Comparison Of The Inner Battle: The End And The Beginning

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

War is a paradoxical concept and with it comes many problems, problems that are the result of indirect or direct conflict. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, war is all around the characters. They are in the heart of Vietnam and because of that, soldiers must face difficult life events that enfold in the jungle. Tim O’Brien wants the reader to understand that by using stories the soldiers can distract themselves from the war, remember and honor the lost, and lastly to keep their own sanity.

While the Vietnam War was a complex political pursuit that lasted only a few years, the impact of the war on millions of soldiers and civilians extended for many years beyond its termination. Soldiers killed or were killed; those who survived suffered from physical wounds or were plagued by PTSD from being wounded, watching their platoon mates die violently or dealing with the moral implications of their own violence on enemy fighters. Inspired by his experiences in the war, Tim O’Brien, a former soldier, wrote The Things They Carried, a collection of fictional and true war stories that embody the

Memories and stories swarming the mind and twisted by imagination are the only glimpse of humanity a man can hold on to while at war. Through stories, men at war can share their thinning humanity with one another. The deafening silence of war defeats the human spirit and moral compass, thus it is not only man against man but man against sanity. Tim O 'Brien 's “The Things They Carried” provides a narrative of soldiers in the Vietnam War holding on to the only parts of themselves through their imagination. O’Brien employs symbolic tokens, heavy characterization, and the grueling conflict of man to illustrate how soldiers create metaphorical stories to ease the burden of war.

Unlike most war stories, in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” the war in Vietnam is not glorified and instead, the story is believable and raw. The horrors of war that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his squadron experience in an unfiltered, yet emotionally detached way that molds the structure and the language. This story, through its structure and techniques, displays the idea of how disillusionment and loss of innocence create unimaginable burdens for the American soldiers. O’Brien portrays the characters’ burdens with a monotonous and lulling tone through the use of flashbacks, setting, imagery, and metonymy.

Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” is about a platoon of seventeen soldiers that are in the Vietnam war. The focus of the story is on First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross going back and forth from Vietnam and his memory for Martha, “an English major at Mount Sebastian” (323). The narration bounces around during the telling of the story, as if the story is being told from memory years after the war. The narration of the story is told around the death of one of the soldiers, Ted Lavender. As the platoon “humped” (324) through the Vietnam wilderness outside the village of Than Khe, the narrator gives the reader lists of military issued equipment and what each piece weighs. “They would never be at a loss for things to carry” (332) for these lists changed depending on the mission and the soldiers mental state, as does their weight. Along with their military issued equipment they also carry personal belongings, as well as emotional baggage. This essay will analyze the personal and emotional things they carry and whether they are helpful or a burden.

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.

In the summer of 1968, O’Brien received his the draft to fight in the Vietnam War. A recent college graduate, O’Brien’s whole future awaited him but halted with the arrival of his call to duty. The responsibility of serving your country in a war that he didn’t choose to fight proves to create a great inner conflict for O’Brien. The acknowledgement that he doesn’t fully understand the reason for the Vietnam War, nor does he support it, urges him to cross the border into Canada where he’ll be safe from the

Truth has many meanings but the qualities of being a logical and relatable story can stand out to someone. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a novel that unfolds the truths about the Vietnam war through short stories. The Vietnam war is one of the longest war the U.S. ever participates in which lasted from 1955-1975. Furthermore, through the narration of these stories Tim O’Brien discusses about his feelings and perspective of the war. Also O’Brien writes stories that connects with ventures that has many experiences with war and people who face difficulties. Therefore, The Things They Carried is a collection of true stories because it is logical and relatable to both soldiers and people.

No war is easy for the soldiers who put their lives on the line to fight for what they believe in. The soldiers on both sides of the Vietnam War faced challenges that changed their lives forever and left a lasting effect on their physical and mental health. The hardships faced in the Vietnam War as depicted in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien are an accurate representation of the struggle faced by not only the soldiers fighting the war but also those who were involved in nonviolent positions.

While memories can hurt, they build people into who they are today. The book The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is written in a non-linear format. The nonlinear format mimics one’s memories. O’Brien waits 20 years to begin writing this book because it took time to process what he has gone through. O’Brien shares many short stories about other in his group and the situations they faced during the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War. A war that many Americans believed unfair and unnecessary. “Why am I being sent off to fight in a war I don’t know anything about? Will I ever return again?” Many draftees asked themselves these questions hoping to find comfort in the answers. But there was little to no hope, and they knew it. They were being drafted and they could do absolutely nothing about it, only hope that at the end they would be returning to the enlightened faces of their loved ones, something that not many Vietnam soldiers expected to ever see again. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, portrays his experience in the war along with his fellow squad members, in their fight for survival against the Vietcong. In The Things They Carried, each

War and violence effects every individual differently. In Tim Obrien’s “The Things They Carried”, the characters are bombarded with inter-personal issues due to their long-term exposure to war and violence in the Vietnam War. Each character in the story carried a bit of baggage with them, both figuratively and metaphorically. The characters struggle to separate the real world from the world of war and violence that they have been living in for an extended period of time. Throughout the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his fellow men are effected drastically from exposure to the violence of the Vietnam War.

The Things They Carried is a novel and a related assortment of short stories written by Tim O’Brien. Tim O’Brien’s good and bad experiences of the Vietnam War are vividly described in a unique way in this book. He presents his readers with both an autobiography and a war memoir. His novel is more of a fictional historical account rather than a non-fictional account. The main goal of his work was to recollect the past and repair his memories of the Vietnam War to a more understandable and truthful meaning. This novel had many different features that made it distinctive. Many themes, motifs, symbols, and characters can be easily found and analyzed in this novel.

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.