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In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and Life of Pi by Yann Martel, two able-bodied characters are demonstrated at weak-minded points. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, a twenty-four year old man, and Piscine Patel, a teenage boy, are far from their homes. They are alone. To escape the loneliness they feel, they create false realities in their minds that only deepen their already unsafe conditions. Cross exaggerates a college woman’s, Martha’s, love for him, and Pi exaggerates the idea that a rescue ship is on the way to find him and that he will see his family again, who sank and drowned on their ship. As they cling to unreal hopes, they lose control of the situations around them. The two protagonist characters are in a diminished state, not thriving because their brains are acknowledging lies as the truth. Handfuls of heartache and hardships are heaved at the characters, and only after making many mistakes did they understand that their previous thoughts are merely make-believe. After realizing that their outlooks are based on false hope, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Piscine Patel develop unwavering mindsets, strengthening their willpower and perseverance.
As he deems his fictitious thoughts as likely, Lieutenant Cross hinders his brain from comprehending the danger that surrounds. His fatigued mind demotes him to a neglectful and inattentive soldier, creating a man who lacks the leadership qualities necessary to the survival of his troops. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross leads his troops as they complete various missions throughout Vietnam during the war. The troops travel in constant preparation for ambush and attack by enemies and deadly weapons. The most dangerous weapon, though, is carried by Lieutenant Cross himself. H...
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...ume their thoughts and expose them to considerable amounts of hazard. Lieutenant Cross falsely believes in Martha's love; Pi falsely believes that he will be rescued and reunited with his family. Clinging to unreal hopes, all control of their situations is lost. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and Life of Pi by Yann Martel, two powerful individuals encounter situations that leave them powerless and weak-minded. Misery and misfortune plaque these characters, their tolerance for despair finally reaching breaking points. After “exceptional suffering” caused by the false exaggerations, the characters infer that their previous ways of thinking hinder their success and prosperity (Martel 124). As the two protagonist characters release their minds from the inauthentic and acknowledge the truth, they remove themselves from their declining states and thrive.
Jimmy Cross, being only twenty-four years old, was very inexperienced, as were most of the others serving in Vietnam. As stated by Tim O’Brien, in this short story, “He was just a kid at war, in love” (600). He didn’t want to be the leade...
‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien provides a insider’s view of war and its distractions, both externally in dealing with combat and internally dealing with the reality of war and its effect on each solder. The story, while set in Vietnam, is as relevant today with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Southeast Asia. With over one million soldiers having completed anywhere from one to three tours in combat in the last 10 years, the real conflict might just be inside the soldier. O’Brien reflects this in his writing technique, using a blend of fiction and autobiographical facts to present a series of short narratives about a small unit of soldiers. While a war story, it is also an unrequited love story too, opening with Jimmy Cross holding letters from a girl he hoped would fall in love with him. (O’Brien 1990).
“They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing- these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” (O’Brien 604) “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’brien, portrays a platoon of soldiers in The Vietnam War by the baggage that they carry, both mentally and physically. The main character, whom was assigned to be First Lieutenant of the platoon, is twenty-four year old Jimmy Cross. Lt. Cross is a prime example of a leader who is too immature to handle the responsibility of their role. He is constantly daydreaming about Martha, obsessing over the letters and gifts she has sent him, rather than leading his men. Martha is a student at a college back in Lt. Cross’s hometown. Lt. cross and his men all have baggage that weighs them down, but as the assigned leader, Lt. Cross has to free himself of these distractions. In “The Things They Carried” Lt. Cross’s inexperience and lack of focus, combined with his ample emotional and physical baggage, stand in the way of him fulfilling his responsibilities as the First Lieutenant of his platoon.
In the two novels of recent war literature Redeployment, by Phil Klay, and The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, both call attention to the war’s destruction of its soldiers’ identities. With The Things They Carried, we are introduced to the story of a young Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is currently fighting in the Vietnam War and holds a deep crush for his college-lover Martha. Jimmy carries many letters from Martha with him throughout the war, and he envisions this romantic illusion in which “more than anything, he want[s] Martha to love him as he love[s] her” (1). However, a conflict quickly transpires between his love for Martha and his responsibilities with the war, in which he is ultimately forced to make a decision between the two.
“The Things They Carry”, is narrated through the consciousness of Lt. Jimmy Cross and his reaction to a number of factors. These factors include the conditions and situations the war brings along. It switches off into other character’s conscience providing this observa...
In the short story, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, each soldier carries many items during times of war and strife, but each necessity differs. This short story depicts what each soldier carries mentally, physically, and emotionally on his shoulders as long, fatiguing weeks wain on during the Vietnam War. Author Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam War veteran, an author, the narrator, and a teacher. The main character, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, is a Vietnam War soldier who is away at war fighting a mind battle about a woman he left behind in New Jersey because he is sick with love while trying to fulfill his duties as a soldier to keep America free. Tim O’Brien depicts in “The Things They Carried” a troubled man who also shoulders the burden of guilt when he loses one of his men to an ambush.
Fear is one of human's emotions that sometimes prevent humans to be successful. The other acceptable definitions for fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the nearness danger or expectation of pain. The main character in the novel that called Life of Pi written by Yann Martel is Pi who challenges with many issues in his journey from India to Canada. One of the issues is living alone on the lifeboat in the middle of ocean with a Bengal tiger for while. One can learn to deal with fear as Pi deals with the tiger that called Richard Parker. Pi faces his fears, takes practical steps, persevere, and acknowledge his fears.
The novel Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, and the short story “Miss Brill”, by Katherine Mansfield, appear to contain the same internal ideas. The strongest similarity between the stories are the characters. But that is also the strongest difference. PI and Miss Brill suffer from loneliness, misunderstood simple mindedness, and having to deal with others putting them down.
In The Things They Carried, an engaging novel of war, author Tim O’Brien shares the unique warfare experience of the Alpha Company, an assembly of American military men that set off to fight for their country in the gruesome Vietnam War. Within the novel, the author O’Brien uses the character Tim O’Brien to narrate and remark on his own experience as well as the experiences of his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company. Throughout the story, O’Brien gives the reader a raw perspective of the Alpha Company’s military life in Vietnam. He sheds light on both the tangible and intangible things a soldier must bear as he trudges along the battlefield in hope for freedom from war and bloodshed. As the narrator, O’Brien displayed a broad imagination, retentive memory, and detailed descriptions of his past as well as present situations. 5. The author successfully uses rhetoric devices such as imagery, personification, and repetition of O’Brien to provoke deep thought and allow the reader to see and understand the burden of the war through the eyes of Tim O’Brien and his soldiers.
The novel, “The Things They Carried”, is about the experiences of Tim O’Brian and his fellow platoon members during their time fighting in the Vietnam War. They face much adversity that can only be encountered in the horrors of fighting a war. The men experience death of friends, civilians, enemies and at points loss of their rationale. In turn, the soldiers use a spectrum of methods to cope with the hardships of war, dark humor, daydreaming, and violent actions all allow an escape from the horrors of Vietnam that they experience most days.
The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is based in Vietnam during the Vietnam War in the 1950’s. Though most of the novel is just a flashback to the Vietnam War, there are some events that occur well after the war. Looking back at their place in time during the Vietnam War, Jimmy Cross and some of his old fellow war vets use some of the objects they carried with them in Vietnam to remember those events that caused their lives to drastically change. The most significant event that changed Jimmy Cross’ life was of watching fellow platoon member Ted Lavender die right next to him. Cross does not go a day in his life without blaming himself for Lavender’s death. Throughout the novel Jimmy is torn between the love of his life, Martha, who does not feel as affectionate towards Cross, and by his actions in the War. In the novel, the author/narrator Tim O’Brien is also a protagonist in the story. He is first presented as a nervous, young, soldier who is in the Alpha Platoon. Because of O’Brien being the author of the novel, he can strongly use imagery to his advantage when he writes of stories he confronted in his point of view. The two main topics of current war and PTSD which are illustrated in the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien can be compared and contrasted with three relevant articles: “Al Qaeda tries to recruit Americans in Syria,” “Ukraine orders Crimea troop withdrawal as Russia seizes naval base,’ and “Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
One of the most overlooked aspects in the life of a soldier is the weight of the things they carry. In Tim O'Brien's story, "The Things They Carried," O'Brien details the plight of Vietnam soldiers along with how they shoulder the numerous burdens placed upon them. Literally, the heavy supplies weigh down each soldier -- but the physical load imposed on each soldier symbolizes the psychological baggage a soldier carries during war. Though O'Brien lists the things each soldier carries, the focal point centers around the leader, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and his roles in the war. Lt. Cross has multiple burdens, but his emotional baggage is the most pressing. Of all the weights burdened upon Lt. Cross, the heaviest baggage is located in his own mind. Specifically, the heaviest things Lt. Cross carries are an emotional obsession over Martha's love, the physical consequences caused by his daydreaming of Martha, and an unrelenting guilt about Ted Lavender's death.
Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is the first story in a collection about the Alpha Company, led by First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross during the Vietnam War. The platoon is deployed near Than Khe, an area filled with dense jungle and unrelenting rain where the men must carry or “hump” an unspeakable amount of weight both literal and emotional to survive. The narrator, O’Brien, is one of the soldiers, and he distinguishes one soldier from another with a vivid description of what each one must, and chooses to carry in order to survive war. The seventeen men in this troop are tasked with a search and destroy mission inside tunnel complexes south of Chu Lai. While Lee Strunk is in the tunnels, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is obsessing over Martha, a girl from back home, and Ted Lavender is taking drugs. Just when Lee Strunk emerges from the tunnels unscathed, Ted Lavender is shot in the head----boom-down--killed, and the men begin to vacillate between morbid fascination and guilt.
Religion is and always has been a sensitive topic. Some choose to acknowledge that there is a God and some choose to deny this fact to the death. For those who deny the presence of a higher being, “Life of Pi” will most likely change your thought process concerning this issue. Yann Martel’s, “Life of Pi”, is a compelling story that shows the importance of obtaining religion and faith. Piscine (Pi) Patel is both the protagonist and the narrator of Martell’s religious eye-opener who undergoes a chain effect of unbelievable catastrophes. Each of these catastrophic events leaving him religiously stronger because he knows that in order to endure what he has endured, there has got to be a God somewhere.
A human has a strong desire to survive and ready to transgress his inner borders and break his principles to save his life. There are three aspects of survival: psychological, emotional and physical survival. They are all related to each other and in order to sustain one has to go through all three stages. A person has to struggle with themselves: they have to breakdown their internal principles such as high morality and deep religious commitment in order to come through Psychological, Emotional and Physical survival.