Summary Of Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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.

Memories are important, they are a personal record of our past experiences, and could be called the history book for our life. In the poem "The Heroes You Had as a Girl", author Bronwen Wallace tells the story of a woman who meets her high school hero later in her life, reflects on her memories of him, and ultimately decides not to talk to him. The effect that this topic has on everyone is the knowledge that we can be captivated and let our memories control us, and by knowing that our memories hold that much power, it may make it more mentally efficient to make accurate, and personal decisions in a fraction of the time. The topic and overall meaning that this idea holds convey a message that resonates with the idea that memories are in fact the central hub of our decision making. People remembering memories can affect their perspective on their lives to such an extent, that they prefer to immerse their mind in their past memories rather than the current reality.

The memories that a person makes throughout their lifetime creates amazing stories. The book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was based on memories from the Vietnam war. The protagonists in the novel is all the men that served and faced many obstacles throughout the war. The novel was written in parts of his memories from the war making the book nonlinear. O’Brien’s intended audience was soldiers and men, while discussing storytelling/memory and morality throughout the novel.

     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.

Throughout The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien demonstrates that mental fear is worse than physical pain. This is shown through the soldiers being so afraid and paranoid of being physically harmed, that it infected their minds to the point of mental deterioration. He shows this through Dave Jensen, who was so paranoid of Lee Strunk’s retaliation, that he broke his own nose to escape his mental anguish. Also, through Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen’s desire to die if their pain ever becomes too unbearable, and lastly through Tim O’Brien’s mental and physical harm caused by Jorgenson not healing him in time.

The question asks, “Memories only last a few years and then they’re not very important anymore.” That is completely false, that’s why everyone wants to go on many huge trips and do many things with friends and families to make lifelong memories that nobody will forget. You most likely will never forget about the horrific things that have happened in your life though mostly, which O’Brien remembers them all. O’Brien said that on page 34 and explains, “In a way, I guess, she’s right: I should forget. But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget.” (O’Brien 34). His daughter Kathleen tells him it’s an obsession to write stories and O’Brien should not think about what happened while he was at war, but that made him a completely different man. He was just some regular teenager and says he was “politically naive”, then that made him into someone who appreciated everything and changed his personality forever and also his political stances. Another example that had been shown on page 36, O’Brien had said, “What sticks to memory, often, are those odd little fragments that have no beginning and no end.” (O’Brien 36). O’Brien was talking about his memories from the war that were little and you do not really know the end of the story. When it was such a small memory, he always thinks about the ending piece, he never can get that little piece, and that is what had made him think of

At some time in life, a person will experience the death of a relative or lose something that was very important to him or her. After that traumatic event, will that person confront his or her pain, or will that person bury it deep within them? Both ways are possible, however, only one is effective in the long term. According to Tim O'Brien, the most effective way to heal after a traumatic experience is to share stories. In Tim’s book, The things they carried, he used the motifs of loneliness, life, and the mood of nostalgia to illustrate the importance of sharing stories during a healing process.

Life is full of regrets, life is full of death, Tim O'Brien explains this in the book The Things They Carried. The Things They Carried takes place during the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien is a sergeant during the war. This book shows O’Briens and his platoon mates hardships throughout the war. That one's life could be changed in a split second, or by one little mistake. In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien presented mortality and death and shame and guilt throughout the war towards people who want an entertaining take on the Vietnam War.

[...] But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget. You take your material where you find it, which is in your life, at the intersection of past and present” (O’Brien 34). For a writer like O’Brien it must

In the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the first chapter is called, “The Things They Carried.” The book was based on the Vietnam War. The first chapter gave an overview of what each of Jimmy Cross’s friends and he carried with them during the war. Jimmy carried “love” letters from a girl named Martha. He loved Martha and she was all he thought about.

Farrell argues, “Merely telling one’s story of trauma, however is not enough to begin the healing process” (186). Flashbacks are more than a memory, even if one tells others their flashbacks, one still would not understand the meaning or the significance of the intrusive memory. According to Caruth, “The flashbacks or traumatic reenactment conveys , that is both the truth of an event, and the truth of its incomprehensibility” (Caruth 153). In order for one to understand and heal from their trauma, one

Tim O’Brien wrote “The Things They Carried” a collection of short stories made into a book about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. His first original work was published in 1973. “His war experience inspired his first publication, titled If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. His memoir incandescently reflects depression and misery wreaked on soldiers by Vietnam War. In fact his literary work, The Things They Carried (1990), is a blend of memoir and fictional stories” (O’Brien Famous Authors). His writing are a work of art and once he wrote one he knew many more were to come. While Tim O’Brien faces the accounts of his past in war he

The short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a story written in 1986 in the setting of the Vietnam War. The main character, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, is a young man who struggles with the battle of love while being away at war. Cross leads his men with the thought of Martha, the woman he loves, in the back of his head at nearly all times, which distracts him from the true harshness of the war. The list of the things the soldiers carry in O’Brien’s short story tell us what tangibles the men carry with them that are necessities for the battles, but they also carry intangibles with them such as the letters, and the dope to help comfort them in a time of fear. These possessions express the character of the men in the squad. All of the men in the squad carry something with them whether it is tangible or intangible that defines who they are. These things that the soldiers carry with them are not only items strapped on their shoulders but they are now a part of who they are during this period of time in their lives.

  Memories are works of fiction, selective representations of experiences actual or imagined. They provide a framework for creating meaning in one's own life as well as in the lives of others. In Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, memory is a dangerous and debilitating faculty of human consciousness. Sethe endures the tyranny of the self imposed prison of memory. She expresses an insatiable obsession with her memories, with the past. Sethe is compelled to explore and explain an overwhelming sense of yearning, longing, thirst for something beyond herself, her daughter, her Beloved. Though Beloved becomes a physical manifestation of these memories, her will is essentially defined by and tied to the