The Things They Carried By Tim O ' Brien

The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien begins by Mr. O'Brien describing his dramatical events that happened during the middle of his Vietnam experience while he was fighting in the war. Mr. O'Brien received his draft notice in the month of June in the year of 1968. When he received this notice Mr. O'Brien had feelings of confusion, and that drove him to go north to the Canadian border, and it had him contemplating if he wanted to cross it or not because he does not want to be forced to fight in a war he really does not believe in. However, Mr. O'Brien finally decides that he would feel guilty if he avoided the war and he also feared that his family would be disappointed. Not only does this novel tell us readers about his

The central theme and true meaning of courage is shown vividly in numerous instances throughout Tim O’Brien’s classic novel The Things They Carried. O’Brien’s novel begins with the courage of coming of age, along with the author’s loss of his innocence. Tim, the protagonist of this novel, goes through an incredible change in belief when he must choose to either run away from the Vietnam War or unwillingly join the bloody battle, of which he strongly did not have faith in. The main courageous occurrence that O’Brien was showing the reader was the fear of going to war, and the integrity behind holding ones beliefs and morals in fighting for their country. The Things They Carried shows

“Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” Dante Alighieri. Hope is an anodyne. In times of war many soldiers require a buffer to alleviate the pain of witnessing the horrors of the war zone reality. This may manifest as emotional baggage, a reoccurring theme in “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. Emotional baggage transcends the physical weight it manifests that was in the soldier’s packs. Emotional baggage can manifest as something intangible, like an obsession, or take on physical weight and mass, like something that gives comfort simply by having it on one’s person. However, there comes a time when the emotional baggage must be shrugged off if one is to move forward and onward in one’s life. O’Brien uses the reoccurring theme emotional baggage in his novel “The Things They Carried” to show not only how some soldiers utilized it in an attempt to buffer themselves from the front line, but how some put faith in the symbolism of they carried, and how some come to the realization that they must shrug off some of this distracting emotional baggage if they were to carry on.

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

The story “The Things They Carried” reveals emotional and physical challenges soldiers face during the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien introduces the reader not only to the subject of war and physical exhaustion, but also to human feelings and inner struggle soldiers are going through at this war. Besides the equipment and necessary things, soldiers carried emotions which strengthen their hope of staying alive in order to continue their mission. Tim O’Brien uses female figure, Martha, to create psychological escape which distracts a young soldier, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, from the war. However, such a distraction leads to the death of a group member, Ted Lavender. The illusion of love for Martha and false hopes gradually transform into bitter feeling of guilt and the harsh reality of war. Tim O’Brien masterfully describes Jimmy Cross’ and other soldier’s experience and feelings during

In war, the characteristics of a soldier, civilian, and the nation as a whole can change drastically due to the nature of war. A person introduced to war is physically and mentally changed because of the traumatic experiences they encounter. Tim O’Brien uses contrasts and contradictions in his novel, The Things They Carried, to reveal how the characters are affected by the war in Vietnam and how their personalities shift through it. The characters who are impacted by the war are exposed to its horrors and are traumatized forever. While in the vicious jungles of Vietnam, the soldiers in war get weary and homesick.

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.

Thesis: In the novel The Things They Carried, the author often uses his characters as a way to depict how war affects soldiers. The events described in the book which affected the characters Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders and Curt Lemon highlight that war has no moral which causes soldiers to become emotionally affected and can prematurely age them and make them jaded.

​For many years war has been a huge part of history. Thousands of people go to war for their country and come back physically fine. But what people usually do not notice is the emotional distress and burden that the veterans come back with on their back. That is what drives the purpose of the book in “The things they carried”. Tim O’Brien wrote this book in way that shows how war can be part of the soldier for the rest of their life. Coming home veterans have to deal with individual sufferings, but the emotional baggage the soldiers bring also effect the people around them. The characters in the book the “The things they carried” portray this very well.

Each item we carry in our pockets and backpacks is symbolic to our personal beliefs, values, and attitudes. Tim O’Brien gives readers a look into each soldier’s beliefs, values, and attitudes by sharing what they were carrying with them. These items are symbols and give themselves more meaning than the item itself. (Madden 68). Most of the equipment the men were carrying were mission dependent and are things you would expect a soldier to carry; it’s the extra personal items they carry that really tell the readers about who that person really is. Jimmy cross carries 2 pictures of Martha, Henry Dobbins has pantyhose around his neck, Ted lavender carries marijuana and tranquilizers, Kiowa an

In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien one is subjected to the in workings of a soldiers mind during the Vietnam War. Although on the surface it may seem just a story of what soldiers carried with them throughout the war, tangible or not, a deeper understanding of what these men faced shines through. As a veteran of the Vietnam war O’Brien has insight that many will never know except through his many writings. His experience throughout the war was seen to shape his stories and “The Things They Carried” is no different. In this story one finds a comparison between the material and immaterial baggage accompanying the soldiers, the soldiers motivation due to their fellow soldier, the uncaring attitude that the war has imparted on the

During the Vietnam War, a range of emotions occurred within every soldier. Even though some veterans can move past their memories of war, many soldiers became haunted by their dark memories. In Tim O’Brien’s fictional novel The Things They Carried, O’Brien takes his readers through several different events and emotions that occurs to his character during the Vietnam War. Although his character sometimes faces a tough time telling the story, O’Brien manages to inform his readers of the different emotions he faced from the point he enter the Vietnam War to the end of the Vietnam War. During the novel, several different themes continuously appear throughout the text. Out of all the themes that O’Brien describes, the themes of guilt and fear stand out the most during his stories of before, during, and after the war.

One of the literary elements that stands out from the rest through his incorporation of symbolism. As revealed in the title and the theme of the story itself, it is already easy to spot the use of symbolism at a glance. According to O’Brien’s story, the things that the group of men carried are not always physical and concrete objects. Some of the items that they carry are abstract such as their memories, emotions, and fears. These different traits and factors can especially be seen through one of the more important roles and protagonists, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Cross is described as a leader-type who does have some flaws of his own to improve on. Eventually there is a huge character development and the climax of the story is when and he decides to move on from the daydreams that have been distracting him from his own reality and obligations. The rest of the men in the story are still acknowledged, some are even mentioned briefly, but they are discussed on lesser terms unlike Cross’s

SOLDIER! Grab a helmet and buckle up immediately there is no more room for fatuous behavior because it is a matter of life and death. Soldier, adhere to this warning: the draft brings young men into the action of war but the wretched war surely chews them up and spits them back out as a diabolic mutant grieved with woes. A former marine, Tim O’Brien, wrote The Things They Carried in order to demonstrate this aforementioned warning as well the cryptic reality of Vietnam. By implementing a cataloging technique, O’Brien truly brings the horrifying stories of Vietnam to life further roping in his readers so much that they feel themselves carrying the characters burdens of the Alpha Company. Ultimately O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried,

“The Things They Carried” provides a personal view into the minds of soldiers, and tells us the emotional and psychological costs of war. The soldiers may have carried physical objects, but some of these objects connect to a deeper psychological weight most do not see.