The Characters In Tim O Brien's The Go-Between

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.

The central theme of the story is the age-old conflict of life and death. On a more personal level with First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the round character and protagonist of "The Things They Carried", it is a conflict of love, his antagonist and of war.

Tim O’Brien, a previous war veteran and the author of The Things They Carried, reinvents himself as a character in the book, who is traumatized by the violent acts of the Vietnamese war. The book is all about exaggerations of actual stories that took place. Tim O’Brien uses his storytelling as a way of coping with the tragedies of this war. People cope in different ways; some people talk about it constantly and others keep to themselves. Norman Bowker, an actual veteran and a character in The Things They Carried, differs from Tim O’Brien in a sense that he bottled his stories in until he couldn’t hold on any longer.

In contrast, by appearance of a horny sexual character, Joyce, viewers are positioned to see the danger of a woman as she rallies support which turns into a mob after she fails to proceed what she wants – sexual intercourse. However, the actions of main character, Edward, and the clothes worn him and more importantly, an awkward looks of him with scissors for hands positions the viewers to see him as a person who can't and never will fit in ordinary suburbia. Burton’s use of these characters is to convince viewer that whether conformity is good or bad, distinct individual is always to be left behind.

This book is an actual war story where it has numerous of stories about his experiences. But under all those harsh stories and events lies one of the most powerful forces, and that is love. Could it be that instead these stories are based on love and not war? When I say love I do not mean that they are all homosexual but rather they are best friends, battle buddies, loyal to each other. They may get into fights but they all have each others back at the end of the day and I’m going to go through three characters and how they connected with the author, Tim O’Brien.

There are two types of people that fight in wars; those who consider their patriotic duty an honor and those who entered the war by force. In 1990, twenty years after returning from the Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien published The Things They Carried, a disturbing and remorseful collection of short stories that gives detailed, yet fictional, accounts of the horrific events that occurred during the war. Later in 2012, after his tour of duty, Chris Kyle released American Sniper, a humble and passionate memoir that describes what Kyle had to face during his tour. While The Things They Carried utilizes symbolism and similes to inform the reader about the horrors of war, American Sniper uses flashbacks and imagery to demonstrate that some people “come alive” during the war.

He never returned home so she thought that he was dead. She says that she was young and not necessarily ready to marry Roger when she did. She loved him but she wasn't in love with him. She did care about Roger because he asked her not to tell anyone that he was her husband and she didn't tell anyone. She respected what he wanted done and if she didn't care about him at all then she would have told everyone that he was her husband. She was in love with Arthur but could never confess that to anyone else besides him because she didn't want anything to go wrong for Arthur. Arthur was supposed to set a good example about how to deal with life and not to commit sins because he was the minister of the church in their city. Little did everyone know that he was the adulterous. No one ever suspected him of it because no know would've thought that a minister would do

In addition, the two voices in the narrative illustrate the contrasting perceptions of childhood and maturity as we can see that the younger Leo simply believes if he ‘went away…the relationship between Ted and Marian would cease’ (Chapter 16. p. 182), whereas the elder Leo is able to analyse his feelings, ‘I thought I knew what was best for myself…I was shaken and frightened’ (Chapter 16. p. 183). Consequently, the first person narrative in the past tense effectively conveys a sense of the adult narrator carefully exploring his conscious in a philosophical manner, whereas child narrator’s naïve attitude is portrayed in his black and white perception of the crisis, believing that he is solely to blame for the blossoming of the lovers’ affair, ‘I had attacked them first’ (Chapter 16. p. 182). Thus, the reader feels a certain degree of sympathy towards Leo’s predicament as he possesses a common child-like sense of misguided responsibility. However, it is evident that he is merely facilitating the relationship between Ted and Marian. Nevertheless, the writer also presents Leo as somewhat egocentric as he sees

One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way

In both short stories, it is easy to discover that Winterbourne and Waythorn both are mysterious of who their adored ones really are besides what is normally perceived of them. Throughout the story Winterbourne could not figure out Daisy as he tried to analyze all the unusual aspects of her character. Winterbourne becomes infatuated by Daisy, confused by her “mixture of innocence and crudity,” (James 520) and “mixture of audacity and puerility.” (James 533). On the other hand, Waythorn becomes a bit curious as to who Alice really is now or was during her past two husbands who aren’t nearly as bad as Alice had informed him. Although Winterbourne is not married like Waythorn, Winterbourne desires Daisy a great deal but he is humble enough to avoid being disparate especially when she is accompanied by Mr. Giovanelli. Compared to Winterbourne, Waythorn could not bear “to think that she had, in the background of her life, a phase of existence so different from anything with which he had connected her.” (Wharton 1032). Although “The Other Two” ends much better than “Daisy Miller,” thanks to Mrs. Miller, Winterbourne learned that Daisy really did care about him. As for the very ending of both stories, “The Other Two” ends with Waythron, Alice and her former husband’s leaving enough room to bug in each other’s lives comfortably as hoped

In the post-apocalyptic novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a majority of the characters are portrayed as “evil” or would be in an ideal world. Though the main characters; the Man and the Boy do not show any “evil” behaviours I would presume that if at some point in time they became desperate enough for food – and desperate enough to live, that they would do what they needed to do in order to survive. As in, eating other humans and stealing, I do not think that this is necessarily being evil or good.

Throughout the story Hawthorne shows man's problem specifically by naming the characters after certain types of sinful characteristics. At the part of the story where the train passes the Cross the passengers begin talking of the advantages of keeping their burdens." We were rushing by the place where Christian's burden fell from his shoulders, sight of the Cross. This served as a theme for Mr. Sooth-it-away, Mr. Live-for-the-world, Mr. Hide-sin-in- the-heart, Mr. Scaly-conscience, and a knot of gentlemen from the town of Shun- repentance, to descant upon the inestimable advantages resulting from the safety of our baggage." Giving the characters of the story these names Hawthorne specifically address the problems that man can and does face. In the city of Vanity Fair Hawthorne describes the churches with respect yet he contradicts himself when he gives the names of the reverends. "In justification of this high praise, I need only mention the names of the Rev. Mr. Shallow-deep; the Rev. Mr. Stumble-at-Truth; that fine old clerical character, the Rev. Mr. This-to-day, who expects shortly to resign his pulpit to the Rev. Mr. That-to-morrow; together with the Rev. Mr. Bewilderment; the Rev. Mr. Clog-the-spirit; and,last and greatest, the Rev. Dr. Wind-of-doctrine." In this section Hawthorne show's how Christians and even whole churches can be hypocritical of

Wilde's conception of deceit as an accepted custom in English aristocracy is also existent in this scene.  The practice of "Bunburying" is established, an act where each man lies to his family about an imaginary invalid friend present somewhere else, in an attempt to pursue leisure activities elsewhere.  It is in this discussion that Jack admits to his friend Algernon that he has been lying to his friend in order to maintain the disguise.  Thus, it seems as though the very relationship between the two men is founded on deceit.  Later in this act, Lady Bracknell and Gwendolyn are introduced.  Even though Lady Bracknell is married, it is obvious that the two women are merely female counterparts of Algy and Jack.  Both spend the day making visits to others in their social sphere, as Algy and Jack do, holding these visits with utmost importance. 

Throughout the story Atwood uses flat characters with no depth to speak of in the various scenarios to drive home her theme that all endings are the same. Two of the main characters John and Mary are introduced in the first line when “John and Mary meet” (Atwood 395). Not only do these characters go through the entire story undeveloped, with no dynamism, but they even have very ordinary names, as do the other characters that are equally as flat. Throughout all the scenarios the reader gets to know very little about the characters, only the events of their lives in each scenario. It seems that Atwood is again making it a point to keep the reader disengaged with the characters to keep the scenarios only about the facts, with only enough feeling described to get the point of the scenario across. To reinforce this idea Atwood writes,

The author employs indirect characterization, as he reveals the character’s ´personality through their words and actions, and through what other characters say about a character. For example, Billy is described as a seventeen year-old boy, who has just finished school, naïve, innocent, and lacking knowledge of the world and its dangers. He arrives at Bath, he peeps inside the landlady’s house, and he is attracted by the room itself: “it looked to him as though it would be a pretty and decent house to stay in.” in addition, he gets a good impression of the woman, based on a short conversation. He is completely innocent t, sure that the woman was harmless, only because she behaves in a generous way as he arrives at Bath. “She seemed terrible nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one’s best school-friends welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas Holidays ” ,“With very gentle blue eyes”, and “a mind and generous soul.” Conversely, the landlady is directly characterized because in several passages the narrator describes what she is like. She is portrayed as a warm and caring woman but by the use of irony, the author lets us know that the woman has planned to murder every visitor she receives. This is stated by her insistence on Billy signing the book, in which she registers her victims. What is more, she is depicted through her actions as a two-faced person, who does not feel remorse for having murdered Mr. Mullholland and Mr. Temple, and what is curious is that every time that Billy tries to remember where he has heard those names, she interrupts him, offering him a cup of tea, so as to avoid Billy’s questions. “The tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds, and he didn’t ‘t much care for it.” Besides, she is an intimidating person, always looking at the boy, and he knows it: “[He] could feel her eyes resting on his face, watching over the rim of her