In “The Things they Carried,” Tim O’Brien uses contrasts and contradictions to reveal the impact that war had on people throughout the novel. The war had a great impact on all the characters, however, it affected Tim O’Brien, Mitchell Sanders, and Mary Anne the greatest. O’Brien is affected by the war the most, especially in the fact that he was the one who wrote a book about it. He begins the novel by describing experiences of him and his comrades. He discusses a moment in which Mitchel Sanders had gone home after a time in the war, and was having a perfect life. However, he wasn’t satisfied, he said, “All that peace, man, it felt so good it hurt.” This showed the effect that the war had on him. It is expected that he would be happy now …show more content…
The story was about the time when he found out that he had to go to the war, however, he didn't want to go to it, so he decided to leave the United States. He stated his feelings about the war by saying, “I was no soldier” (41), to show that he knew nothing about it. The way he was raised didn't expose him to the types of things that he’d face in war. In addition, he had a whole future ahead of him due to how well he had done in school. He went on to say that he remembered “the rage in [his] stomach” (42), which showed the feelings of unease that he felt. Although, it seemed as if he was going to leave for Canada, he stated, “I was a coward. I went to the war” (61). This was an unexpected event due to the way he felt about war in general. He went against his views and decided to go to war instead. This was significant because it created the beginning of a different life. It was the start of something …show more content…
Mark Fossie worked in a medical detachment in the mountains west of Chu Lai with Rat Kiley. The mountains was calm most of the times, there was really no action, except when a wounded soldier needs care. So Fossie decided to bring his high school sweetheart to Vietnam, Mary Anne Bell. “At time she gave off a kind of come-and-get me energy, coy and flirtatious” (45). She was a nice outgoing and attractive girl who gets along with everybody. She was also curious. Her curiosity would later reveal her purpose in life. She would first ask small questions about the weapons and the country. She would then ask if she could go in one of the villages to see the natives, she acted as though as she was on vacation instead of being in a middle of a warzone. The longer she stayed she started to have admiration for Vietnam and wouldn’t want to leave even though Fossie insisted. Her curiosity ultimately led her to discover the dark parts of Vietnam when she went with the greenies. Mary Anne was never the same after that, she was consumed by Vietnam, “I want to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow the whole country - the dirt, the death - I want to eat it and have it inside me” (111). Mary Anne decided to live in Vietnam and would kill anything that she sees. She turned from a nice young girl to a cold blooded
The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a wonderful and personal look into one of this countries darkest times. The vivid imagery that the author uses lets the reader actually experience the feeling of actually being in the war. By using the cultural studies method of literary criticism, we can use the social conditions during the time of the writing to explore beneath the surface. What we find underneath just might be more interesting than the story itself.
With this part of the story, O’Brien is able to inject the theme of shame motivating the characters in the book. This chapter is about how the author, who is also the narrator, is drafted for the war. He runs away to the border between Canada and the United States, he stays in a motel with an old man for about a week and finds that he should go to war for his country. In the beginning it was about shame, he didn’t want to look like a coward because in truth he was scared. He was afraid to face the pressures of war, the humiliation and the fact of losing “everything”. This man was an average person who lived an average life with no problems, until he got the notice about the war, which caused the shame and fear of being seen as a bad person to come out.
In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, the first chapter of the book titled The Things They Carried describes the kind of emotional toll experiencing war does to an individual which extends from their very own safety, to emotional burdens distracting them from war, to their life before the war. Obrien forms a connection between the object and the individual, he uses parallel structure to list the objects and their reasons for being carried, and he forms an unemotional and straightforward tone throughout the chapter.
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 expresses the importance of a story-truth, as opposed to a happening-truth by use of literary elements in his writing. The novel is about war and the guilt it leaves on everyone involved in the war. Story-truth is not exactly what happened, but uses part of the truth and part made up in order to express the truth of what emotion was felt, which an important thematic element in the novel is. The three literary devices he uses to express this are diction, imagery, juxtaposition, and hyperbole. All of these elements allow the reader to identify emotion that is expressed in each story, as though that were the complete truth.
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
Mary Anne was a young sweet innocent girl unaffected by the war at first. The speaker
Throughout Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, the persona of the author often serves as a medium between the translation of emotion felt by characters in the story to the reader of the book. By developing fictitious versions of events that transpired while serving in the Vietnam War, O’Brien’s character is able to revive memories from the past as well as spark feelings of understanding and empathy in others. Surprisingly, the tone of the narrator rarely peals away from being passive and humorous, despite the tragic scenes that unfold within the story. Feelings of sorrow and regret intertwine passages in the novel but are never directly addressed, thus, the author’s character seems to be reserved about
The novel, The Things They Carried is a story of one man’s accounts resulting to his tour of duty in Vietnam. Many of the men that are discussed in the book continued to be effected by the war, long after they returned home. Men were left emotionally scared, even if they managed to get out of the war physically unharmed. The
You may not have realized it, but in The Things They Carried, there are many sources of symbolism planted throughout the book. The Things they carried by Tim O’Brien is about O'brien's experience in the war; he shares his experience through vignettes. Throughout this essay I will be talking about how Tim O'brien uses symbolism to open descriptions of emotional and physical burdens.
Each chapter he brings up a new story or memory. In the book, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, Tim O’Brien changes his thoughts on the war, creates trust and friendship with the other characters, and teaches the importance of memories and stories. From the beginning to the end of the book, Tim undergoes a major change in his attitude towards the war. In the beginning
In The Things They Carried, Tim O’brien describes his perspective on how he came to be in the war and his view on how people behaved towards death. O’brien published the book 20 years after the war to show the events that O’brien had gone through in the war. Tim O’Brien has portrayed acceptance of death in order to show how the characters reacted to the deaths that surround them in The Things They Carried.
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.
In many respects, Tim O 'Brien 's The Things They Carried concerns the relationship between fiction and the narrator. In this novel, O 'Brien himself is the main character--he is a Vietnam veteran recounting his experiences during the war, as well as a writer who is examining the mechanics behind writing stories. These two aspects of the novel are juxtaposed to produce a work of literature that comments not only