O Brien Quotes And Analysis

Jimmy Cross felt responsible for his death because when they arrived in the small village not far from the Song Tra Bong river the women of the village shoed them away from the field that they wanted to camp at for the night. Cross, to scare the women away, used his pistol. During the night it started to rain and Cross realized they had made a bad decision camping there because it was a sewer field. All of a sudden it began raining mortar fire, and one of the rounds hit Kiowa. Kiowa began sinking in the muck and Bowker grabbed his boot.

For the second half of the reading the narrator is able to hit the last significant and important parts of his story and is able to close the book for the readers. During the first part of the reading O’Brien describes a man who he killed, he goes on to imagine a whole life for the man. I think O’Brien does this because he’s caught in the moment, he feels so guilty and the thought and the physically appearance of the dead man keeps reappearing and stays on the back on his mind. We also learn about when one of the characters, Norman Bowker, goes back home and finds himself almost lost. Even though he is away from the war and time has passed by, all he can think about is the past, including a high school crush, but mostly about the war. This

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 this short story by Tim O’Brien, Lieutenant Jimmy cross leads a platoon of men in the Vietnam War. Unable to keep his thoughts from his unrequited love interested, Martha, Cross allowed his platoon to become lax in their duties and mentally removed from the war. The conflict arises when one of his men, Ted Lavender, is killed on a mission. The conflict is resolved when Lieutenant Cross abandons his youthful fantasy world for the reality of the war he is living in. Cross finds new purpose in the vigilant leadership of his men.

The Vietnam War was full of men just like Jimmy, teenagers and young men in their early twenties, and a majority of these “kids” were just as inexperienced as he was. Jimmy may have not been the greatest leader at first, but he always had good intentions. As the story continues, he begins to understand that “he is responsible for the lives of his own men”, and he seems to mature significantly towards the end. Although, Up until the end of the story, Jimmy continued to struggle with focusing on leading his platoon, and couldn’t seem to stop himself from fantasizing about Martha.

Through The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien moves beyond the horror of fighting in the Vietnam War to examine with sensitivity and insight the nature of courage and fear. Included, is a collection of interrelated stories. A few of the stories are brutal, while others are flawed, blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. All the stories, however, deal with one platoon. Some are about the wartime experiences of soldiers, and others are about a 43-year-old writer reminiscing about his platoon’s experiences. In the beginning chapter, O’Brien rambles about the items the soldiers carry into battle, ranging from can openers, pocketknives, and mosquito repellent o

Terry’s father and George Robinson share many similar astonishing experiences and traits. Conspicuously, they both fought in the Vietnam War; however, as a consequence, both men, whether physically or mentally, were injured. Furthermore, the both of them have mentioned or implied that they found it difficult to watch others die, especially their comrades. Moreover, Terry’s father and Robinson both survived the war, although they consider themselves as changed men because of the many ghastly situations they had lived through. Similarly, both veterans had no desire to discuss their experiences with their loved ones, finding it too difficult to do so. As Terry’s father explained it, their memories

The emotional weight that each man endured is also described, but in a more profound amount of mind compelling detail. In the description of what Ted Lavendar was carrying at the time of his death, the author describes the usual flack jacket and helmet, but also his “unweighed fear”. Truly, this unweighed fear is captured in the quote “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried”. The meaning of this is that the men could hide their feelings in their equipment, but were actually at

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.

Many authors use storytelling as a vehicle to convey the immortality of past selves and those who have passed to not only in their piece of literature but in their life as an author. In Tim O’Brien’s work of fiction The Things They Carried, through his final chapter “The Lives of the Dead,” O 'Brien conveys that writing is a matter of survival since, the powers of storytelling can ensure the immortality of all those who were significant in his life. Through their immortality, O’Brien has the ability to save himself with a simple story. Through snippets of main plot event of other chapters, O’Brien speaks to the fact the dead have not actually left; they are gone physically, but not spiritually or emotionally. They live on in memories as Linda lives on in the memories of O’Brien and as many of his war buddies live on through his stories. He can revive them and bring them back to the world through his writings and through these emotions or events he experienced with them and with their deaths can make them immortal. Through the reminiscent stories of Linda and O’Brien’s war companions and himself, O’Brien conveys that storytelling allows people to reanimate others who have died and past selves to create an immortality of humans.

Death defines life; it has the ability to reinvent the living for better or worse. “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, provides a non-linear, semi-fictitious account of the Vietnam War that poignantly depicts the complicated relationship between life and death. His account breathes subtle vitality and realism into the lingering presence of the dead, intimating that the memories they impart have as profound an impact as the living.

Drawing upon the ability of fiction to preserve life against death, O 'Brien says that, during wartime, that they were able to "[keep] the dead alive with stories" (239). To the living, stories were a way to keep the memory of the dead alive, but to the dead, it was the simple act of remembering that kept them alive: "That 's what a story does. The bodies are animated. You make the dead talk" (232). This theme of preservation is exemplified by story of Linda, in which O 'Brien uses the power of storytelling and memory to keep people alive: "Stories can save us. I 'm forty-three years old, and a writer now, and even still, right here, I keep dreaming Linda alive...They 're all dead. But in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world." (225).

It is very apparent that Tim O’Brien, as of writing this story, is afflicted with what we now call PTSD. This is shown by how quickly the story turns from him being at home with his daughter, to back on the battlefield in the Vietnam War. He goes into great detail about this event. From the weather and environment, to him and his partner taking watch shifts, even to how the man he killed looked and what he was wearing. If you have PTSD one of the side effects is having unwanted memories of your experiences. It is shown that Tim has this by the sentence “I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog.” He will be at home, sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper, but when he looks up he can see the man he killed. This is an unwanted memory to him. Having PTSD has truly taken a toll on Mr. O’Brien. He has since moved on, but he can never truly forget that experience. He tries to forget but he simply cannot due to his condition. “Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t,” is what he writes in his story “Ambush” as he tells of his struggles with PTSD. If he told his daughter what happened, not only would he most likely not be able to stop talking and describing the situation he was thrust into, but he would also remember the gunshots and explosions. He would be back on the battlefield. He would maybe even try to harm his wife or daughter due to

The men were all fun and jokes, before Ted Lavender died. They didn’t have their heads in the war they were participating in. Moments before Ted’s death Tim O’Brien followed First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross in his distracted state. “…Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. But he was not there.