Summary Of The Things They Carried 'By Tim O' Brien

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 the soldiers carried both mentally and physically. The things they carried symbolized their individual roles internally and externally. In addition to the 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 standpoint of being young men out at war.

“By and large they carried these things inside, maintaining the masks of composure” (21). In Tim O’brien’s The Things They Carried, the American soldiers of the Vietnam War carry much more than the weight of their equipment, much more than souvenirs or good-luck charms or letters from home. They carried within themselves the intransitive burdens—of fear, of cowardice, of love, of loneliness, of anger, of confusion. Most of all, they carry the truth of what happened to them in the war—a truth that only those who fought in the jungles and the mountains and the marshes of Vietnam can ever understand. These men can share their stories; but all that’s all they are to everyone else: stories.

Every day we go through, a million and one things occur. We either completely forget about it in the next instant or we carry it with us for the rest of our eternity. It’s possible to carry the memory of the generous tip the nice women gave you or the exact moment the wrong words came out of your mouth. We can carry these things called burdens, either physically or emotionally.

"The Things They Carried" list the variety of things his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company brought on their missions. Several of these things cannot be seen, including guilt and fear, while others are specific physical objects, including matches, morphine, M-16 rifles, and M&M's candy.

     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 “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien uses this story as a coping mechanism; to tell part of his stories and others that are fiction from the Vietnamese War. This is shown by using a fictions character’s voice, deeper meaning in what soldier’s carried, motivation in decision making, telling a war story, becoming a new person and the outcome of a war in one person. Tim O’ Brien uses a psychological approach to tell his sorrows, and some happiness from his stories from the war. Each part, each story is supposed to represent a deeper meaning on how O’Brien dealt, and will deal with his past. In war, a way to

Culture teaches that men must dispense of ridiculous emotions and remain firm, following expected duties. O’Brien develops this theme of the transition from youth to manhood in his short story, “The Things They Carried.” Through the protagonist Jimmy Cross, metaphors of weight, and futile ideas of freedom, O’Brien reveals how society expects young men in transition to adulthood to let go of impractical idealism and dwell instead on the cruel reality of the world.

In works such as the novel The Things They Carried written by Tim O’Brien and the movie Full Metal Jacket directed by Stanley Kubrick, we see the hardships soldiers had to pass through during training and the Vietnam War. As it is stated in O’Brien’s book “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing – these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had a tangible weight” (O’Brien 20). After stating all of the things they actually carried O’Brien makes reference to them carrying emotional weight, to let the reader know that there was more to the war than fighting. They had other reasons to be there, such not wanting to be titled as cowards for not enlisting themselves in the war. In Full Metal Jacket the emotional weight they have on themselves is also visible throughout the whole movie. The emotional burden caused some of the soldiers such as Private Leonard Lawrence to enlist in the training although he clearly was unfit for the job. This resulted in an amazing turn of events since due to intrinsic motivation to not be the source of everyone’s laugh, he becomes someone completely different. At the end of the first part of the movie Pvt. Lawrence was no longer that unfit soldier we see at the beginning, he had changed to be a vicious person with a death wish. In both works we see the physical and emotional struggles soldiers had to undergo causing them to develop an

In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried the issue of maturity is an ever occurring theme within the novel that sets out to tackle and open up for discussion of it on a broader level. Specifically within the chapters "Friends" and "Enemies" it is clear that both Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen are wedged in a personal psychological war. This issue faces many young adults but is perverted by the war and the tragic loss of innocent life. Many feel that the purpose of O'Brien's The Things They Carried is to show hardships and reality of war. While that is true, the most important issue and debate brought up is the rapid transformation of our young soldiers while they have to face the atrocities of war. Although, Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen

The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brein, is a story told through the eyes of members of a United States Army troop trudging their way through the Vietnamese country side and jungles during the Vietnam War. Each man has a specific job and so they carry specific belongings that they need to fulfill that job as well as a few mementos from home. These men also carry unseen baggage that is all too real to these men, their families and responsibilities back home preying on their minds, the horrors of war, and the stress of the importance of fulfilling their duties to keep then men around them alive.

While general morality dictates that all living things should be protected and matter, traumatic events override this belief. Whereas the sanctity of life is thrown away, violent outbursts of rage or anger become more common. Robert Ross always resorts to his pistol when afraid or threatened – he now relies on instinct and violence rather than intellect: “He wanted his pistol… Gun. Gun. He wanted his gun.” (O’Brien 177-178) Naturally, Robert wants to get revenge against his rapists. However, murdering is not normally the first response. This shows that Robert cannot control himself completely, he thirsts for destruction. This is also a result of his post-traumatic stress injury. Likewise, his urges were evident at the start of the novel, after

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story written about the Vietnam War. The title has two meanings. The first is their duties and equipment for the war. The second, the emotional sorrows they were put through while at war. Their wants and needs, the constant worry of death were just a few of the emotional baggage they carried. During the Vietnam War, like all wars, there were hard times. Being a soldier wasn’t easy. Soldiers always see death, whether it be another soldier or an enemy. In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien explores the motivation of solders in the Vietnam War to understand their role in combat, to stay in good health, and accept the death of a fellow soldier.

Death and violence occur almost in every chapter of the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. One of the major death events happens in the first chapter, “The Things They Carried” and in the chapter “How To Tell a True War Story”, where Curt Lemon was blown up by grenades, “I remember the shadows spreading out under the trees where Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley were playing catch with smoke grenades.” In the first chapter “The Things They Carried”, Lavender was shot and killed in the first week of April, “In the first week of April Lavender died. In “How To Tell a True War Story” an incident occurred when Rat and Curt shot a baby buffalo, “He stepped back and shot it through the right front knee.” All this death and violence in this little novel, so much has happened violence, and death has happened throughout this entire novel.

War is a time where soldiers lose themselves in the chaos that surrounds them. Soldiers have to immerse themselves in battle and always be ready for whatever comes their way. But when there is no conflict arising on the battlefield, soldiers have to reminisce on their pasts and think about their past experiences that shaped them into the person they have become. The Things They Carried is a memoir written by Tim O’Brien that takes place during the Vietnam War and talks about the experiences the soldiers of the war had experienced. O’Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, states that memories are experiences that blend over time into events to affect one’s emotions as they reminisce on events that happened in their life years ago.

In Tim O'Brien's book "The Things They Carried", the chapter "Church" take places at a camp in an abandoned place called "pagoda" where a gathering of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam who has chosen to remain with two monks that treated them well. Looking through the cultural lens in this chapter, the dread of death changes the individual's perspective of the afterlife and higher power.