Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis

In, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, there is a quote “they all carried ghosts.”, this metaphor can represent the many things the soldiers carried. Every soldier carries things that represent memories or security. In war, the soldiers are confronted with death every day so they carry things that remind them of people, memories, or hope.

One literary technique prominent in The Things They Carried, particularly in the story by the same name, is symbolism. Throughout this story, O’Brien mentions all the things that the soldiers carry with them, both physical and emotional. However, the physical items that the men carried is more than just

The author uses diction to shape the tone of the passage. That tone is critical of dog owners, but at the same time showingdisplays a fondness of dogs. You can see this tone throughout the passage in the author’s diction

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

Throughout the book “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien uses clever writing techniques to get the reader to feel his raw emotions. He took his platoon mate, Rat Kiley, and the death of his dear friend, Curt Lemon, and stretched it throughout the book, making it very light. He then took the story of the baby water buffalo and had it be one big blunt story with no care. While the author uses two different approaches and ways of carrying out/closing the story, O'Brien's narration in the death accounts of Curt Lemon and the baby buffalo have the same underlying message. O’Brien uses the baby buffalo story to make us feel how Curt Lemon’s death made him feel.

The story focuses on the emotions of the soldiers and describes how they endured extreme emotional torture during their time at war. All of them taken away from their homes and being thrown into a terrorizing unfamiliar area then given a gun and being told to fight most of them being young and having no combat experience. Tim O’Brien explains the amount of emotional stress each man carried “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing-these were intangibles, but intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight” (89). He describes how their fear affected even what supplies they brought with them from the amount of ammunition, to pocket knives, and even food. One of the soldiers in the story, Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers with him because he was scared of the physical pain he might endure. “Depending on numerous factors, such as topography and psychology, the riflemen carried anywhere from 12 to 20 magazines” (82). All the men struggled through

It is crucial to understand that a warzone, like the one in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, is a dangerous and traumatizing place to be. The story contains several accounts of what individual soldiers carry on them into battle. O’Brien says

Each soldier carried with them items, some tangible others intangible, which helped them to adapt their minds and escape from the setting so that they could survive the traumatic events taking place. “Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope.” “Rat Kiley carried comic books.” The soldiers in the story do not only have a physical battle to deal with but also a mental one. Most of these items were a necessity in order to bear the war. However, there were a few items that the soldiers carried not because they had to or because they needed it to survive physically but because they needed it in order to survive emotionally. One soldier carried his wife’s pantyhose; another carried a new testament. One soldier permitted his items to take control of him and become an obsession, a trauma that took his focus away from his priorities, the war, and his men.

The emotional weight that each man endured is also described, but in a more profound amount of mind compelling detail. In the description of what Ted Lavendar was carrying at the time of his death, the author describes the usual flack jacket and helmet, but also his “unweighed fear”. Truly, this unweighed fear is captured in the quote “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried”. The meaning of this is that the men could hide their feelings in their equipment, but were actually at

In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien uses many short stories to describe his experience in Vietnam. The story that captured many aspects of writing was “How to Tell a True War Story” because it acts as a guide to writing a true story. O’Brien uses many different rhetorical strategies, narrative techniques, and establishes a theme in this story to help develop his characters and story line.

Tim O’Brien writes about both the physical objects they carry as well as their emotional burdens. The objects that these soldiers carry serve as a symbolism for what they are carrying in their hearts and minds. The soldiers carry items varying from pantyhose, medicine, tanning oil, and pictures. Jimmy Cross is an inexperienced sophomore in college, he signs up for the Reserve Officers Training Camp because his friends are doing the course. Jimmy Cross doesn’t want anything to do with the war or anything to do with being a leader. The item that Jimmy Cross carries with him are pictures of his classmate named Martha.

When men go off to fight a war, they often carry more emotional baggage than actual, physical baggage. “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing - these were the intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” (page 20) The war messes with their heads, causes them to become paranoid, scared, and anxious all hours of the day and night. Ted Lavender, who was terrified of his own shadow in Vietnam,

The whole atmosphere…they carried gravity” (O’Brien 124). The reader is given much attention to the weight and pressure of all the external forces the soldier would carry. But the greatest of weight the men carried with them was not physical at all. It was their emotions: “Grief, terror, love, longing these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” (O’Brien 126)

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien appears to be a war story about items a platoon of soldiers carried while in Vietnam. The story actually centers around the death of one of the platoon members and the horrible conditions of Vietnam. But the author goes into a deeper, hidden meaning of the things.He subtly expresses the ideas that the soldiers carried with them more than just hear, they carried the items from back home, emotional baggage,and the death of their fellow comrades. And the pain and horror they have to endure is only bearable with these items and the symbolism of hope they have with them. Because with each item they carry the hope of returning home and the hope of making it back home the same person.

In “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien the theme of “carrying” both physical and emotional objects by the main characters can be found in the novel. While these men carry the same standard physical army gear, they differentiate with personal tangible and intangible items. From Lieutenant Cross’s responsibility of his men, to Henry Dobbin’s girlfriend’s pantyhose for its magic, each man faced the war with these things attached.