Imagery In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Throughout the chapter, O’Brien uses unendurable imagery. He creates images of the obstacles that the soldiers are going through and how hard it was to get through these obstacles. For example, the soldiers had to walk during the nights when it was pure black and so dark you couldn’t even tell you were blinking, “the blackness didn’t change,”(209). During the trail walks, Henry Dobbins and Norman Bowker were afraid of being separated that they rigged up a long piece of wire and tied it to their belts between them. O’Brien also creates images of the dead soldiers lying on the

In the fictional novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien vividly explains the fear and trauma the soldiers encountered during the Vietnam War. Many of these soldiers are very young and inexperienced. They begin to witness their acquaintances’ tragic demise, and kill other innocent lives on their own. Many people have a background knowledge on the basis of what soldiers face each day, but they don’t have a clear understanding of what goes through these individual’s minds when they’re at war. O’Brien gives descriptive details on the soldiers’ true character by appealing to emotions, using antithesis and imagery.

Most authors who write about war stories write vividly; this is the same with Tim O’Brien as he describes the lives of the soldiers by using his own experiences as knowledge. In his short story “The Things They Carried” he skillfully reveals realistic scenes that portray psychological, physical and mental burdens carried by every soldier. He illustrates these burdens by discussing the weights that the soldiers carry, their psychological stress and the mental stress they have to undergo as each of them endure the harshness and ambiguity of the Vietnam War. One question we have to ask ourselves is if the three kinds of burdens carried by the soldier’s are equal in size? “As if in slow motion, frame by frame, the world would take on the old

In the class discuss there were multiple connections and perspectives of the war. They spoke about how like in the world we all have decisions to make and to see the impact you leave with whatever you do. Also, there was couple of symbolism thrown in the discussion, the symbol of the self harm happening with the soldiers. One soldier broke his own noise and another one wanted to take a perfectly working tooth out. Additionally, one thought is that the soldiers are trying to find a balance with all the war going on, wanting peace with violence all around them. The style of O’Brien in a chapter was repetitive and alliterate with his storytelling. He kept speaking about the story of the war and it was a way to explains how he feels. Moreover,

The story “The Things They Carried” reveals emotional and physical challenges soldiers face during the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien introduces the reader not only to the subject of war and physical exhaustion, but also to human feelings and inner struggle soldiers are going through at this war. Besides the equipment and necessary things, soldiers carried emotions which strengthen their hope of staying alive in order to continue their mission. Tim O’Brien uses female figure, Martha, to create psychological escape which distracts a young soldier, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, from the war. However, such a distraction leads to the death of a group member, Ted Lavender. The illusion of love for Martha and false hopes gradually transform into bitter feeling of guilt and the harsh reality of war. Tim O’Brien masterfully describes Jimmy Cross’ and other soldier’s experience and feelings during

Furthermore, during the war many inhumane acts are taken place, such as the murder of another human being. When reading about the death of an unknown character, it is very typical to pay little attention to that person, and move on with the story. However, after Tim O’Brien killed a man, a full description was given, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman's…” (89). Now this “unknown” man, is more the just a stranger. He has a face that is easily able to be pictured, a body that the pain can be felt from, and a background and history behind his carcass.

O’Brien was a Vietnam War soldier that experienced the horrors of war first-hand, reliving the moments of the battlefield in the war as well as at home. The “things they carried” were not just their war equipment, but also the emotional and psychological baggage that they had. This emotional baggage weighs in on their conscience and disturbs the peace in their dreams. O’Brien states that “a true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models for proper human behavior”(O’Brien 65). Throughout the book O’Brien puts an effort into exposing the reality of what a “true war story” sounds like. He remarks that any story that makes “you feel uplifted” is a complete falsehood and claims that “you have been made the victim of very old and terrible lie”(O’Brien 65).

When faced with a life or death situation, there is no time to think. Soldiers are forced to make life or death decisions in a split second. The aftermath of those decisions, however, can live with soldiers for a very long time. As O’Brien recalls the emotions he felt when he killed someone for the first time he notes, After he killed the soldier, O’Brien is paralyzed with the thoughts about the dead man’s background, his family and what his future might have been. O'Brien conveys the feelings of uncertainty experienced in the heat of intense life or death moments during war.

When O?Brien is shot and calls for Bobby Jorgenson to come to his aid, he realizes that Jorgenson is too afraid to help his fellow soldiers out. O?Brien writes that he then felt a deep hatred for Jorgenson and wants to get him back. On the brink of a maniacal outburst against the new medic, O?Brien writes, ?I?d come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person?, but after seven months in the bush I realized that those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed under the weight of the simple daily realities. I?d turned mean inside? (200). Here, O?Brien conveys to the reader that Vietnam had taken over nearly his entire body and personality, causing him to transform into an unrelenting, savage being. O?Brien learned that wars can change people, as the Vietnam War changed him. When Mark Fossie realizes that Mary Anne, along with the six Green Berets, has gone off into the jungles the previous night, he learns that the Vietnam War is a merciless trap that can take anybody or anything and transform it into something unrecognizable. He learns that the war has the power to completely change even somebody like his sweet girlfriend, Mary Anne. This insight causes Fossie to feel sorrow. ?The grief took (Fossie) by the throat and squeezed and would not let go? (105).

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.

Rat Kiley, is then shown as a brave soldier by embracing shame. He had courage by showing that he feared the war, something that no one in the platoon could admit. Rat Kiley’s actions and character is a paradox, He is considered brave as he was afraid. Rat Kiley valued his life and sanity more than he valued what the others thought of him, so he shot himself in the foot. The other soldiers shunned his actions yet they too somehow wished they could do the same. They did not blame Kiley for trying to escape this war they also thought was pointless and horrifying. But what separated them from Kiley is that they were still afraid of shame which meant that they were also afraid of doing the “right” thing. Rat Kiley is an excellent “anti-hero” for O’Brien. While O’Brien’s fear of shame brought him to the war in the first place, Rat Kiley’s courage to endure the shame brings him out of the

When passing on foot through the village of My Khe, soldier O 'Brien instinctively threw a grenade and killed a young Vietnamese soldier. Taken back by the event, his character is isolated in still time, entangled in a state of shock. Through his confusion and guilt, O 'Brien 's strong narrative and protagonist presence fades to the background as he fixates on the life of his victim. He vividly describes the dead soldier, focusing on his physical characteristics and the wounds that were inflicted upon him. O 'Brien 's way of describing the young man, “His clean black hair was swept up into a cowlick, his forehead was lightly freckled, his finger nails clean, his right cheek was smooth and hairless” (139), makes the anonymous soldier more personal. His choice of descriptive words help to view the soldier as a real person not simply a defeated enemy. As another way of coping with his feelings, O 'Brien imagines

Tim O’Brian wrote several novels and short story about the Vietnam War which include Going After Cacciato, If I Die in a Combat Zone and a short story collection called The Things They Carried. His writing give an insight of the Vietnam War and all the suffering soldiers when through in Vietnam. In his short story “The Thing They Carried” O’Brian list in great detail the physical things that soldiers carried to battle, but he also lists the intangible thing that soldier carried through war like grief, terror, love, longing and guilt. O’Brian describes every item with great detail to makes his story come to life, he uses the items characterize every soldiers, he also uses imagery to show the true horrors of war.

After the Vietnam War, soldiers suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder in countless numbers. The trauma they saw, endured, and witnessed forever changed and scared their lives. Men, like Tim O'Brien the author of the novel The Things They Carried, suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder and it took them years to regain their lives after their return home. In the excerpt from his novel, O'Brien shows the reader how the men endured this mind-altering experience in the jungles of Vietnam through the details of all the items the men carry.

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