardy demonstrates affection and compassion for Dobbins, eventually ending their

In the first chapter of the short story, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, every character carries literal figurative things with them. Each item they carry has a significant meaning that helps them keep their mindset straight and their psychological well being intact. The soldiers are in war, most likely they are all scared of death. They need something on their mind to make them happy and also help them survive further on with the war. That is why Tim O’Brien’s piece is a perfect example to read, to learn more about some of the burdens that may be in some soldiers.

The role of women in Tim O'brien's “The Things They Carry” is one of a escapist fantasy and innocence among other things. What do I mean by that? The women always play in some way, a way for the men who fought as way of coping. Such as Martha Cross’s “girlfriend” a woman that he uses to help cope that he’s at war. or Kathleen Tim’s daughter is one of innocence, asking tim to write a story about a girl who wins a million dollars and buys a shetland pony. The women in the story have a role and this role is very important and this why.

War is an experience that is difficult to understand and describe. Imagine coming back from war and not having the love, comfort, or support from your loved ones to help you move on with your life. How would one feel in that situation? According to the way Tim O’Brien told the stories of the soldiers in The Things They Carried, they either knew how to cope or didn’t.

Sex Symbol: The Importance of Martha as a symbol in “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien

The seductive allure of war in O’Brien’s novel, “The Things They Carried,” is linked to the tendencies of human nature in men. War acts as a catalyst for many causing them to become more primal versions of themselves or “human killing machines.” O’Brien revisits the idea of man losing himself numerous times adding in subtle variations of his own life experiences and inconstant propensity to make witness to and offer detailed accounts of coping mechanisms and grief in attempt to gain control over the chaos of the war by creating a story of survival. During the war, American soldiers carried patriotic derision on their shoulders, however, after the war, they were exposed to unnecessary psychological effects that in many ways were worse than the war itself. Soldiers during the war felt a strong sense of isolation from their friends, families, and communities back home.