Tim O Brien Quotes And Analysis

In the fictional novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien vividly explains the fear and trauma the soldiers encountered during the Vietnam War. Many of these soldiers are very young and inexperienced. They begin to witness their acquaintances’ tragic demise, and kill other innocent lives on their own. Many people have a background knowledge on the basis of what soldiers face each day, but they don’t have a clear understanding of what goes through these individual’s minds when they’re at war. O’Brien gives descriptive details on the soldiers’ true character by appealing to emotions, using antithesis and imagery.

Written by author Tim O’Brien after his own experience in Vietnam, “The Things They Carried” is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in “The Things They Carried” guides the reader through the complex development of characters by establishing their humanity during the inhumane circumstance of war, articulating what the men need for emotional and spiritual survival, and by revealing

Emotions and Burdens – “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing – these were intangibles, but they were tangible weight.”(20). O’brien, as well as his platoon members, had to b prepared for death at any given point in time, whether it be his own death or the death of his comrade in arms.

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

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

While war stories come and go, there are a selected few that capture the reader’s eyes allowing the book to change form. In Tim O’ Brien’s fictional novel, The Things They Carried, he manipulates the Vietnam War with his own concepts in order to inform the reader of his views. What shows determination more than exaggeration? In in the field, page 109, O’Brien creates Lieutenant Cross as a sympathetic character. His use of hyperbole strengthens Cross’ need to find Kiowa’s body.

My grandfather was drafted to be a medic in Vietnam 82nd airborne. One day he sated that he was with one of his best friends going out to check for wounded. He said “ I nudged my best friend and asked if he was read only to turn around to see that, half of his head was gone. Have you ever cut a grapefruit in half? That is exactly what his head looked like.” In this traumatizing moment my grandfather explained that in War there is no time to have grief; that you do not have any time to comprehend what just happened. He proceeded to tell me that War wasn’t about saving your friends because you have to save yourself.

For the second half of the reading the narrator is able to hit the last significant and important parts of his story and is able to close the book for the readers. During the first part of the reading O’Brien describes a man who he killed, he goes on to imagine a whole life for the man. I think O’Brien does this because he’s caught in the moment, he feels so guilty and the thought and the physically appearance of the dead man keeps reappearing and stays on the back on his mind. We also learn about when one of the characters, Norman Bowker, goes back home and finds himself almost lost. Even though he is away from the war and time has passed by, all he can think about is the past, including a high school crush, but mostly about the war. This

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short novel written about the American soldiers in the Vietnam War. The title carries two meanings; duties and equipment for the war and the emotional sorrows the soldiers were put through while at war. O’Brien discussed about the character’s wants and needs and that the constant worry of death was just a few of the emotional baggage they carried. War is never an easy thing to talk about, epically those who were involved. During the Vietnam War, being a soldier wasn’t easy. Soldiers always see death, whether it be another soldier or an enemy. In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien explores the motivation of solders in the Vietnam War to understand their role in combat, accepting the death

In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien one is subjected to the in workings of a soldiers mind during the Vietnam War. Although on the surface it may seem just a story of what soldiers carried with them throughout the war, tangible or not, a deeper understanding of what these men faced shines through. As a veteran of the Vietnam war O’Brien has insight that many will never know except through his many writings. His experience throughout the war was seen to shape his stories and “The Things They Carried” is no different. In this story one finds a comparison between the material and immaterial baggage accompanying the soldiers, the soldiers motivation due to their fellow soldier, the uncaring attitude that the war has imparted on the

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

In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, he uses the theme of relationships and the different forms they take to instruct the reader on how these relationships affect individuals. In O’Brien’s story, he splits his experience in life and the Vietnam War into various sections in order to retell his experiences as well as his fellow platoon members all the while teaching readers various themes and truths about love, life, and war. The tale jumps around from his time before the war, the war itself, and the aftershocks. In life, there are various types of relationships experienced between two beings; this act of bonding between two persons is rather powerful and strange for such a daily occurrence, that other forms are often overlooked. When one thinks of relationships, it is often depicted as two lovers, such as Mark Fossie and Mary Anne Bell who would do anything for a love so pure, but it’s also important to take other forms of relationships into consideration. Tim O’Brien demonstrates this idea in his gripping novel, The Things They Carried, through the different members of the platoon and how they each interact with each other and with themselves; indicating the importance of the relationship with oneself, the sense of comradery between the men, and even political relationships of the countries involved can determine the survival rate of the soldiers involved.

One of the most mysterious characters in the book The Things They Carried is Tim O’Brien. Throughout the book, we see countless of experiences he is forced to go through. From spending time with fellow soldiers to being caught in a mime field, O’Brien has been through a lot! While most of his experiences are pretty straight forward in explaining what happen, there is one experience O’Brien never seems to give a direct description of. This would be whether or not he has killed someone. At one point in the book, O’Brien admits that he has invented some of the stories he has shared, yet he still considers them true. When asked whether or not he had really killed anyone, O’Brien’s response is “I can say, honestly,

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien is about the war, how some people got drafted to serve their country, which many of them didn’t want. Tim O’Brien tells stories about these people that had to fight in the war and he told it as if he was actually part of the war. When I read his story I felt how he felt; like I was right next to him when it happened and when he lost someone dear to him, I couldn’t help but cry on the inside because I knew that what he went through had to be hard for him. In his two stories, “How to Tell a True War Story”, and “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” he tells us about the hard struggles of war but doesn’t want us to believe it.

The short stories “The Red Convertible” and “The Things They Carried” reveal the emotional damage that the veterans of the Vietnam War were affected by. In “The Red Convertible,” the car is a metaphor that embodies the relationship between two brothers, Lyman and Henry, of whom is sent off to the war and came back an unfamiliar person. In “The Things They Carried,” a Lieutenant and his soldiers each carry items that remind them of home and take them away from the war. Similarly, characters from both stories use physical objects as an escape to cope with the effects the war has left upon them. Conversely, the character Henry in “The Red Convertible” succumbs to the reality of the war, whereas Lieutenant Cross in “The Things They Carried,” attempts to relieve himself from what he “carries” and move forward in the war with no distractions. Soldiers of the Vietnam War experience a continuation of emotional distress as a result of their experiences during the war and the effects differ in each person as to whether to succumb to the horrors they experienced or to move forward.