The Burdens Of War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

In the story “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien explores the themes of the emotional and physical objects soldiers in Vietnam carried along with them on their marches. Some men carried more ammunition because they were scared, others carried letters from their loved ones. Lieutenant Cross, who is perceived to be the protagonist of the story carries the responsibility of his platoon. He spends most of his days fantasizing about a girl he loves from back home, Martha and it’s not until Ted Lavender is shot in the head that he now has to carry the grief of being responsible for his death. Meanwhile, a fellow member of the platoon, Kiowa, admires the lieutenant's capacity for grief, since his emotional response to Lavender’s death is just surprise.

One of the most overlooked aspects in the life of a soldier is the weight of the things they carry. In Tim O'Brien's story, "The Things They Carried," O'Brien details the plight of Vietnam soldiers along with how they shoulder the numerous burdens placed upon them. Literally, the heavy supplies weigh down each soldier -- but the physical load imposed on each soldier symbolizes the psychological baggage a soldier carries during war. Though O'Brien lists the things each soldier carries, the focal point centers around the leader, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and his roles in the war. Lt. Cross has multiple burdens, but his emotional baggage is

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

Often in the years following a war the notion of warfare is warped by common conceptions or cliches so that it no longer resembles the realities that the soldiers experienced. However, Tim O’Brien uses his own personal experiences from Vietnam to create stories which exhibit the real situations that these soldiers faced. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, demonstrates this unfiltered reality through multiple literary elements and the creation of fictional stories in order to portray the war accurately. Courage and valor are often associated with the idea of war and are often expected to be traits that all soldiers live by.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a platoon leader in Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried.” In the story, Lt. Cross is distracted with thoughts of a college student back in the States and has to deal with the guilt that he feels when one of his men is killed while he is daydreaming about the student. War is a traumatic experience for soldiers and the story draws attention to what goes on inside the mind of soldiers in combat who put their lives on the line for their country.

The soldiers of the Vietnam War had to carry the weight of many things with them: a gun, ammunition, a heavy bag full of supplies and personal belongings; but nothing was heavier than the weight of the guilt effects of the war. Being physically and mentally tired, constantly missing family dearly, and carrying valuables just to remind them what home feels like; this was the life of a Vietnam soldier. Throughout the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien the evidence is portrayed in many ways.

In "The Things They Carried," O'Brien made reference to the Vietnam war that was closely associated with the physical, psychological, and emotional weight the soldiers beared.  The overall method of presentation of this story incorporated many different outlooks on the things the soldiers carried, dealt with, and were forced to adapt to.  In addition to this, O'Brien showed us the many reasons why and how the soldiers posessed these things individually and collectively and how they were associated directly and indirectly.  The strong historical content in "The Things They Carried" helped emphasize the focus of the story and establish a clearer understanding of details in the

Every character in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" changes as a result of war. The basic main theme of the story is basically how men and women change after experiencing the unique and sad experiences that result from being in a war. Rat Kiley is quite possibly the person who is most affected, although O'Brien is careful in making sure one man's experiences seem of lesser or more importance than the others. Rat Kiley carries a medical kit, comic books, and M&Ms for really hurt people.

The Things They Carried is a breathtaking and captivating powerful war story memoir, which is beautifully and intensely well written by Tim O Brien. The novel explores the physical and emotional trauma of the Vietnam War and its impact on soldiers fears. The author and protagonist Tim O’ Brien communicates provoking nonlinear narratives or frame stories through his own point of view presenting the audience with a window into the disturbing widespread, endless, and meaningless death, violence, and savagery in war-torn Vietnam. The author cleverly uses different literary devices such as imagery, irony, symbolism, repetition and figurative language to grab the reader’s attention and convey his message and purpose for storytelling. By telling the haunting tragic stories of young soldiers whose lives were largely forgotten by society despite their opposition to the war and to reflect the real gripping emotional truth of what it was like to be a soldier in Vietnam and a veteran suffering from the memories of it. Through O’Brien vivid description of the war, which was such a significant event in American history, he distinguishes the physical, emotional and psychological aspect of war. The characters in the story are depicted memorably and their identities represent the different aspects of human nature and their struggle with guilt and purpose.

The Things They Carried is more than a story of physical warfare during the Vietnam War, but the battle of inner demons as well. In his novel, Tim O’ Brien takes us deep within the lives of his semi-fictional platoon in the midst of the Vietnam War in which he elaborates upon the harsh realities soldiers faced every day. O’ Brien claims, “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.” We see here that O’ Brien’s main purpose in writing his novel was to show the reader that the weight of the emotional toll was equivalent if not greater than the physical effects of war. The Vietnam War was an emotionally taxing experience for the soldiers, causing them to live in a false sense of reality, which tested their morals, and ultimately affected their psychological well-being.

The symbols in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” are essential to understanding the soldiers and their lives during the Vietnam War. At the opening of the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross would dig into his foxhole and read the letters while imagining romance with Martha; however, at the end of the story after the death of Ted Lavender, he “crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters” (402). The inner feelings of Cross would be mistakenly ignored without the help of symbols throughout his travel through Vietnam. O’Brien uses the emotional and physical weight carried by the soldiers as a representation of their personalities and how they prefer to cope with the war. The

Every one of us has experienced a strong emotional fear, and in that moment of stress, we learn more about who we are. The short story “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, follows the lives of soldiers trying to survive the emotional and physical stresses of the Vietnam War. Throughout the story, O’Brien juxtaposes the physical weight of the supplies that the soldiers must carry with the immeasurable weight of their intense emotional experiences. The theme of “The Things They Carried” is the burden of fear, which O’Brien portrays through the counter-weight of objects the soldiers cling to for consolation and escape. Some men turn to objects that remind them of love, no matter how unlikely it is that they are loved back. Other men

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien is a story in which the author details the possessions the emotions and the memories which were carried by the soldiers into the Vietnam War. The accuracy fact fullness and the attention to details make this story a truthful experience, riding on a thin line between fiction and a reality. It embodies the transformation that a soldier in a war zone undergoes. The author being a war veteran himself captures the events in a vivid manner. The two works of literature serve as an authentic and knowledgeable depiction of men fighting a war. They not only carry the weight of weaponry and ammunitions and supplies needed but also the weight of the struggle and the violent deaths that surround them which weigh heavier than the items they carried. The outcomes of war for the side that wins or loses results in devastation of the people but the soldiers are the ones who carry with them the memories of pain and struggle long after the war ends. Every war is partly fought on the ground and partly in the mind of soldiers.

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

“The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, has the theme of physical, emotional, and mental burden in a series of detailed paragraphs in which he tells of all physical and psychological vexations. One of the most followed characters, Jimmy Cross, physically carries several key items that aid in the survival of his men. As platoon leader, cross carries “…a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a .45-caliber…” Not only does he carry these physical things, but each man in the platoon all carry objects based on necessity. “