Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

The narrator in the book, The Things They Carried, Tim O’ Brien has a very peculiar life. He has been a lot of different things in his life. He worked in a slaughterhouse, served in the army, and hardest of all, raised a family. Tim O’ Brien has also had trials and tribulations. He has tried to leave America, he killed someone, and he still holds burdens of guilt and disappointment to this day.

In the book, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'brien, the title of the first chapter perfectly mimics the name of the book itself. The author talks about the many items soldier’s carried with them into the Vietnam War, as well as the effects they had on his many teammates. Each new chapter, though, gives new insight as to what they carried around with them besides physical objects. Despite palpable things in which they were required to have, young men would find themselves bearing the heavy weight of responsibility and emotional trauma that came with them. In order to cope with these endeavors, soldier’s would also bring with them something to help, whether it was simply the knowledge of God, or a reason for fighting. O’brien’s stories give

The Vietnam War began when the North Vietnamese government and the Vietnam congress fighting to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses themes such as love, shame and guilt to illustrate the tangible and intangible items the soldiers carry throughout the war and the rest of their lives.

In German it's Krieg, in Latin it's bellun, in Spanish it's Guerra, in English it's War, a no man's land where deception meets chaos and death is no stranger. No matter the era, war has and will always creep up on us. Vietnam was no exception. Like in the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien he clarifies that war is war and regardless how big it is it leaves nothing more than trails of bodies, guilt, and scars for people to live with. As a result of such an experience, it's engraved as a mark on history, but at what cost?

In The Things They Carried, there are many characters that are brought up for a barely a chapter, yet they have significant meanings. Throughout the book there are more than a couple short explained characters. For example, Marry Anne, Kathleen, and El Roy. Mary Anne was described as a pure and wholesome soul who most likely did not belong in this gruesome war.

In chapter one of The Things They Carried, the author, Tim O’Brien discusses how war influences soldiers psychologically. The vivid description of the “things” each soldier carries tells a story. Thoughts, memories, and physical items are extremely valuable in their abnormal situation. These possessions are the only things the soldiers have and mean everything to them. No training or life experience could have prepared them for what they endure in war. Soldiers grasp onto these shreds of hope from their past as a reminder of the outside world. There is no escape from this place of constant fear and death. Here, death is unpredictable and sudden and the soldiers are forced to carry on. For example, when Lavender is shot dead by a hidden sniper,

Tim O'Brien's novel, "The Things They Carried" is based upon a platoon of soldiers in Vietnam, in which as the title hint's at, focuses on the items and more emotional parts of being a soldier. These items range from the essentials of being a solider, ranging from food, water, shovels etc. To the more personal and individualistic items, with examples ranging from the more common, love letters, holding a bible and pictures of loved ones, or to the more "unique" (or odd) items chosen, such as pantyhose, a thumb and even moccasins. Whether or not these items appear weird or generic to us is irrelevant, behind those items is a deep sentimental meaning to that item to that soldier or person, which is exactly what we will be looking into for "The

Imagine for the rest of your life having to live with the burden of watching not only a fellow soldier, but a friend, die knowing there was nothing you could do about it. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien describes the encumbrances that many of the soldiers in the Vietnam War had to face, and remember for their entire life if they survived. The Things They Carried goes into detail about the relentless days they spent in Vietnam at War by telling stories of a platoon that the author was in. These stories explain the life changing burdens soldiers have to carry at war and for their entire lives.

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change” (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein). War can be a drastic change for the life of a person as war can ultimately morph them into a slave of the battlefield. In the book The Things They Carried, Tim O’ Brien describes the experiences of people in the Vietnam War and how they have become changed individuals from their past lives before combat. War pummels you with things that transcend your typical escapades and the more you try to understand them, the more you get sucked into the void of combat. The increased time the characters are in the battlefield, the more they have to think about it, thus shaping who they are. Only time can determine how much war can affect you.

War changes people and Tim O’ Brien is a great example because in The Things they Carried, the novel observes a struggle to conquer grief and the struggle to deal with death; which shows the human side. The story displays strong sentiment and lets the reader sympathize with the characters, especially Tim O’ Brien. Tim O’ Brien permits the spectators to feel the emotion by writing this fictional story.

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” focuses on war, masculinity, and the ability of objects to tether individuals to reality. Interspersed with the perspective of a group of American Vietnam soldiers are lists of objects that made their way with them, developing these characters and demonstrating the importance of items, emotions, and identity. With this focus on things, paralleled with the brutalities of war, O’Brien creates a world that is both ephemeral, set in human consciousness and mortality, and tangible, rooted in the items that prove to ground individuals to the world in extreme circumstances. Ultimately, through symbolism and characterization, O’Brien argues that the burdens of life are simultaneously insubstantial and weighty.

Vietnam war veteran and novelist Tim O’Brien, in his piece titled, “The Things They Carried,” portrays personal war stories of a group of soldiers during the Vietnam War to convey how stories and memories can aid in coping with death. The novel was extremely emotional and thought provoking, causing me to question what was real or not, and how these stories were more than just stories. As the novel progressed, it became increasingly clear how, for O’Brien and some of the other soldiers, these stories were not just stories for the them to reminisce on, they were a form of therapy, helping them to live on, even when faced with death and morbid experiences. Through these various stories ranging from the distant past and the present, O’Brien successfully

The human mind never wants to recall negative memories. We do not want to remember that time when we were giving a speech in front of a class and we tripped on our words. We never want to remember that time when we were walking through the hallway and suddenly fell over our own feet with our books flying all over the floor. We do not want to remember that time when we were at war and our best friend lost his life, but we got to keep ours. But what we do recall is the moments we arose heroic and overcame an obstacle.

In the chapter “Rainy River” O’Brien addresses the theme of storytelling and memory. In “Rainy River” O’Brien is trying to decide whether to go to war or to go and escape to Canada. He chose to go to war but he feels as though he's choosing for his country and not for himself. He felt like he had no option, no choice and his future was already set. “I felt paralyzed. All around me the options seemed to be narrowing as if they were hurling down a huge black funnel, the world squeezing in tight” (O’Brien 41). He didn't agree with the reasons for the war, and he did not want to go. The choices between war and living his life were close. He tells the story to portray his feelings to the war, he knows he's not cut out for the war. He felt as though he would be letting his country down by not going. Looking back onto his decision through memories he knows how hard the decision wah but he's glad he made it because he felt like he helped the country in a big

The story, “The Things They Carried” was the experience of foot soldiers during and after the Vietnam war. However, considering the structure of the story, one could say that it is in fact, antiwar story. In the story, the plot jumps from time to time. The story is chaotic, yet it revisits the difficulties for one soldier. Consequently, he was faced with the realities of the war, in which he had to deal with tragedies as well as being in a relationship (Kirszner & Mandell, 2016). In the reading, it involved the mental state of the character, not only were there killings but apparent suicides of those unable to deal with life after the war. Another reason I found the story to be antiwar is because there is nothing positive about war and from