The Things They Carried: Protagonist Analysis

The Vietnam War was a long conflict lasting between 1955 to 1975 between the communist North and the democratic south with help from the United States. More than 3 million people, including 58,000 American troops were killed in the conflict. Tim O 'brien 's short story “The Things They Carried” follows a platoon named alpha company during the peak of the Vietnam war led by first lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is very charismatic but in his mind he is unsure how to lead his squad because his mind tends to wander to a thought of a girl back home. Throughout the story he has overcome with emotions and guilt because he believes he his the reason for some of his squadmates death. “The Things They Carried” Embodies the hardship, reality, and price/toll of war, ultimately Tim O’brien writes this masterpiece as not of a war story, but as a love story and how that love changed a man.

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

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.

The Vietnam War was sparked by the United States wanting to contain communism after World War II. The author Tim O’Brien writes in his short story “The Things They Carried,” using personal experiences from his time serving in the Vietnam War. Jimmy Cross, the main character who did not believe in the war, was drafted in June 1968. Being commissioned to a foreign territory to fight for your life and the freedoms of others is a life changing experience. Soldiers often bring items from home that give them hope of motivation to survive in order to return home. The short story “The Things They Carried” gives an insight on what soldiers carry with them throughout the war. Each man the story carries different items, including comic books, a

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

Stories are something that stay within people for a very long time, memories vanish away from people and all there is left is the stories they have. Stories are unique in a way because no two people have the same one. The Things They Carried is a book that enhances different perspectives of the Vietnam War through storytelling. As Tim O’Brien explains the different stories that are told, he creates characters to capture the different moments that are experienced in war. Storytelling does not always come from the total truth, but from the experience of the storyteller.

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.

The Things They Carried is a novel about a soldier's time in the Vietnam war, Tim O'brien. He talks about the struggle of being in college and then getting drafted into the war as he graduated. In addition, he goes into some depth on fighting in the war and losses he had with his fellow soldiers. However, he was never explicit about being against or for war, therefore the book shows neutrality.

The Things They Carried is a novel written by Tim O’Brien about the events and occurrences of one of the greatest points in the history of the United States, the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was an extremely bloody and deadly war that cost thousands of American soldiers their lives. Many people, civilians and soldiers, found the United States participation in the Vietnam War as wrong and controversial. Tim O’Brien uses metafiction to write this book, which portrays a blurred line between fiction and nonfiction stating true facts from his days as a foot soldier in Vietnam and fictional stories of heroic yet tragic moments. I was not in favor of his

The Vietnam War began when the North Vietnamese government and the Vietnam congress fighting to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses themes such as love, shame and guilt to illustrate the tangible and intangible items the soldiers carry throughout the war and the rest of their lives.

The Things They Carried is a work of historical fiction written by Vietnam war veteran, Tim O’Brien. This novella is a collection of linked short stories about American soldiers serving in the Vietnam war. The novella contains a numerous amount of deep,complex characters who help characterize each other. In the The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien characterizes the soldiers through the round female characters

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 Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, Mary Anne Bell and Mark Fossie have contrasting feelings for the nature of Vietnam. Characters who learn to love Vietnam are the ones able to abandon their American identity and adapt to new surroundings. This shows that American soldiers felt that war can change them dramatically. Mary Anne is willing to go beyond her American ways to see and experience the true meaning of war in Vietnam. She embraces all the beauty and culture Vietnam has to offer, allowing her to distance herself from American society.

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

What would life be like if we had all been equal at the beginning and there was never any wars? Would there be more people on earth? Would be not be as technologically advanced as we are? . Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings emphasizes the hard, unacceptable life of being Negroes in a time when they weren’t superior to the rich whites. Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried, accentuates the chaotic and misunderstood lives of the soldiers who fight for what they believe in. In theses novels. The authors uses the physical and emotional burdens or the characters to really present the themes of the novels to the reader.