The Things They Carried & A Soldiers Sweetheart Essay

Is the novel making the same point about the value or ideas as the film? If so, how? If it is making a different point about the value or idea, how is it different?

To begin with the first difference between the movie and the novel is poor character development, and how the character are shown differently in both the novel and the movie. When Gene goes to Leper’s home town, he finds him shell shocked. When Gene gets the telegram letter and goes to

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’ by Tim O’Brien is a novel whose theme is not only related to soldiers but to everyday people as well. The theme of this novel lies in the struggles that soldiers bear, both physically and emotionally. The title —The Things They Carried— and most of

"The Things They Carried," is a story about drafted soldiers during the Vietnam era who were sent to the Vietnam War. The author, Tim O’Brien, describes the things that the men carry during their tour of duty. The items carried are both physical and impalpable items and what these things are is subject to the individual soldier. They carry the necessities for survival in the jungles of Vietnam as well as the personal things each soldier feels necessary to make life as comfortable as possible. Additionally, each of the men carries the memories and fears of past and present experiences. The heaviness of the impalpable items is as tangible as that of any physical item, and not so easy to cast away. The literary argument in which the novel

The text, ‘The Things They Carried', is an excellent example which reveals how individuals are changed for the worse through their first hand experience of war. Following the lives of the men both during and after the war in a series of short stories, the impact of the war is accurately portrayed, and provides a rare insight into the guilt stricken minds of soldiers. ‘The Things They Carried' shows the impact of the war in its many forms: the suicide of an ex-soldier upon his return home; the lessening sanity of a medic as the constant death surrounds him; the trauma and guilt of all the soldiers after seeing their friends die, and feeling as if they could have saved them; and the deaths of the soldiers, the most negative impact a war

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien portrays a detachment of soldiers serving in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War starts amid the 1960/70's in the nation of Vietnam. It is a curiously severe war, and numerous veterans experience for a long time after their awful encounters. The author recounts every one of the things they carry from weapons to the passionate weight of wartime. Short memories evoke, and bits of knowledge to the characters create as everything the soldiers carry reveals. The author describes stories of a significant number of the soldiers' missions and tricks. The Author viably utilizes the components of fiction: tone, style, and imagery to enable the peruser to comprehend the soldiers' hardships in the Vietnam War.Tim O'Brien utilizes the tone of the story to improve the perspective of the hardships the soldiers confront. All through the story, an officer named Ted Lavender specified. An enemy murders him, and his death addresses frequently. The author utilizes a cold, dispassionate tone to make Ted Lavender's passing a typical subject. O'Brien expresses in the story that “Ted Lavender a soldier. He was scared at that moment, and he got shot in the head while carrying thirty-four rounds at the place Than Khe. He died, and there was no twitching or flopping (325).” The levelness communicates by the author utilizes to demonstrate the hardships of the fighter's mental state. O’Brien states again that “Another soldier named

The Viet Nam War has been the most reviled conflict in United States history for many reasons, but it has produced some great literature. For some reason the emotion and depredation of war kindle in some people the ability to express themselves in a way that they may not have been able to do otherwise. Movies of the time period are great, but they are not able to elicit, seeing the extremely limited time crunch, the same images and charge that a well-written book can. In writing of this war, Tim O'Brien put himself and his memories in the forefront of the experiences his characters go through, and his writing is better for it. He produced a great work of art not only because he experienced the war first hand, but because he is able to convey the lives around him in such vivid detail. He writes a group of fictional works that have a great deal of truth mixed in with them. This style of writing and certain aspects of the book are the topics of this reflective paper.

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

Throughout Tim O'Brien's short work "How to tell a true war story" O'Brien has two reoccurring themes. One is of the desensitization of the troops during their hardship regarding the events of the Vietnam War, and the other is of the concept of truth. Truth may seem simple enough to explain, but is in fact endowed with many layers. The story is chalked full of contradictions, as well as lies, and embellishments, and yet O'Brien claims that these are the truth. The truth, whether it be war or society's, is in fact a concept that can be conveyed many times and in many ways. Whereas each is independently untrue, the combined collaboration of these half-truths is in essence the only real truth.

The things they carried was originally published on March 28, 1990. It is connected short stories that tell the tale of the Alpha Company, foot soldiers in Vietnam are shown before, during, and after the Vietnam War. The author is Tim O'Brien who served in the Vietnam war from 1968 to 1970. He's well known as pretty much the writer who tackles the Vietnam War from an American soldier's perspective, which I think is extremely important to help ordinary people understand war. I overall really liked this work even though I am normally not much of a reader. Platoon is a film released in 1986; it had many similarities to the things they carried. Both the story and the movie helped me see how war really was, both were graphic but at the same time they got the point across.

     In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, numerous themes are illustrated by the author. Through the portrayal of a number of characters, Tim O’Brien suggests that to adapt to Vietnam is not always more difficult than to revert back to the lives they once knew. Correspondingly the theme of change is omnipresent throughout the novel, specifically in the depiction of numerous characters.

For instance, the book talks about how the greasers felt and how their feelings were, then in the movie, it didnt talk about it but it showed it. The way that they showed it was not as good as it was written. When reading we don't fall in love with the characters' appearance. We fall in love with their words, their thoughts, and their hearts. We fall in love with their soul. In movies we focus more on appearance and what's going on in the background, which then gets people distracted from what the character is feeling and their thoughts. On the other hand, you can see the actions of the characters in the movie, which might help you process the way they act, however with the book the author can use what he thinks and try to give people a general idea of everything. For an example in the book it talks about how Randy

“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.

Your key challenge in a leadership position is taking care of the Soldiers entrusted to your care. Soldiers are our nation’s most important military asset. The Leader who sends the message that Soldiers don’t really matter will generally not be as successful in the long-run as the Leader who is genuinely serious about taking care of his/her Soldiers.