The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Literary Analysis

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," 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

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.

1. How does O’Brien use The Things They Carried to cope with the psychological impact of his experience in the war?

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a book solely about surviving war, and the stories that come along with going to a war. There are many different kinds of stories that Tim told about his experience at war. Some were sad, many were adventurous, and others made you wonder if they were even real. But with every story, there is something a certain soldier has that meant everything to them. They show a sense of comfort within every single person in this story. No matter if it is a physical object, or a spiritual value they carry with themselves at all times. They symbolize who the person is, what their life was like pre-war, and what they thrive to live for.

“The Things They Carried” is a story that I can personally relate to because of my service in the United States Marine Corps and Army National Guard. Although my service was during peacetime and I do not have any combat experience myself. I had the privilege of serving with many Vietnam combat veterans, one of which was a highly decorated gunnery sergeant, who was a “tunnel rat” because of his small stature. On a few occasions, I was able to get him to speak about his Vietnam experiences. They sounded very similar to O’Brien’s fictionalized accounts. He would describe what the dark tunnel smelt like and how it looked, with all the clutter they had in them, everything from operating rooms to kitchens. I find O’Brien’s fictional accounts of the platoon’s activities believable, for example, when they threw away some of their excess gear because of its weight. This is very lifelike and believable to me, having served in the military, but it provides insight into the average soldier for outsiders, especially those readers who have never been in the military.

You may not have realized it, but in The Things They Carried, there are many sources of symbolism planted throughout the book. The Things they carried by Tim O’Brien is about O'brien's experience in the war; he shares his experience through vignettes. Throughout this essay I will be talking about how Tim O'brien uses symbolism to open descriptions of emotional and physical burdens.

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried places readers in the shoes of soldiers such as Jimmy Cross, Kiowa or Rat Kiley in order to offer readers a better understanding of what American soldiers faced during the Vietnam War. By recreating the atmosphere of the Vietnam War time period accurately, O’brien had the freedom of adding realistic, but truly fictional elements to make his story more life-like. While none of the soldiers in this story are real individuals, his use of character’s point of view and their stream of consciousness helps to present their emotions and reactions in a very accurate way. Tim O'Brien employs the literary elements of perspective and syntactical expression to bring readers into a very realistic, yet fictional parallel

The things they carried are a story written by Tim O’Brien about a group of US solders that are fighting in the Vietnam War. This story centers on First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross his band of brothers.  In this story we follow Lt Cross through the jungles, in the caves, and across the rice patties of Vietnam. We get the rare opportunity of looking into what a man thinks and does when he is stranded thousands of miles from his home, family, and friends. The name of this story suggests what it is about; the things they carried. It talks about the their experience in Vietnam and what they carried physically and mentally.

Take a step back in time and imagine what it would be like to be in the Vietnam War. Author, Tim O’Brien, has been through the Vietnam War and has seen first hand the horrors of the war. Throughout the book, The Things They Carried, O’Brien describes and informs what the war is really like and what goes through the soldier's mind. O’Brien includes the experiences he had with his unit focusing on men such as Norman Bowker, Lieutenant Cross, Kiowa, and Rat Kiley. O'Brien uses many different literary elements to explain what he has gone through and what the other soldiers have gone through as well during their time in the Vietnam War. O’Brien uses imagery to describe the Freedom Bird, the Tip Top Lodge, and the environment of Vietnam. O'Brien

In Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried”, a young man is leading a troop of men in the Vietnam War and is having an internal conflict with missing a woman back home. He becomes so distracted by the woman that he loses focus on keeping his men safe. However, when one of his men gets murdered by a sniper, he soon comes to the realization that he cannot afford to dream because it can cost the lives of the men surrounding him. O’Brien uses many literary elements in his writing. These elements include tone, symbolism, and irony. O’Brien uses tone, symbolism, and irony to prove that distractions come with a price.

Tim O’Brien’s, The Things they Carried is a riveting tale of struggle and sacrifice, self indulgence and self pity, and the intrapersonal battles that reeked havoc on even the most battle tested soldiers. O’Brien is able to express these ideas through eloquent writing and descriptive language that makes the reader feel as if he were there. The struggle to avoid cowardice is a prevailing idea in all of O’Brien’s stories.

The Things They Carried was written about soldiers who served during the Vietnam War, explaining the effect it had on some of the men, as well as a look into the weapons that were used and the personal items carried by the men. The first chapter of the novel goes into great detail about the things that were carried by the men, giving individual examples, such as pantyhose, and also objects, like weapons, that every man had to carry with him. Tim O’Brien’s descriptions of the weapons that were carried helped enormously in shaping the body of the soldier in the image. The

Tim O’Brien is one of the most representative writers in America. As for his notable war stories, he is easily labeled as a war writer rather than other titles. As one of the most well-known novels of Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried was published in 1990. The whole stories are mainly narrated by a 43-year-old character names Tim O’Brien. He expresses the horrors and confusions that American veterans have experienced in every combat of the Vietnam War. During the war, the horror, as well as the misfortune is definitely not only bombs and guns, but also the most serious mental trauma, which leads to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this book, the character Bowker has not entirely overcome the traumatic

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of multiple short stories about Tim O’Brien’s, recollections of his time as a soldier in the Vietnam War. This novel depicts the experiences and effects of the Vietnam war on the lives of the American soldiers. O’Brien informs the readers that the stories may not be completely true or moral but that’s the point of a true war story. In the novel, O’Brien introduces characters by the items they carried. The thoughts of women or items women had given to these men were often recognized in the book. O’Brien incorporated a few female characters such as Martha, Mary Anne Bell, and Henry Dobbins’s girlfriend in order to show the influence they all had on the men in the novel. Though the