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The things they carried symbolism essay
Symbolism in the things they carried short story
Symbolism in "the things they carried" short story
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The story The Things They Carried is written by Tim O’Brien in the late 1980’s in Massachusetts. The author bases all the events during the Vietnam War. O’Brien uses figurative language and imagery to show his message about the Vietnam War, and how a platoon carries on with their baggage. The message behind the story is how Jimmy Cross matures from a naïve little boy who seems to have no experience but as well is a victim of a love story. To a grown man with his rank, what can come of true leadership is asked? It seems that he cannot continue to live in a land where it’s all a dream, it’ll never come to pass in reality. Thesis: The story will focus on how the lieutenant transitions from a kid with no vison or leadership, to a grown man who …show more content…
He is being characterized instantly by the way he is obsessing thinking about Martha. The communication they keep having back and forth with one another seems not to be affective since he keeps coming to the same conclusion whether she really loves him “more than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her, but the letters were mostly chatty, elusive on the matter of love” (269). The lieutenant seems to be insecure of Martha and his relationship. From the title of the story ‘The Things They Carried’ it can easily been seen within the lieutenant. As the story progresses, the feelings for Martha or obsession starts to change into something else. The author has made an immature soldier who is completely obsessed with Martha but is evident that the lieutenant is starting to realize certain things. The things that he is carrying is symbolic of somebody who is expected to be looked at a time of …show more content…
In view of the authors language he is being presented as a character who has no leadership. The author does this on purpose to show room of the development of the lieutenant. As the story continues Cross slowly changes his shift away from Martha and towards to the war. Cross’s preoccupation of Martha distracts his attention from the war and leads to a casualty of one of his soldiers. His weaknesses as a leader were shown when Lavender was shot from the cliff when “he felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead and this was something he had to live with for the rest of the war” (278). From that moment within the war he will burn the picture of Martha. His love for her has changed into something contempt. Burning the picture would limit him of thinking of her. He is much more moved by the death of his own soldier as “he tried not to cry. With his entrenching tool, which weighed five pounds, he began digging a hole in the earth” (275-276). The author has made him seem as a charter who has a sentimental value towards people other than one person. This has shown the readers how regrettable Cross is for neglecting his platoon and the loss of a
One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way of connecting to their homes. The story depicts the soldiers by the baggage that they carry, both mentally and physically. After the death of one of his troops, Ted Lavender, Jimmy finally realizes that his actions have been detrimental to the squad as a whole. He believes that if he would have been a better leader, that Ted Lavender would have never been shot and killed. The physical and emotional baggage that Jimmy totes around with him, in Vietnam, is holding him back from fulfilling his responsibilities as the First Lieutenant of his platoon. Jimmy has apparent character traits that hold him back from being the leader that he needs to be, such as inexperience and his lack of focus; but develops the most important character trait in the end, responsibility.
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is not a novel about the Vietnam War. “It is a story about the soldiers and their experiences and emotions that are brought about from the war” (King 182). O'Brien makes several statements about war through these dynamic characters. He shows the violent nature of soldiers under the pressures of war, he makes an effective antiwar statement, and he comments on the reversal of a social deviation into the norm. By skillfully employing the stylistic technique of specific, conscious detail selection and utilizing connotative diction, O'Brien thoroughly and convincingly makes each point.
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.
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.
But he realizes “it was only a gesture.the letters were in his head” (370). He also discards the pebble she gave to him but cannot rid himself of the boulder that is the emotional burden of his love for her. The weights of desires, fears, and responsibility place great amounts of pressure on an individual. The soldiers in “The Things They Carried” all around lug a great deal of heavy weaponry and equipment. But the heaviest items are intangible things such as their emotions, shame, and reputations.
In "The Things They Carried," O'Brien made reference to the Vietnam war that was closely associated with the physical, psychological, and emotional weight the soldiers beared. The overall method of presentation of this story incorporated many different outlooks on the things the soldiers carried, dealt with, and were forced to adapt to. In addition to this, O'Brien showed us the many reasons why and how the soldiers posessed these things individually and collectively and how they were associated directly and indirectly. The strong historical content in "The Things They Carried" helped emphasize the focus of the story and establish a clearer understanding of details in the narrative and moods of the war itself. From this, we are able to draw conclusions and assumptions to the events as it relates to the Vietnam war. Three areas that "The Things They Carried" established and elaborated were the youthfulness of the Vietnam soldiers, their language and thought patterns, and the actual tangible and intangible things they carried.
A war changes constantly from being in no danger to being in immediate danger. The men are constantly moving from place to place to find safe ground and reassess the situation or mission at the time. People will die during this time; it is something that cannot be helped when fighting. Some deaths are harder than others. The death of Ted Lavender was particularly hard on cross. He felt responsible for it even though it could not be prevented. Cross kept to himself when this happened. “He pictured Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her.” Cross was angry with himself and burned the letters from his sweet, dearest Martha. I think this was his way of letting her go and protecting his men from a death that he caused. There are many deaths during war time and this can scare many of the men, and it does not help being in the environment they were
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 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 collection of stories about the Vietnam War, but in reality, the book centers around the relationships the men make, their connections to the world they left behind and the connections that they formed to Vietnam. The stories are not war stories, but stories about love, respect and the bonds made between men when they spend day after day fighting just to stay alive.
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 today's culture we hear countless stories about countless wars but we never know the facts unless we experienced the events Very view war stories can be proclaimed true, these few are special, they are separate from any other piece of literature. In the novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien illustrates the complexity of a true war story. Tim O'Brien uses the characters Mitchell, Rat, and Curt to tell real stories about the Vietnam War. O'Brien focuses on their humility, their immoral characteristics, and their unreliability to portray the components of a true war story.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien offers readers very unique and interesting view of the Vietnam War and the mentality of a soldier.
In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien repeatedly uses the word “carried” to symbolize the emotions and personalities of soldiers in the story, both individually and collectively. Jimmy Cross underwent terrible trauma as a result of “carrying” his memories and false hopes for his love, Martha. When he was finally able to let go of those memories, he understood reality and his focus returned to where should of always been: leading the squadron. As a group, the soldiers underwent trauma due to the emotions they carried including fear, grief, and love. The word “carry” comes from the Latin words “quadrare” and “caries,” meaning “suitable” and “to rot,” respectively. The things carried by the soldiers “suited” their character, but also “rotted” within them, causing them trauma until they were able to let go of them.