Tim O Brien: A Vietnam War Soldier

In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien presents a different perspective on what war is really about, along with the burdens constantly borne by soldiers. Through his use of flashbacks, imagery, and pathos, O’Brien shows just how the life of a soldier is much more than war and violence, but combating the burdens of life that soldiers carry with them.

Tim O’Brien, a previous war veteran and the author of The Things They Carried, reinvents himself as a character in the book, who is traumatized by the violent acts of the Vietnamese war. The book is all about exaggerations of actual stories that took place. Tim O’Brien uses his storytelling as a way of coping with the tragedies of this war. People cope in different ways; some people talk about it constantly and others keep to themselves. Norman Bowker, an actual veteran and a character in The Things They Carried, differs from Tim O’Brien in a sense that he bottled his stories in until he couldn’t hold on any longer.

In the literal sense O’Brien talks about what different members of a platoon in Vietnam carried. This helps him to move to a more symbolic sense at the end of the story. He starts by talking about necessities and slowly moves on to what they carried to remind them that there was a world out side of the war. “Among the necessities or near necessities were p-38 can openers, pocket

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien provides an account of his time in the Vietnam War with memories and anecdotes in order to evoke emotion from the reader. Throughout the war, O’Brien sees instances of courage and cowardice within himself and his fellow platoon cronies. The title of his work signifies what the soldiers carried with them to the war and what they continue to carry after the war. O’Brien carries the shame of his inability to abscond from his call to serve in the United States Army because of his concern for his reputation. This initial act of cowardice sets up how O’Brien thinks of himself as a soldier and overshadows all courageous actions with this singular pusillanimous decision to join a movement that he wanted no part in while the characters who represent true courage admit their faults and embrace their humanity.

For the character Tim O' Brien there is one physical "thing" he carried and two emotional "things". The one physical "thing" that Tim carried were the three standard weapons. Tim the writer never wanted to go to war in fact he was too embarrassed but when Tim the soldier went to war he learned quickly he needed protection. Tim the writer states " In addition to the three standard weapons -- the M-60,M-16 and M-79-- they carried whatever presented itself, or whatever seemed appropriate as a means of killing or staying alive. " (O'Brien 7).

Historian Jacob Bronowski concluded that “War is a highly planned and cooperative form of theft.” In the book The Things they Carried, Tim O’brien portrays stories of his own time at the Vietnam War and the stories of his platoon members. During their time in Vietnam, the men of the Alpha Company must manage with the loss of their friends and guilt from killing and witnessing others die. There are three stories of theft and loss among the platoon members. The stories of Jimmy Cross, Tim O’brien, and Kiowa.

The novel, “The things they carried” written by Tim O’Brien describes himself and his soldiers experiences during the Vietnam War. Throughout the book, O’Brien states all of the odd to normal things the soldiers carried. Not only did they carry things like candy, cigarettes, and floss. They also carried everything that comes along with being in the war. They carried the emotional stress, diseases, the county, and the ghosts that surround them. However, while some things in the novel may be true, not all of it is. O’Brien uses fiction to show truth.

Throughout 1964 to 1975 the Vietnam War was taking place on Korean soil in South Vietnam. Many young soldiers were called to serve during the war including Tim O’ Brien. In the story “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien illustrates realistic views by camouflages his past experiences of the combat to expose the immorality of the war and the life cycle of an American soldier during this era.

Tim O’Brien, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote The Things They Carried. O’Brien wrote this fictional novel after his time serving in the Vietnam War. Once O’Brien received his draft for the war, he wanted to run away to Canada. Instead, he ran away to the Tip Top Lodge, where he met Elroy. He stayed at the Tip Top Lodge for several days before he made his decision to go to war or to run away to Canada. While his stay, Elroy took Tim to the border of Canada, while on the fishing trip, and instead of Tim jumping out of the boat and swimming across the border, he just began to cry. On his last day, Tim decided to go to war. Although, Tim knew that he was nowhere near brave enough or strong enough war, he went to war anyway. In the book, O’Brien wrote, “I was a coward, I went to the war” (SparkNotes, 2017). Kiowa, a soldier in the Vietnam War, was a friend of O’Briens. During one night while on watch, Kiowa dies in such a dreadful way.

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien highlights the terror that the soldiers feel through the tangible and intangible things that they carry in order to demonstrate how fear weighs on people, paralyzing them and keeping them silent.

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.

Have you read a book that contains feelings like guilt, shame, love, and embarrassment? Or have you asked yourself why people did not want to go to the Vietnam war? Tim O’ Brien is the one of ones who did not want to go to Vietnam. In fact, he went to the war, and he was a soldier in Vietnam. When he got out of the military, he decided to write a book, The Things They Carried.

Tim O’Brien wrote a collection of related short stories titled The Things They Carried, that follows a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War and when they return to their homes. Throughout the novel, O’Brien uses real names and includes himself, as the protagonist, to create a style that ebbs and flows from fiction to non-fiction without realization. According to Kathleen Laura MacArthur, it is “through this process and these stylistic innovations, the reader might then experience this trauma secondhand and, perhaps, relate this trauma to one’s own personal traumatic experience” (26). At first, the reader is introduced to the narrator First Lieutenant Tim O’Brien; he begins to talk about his love for a woman named Martha and how he carries her letters and good-luck pebble with him. As O’Brien continues, he explains all the various things the men of the company carry. In most cases, these “things” are physical objects and depend on factors such as the individual’s priorities and necessities. In addition, he talks about items that are universal among the men, such as mosquito repellent, chewing gum, matches, C rations and a multi-use poncho. These possessions serve as an opportunity for us to see into the emotional burdens each soldier carries. As the title of this novel refers to the things, or “weight,” the soldiers carry, the soldiers are changed from lively, young people to hardened and cold throughout the war by the tragic events they go through, tasks they must

In the novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, a Vietnam war veteran himself, tells stories through a soldier’s eyes to describe the Vietnam war and to prove how war changes people. O’Brien’s stories in this novel are directly inspired by his real-life experiences in the Vietnam war. These stories go step by step telling the story of becoming and being a soldier: describing how a soldier feels when they get their draft letter, how it affects a soldier when they kill someone or a fellow soldier is killed, and how

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien the author of this novel but also an important character who is a soldier in the Vietnamese War. Along with O’Brien are other soldiers that were very unprepared and filled with varied emotions like fear, sadness, anger and confusion while fighting the war. O’Brien as well as other soldiers carry things that they value during the war. They carry physical things that important to them and also rifles and things to help them survive. Also, mentally they carry more things like memories, fears, dreams, and hopes for the future. O’Brien understands and depicts the things the war takes from the soldiers and also himself. In this except Tim O’Brien uses imagery, epiphany and inner self conflict to develop his