Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

When fighting the Vietnam War many did not think it possible for the United States to loose. Those fighting underestimated the power of the Viet Cong. With a foreign land and foreign customs Marines struggled to get accustomed to the way the war was fought. Philip Caputo addresses these learned lessons in A Rumor of War. Lessons that were learned in Vietnam also have relevance to the current war in Afghanistan. The men in both wars fought against an enemy that blends in with the locals. Philip Caputo’s first hand account of the Vietnam War shows the mistakes that were made and how those lessons taught the United States not to make the same mistakes in Afghanistan.

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

As Tim O’Brien states in his short story book, The Things They Carried, the only true thing about war is its allegiance to evil and obscenity. One example of this faithfulness war has to stick to its truth is the inevitable death of many soldiers. War consumes. It consumes a large amount of resources, money, energy, time, but most of all it consumes human lives. The ones who don’t pass must bear the witness of the death of the others. “In the Field”, one of the short stories in O’Brien’s book, explores the way death is handled by soldiers and the process by which absorb the emotions that come along with it.

In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross recalls past stories told by him and from fellow soldiers in his time overseas in Vietnam. Experiences and events soldiers faced in Vietnam can change the way people think, feel, and act.

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.

At some time in life, a person will experience the death of a relative or lose something that was very important to him or her. After that traumatic event, will that person confront his or her pain, or will that person bury it deep within them? Both ways are possible, however, only one is effective in the long term. According to Tim O'Brien, the most effective way to heal after a traumatic experience is to share stories. In Tim’s book, The things they carried, he used the motifs of loneliness, life, and the mood of nostalgia to illustrate the importance of sharing stories during a healing process.

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.

Very few authors who write fictional stories decide to mix fact with fiction to demonstrate certain ideas, however that is exactly what author Tim O’Brien does in the book The Things They Carried, to demonstrate what these soldiers had carried in the Vietnam War and after the war.

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.

Memories, symbols, and patterns affect how someone reads and understands a piece. They paint the concepts in bright colors, making the story more interesting and pulling the reader into itself. Noticing the memories, symbols or patterns lets the reader see the story in a way the author might not have intended. Suddenly, the reader is guessing what comes after the book, connecting it to their own life, and seeing the characters in a while new light, for example; In Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried, Tim tells a lot of flashbacks from the Vietnam War. The good, the bad, he remembers the men and the crazy stuff they did to pass time. He remembers the people of Vietnam, and the sweet one-legged boy who asked for a chocolate bar. “I remember

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.

Finding the Truth Within the Fiction in The Things They CarriedAlthough there are many themes displayed throughout the stories told by Tim O’Brien inThe Things They Carried, none of them will have the intended impact on the audience if theylack the ability to separate the truth from the fiction. Interpreting this truth throughout the novelmay be hard due to the often made-up recollections rather than factual events, which often resultin a lack of respect for the accounts being presented. However, once the reader can comprehendthat not all of the stories are true, yet the emotions always are, a new appreciation for the storieswill be found as well as a deeper comprehension. Tim O’Brien’s recollection of his time spentfighting the war in Vietnam is not always completely truthful, but truth can always be found inthe book through the emotions and morals that come along with his blunt, brutal stories.

In war, the characteristics of a soldier, civilian, and the nation as a whole can change drastically due to the nature of war. A person introduced to war is physically and mentally changed because of the traumatic experiences they encounter. Tim O’Brien uses contrasts and contradictions in his novel, The Things They Carried, to reveal how the characters are affected by the war in Vietnam and how their personalities shift through it. The characters who are impacted by the war are exposed to its horrors and are traumatized forever. While in the vicious jungles of Vietnam, the soldiers in war get weary and homesick.

When I first started reading through the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, there wasn’t much that intrigued me and I thought that I was just reading another stereotypical war story. However as I read on further, the story got a lot more interesting and I found myself more engaged in the book than ever. I kept thinking about depth of information on the descriptions of the physical weights that the soldiers carried. I kept asking myself, why would O’Brien go into so much detail about how much every single item weighs? One idea on this that came to mind was that perhaps it’s not as much about the physical weight as much as it is about the psychological experience as a whole. It is no doubt that war is a very stressful time and can easily overwhelm people giving them more than they can handle. When O’Brien begins to throw in

The United States of America has long stood as the pillar of freedom and democracy for the rest of the world, and God-willing, it will remain so throughout the ages. However, some question the legitimacy of our soldiers fighting in foreign countries far removed from our borders. Dennis sought to uncover the motives behind our nation 's actions in Afghanistan through his work as a war photographer-turned director. To him, filming the struggles our troops and those of the Afghan people lends more credence to reality than the trite photographs