The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Chapter Analysis

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.

Laurence Stern wrote, “ No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” By interpreting this quote, Stern says that no one can understand what it feels like for a man to have his mind torn apart by two equivalent forces that pull him apart in opposite directions inside. There was much underlying meaning and connection from Laurence Stern’s quote and to The Things They Carried. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien is the author as well as the character who is pulled apart by two projects: war and morals. The war in Vietnam heavily impacts each soldier causing them to yearn for

In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, the chapter “In the Field” O’Brien expresses how similar the shit field that Kiowa died in is a metaphor for war. Kiowa, a good man, drowned in the field can correlate to how many good men die in war and how for other people it stays on, they can taste it in their mouths and smell it for a long time afterwards, in the form of ptsd and the ecetera.

In The Things They Carried, Tim O 'Brien uses a variety of stories to explain the life experiences that he and many of his fellow soldiers endured during a single year in Vietnam. He tells these stories in a way that we can connect to these experiences. We never spent time in Vietnam, but O 'Brien wants us to feel like we were there. O 'Brien uses what he calls "story-truth" to write these stories. The outcome or the people may be different but the feeling is real; that 's the truth in the story, the feeling. He wants us to feel what he felt, see what he saw. He doesn 't just tell us what was happening exactly; he tells a fictional story that conveys the same emotion. He plays with the truth, that 's the reason why this book is a work of

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.

"The Things They Carried" list the variety of things his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company brought on their missions. Several of these things cannot be seen, including guilt and fear, while others are specific physical objects, including matches, morphine, M-16 rifles, and M&M's candy.

     How does death affect the behavior of people? Although death affects everyone's behavior differently, knowledge of one's imminent death is a main force behind behavioral changes. This knowledge causes emotions that motivate people to act in ways that they normally would not. In Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried,'; the knowledge of death and its closeness causes the men in the story to alter their behavior by changing they way they display power, modifying emotions to relieve guilt, and by exhibiting different actions to ease anxiety.

In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien uses this story as a coping mechanism; to tell part of his stories and others that are fiction from the Vietnamese War. This is shown by using a fictions character’s voice, deeper meaning in what soldier’s carried, motivation in decision making, telling a war story, becoming a new person and the outcome of a war in one person. Tim O’ Brien uses a psychological approach to tell his sorrows, and some happiness from his stories from the war. Each part, each story is supposed to represent a deeper meaning on how O’Brien dealt, and will deal with his past. In war, a way to

The war of Vietnam played a significant role in Tim O’Brien’s life throughout his works and experiences. He was drafted to the Vietnam war after graduating college in 1968 where he served two years. O’Brien wrote the novel The Things They Carried after returning from the war as a way to clear off his mind from the experiences he went through. In the novel he constructed many memories that may or may not be true, but are told using imagination as a guide to explore the mind of the readers. O’Brien used his novel to liberate his many occurrences he faced and dealt with throughout his journey. In an interview with Michael Coffey on Patrick Smith’s article O’Brien states, “My goal was to write something utterly convincing but without any rules as to what’s real and made up…” (97). Tim O’Brien uses imagination to establish a therapy within his writing as a way to cope with reality based on his war transition, allusions, and stories to save him.

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 The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses Juxtaposition, Symbolism, and Point of View to show the burdens carried by the soldiers, and the effects war can have on individuals. He wrote the vignette in order to bring a greater awareness to Americans who were unaware of the dark reality of war. Juxtapositions, such as Desire versus Shame, Morality versus Crime, and Talking versus Distraction, are primary modes by which O’Brien shares the burdens of soldiers. Also, individual juxtapositions such as “Gentle Killer (O’Brien 66)” are used along with dichotomies as a window into the heart of the soldiers, and to show the ambivalence they held when making choices. “On the Rainy River” describes the Desire versus Shame conflict within O’Brien immediately after he was drafted for the Vietnam.

Tim O’Brien starts the book The Things They Carried with a chapter that literally tells the audience what each soldier carries. This ranges from mandatory equipment to sentimental items. These sentimental items also indicate the figurative things that the soldiers carry. The first chapter is all about O’Brien stating which man in the unit carries the guns and radios.

Throughout the time period of the Vietnam War, the thousands of men who fought during this time were looked down upon. Many people in the United States were against the war and gave no appreciation to soldiers fighting the Vietnam War. In his novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, showed the guilt and shame that soldiers themselves went through being in the Vietnam War. Through not feeling brave and heroic enough, or feeling the fear of embarrassing not only themselves, but their families and hometowns if they were to flee from the war, they constantly felt regret and shame. No matter where you look in the story of The Things They Carried, you will always see the shame and guilt the soldiers are carrying.

In the book The Things They Carried by, Tim O’Brien portrayed different stories from Vietnam War. Nobody really knows the different things that happen to soldiers in Vietnam. They get paranoid, lose their sense of morality they become angry and frustrated. No one will ever understand the things they are experiencing unless you were in their shoes. In the book there were stories about different historical events and situations the soldiers portrayed. Soldiers who are in the war sometimes do not know the severity and horrors of it all. Some of them have seen and been through a lot. In the war people suffer from physical, mental, and emotional anguish. The one thing they have a hard time doing is coping with it all. There are a lot of issues such

Ultimately, this novel is not about Vietnam--in fact, it is not about war at all. It is about the narrator 's attempt to find a place where the erosion of time will have no effect. By working through the "threads" of this novel, O 'Brien 's intentions become obvious: He is fighting to preserve the physical against deterioration, and by extension, to preserve life by immortalizing it in fiction. He is not writing as a result of neurosis or as a form of therapy; he does this since