First Chapter Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

He had touched these items day by day, wondering who had been beside her while she had retrieved the pebble from the beach, or who placed the shadow in the photo of her. His mind would race day and night, making it difficult for him to provide adequate attention on the war. Cross “would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore; with Martha, carrying nothing” (396). Cross would hope for nothing more than to be carrying nothing. These physical objects weighed him down terribly after the death of Ted Lavender. He had loved Martha much more than his men, and due to his overpowering love he had lost one of them. The pebble was not only a symbol of importance to Cross as he dealt with the trauma of war, but as the physical weight he carried due to the death of his man. These physical symbols helped to identify a shift in the story when Cross decides to open up and make a change to the way he is coping with the war after Lavender’s death. This “wouldn’t help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer” (403).

The Vietnam War was to stop the spread of communism throughout Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh took over half of Vietnam and began the spread of communism in Vietnam. Ho Chi was looked up to as a leader or president to the Vietcong and most of Vietnam. America had to at least try and stop Ho Chi because they promised that any spread of communism will

Tim O’Brien writes about both the physical objects they carry as well as their emotional burdens. The objects that these soldiers carry serve as a symbolism for what they are carrying in their hearts and minds. The soldiers carry items varying from pantyhose, medicine, tanning oil, and pictures. Jimmy Cross is an inexperienced sophomore in college, he signs up for the Reserve Officers Training Camp because his friends are doing the course. Jimmy Cross doesn’t want anything to do with the war or anything to do with being a leader. The item that Jimmy Cross carries with him are pictures of his classmate named Martha.

"The Things They Carried," is a story about drafted soldiers during the Vietnam era who were sent to the Vietnam War. The author, Tim O’Brien, describes the things that the men carry during their tour of duty. The items carried are both physical and impalpable items and what these things are is subject to the individual soldier. They carry the necessities for survival in the jungles of Vietnam as well as the personal things each soldier feels necessary to make life as comfortable as possible. Additionally, each of the men carries the memories and fears of past and present experiences. The heaviness of the impalpable items is as tangible as that of any physical item, and not so easy to cast away. The literary argument in which the novel

     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.

In Tim O’Brien’s story The Things They Carried, The characters of Ted Lavender, Jimmy Cross, and the rest of the men are symbolic of strength because of how carelessly they take the situation they are in and make it better than it actually is. The story is about the Vietnam War with the men that are going to be involved with it. They take different things with them that’s considered important to one another along with the necessities. What they carry with them helps describe what kind of person they might be, for example The RTO named Mitchell Sanders carries condoms, Kiowa has the New Testament with him, and Ted Lavender carrying dope. Some may think the way they act is unrealistic, while some might think that it’s realistic. Some may

The Things They Carried is a story based on the experiences of young American soldiers fighting during the Vietnam War. The story begins giving you insight into the thoughts of the soldiers, describing to you what they humped along with them through their walk in the deep jungle of Vietnam. Some of those things were necessities P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing-gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets (81) and some were objects to give them hope. Throughout the story you follow a young platoon of men on their journey through the jungle never knowing which day could be the last day of their lives. The author, Tim O’Brien, using very accurate description and detail gives us

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 previous chapter that I have read in the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the chapters that seem to be talking about after the war and seem like actual war stories would be “Speaking of Courage”, and “Notes.” Those two chapters stand out more, where the previous talk about life during the war and what is going on.

Throughout the centuries of time, war has affected everyone. this truth is evident in Tim O' Brian's "The Things They Carried". however even to this day war affects more than the soldiers and their families, war affects t civilians that are caught in the crossfire. Many children and families are killed or wounded. children are left as orphans expected to fend for themselves. this is depicted in both the articles and the book.

One of the main reasons why the war began was: North Vietnam wanted to unite the country under their control. However, the South Vietnam refused to sing in a treaty and declared itself a republic. Consequently, there was no way of uniting the state, except taking over the South Vietnam. The Vietnamese War began with terror against the representatives of South. Many communist-opposition groups were created such as Viet Cong or NFRU. Later USA became quite concerned about the success of communists, so they decided to intervene into the war. American involvement began to escalate under President J.F. Kennedy. Therefore, J. F. Kennedy’s administration decided to increase the military and bilateral aid to South Vietnam. As they were afraid of wide spread of communism, the USA endeavoured to train the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. President Kennedy was quiet confident that the war will end in favour of capitalism. South Vietnam became depended on America’s intervention, because people were incapable of defending their republic on their own. This kind of situation is called Americanisation of the war. At the beginning the fights and bombings were taking place on a territory of South Vietnam. However, after the American aircraft was attacked by Viet-Cong, as a response to

The Vietnam War began in 1954 when Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party came into power in North Vietnam. The Vietnam Conflict was one of the most costly and long conflict which was basically between the communist regime of North Vietnam & its southern supporter and South Vietnam and its main supporter United States. There were more than 3 million people that were killed in this war, 58, 000 were the American Soldiers and Vietnamese civilians were also included in the given number. Even more than half of the Vietnamese civilians were killed in this war. United States involved in this war in 1969 and 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in this war by the United States in the same year. The withdrawal of U.S force from this war was ordered by President Richard Nixon in 1973 and President had to face criticism for giving this order. (HISTORY.com, 2014)This war was ended in 1975 after forcing a seized control over the Saigon. The country enjoyed the incorporation as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the same year.

Communism was the major cause of the war, the US thought that with the spreading of communism it would threaten a new war with Soviet Union. It was also based on north Vietnam’s government fighting against viet cong to reunify Vietnam together, but both had different views on how to run the colony.

The Vietnam War was originally a war between the north side and the south side of Vietnam over which form of government to have (History.com Staff. “Vietnam War”). America had soon joined in to help the south side fight against the North’s communist government (History.com Staff. “Vietnam War”). The US is known to have conflict against communism in the past so it was a quick decision to join the war. In the past, Vietnam had battled against both the French and the Japanese in order to try and get their freedom (Spector, Ronald H.). Since the 19th century it had been under the control of the French (History.com Staff. “Vietnam War”). Once World War Two hit, the Japanese decided to take their chance and invade Vietnam (History.com Staff. “Vietnam War”). With both the Japanese and the French after them, the country split up and created Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh’s control (Spector, Ronald H.). Once Japan left, Viet Mihn suddenly rose up under the democratic republic government with Emperor Bao Dai in charge (History.com Staff. “Vietnam

The Vietnam War spanned from 1954 to 1973 and had the name, the Second Indochina War, prior to the United States involvement. The initial cause for the war was a battle between communist North Vietnam and its southern allies, the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its allies, the key ally being the United States. Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam, was one goal, to unseat the French hold on South Vietnam to reunite the entire country. The resulting war would end up spanning across nearly two decades and would be costly both financially and in the number of lives lost.