the things they carried Essay

Tim O’Brien writes about both the physical objects they carry as well as their emotional burdens. The objects that these soldiers carry serve as a symbolism for what they are carrying in their hearts and minds. The soldiers carry items varying from pantyhose, medicine, tanning oil, and pictures. Jimmy Cross is an inexperienced sophomore in college, he signs up for the Reserve Officers Training Camp because his friends are doing the course. Jimmy Cross doesn’t want anything to do with the war or anything to do with being a leader. The item that Jimmy Cross carries with him are pictures of his classmate named Martha.

This quote helps O’Brien to portray the theme of motivation by shame. Curt Lemon fainted in a scene before the last one where he got a good tooth pulled out. He was afraid of the dentist that was on sight, and because of this he was embarrassed because he fainted. He didn’t want to face the other guys because he knew that they

“War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” (80)

Every day we go through, a million and one things occur. We either completely forget about it in the next instant or we carry it with us for the rest of our eternity. It’s possible to carry the memory of the generous tip the nice women gave you or the exact moment the wrong words came out of your mouth. We can carry these things called burdens, either physically or emotionally.

For countless of people today, the Vietnam war is just something from the past, but for Tim O’Brien, the Vietnam War will endlessly be with him. This one year in Vietnam changes the lives of this platoon from emotional pain, physical pain, as well as muscle pain will commence to cloud their vision. The weight of the things that they carried takes great effect on them that they have to continue to endure on this one year trip in Vietnam and remember these memories for the rest of their lives..

The soldiers didn't even have to have gone home to begin to feel the effects of the war. Rat Kiley, a young medic in Vietnam started to feel the effects right then and there, and it resulted in him shooting himself in order to escape the war. The conditions of the war, the long night time treks, the silence, broken only by the sounds of ghosts, the constant darkness. It could drive anyone crazy. The constant death too, ‘… too many body bags… too much gore…'. Sometimes this paranoia-based insanity would embody itself in the form of something randomly chosen yet relevant, something for the person to obsess about in order to temporarily distance themselves from what was actually occurring around them. At times the obsessing would involve their immediate surrounds, like Rat Kiley who began to those around him as nothing more than bodies, and began to imagine how they would look without an arm, or a leg, or even ‘… what it would feel like to pick up the head and carry it over to a chopper and dump it in…'. It could even take form as self obsession, Rat Kiley began to envision his own death, parts of his own body being removed and eaten by the insects in Vietnam. Kiley's constant visions led to his self-harming in order to be taken away to Japan, some kind of a haven after the

In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien the author tells about his experiences in the Vietnam war by telling various war stories. The quote, "It has been said of war that it is a world where the past has a strong grip on the present, where machines seemed sometimes to have more will power than me, where nice boys (girls) were attracted to them, where bodies ruptured and burned and stand, where the evil thing trying to kill you could look disconnecting human and where except in your imagination it was impossible to be heroic." relates to each of his stories.

Change In The Things They Carried a war novel by Tim O'Brien, we are told many short stories compiled to make a whole. I want to emphasis on the importance of the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". In this chapter we are introduced to the character Mary Anne. She shows the changing power of Vietnam, that a sweet innocent young girl can come into this land and be forever consumed by her surroundings. The speaker show us this through character action, character description, dialogue and metaphor; this enhances the literary work by showing us that the soldiers will always be a part of Vietnam no matter how hard they try to get away from it.

            Tim O’Brien brings the characters and stories to life in The Things They Carried. He uses a writing style that brings stories to life by posing questions between the relationship of reality and fiction (Calloway 249). This is called metafiction and it exposes the truth through the literary experience. Tim O’Brien uses metafiction to make the characters and stories in The Things They Carried realistically evocative of the Vietnam War.

Necessity is a rather slippery concept in terms of definition. The notion of what an individual requires for his or her survival varies with the particular situation at any given time. These needs may intensify or become distorted as one finds himself in an increasingly dangerous situation, particularly a life-and-death one such as war. Such dire circumstances may provoke in an average person feelings of extreme vulnerability, and the desire to hold on to all that he can, not unlike a child's instinct to grasp the nearest object in his search for comfort while in the throes of anxiety. Despite the fact that these "necessary" items or ideas that he clings to may impair or even threaten to destroy

     In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, numerous themes are illustrated by the author. Through the portrayal of a number of characters, Tim O’Brien suggests that to adapt to Vietnam is not always more difficult than to revert back to the lives they once knew. Correspondingly the theme of change is omnipresent throughout the novel, specifically in the depiction of numerous characters.

Thousands were killed, and many more were wounded in the Vietnam war, a war that many are to this day still living with the consequences. The Things They Carried, written by William Timothy O'Brien. The story takes place in Vietnam, during the war, sometime in the 1960s. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and his unit are in Vietnam serving for the United States. Jimmy, is in love with a college woman named Martha from back home. Martha writes Jimmy many letters about school, rarely mentioning the war. This is the story of group of soldiers in the war, and the things they carry. The men not only carry physical necessities for war, but also the emotional and psychological weight as well. The

In The Things They Carried the idea of spinning, in various forms captivated me the most. From the start, I knew I wanted to display the young girl from “Style” in my collage since I thought it would be the best way to insert myself into the piece. I wanted to express how war spins from hell and violence, to beauty and peace. O’Brien tells many stories that seem terrible, but end with some beauty or peace behind it. O’Brien juggles the idea of spinning, from the girl dancing surrounded by wreckage, to O’Brien’s mind spinning out of the control of rational thought as he wonders what could have been of the man he killed, and to the beauty O’Brien found in his dream with Linda, turning Linda’s traumatic death into a peaceful

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story written about the Vietnam War. The title has two meanings. The first is their duties and equipment for the war. The second, the emotional sorrows they were put through while at war. Their wants and needs, the constant worry of death were just a few of the emotional baggage they carried. During the Vietnam War, like all wars, there were hard times. 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, to stay in good health, and accept the death of a fellow soldier.

One common theme present in literature are when characters faced with tremendous stress or danger make a character change. Characters like Kentuck, a grimy old man, shows bravery when he lost his life trying to save the baby, the Lieutenant acted nonchalantly about losing his arm, and Mother Shipton showed selflessness when she dies for the sake of Piney, Henry Fleming was worried about his future and overcame his cowardness when he picked up the flag, these characters have all faced extreme stress, with this they each changed to value selflessness. BP1 The intrusion of the infant into this manly setting has a civilizing effect on everyone in the camp. The greatest change takes place in a man named Kentuck, an impoverished miner who feels a strong affection for the infant, now named Tommy Luck.