Question 1 response-
Some of the non-tangible things in The Things They Carried are grief, terror, and responsibility. Although all characters showed examples of each I am going to point out a few specific ones. A good example of responsibility is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who carries the responsibilities of the soldiers’ lives and to protect them every day. He leads his soldiers and gets through difficulties no matter the circumstance. He also carries the guilt of the death of Ted Lavender and Kiowas death because he was preoccupied with his love for Martha and dreaming of her love. He thinks it is his fault because they stayed in a field rather than going to higher ground. Jimmy carried his wife’s love with him everywhere he went. Rat Kiley
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Norman Bowker also dealt with grief after the death of Kiowa, he kept trying to think of ways he could have saved Kiowa. All of the soldiers carried grief, throughout the Vietnam war, whether it was them grieving from another soldier dying in front of them or them wanting to return home to their families or just from the stressful challenges of war. They carry an emotional baggage every single day that you can’t physically “see”. Being in a war like that can really be emotionally exhausting. They are fighting for their country every day, all day. Coping with the stress they encountered every day and just wanting to return to their family shows that they had a lot of burdens weighing them down in the war even if you couldn’t see it, unlike the tangible items they carried. I think Tim O’Brien puts more emphasis on the intangible things because it’s not something you can exactly see or hold. You may not know what things people are “carrying” if they are intangible. I think he wants to emphasize that you should be careful by what tangible items people may keep close to them because even though you can see those items you can’t see the intangible …show more content…
A character who is easily deceived by his lies the most is Othello. Othello is a very trusting man, he trusts Iago when all he does is lie and manipulate everyone in the play. Iago lies to Othello about Cassio having an affair with Othello’s wife, Desdemona. Iago lies about the handkerchief that Othello gave Desdemona as her first gift because he knows it is important to them and their fidelity. After Iago’s wife steals the handkerchief it ends up with Cassio so then Othello really thinks that Desdemona is having an affair. Othello kills his wife after he sees that Cassio has the handkerchief. To me, this shows how trusting Othello is. He trusts Iago so much that he trusts him over his wife even when there is absolutely no proof of Desdemona having an affair. Othello is proving that he is very naïve. Another example that makes Othello an easy target for Iago’s lies is one of his flaws, jealousy. Othello is insecure so he gets very jealous when it comes to Desdemona. Othello is easily manipulated by Iago because he is so insecure that he thinks that his wife would actually leave him. Othello is insecure because he is black and an outsider in the Venetian society and thinks he is not worthy of love. This causes Othello to easily believe his lies because he fears his wife doesn’t truly love him which makes him extremely jealous. He would have nightmares about Desdemona and Cassio, so he was very
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a wonderful and personal look into one of this countries darkest times. The vivid imagery that the author uses lets the reader actually experience the feeling of actually being in the war. By using the cultural studies method of literary criticism, we can use the social conditions during the time of the writing to explore beneath the surface. What we find underneath just might be more interesting than the story itself.
In the short story “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien wrote about the experience of war and the feelings young soldiers felt during their long days of travel. During the story he keeps referring back to the things the soldiers chose to carry in their packs. Some of these items included necessity items like grenades and ammunition, but they also carry sentimental items like love letters and pictures. These items help the reader better understand each person for who they are and help us to understand the physical situation the soldiers are in. In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien describes the item the soldiers carry in their packs and the emotional weight they carry to help give a better
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.
Starting off, Othello allows Iago to tamper with his mind and does nothing to stop it. Othello puts all of his trust in him, but Iago is just hiding behind a mask and only wishes to torment Othello. Othello is not aware of his surroundings and the people there, making him vulnerable. If he paid more attention to Desdemona and not Iago than he would not have thought to kill his loyal wife. Othello jumps to conclusions too quickly
"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
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a book solely about surviving war, and the stories that come along with going to a war. There are many different kinds of stories that Tim told about his experience at war. Some were sad, many were adventurous, and others made you wonder if they were even real. But with every story, there is something a certain soldier has that meant everything to them. They show a sense of comfort within every single person in this story. No matter if it is a physical object, or a spiritual value they carry with themselves at all times. They symbolize who the person is, what their life was like pre-war, and what they thrive to live for.
The Things they Carried written by Tim O’Brien not only talks about the main character Tim O’Brien, but this short story also talks about all of the other soldiers in his group. When you are a soldier overseas you will most generally be carrying a lot of equipment, but you will also be carrying loads of memories and feelings and I think that was what O’Brien’s point that he was trying to get across. Numerous of these things are intangible, including responsibility and fear, while some other items are very detailed physical objects, including ponchos, AK-47s, and even some hygiene items like dental floss and hotel-sized soap. There was an endless list of items that each soldier had to carry to survive, but the metaphor here is the physical strain that each soldier has to endure. When reading this I believe that O’Brien, the author, wanted to use metaphors to help the reader feel like they were there in the story and make them feel how these soldiers felt while they were serving.
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 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
In Tim O’Brien’s the “The Things They Carried” he uses a wide variety of items, people, and circumstances to create this world where the reader is completely immersed. In this short story it takes place during the Vietnam War and the reader is taken along with all of the daily activities along with flashbacks to illustrate exactly what it was like to be the in the war. There is a lot of repetition used to illustrate how important certain aspects are, such as Ted Lavender’s death and the actual items the men carried. There is no better way to do this than by the vivid imagery he uses to captivate the reader. O’Brien uses very mundane objects to illustrate who these soldiers are and the effects that war is having on them and how exactly they
Each soldier carried with them items, some tangible others intangible, which helped them to adapt their minds and escape from the setting so that they could survive the traumatic events taking place. “Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope.” “Rat Kiley carried comic books.” The soldiers in the story do not only have a physical battle to deal with but also a mental one. Most of these items were a necessity in order to bear the war. However, there were a few items that the soldiers carried not because they had to or because they needed it to survive physically but because they needed it in order to survive emotionally. One soldier carried his wife’s pantyhose; another carried a new testament. One soldier permitted his items to take control of him and become an obsession, a trauma that took his focus away from his priorities, the war, and his men.
The Things They Carried is a story loosely based on the accounts of war witnessed by Tim O’ Brian which symbolizes the effects of war, expectations of men in war, expectations of the women in this particular war era, and what it takes for these men to survive in deadly battles. In this book, traditional gender roles were both met and broken by the characters. In times of war many men were drafted to go and fight while the women were expected to stay home and tend to the house, raise the children, and patiently wait for their spouse to get home. While the women lived lives of simplicity, the men fought to defend their country and expected their women to be the backbone for them, writing letters and eagerly waiting for their return. That’s just
In, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien placed more emphasis on the intangible things than the tangible things because they symbolized what war was really like; There is meaning behind the objects they bring, but more significance to how the soldiers end up from the war from those intangible things. Each soldier was affected by the war emotionally and mentally, dealing with heavy loads of stress causing them to feel fear, hope, and grief. Emotions could be argued the most severe and problematic on the soldiers. Keeping a strong, able-bodied mentality added with perception and decision making was a struggle for many in the war because they were overtaken with fear for their lives as well as others. These intangible things explain and reveal
Othello’s love for Desdemona was so deep he could not bear the thought of another being with her; “If she be false, O! Then heaven mocks itself. I’ll not believe’t.” Iago uses the characters of Cassio and the obsessive Roderigo as his weapons in his cunning plan. Iago drives the idea into Othello’s mind that Desdemona has been unfaithful, inciting him into a state of jealousy. “Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee; and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” Othello growing insecurities about his wife’s faithfulness only adds to his psychological suffering which in turn acts as a catalyst towards the suffering of other characters involved in the play.Iago tells these lies with the intention of driving Othello insane as well as establish his dominance and influence the situations of those characters close to Othello. Evidence of this comes in one of Iago’s soliloquies from act two, scene one; “That Cassio loves her, I do well Believe’t: That she loves him, ‘tis apt and of great credit.” This section shows that he is trying to convince himself that his own manipulative lies are true and is trying to reassure his motives by justifying his own actions. By convincing Othello
The title of the book The Things They Carried is significant by being able to tell the soldiers’ story and how they coped with being at war. While the soldiers transport the necessary items to survive, they also carry items that symbolize what is important to them.