Who's To Blame Analysis

Jim Gallien, a young South Dakota man was spending a few months in the Alaskan backcountry when he was the

In The Things They Carried, Tim O 'Brien uses a variety of stories to explain the life experiences that he and many of his fellow soldiers endured during a single year in Vietnam. He tells these stories in a way that we can connect to these experiences. We never spent time in Vietnam, but O 'Brien wants us to feel like we were there. O 'Brien uses what he calls "story-truth" to write these stories. The outcome or the people may be different but the feeling is real; that 's the truth in the story, the feeling. He wants us to feel what he felt, see what he saw. He doesn 't just tell us what was happening exactly; he tells a fictional story that conveys the same emotion. He plays with the truth, that 's the reason why this book is a work of

The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War that the author, Tim O’Brien, uses to convey his experiences and feelings about the war. The book is filled with stories about the men of Alpha Company and their lives in Vietnam and afterwards back in the United States. O’Brien captures the reader with graphic descriptions of the war that make one feel as if they were in Vietnam. The characters are unique and the reader feels sadness and compassion for them by the end of the novel. To O’Brien the novel is not only a compilation of stories, but also a release of the fears, sadness, and anger that he has felt because of the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War began in 1954, consisting of many extensive, horrific years of battle that seemed to create more harm to the United States and its soldiers rather than to North Vietnam. The 500,000 United States military personnel returned home with the loss of the war and the loss of their friends on their minds. Although the physical and emotional experiences that the men went through is unfathomable, Tim O’Brien does a great job portraying what life as a soldier was truly like in the Vietnam War. In the book The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien depicts the unstable emotional and psychological condition of the American soldiers through the symbolism of their belongings and personal anecdotes from their lives.

In the end, the Wagon Box Flight took many men to their deaths and renewed the terror of the Lakota. Captain Samuel Marr was returned to Fort C.F. Smith after being shot in the leg by friendly fire. Private Thompson was knocked out cold in the field and left for scalping in the blazing firefight. He survived the close encounter and didn’t remember what happened or where he was for a few days. While battered and wrecked, Sargent Seamus

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

In the chapter "Speaking of Courage" Norman Bowker claims that he is responsible for his friend's death. However, in the chapter "In the Field" O'Brien places the blame on an unnamed young soldier who started the enemy attack by turning on his flashlight. Which story is true? Does it matter what is true? According to Jim Neilson, the story of Kiowa's death "evokes the notion that for the U.S. Vietnam was a quagmire; his drowning functions almost emblematically to suggest America's deepening entanglement in southeast Asia" (193). Whatever the meaning behind Kiowa's story, it certainly fits the requirements for a good war story: there is nothing redeemable in it. Maria Bonn sees the three stories about Kiowa's death ("Speaking of Courage," "Notes," and "In the Field") as exemplifying "O'Brien's relentless investigation of how to tell a true war story" (paragraph 39). When you look at all three of these chapters together you can see the progression from what is imagined to what is true or is it the other way around? With Tim O'Brien, it is never clear.

In conclusion, Colonel Connor's count of Indians dead revealed 224 bodies on the battlefield and 48 more at a curve on the river for a total of 272. Some other estimates state from 368 to 400, for Connor’s soldiers, fourteen died with four officers and forty-nine men wounded, of whom one officer and eight men died later and in addition, seventy-nine were disabled by freezing. After the battle, the troops crossed to the south side of the river and made camp for the night. Later that night, Corporal Tuttle stated, “The night of January 29th, 1863 I shall never forget (how can I). There we camped on the bank of Bear River with our dead and dying, wounded and frozen, 2 feet of snow on the ground. Nothing for a fire but green willows which burn about as well as snow. Oh, the

Approximately 200 people would die there, many disfigured by the soldiers. According to the Lone Wolf, a novel by Kevin Cahill, “When the smoke cleared, Colonel John M. Chivington’s troops returned to Denver, waving Indian scalps and body parts to an adoring crowd that hailed the conquering heroes as saviors of the territory”. The chiefs that were killed were, Standing-in-the-Water, Ochinee and War Bonnet, White Antelope, Tall Bear, Bear Robe, Little Robe, Spotted Crow, Big Man, Bear Man and Old Yellow Wolf. After this, the entire camp was burned. Many of the natives were left behind to be identified by their family members. Several men tried to stop the massacre, mainly a CPT. Silas, who on Apr 23, 1865 was found shot to death in Denver. According to the National Park Service, “The citizens of nearby Denver welcomed the troops when they returned as having helped to rid the Plains of hostile Indians, but Chivington’s actions were controversial almost

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

Then in the chapter “In the Field” O’Brien uses the theme shame and guilt because of Kiowa’s death. Lieutenant Jimmy blamed himself for Kiowa’s death because he sent the whole team that way into the “mud pit” to hide out. Norman Bowker, Kiowa’s best friend feels worse about the incident that happened. He couldn’t save him from getting sucked under the mud. The young soldier feels even worse because he got Kiowa killed for turning on the flashlight, “Like murder, the boy thought. The flashlight made it all happen”(O’Brien 163). The boy went to show Kiowa a picture and the flashlight was a target and the land around them exploded. the young boy feels really guilty for what he has done.

Norman Bowker shames himself because he did not win the Silver Star of Valor. He thinks he should have won it if he had saved Kiowa. Bowker hangs himself because both shame and guilt follow him with such forcefulness. Many of the soldiers blamed themselves for the death of Kiowa that they all feel guilty. Jimmy Cross blamed himself about Kiowa’s death and said "When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame the war. A moment of carelessness or bad judgment or plain stupidity carried consequences that lasted forever." (In the Field.115) They all kept thinking that if they were faster, braver, and little smarter, they could have saved Kiowa and so they will never be able to lift the guilt from their

Kiowa’s Death The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is book put together of the stories that Tim remembered and stories he thought in his head. O’Brien was a quiet man and expressed his feelings through writing. O’Brien did not speak of his stories through words, but instead he wrote. Tim called himself a coward for joining the war instead of fleeing to Canada (“The Things They Carried”, n.d.). Kiowa was a soldier who did not fully believe in the war, he was peaceful and always carried a copy of the New Testament with him.

The Vietnam War. A war that many Americans believed unfair and unnecessary. “Why am I being sent off to fight in a war I don’t know anything about? Will I ever return again?” Many draftees asked themselves these questions hoping to find comfort in the answers. But there was little to no hope, and they knew it. They were being drafted and they could do absolutely nothing about it, only hope that at the end they would be returning to the enlightened faces of their loved ones, something that not many Vietnam soldiers expected to ever see again. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, portrays his experience in the war along with his fellow squad members, in their fight for survival against the Vietcong. In The Things They Carried, each

Tim O’Brien is one of the most representative writers in America. As for his notable war stories, he is easily labeled as a war writer rather than other titles. As one of the most well-known novels of Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried was published in 1990. The whole stories are mainly narrated by a 43-year-old character names Tim O’Brien. He expresses the horrors and confusions that American veterans have experienced in every combat of the Vietnam War. During the war, the horror, as well as the misfortune is definitely not only bombs and guns, but also the most serious mental trauma, which leads to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this book, the character Bowker has not entirely overcome the traumatic