Mikel Kota ENG 130 Professor Carella 17 November 2014 Story Truth vs. Happening Truth in The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a complex piece of literature and understanding it can be approached many different ways. The story in this book is told in both the first and the third person. This creates a mixture of viewpoints and character perspectives that would not be possible otherwise. The Things They Carried is a fictional story based on the author's real life experience. In evidence to that, its mainly a fictional story because its made up but it’s also considered as an autobiography because of real life experiences. Primarily, truth in storytelling stands out as the strongest theme in the novel, for it is called …show more content…
It should be obvious that the story of Kiowa’s death can only be true if O’Brien was present. O’Brien introduces us to a person he refers to as boy, O’Brien says “Not a man, really—a boy.”(156). Why does O’Brien refer to this solider in the same platoon that we know nothing about as “boy”? In story truth, enough evidence has to be given to the reader to make the story true but not everything that makes it a happening. It would be educational to make a guess at saying this “boy” is someone we have already heard about or maybe even O’Brien himself and he’s afraid to say his own name. Since we can’t prove this without any evidence, O’Brien can prove it with his story. Later in the chapter In the Field, O’Brien states: At one point, the boy remembered, he’d been showing Kiowa a picture of his girlfriend. He remembered switching on his flashlight. A stupid thing to do, but he did it anyway, and he remembered Kiowa leaning in for a look at the picture—“Hey, she’s cute,” he’d said—and then the field exploded all around them. (163). Right away who is the boy—the boy that carried the picture of his girlfriend and the boy that shared the same bunker as Kiowa—the boy was Tim
In the book “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien uses imagery, figurative language and repetition to convey his message. O’Brien’s purpose for story telling, is to clear his conscience of war and to tell the stories of soldiers who were forgotten by society. Many young men were sent to war, despite opposing it. They believed it was “wrong” to be sent to their deaths. Sadly, no one realizes a person’s significance until they die. Only remembering how they lived rather than acknowledging their existence when they were alive.
I wonder what it was like to witness the Vietnam War firsthand in combat. Well, in the short story, “The Things they Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, the theme was portrayed as the physical and emotional burdens that soldiers had to deal with during the Vietnam War.
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a very uniquely written book. This book is comprised of countless stories that, though are out of order, intertwine and capture the reader’s attention through the end of the novel. This book, which is more a collection of short stories rather than one story that has a beginning and an end, uses a format that will keep the reader coming back for more.
Tim O’Brien’s, The Things they Carried is a riveting tale of struggle and sacrifice, self indulgence and self pity, and the intrapersonal battles that reeked havoc on even the most battle tested soldiers. O’Brien is able to express these ideas through eloquent writing and descriptive language that makes the reader feel as if he were there. The struggle to avoid cowardice is a prevailing idea in all of O’Brien’s stories.
The title of the book itself couldn’t be more fitting. The Things They Carried is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Tim O'Brien about soldiers trying to live through the Vietnam War. These men deal with many struggles and hardships. Throughout this essay I will provide insight into three of the the numerous themes seen throughout the novel: burdens, truth, and death.
The Things They Carry: Character Changes. One of the main points in The Things They Carry, by Tim O’Brien, is that war changes people. This is evident in the behavior of Norman Bowker, Bob “Rat” Kiley, and the character Tim O’Brien. They each started out as kind young men, but near the end had become very distraught.
All humans experience the different weights of life, whether in the form of a heavy bag or a past memory. O’Brien begins The Things They Carried opens with a detailed description of each object a soldier in the Vietnam War carries on their back. These men carry their own weight of their heavy bags, intricate guns, medical supplies, among other items. In addition to the physical weight each soldier carries, the psychological weight of their experiences are also outlined. A typical soldier carries his uplifting hopes, crushing realities, or horrific experiences in the war, accumulating and changing these mental packages continuously. As the first chapter of The Things They Carried, the concept of the mental weight of the war is central to the overall theme of the novel. While it may be more comfortable to put down your mental bag and rest, the sheer horror of the war keeps each soldier with a heavy pack for the rest of their lives, only being able to relieve tension by
Tina Chen’s critical essay provides information on how returning soldiers aren’t able to connect to society and the theme of alienation and displacement that O’Brien discussed in his stories. To explain, soldiers returning from war feel alienated because they cannot come to terms with what they saw and what they did in battle. Next, Chen discusses how O’Brien talks about soldiers reminiscing about home instead of focusing in the field and how, when something bad happens, it is because they weren’t focused on the field. Finally, when soldiers returned home they felt alienated from the country and
The Things They Carried represents a compound documentary novel written by a Vietnam veteran, Tim O'Brien, in whose accounts on the Vietnam war one encounters graphical depictions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Thus, the stories "Speaking of Courage," "The Man I Killed," "How to Tell a True War Story," "Enemies" and "Friends," "Stockings," and "The Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong "all encompass various examples of PTSD.
The novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien takes place in the Vietnam War. The protagonist, Lieutenant Cross, is a soldier who is madly in love with a college student named Martha. He carries around photos and letters from her. However, the first few chapters illustrate how this profound love makes him weak in the war.
The Things They Carried is a funny little book in the sense that it isn’t told how most books are. It goes from war to camping on the borderline of Canada, back to war, and then into present day times. It works marvelously well, showing you what actually happened and then what he thought about what happened and what he could have done to change the outcome. There are many things that I think people can learn from his experiences in the Vietnam war and the way he tells those stories and lessons really bring you along for the ride.
The Things They Carried certainly succeeds in providing a far different literary experience, in many fields including its syntax. The “average conversation” feel the sentence structure provides makes the reader feel as though he/she is being told a story or even just having a conversation. O’Brien’s style of syntax is perfectly matches the story he tries to tell, and makes the book a viable read for anyone
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.
In Tim O’Brien’s novel, “The Things They Carried,” imaginations can be both beneficial and corrosive. This novel consists of story, truth and real truth. Throughout the novel, imagination plays a big role. Tim O’Brien wrote his book about the war, mainly based on his memory of the war. He did not remember every detail of the war, thus he made up some false details to the stories to make it seem more interesting.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a wonderful and personal look into one of this countries darkest times. The vivid imagery that the author uses lets the reader actually experience the feeling of actually being in the war. By using the cultural studies method of literary criticism, we can use the social conditions during the time of the writing to explore beneath the surface. What we find underneath just might be more interesting than the story itself.