In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the word “carry” was used frequently with multiple different meanings. O’Brien first describes the necessities that every soldiers carry such as, “pocket knives, heat tabs, wrist watches, dog tags” which are tangible items (O’Brien 427). O’Brien than goes on to address unique item that individual soldiers carry for example “Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament” that was a unique item that Kiowa carried that was tangible but it also meant a lot to him and maybe it made him feel protected (428). There might have been many tangible items being carried but the soldiers also carried intangible objects like feeling. O’Brien mentions that “They carried all the emotional baggage”
Tim O’Brien states in The Things They Carried that “Stories are for joining the past to the future” (36). Early in this novel, O’Brien adds “I sit at this typewriter and stare through my words and watch Kiowa sinking into the deep muck of a shit field, or Curt Lemon hanging in pieces from a tree, and as I write about these things, the remembering is turned into a kind of rehappening” (31). In this quote O’Brien foreshadows some of the approaching short stories. But the recurring struggle that O’Brien goes through when reliving these awful memories causes him to describe the details in a way you will feel what he has felt. Making the past with the present and the truth blurred with the fiction. His purpose, is to write about his struggle to write these war stories, including his obsession to continue to write them. O’Brien uses himself to illustrate the emotional and physical weight of his obsession to write war stories about Vietnam.
‘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).
In "the things they carried", author Tim O’Brien tries to teach readers that war changes people, by using baggage as a symbol throughout the book. Ultimately, "the things they carried" is literally built on a foundation of the things they carried. Whether it’s the way Jimmy Cross uses the pebble to escape from his duties as a soldier. Or the way that they all look up to the pantyhose as an almost godly relic. All the way to Norman Bowker finally realizing that courage comes from within, not from winning the Silver Star. These things, made up the soldiers attributes, made up the soldiers’ persona, made up the soldier. But they didn’t stop at the soldier; certain items characterized all the soldiers as a collective group. It even went as far as to describe an entire group by the things all of them carried, of course being the green berets. There were no single green berets just a group; nobody made an effort to distinguish one from another. Like the way we make no effort to name each and every cell in our body, they are just smaller pieces that make up one entity.
O'Brien's repeated use of the phrase "they carried" attempts to create a realization in the reader that soldiers in wars always carry some kind of weight; there is always some type of burden that servicemen and women will forever hold onto both throughout the war and long after it has finished. The specification of what the soldier bear shows that the heaviness is both physical and emotional and in most cases the concrete objects carried manifest into the continued emotional distress that lasts a lifetime (sentence about what they carry from novel) "The Things They Carried" emphasis this certain phrase in order for those that do not have the experience of going to understand the constant pressure of burdens they are under. O'Brien draws on
Culture teaches that men must dispense of ridiculous emotions and remain firm, following expected duties. O’Brien develops this theme of the transition from youth to manhood in his short story, “The Things They Carried.” Through the protagonist Jimmy Cross, metaphors of weight, and futile ideas of freedom, O’Brien reveals how society expects young men in transition to adulthood to let go of impractical idealism and dwell instead on the cruel reality of the world.
In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien talks about how the field is symbolic of the Vietnam War. The novel is about a company of soldier in the Vietnam War. One day, the company is ordered to stay the night in a field on the bank of the Song Tra Bong river. Then, it starts raining and the river overflows it’s banks and floods the field. A soldier named Kiowa is killed in the field. The field represents how Vietnam seemed to suffocate the soldiers who were there. The field is Vietnam, it claimed the lives, souls and innocence of the men who were there and some of the men who survived it never really came home.
People can carry many things with them as they go through life. Individuals can carry tools to do their jobs, knowledge to aid in a successful outcome of a task, or even guilt of something that happened on their watch. These are some of the struggles that Tim O’Brien’s the main character has to deal with, in the story “The Things They Carried” because the character is the leader of a military unit. O’Brien’s main character is plagued throughout the story by a fantasy romance that constantly distracts the character First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and causes a terrible tragedy. Like the main character of O’Brien’s story, I to had a distraction in the place in which I was employed, and it also caused a terrible tragedy as well. Both O’Brien’s character
This story concentrates on the death of one of the platform members and the horrific conditions of Vietnam during the war. This story's topic is a very unique. All the characters are carrying backpacks with full of items like food, clothing, weapons, and even pictures of loved ones. However, they are also carrying full of emotional baggage that driven by negative feelings such as fear and loneliness, plus, the story is written as if the narrator is working up the courage to talk and relieve about his thoughts and emotions. The list of things they carried are way for the narrator to discuss the more emotional issues.
Throughout the novel, The Things They Carried, O’Brien mentions the man with the star shaped hole. The first introduction to the story of the man was in “The Man I Killed,” he then repeats a similar story in “Ambush,” but in “Good Form,” he mentions that the things he wrote about aren’t actually true. The third episode causes the reader to rethink the content of O’Brien’s book. The first 2 accounts of this story were very descriptive, but after the third account, the reader changes their perspective not only on this one story, but the entire book. The reader questions the content that O’Brien has put in his novel so far.
The Things They Carried contains a whirlwind of emotions that impact the readers. Tim O’Brien made up this story which contains many confusing and dramatic scenes. O’Brien was good leaving the reader wondering and making up their own conclusion on what happened rather than coming out and saying how it really was. This tactic held the reader's attention throughout the book and kept them wanting to read more. Tim O’Brien’s style of writing made this story seem it was actually real life occurrences not fiction. Tim O’Brien would have never been able to this chilling but beautiful piece without this prior experience in the war. The real life experience was detrimental to this writing in order to make it seem so realistic.
In his short story, O’Brien intentionally chooses words and phrases that evoke emotion in his readers. On page 137 he says “This is one story I’ve never told anyone before. Not to anyone. Not to my parents, not to my brother or sister, not even my wife.” This statement creates a sense of intimacy with the reader, because he has never shared it with anyone else, and he is choosing to share it with us. It also allows the reader to feel a bit of the author’s shame behind being so embarrassed to share this story that he’s never even told the people closest to him. Also, on page 141 he says “I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile. I was afraid of walking away from my own life, my friends and my family, my whole history, everything that mattered
He talks about Cross who seems to be the main character, O’Brien also mentions the other men of the platoon. The platoon consists of Lieutenant Cross, Mitchell Sanders, Kiowa, Henry Dobbins, Dave Jensen, Ted Lavender, and Lee Strunk. The other short stories mention more characters but these are the only mentioned in the platoon. All of these characters are extremely different and the things they carried are all personal to their tastes. The Things They Carried is a quite literal title since the narrator is constantly talking about the weights of the things that the men carried in their rucksacks. Every character has their quirks so they have different objects in their possession. “Dave Jensen, who practiced field hygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap he'd stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia. Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers” (O’Brien 2) O’Brien wanted to display how these men had different stories or how their journeys may contribute to their items. Even though the story really only goes into the depth of Lieutenant Cross’ journey, the literature brings in tiny details to show the journeys of his comrades. Focusing in on Cross you can tell he has some psychological issues, due to the war. Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, he was so in love with her but they hardly knew each other. “More than anything, he wanted Martha
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.
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.
One of the clearest points in The Things They Carried is that of the importance of certain objects or feelings used by the soldiers of Alpha Company to survive the war. Jimmy Cross, the leader the group, carries a picture of a Martha, a girl who writes him from the states. Jimmy knows that there is no real relationship between the two, but he uses the picture the help keep him connected to the world he was forced to leave behind. He creates stories in his head about what will happen when he makes it back home, alive. The Bible carried by Kiowa was given to him by his father. When the book is mentioned, it is referring to the smell of the New Testament: the leather, glue, ink and paper. Kiowa carries the Bible as more of a remembrance then as a show of his faith. The stockings carried by Henry Dobbins came from his girlfriend. He carefully raps them around his neck each time the company moves out. Even after his girlfriend ends the relationship, Henry continues to wear the stockings because in his mind, their symbolism has not changed. All these items are psychological tools used by the soldiers to keep them connected to their homes and loved ones. The items are not important just because of who gave them to the soldiers, rather they are important because they seem like t...