Things They Carried Theme

In the short story “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien wrote about the experience of war and the feelings young soldiers felt during their long days of travel. During the story he keeps referring back to the things the soldiers chose to carry in their packs. Some of these items included necessity items like grenades and ammunition, but they also carry sentimental items like love letters and pictures. These items help the reader better understand each person for who they are and help us to understand the physical situation the soldiers are in. In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien describes the item the soldiers carry in their packs and the emotional weight they carry to help give a better

“The Things They Carried” was a story about soldiers caught in the confusion of the Vietnam War. There are a lot of apparent themes that are dealt with when writing a story about war, especially about death. I enjoyed reading this story; however there were some things about it that I was concerned about. I would like to discuss the author’s style of writing, his meaning of the title “The Things They Carried” and the way the author and his characters deal with death. This story was written with a variety of styles, and it was in a non-traditional format. The main style seems to be a third person, limited omniscient story. However, this story also includes elements of flashback. In a traditional flashback

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.

“They carried the soldier’s greatest fear which was the fear of blushing. Men killed and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.” (O’Brien pg. 20)

The Things They Carried offered a unique and personal look into the life of one soldier’s experience. It showed how the war held obligations to its soldiers and expectations for each of the men to follow. The Things They Carried also showed a side of war that was not always seen in other documents and accounts such as Tim O’Brien thoughts and feelings during the war. However, many of the things O’Brien stated throughout his book is very similar to the experiences shared by men in the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Moreover, despite some similarities, each war is unique and have their own distinctive causes and effects that have solidified their importance in American history. When it comes to war, it seems that most experiences

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a novel that highlights the true, and untruthful events occurring in the Vietnam War. O’Brien focuses on the real experiences and emotions of American soldiers in Vietnam, as they left their families and gave up their lives for a war that some believed in, and others that did not. In chapters such as “The Man I Killed” and “Speaking of Courage,” the repetition of memory gives the reader an understanding of what emotional damages a soldier in the Vietnam War goes through and the negative quality of life it creates.

The text, ‘The Things They Carried', is an excellent example which reveals how individuals are changed for the worse through their first hand experience of war. Following the lives of the men both during and after the war in a series of short stories, the impact of the war is accurately portrayed, and provides a rare insight into the guilt stricken minds of soldiers. ‘The Things They Carried' shows the impact of the war in its many forms: the suicide of an ex-soldier upon his return home; the lessening sanity of a medic as the constant death surrounds him; the trauma and guilt of all the soldiers after seeing their friends die, and feeling as if they could have saved them; and the deaths of the soldiers, the most negative impact a war

Imagine a novel or a movie that is about war that has not even one change in a character’s personality. Change is really important in many novels and movies for instance in Batman VS Superman: Dawn of Justice, the theme of change takes a huge role in the movie because by the end of the movie Batman and Superman unite after being against each other or in George Orwell’s allegory about the Russian Revolution “Animal Farm” the theme of change takes a huge role also because in the beginning the pigs order the animals in the farm to rebel against their bad farmer Mr. Jones and Humanity but by the end the pigs became friends with the humans as if no rebellion happened. The of change is really important for all the stories that are about fights or war. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien the theme of change is one the most important themes and without it Tim O’Brien will not make a good point about war’s effect on people and if a person wants to join a war he or

The film, Forrest Gump, follows the life of the character as he goes about life while being involved with historical events. In this scene was the ending part of the Vietnam War part of the movie and it relates to the meaning of courage that are also in The Things They Carried. Both Gump, O’Brien and the other characters are fighting the same war, struggling with situations regarding relationships, death, pain, and the post war world. In the scene, Forrest and Bubba running away from the enemy as planes napalm the enemy region.

In The things they carried the fear of shame is a heavy influence behind most of the men’s actions and emotions. It is the motivating behind them being in Vietnam in the first place, the determining verdict between going to war and being killed and fleeing for Canada was so manipulated by how much shame these young men would feel just for fleeing for their lives. The decision was mainly based on what they’re friends, family, country would think of them if they did something so human like not wanting to die and doing what everyone else thought the right thing to do was. “All the eyes on me—the town, the whole universe and I couldn't risk the embarrassment I felt myself blush. I couldn't tolerate it. (On the Rainy River. Page 69)”.

     In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, numerous themes are illustrated by the author. Through the portrayal of a number of characters, Tim O’Brien suggests that to adapt to Vietnam is not always more difficult than to revert back to the lives they once knew. Correspondingly the theme of change is omnipresent throughout the novel, specifically in the depiction of numerous characters.

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” 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.

Writing essays are always very hard, I usually can never find the right way to start them, but essay three was different. When writing The Things They Carried reflection, everything came out so smooth, it felt different. This essay was extremely easy for me because I was interested in the subject. Although, I have never served my country ; and I have had always been able to talk about things freely, it was very easy to relate to things. When growing up, my grandpa would never talk about the war, even though I would ask many times. There was always a struggle behind even the littlest detail, and growing up watching this was extremely painful to see. Not being able to talk about something and feeling trapped within yourself, for me, would be

Human love is an essential part of the good life. There are different conceptions of love and some open the good life to tragedy, while others aim to make the good life immune to the possibility of tragedy. Aristophanes takes a comic myth look at love and creates a love that is open to tragedy, acknowledging that humans feel sadness if they lose their completing half. Aristophanes observes that if we are disobedient toward the gods, Zeus might split us in two once more, so we must always be in pursuit of satisfying the gods. Diotima takes a step forward and tells a story that tries to save us from tragedy in love. The Symposium portrays many forms of love and “starkly confronts us with a choice, and at the same time it makes us see so clearly that we cannot choose anything. We see now that philosophy is not fully human; but we are terrified of humanity and what it leads to. It is our tragedy: it floods us with light and takes away action.” (Nussbaum, 198) In contrast, Tim O’Brien tells a story that creates the opportunity for great tragedy in human love. Overall, human love that is open to tragedy is the best option when trying to achieve the good life because you have to be able to risk everything in order to receive the premier form of love.