Death is extremely final, and life is theoretically the greatest thing that anyone can lose. Whilst reading a tragedy that culminates with death, the majority of readers would say that death is the most significant tragedy of the story. Death is the result of primary dangers, which are the immediate physical dangers that result in death. But the tragedy of death is typically preceded by characters succumbing to other dangers. The dangers preceding death are secondary dangers, such as the character flaws of pride and paranoia. Emotional burdens can also be secondary dangers, as Bobbie Ann Mason discusses in her essay “On Tim O’Brien’s ‘The Things They Carried.’” She states that the main struggle in “The Things They Carried” centers around the intangible baggage that the men carry, despite being at war where their lives are in danger. Secondary dangers are the source of the physical and/or mortal primary dangers. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montressor creates Fortunato’s primary danger by trapping him in a catacomb. In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” the primary danger is war. The supernatural Boogeyman monster is the primary danger in Stephen King’s “The Boogeyman.” These dangers are deadly, but the tragedies of death are byproducts of characters succumbing to the secondary dangers that they face. Thus, the tragedy of death may not be the “ultimate” tragedy. Despite death being the final tragedy, the ultimate tragedy is succumbing to dangers such as emotional burdens, paranoia, and pride.
Emotional baggage can be the catalyst of a seriously dangerous event. In “The Things They Carried,” “[the] immediate drama is the effort ... to contain the emotion, to carry it,” (Mason). Emotiona...
... middle of paper ...
...is true of paranoia and pride, as too much of either of these can lead to dangerous situations. The paranoia, pride, and emotional burdens that characters face culminate to result in the ultimate tragedy of the story.
Works Cited
King, Stephen. “The Boogeyman.” Night Watch. Stephen King.
Mason, Bobbie Ann. “On Time O’Brien’s ‘The Things They Carried.’” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 1515-1516. Print.
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 1001-1014. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 1109-1114. Print.
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. New York: Broadway, 1998. Print.
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 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. The 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
O'Brien, T. (1990). The things they carried. The things they carried. Tim O’Brien, Author. Retrieved from http://www.illyria.com/tobsites.html
The things we carry may define the type of person we are in a broad but effective sense. For example, a construction worker might carry a hammer, a mailman some mail , and a police officer would carry those beautiful pieces of paper we call tickets. In carrying these items, each person may experience a different type of day in the framework of their lives. A mailman might get chased by a dog, while a cop may be chasing the “dog”. Each item may dictate our particular interest in objects and gives insight into the psychology of an individual. This was done in 1946 by a man named Tim O’ Brien. His novel titled “The Things They Carried”, first appeared as an excerpt in Esquire Magazine and told the story of the men in war with the things they carried. In the pages of this excerpt, one is able to see an epiphany performed by the soldiers. This epiphany relates to the items they had carried around during their missions and is geared especially towards the leading character, Lt. Jimmy Cross, of the excerpt. A coming of age is derived from this individual, which also sheds light on the psychological atmosphere of the men serving 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.
Interview by Neal Conan. "'The Things They Carried,' 20 Years On." Talk of the Nation. . NPR, Washington. 24 Mar 2010. Web. 13 Apr 2014. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125128156.
The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is not just a book about what soldiers carried during the Vietnam War, but a book about what they carried with them for the rest of their lives. The book also describes the traumatizing deaths which caused many soldiers to start to blame themselves.
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 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 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 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.
In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien brings to light the effects of war on soldiers, both physically and psychologically. The title of the story would lead the reader to believe the story is only about the provisions and apparatus a soldier would physically carry into war. After reading the entire story, it becomes evident that there are many burdens seen and unseen that soldiers face during times of war.
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.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Ed. Wayne Franklin, Philip F. Gurpa, Arnold Krupat. New York: Norton, 2007. 1612-1613, 1616. Print.