Importance Of Living In The Annex

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.

While in hiding, Anne Frank was closed off from the world as she was not allowed to leave the “Secret Annex”. To pass time Anne would read books and wrote in an autograph book she received for her 13th birthday, the book in which she used as a diary described her life in hiding, her various thoughts, and relationships with the members of the Secret Annex in which Anne was hiding in. Before going into hiding, Otto Frank had notified a few of his most trusted workers where they would be hiding. The workers would shortly visit the annex to tend the Franks with necessities such as food and gave news of the war. Although life was hard, their survival from Hitler’s regime seemed promising until in a sudden sad turn of events, one of Otto’s workers

The author, Tim O’Brien gives us a detailed prescription of each item that the soldiers carried with them. “The things they carried were determined by necessity” (389). Each soldier took something that has huge significance and impact with them to the war front. Also a vivid description of the reason why what was kept where gave a better insight into how important each item was to the soldiers. The use of “slangs” to describe certain things, like M&M, which meant medical supplies (392) is also a significant topic in the story. “what they carried varied by mission”, “When a mission took them to the mountains, they carried mosquito netting, machetes, canvas tarps, and extra bug juice” (393). The reality with which one can relate to soldiers’s reason for carrying what they carried, is vividly described by the author. It describes how “Kiowa always took along his

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

Mrs. Gies, along with her husband, helped bring the ones in hiding food, books, and news from the outside world (“Miep Gies, who hid Anne Frank, dies at 100”). She and her husband even spent one night in the annex with the rest of them. She recalled, “The fright… was so thick I could feel it pressing down on me” (“Miep Gies Biography”). After a little over two years of hiding, the people in the annex were discovered because someone betrayed them, and it is still unknown who betrayed them. They were all taken to concentration camps.

Tim O'Brien's novel, "The Things They Carried" is based upon a platoon of soldiers in Vietnam, in which as the title hint's at, focuses on the items and more emotional parts of being a soldier. These items range from the essentials of being a solider, ranging from food, water, shovels etc. To the more personal and individualistic items, with examples ranging from the more common, love letters, holding a bible and pictures of loved ones, or to the more "unique" (or odd) items chosen, such as pantyhose, a thumb and even moccasins. Whether or not these items appear weird or generic to us is irrelevant, behind those items is a deep sentimental meaning to that item to that soldier or person, which is exactly what we will be looking into for "The

(O’Brien 104) Other more personal items were carried as a means of protecting their own psyche for some; others for mere realities of life. The soldiers carried these various objects in addition to the necessities. Items such as the Bible, photos, panty- hoes and dope all helped the soldiers cope with the war. Their function served to allow some of the soldiers to remember the past, but also concentrate on the future while staying alive.

If the soldiers found a weapon worth carrying they would pick it up such as, captured AK-47’s and black market Uzis. All of the men in the platoon carried sentimental items. Some carried good luck items and some just souvenirs from their tour. For example Jimmy Cross carried pictures and letters from a girl that didn’t love him like he wanted. Kiowa carried a bible.

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.

Living within the Secret Annex wasn 't the easiest thing ever done. Secrets were kept, stories were revealed, things changed in the Frank 's life and the Van Danns life. Not everyone got along well in the secret annex. There were limitations and restrictions they all had to follow. The room annex wasn 't a huge house, they had to share lots of things. Many fears would show through all of

The items that soldiers carried were often symbols of hope during the time of war. Because the soldiers are surrounded by death, they

What Do We Carry? When someone asks “what do you carry,” what comes to mind? In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, soldiers who were in Vietnam during the war carried a select number of personal items with them that they valued and had to have with them. These soldiers have given up a lot and have to make decisions when they have to think about what they will keep with them at all times. Throughout the book, O’Brien refers to the question: “What do we carry with us?”

Imagine walking through a hallway of pictures and artifacts, feeling so much emotion, reliving the past of the Holocaust. Once a person walks through those doors to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum he or she immediately feel those emotions pouring from the walls and flooding from the visitors all around feeling what it once felt like to be apart of the Holocaust and witness such a horrendous tragedy. Because the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum provides many exhibitions and visuals for visitors, it really gives a person a vivid view into what the Holocaust was truly like.

During the war the soldiers would carry things other than weapons. This included carrying “things out of necessity: because the object might provide some measure of safety or security” and also “it might comfort them in time of great fear.” (Wells 1) In

They were all Jews and had to hide so they wouldn’t get captured and sent off to concentration camps and die or get killed right then. They would be separated from their family. They wanted to stick together and get through these hard times together. During the first half of July, Anne and her family had to hide in an apartment at the top of Mr. Frank’s old business, which was also called the Secret Annex. They lived in this apartment for 2 years. There was 8 people living in this crowded apartment. Peter van Pels had a cat at one time also. Miep and Mr. Kraler lived outside of the Annex but brought them news, food, and supplies to help them