Fear plays a very large part of life, and when faced with high risk situations it makes a mountain out of a molehill. The Things They Carried is a series of vignettes written by Tim O’Brien that tells his story as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Many of the vignettes he tells are deeply disturbing. They express the fear O’Brien and the men in the Alpha Company felt while stationed in Vietnam. O’Brien shows this through the use of flashbacks of the travesties he witnessed. He uses the unfamiliar setting and the intense, rapidly changing mood to strengthen them. These three elements of style truly bring out O’Briens writing, and show the emotion behind his words, helping the reader fully understand his experiences. Many of the flashbacks that stood out in The Things They Carried were fueled by fear. A few stand out because of the emotional shock they evoked in the members of the Alpha Company. O’Brien had a flashback of a day off in a sunny valley. Most of the men were …show more content…
The Vietnam War was the first of its kind. There were no defined enemies or battlefields making it very stressful on the soldiers stationed there. Most of Alpha Company’s encounters with the enemy were unplanned. Not knowing when they were going to be attacked was very alarming for most of the men. Being in the unforgiving jungles of Vietnam, made it so the soldiers could try and prepare for the worst but could never relax. “When a mission took them to the mountains, the carried mosquito netting, machetes, canvas traps, and extra bug juice.” They didn’t know the land or how to navigate it from day to day. At any moment something could jump out of the trees and attack, be it an animal or an enemy soldier. Moreover they were assigned with an unknown group of men that they were told to entrust their lives to. Dave Jensen couldn’t take the pressure of not knowing who to trust or when the next attack would come and it drove him
concepts 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. Some examples of these items are the picture of the girl carried by Jimmy Cross, the Bible carried by Kiowa, and the stockings carried by Henry Dobbins. All the items helped the respective soldier to survive from day to day and to continue fighting the war. One of the most important things that helped the soldiers is their friendship with each other. This bond that the soldiers form helped them to survive, excluded someone who was outside their group, and helped the men of Alpha Company to cope with the war after they returned to the United States.
The novel, The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories about life as a foot soldier in the Vietnam War. The author, Tim O’Brien is, himself a veteran of the Vietnam War. Some of the stories are true, and others are only partially true. O’Brien talks about how he felt when he was drafted, and how he felt while watching his platoon mates die, and what it was like to be a soldier in one of the most gruesome wars in history.
Over the course of the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Tim changes his personality for the worse, sees new sides of his friends brought out by experiences in the war, and shows the impacts that the war has had on himself and the rest of his platoon. These impacts are everlasting and can explain why a person may be the way they are. Sometimes talking about traumatic experiences can help a person deal with what has happened, which is what story telling does for Tim O’Brien. Anyone else can do the same as
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.
...eing a war story, The Things They Carried is a human story, a story which at its core, delves into intrapersonal and emotional repercussions of warfare that only a story written by one of the war’s own can be properly crafted.
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.
In conclusion, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien gives some authentic portrayals throughout the book of how soldiers could be affected by the war. The stories may not be all true to the teeth, but they are authentic to the point where this could really happen and has happened to countless of soldiers. O’Brien gives us an inside view of a true authenticity to what has happened and what could happen to all the characters in his
A lot of people change because of some tragic event or some mishappening in their life. They become more responsible, feel guilty and regret their behavior in the past. A friend of mine started taking care of his business after his father's death and stopped being an irresponsible jerk. He feels guilty about not having a good relation with his father. Whereas, the story "the things they carried" is about the fantasies, fears and desires and dreams of the soldiers. For instance, Ted lavender was afraid of death. Jimmy cross dreams about the girl Martha and lost his consciousness sometimes while marching and sitting. He also had some wild fantasies about her. He is a careless officer who doesn't pay any attention, no matter how hard he tries. He felt guilty about the death of his coworker Ted lavender. Ted died of a sniper shot in his head and that was the day irresponsible, daydreamer and careless jimmy changed into more responsible man focusing on war.
Some tangible things they carried with them were remind them of home and provide them with some luck, while others helped keep them alive during the war time. The intangible things the men carried helped the men be carried through the war and survive. Each man carried something different both mentally and physically. Tim O’Brien saw and experienced these men and what they had to go through during this time of war. The chapter “The Things They Carried” shapes each character into who he was during the war and shows us the reality of the Vietnam
In conclusion the soldiers use dark humor, daydreaming, and violent actions which all allow an escape from the horrors they had to go through in Vietnam. These coping mechanisms allowed the men to continue to fight and survive the war. They wouldn’t have been able to carry on if it wasn’t for the outlets these methods provided. Without humor, daydreaming, and violent actions, the war would have been unbearable for the men, and detrimental to their lives going forward.
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.
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...
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.
One of the significant concepts 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. Some examples of these items are the picture of the girl carried by Jimmy Cross, the Bible carried by Kiowa, and the stockings carried by Henry Dobbins. All the items helped the respective soldier to survive from day to day and to continue fighting the war. One of the most important things that helped the soldiers is their friendship with each other. This bond that the soldiers form helped them to survive, excluded someone who was outside their group, and helped the men of Alpha Company to cope with the war after they returned to the United States.