Both, Tim O’Brien and Rick Bragg give the reader a sense of what each soldier had to under go while over seas. Dealing with the harsh climate and vigorous terrain in Tim O’Brien’s, Things They Carried the reader sees that the warriors did not only have to deal with the land of the foreign country but also had to undergo dealing with the hardship that came with leaving family behind, missing their loved ones and wanting to return home in one piece.
The reader finds out that the love for family can get you killed faster then loving no one at all. As the reader interprets what Rick Bragg describes in the book, I Am a Soldier, Too they start to realize that the soldiers in Iraq are undergoing the fear of leaving their families behind and also coming back home safely as well.
Jessica Lynch leaves behind her family, her friends and her small town life style for war where she finds herself held captive by Iraqi Soldiers. Not only does Jessica have to cope with already being away from her family but now she has to fight for her life, make critical decisions and pray that she gets back home to her small town safely. Right before being taken by the Iraqi soldiers Jessica remembers praying, “Oh God help us. Oh God get us out of here” (p254). Fighting for her life she goes to the only person that she knows could help in the horrific situation she is now having to under go. Some people say that God is good, Jessica says, “The belief in God is what kept me alive at some points.” This goes to show that sometimes you have to believe in something to get you through things that are bigger than you.
While the reader gets to know the character Jimmy Cross in Tim O’ Brien’s book, The Things They Carried they find out that he has a loved one at home...
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...re heroes, but I don't look at myself that way," (line 7). Jessica is referring to her role as a POW rescued from a hospital in Iraq by American forces in 2003.
The unforgettable actions of these characters just goes to show the heroic adventures soldiers unknowingly sign their lives away for. Missing family, loved ones and small town life styles are just a couple of things that have kept soldiers alive in life or death situations while in battle. Jessica Lynch and Jimmy Cross are prime examples of soldiers that are fighting for what they love and care for.
Works Cited
Bragg, Rick. I Am a Soldier, Too. Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2003. Print.
“Jessica Lynch Quotes.” 2004. Brainy Quote. 25 April 2014. Web.
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1990.
Print.
“Operation Iraqi Freedom.” 2003. NBC News. Documentary. 18 April
2014. Web.
In the novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien shares several different experiences during the Vietnam War that had a great impact on the soldiers that fought along side him and himself. Although not all the stories are connected to one another, some intertwine. Attempting to show the reader who he is then and who he is now throughout the book, O’Brien flips back and forth between the past and the present: sharing his experiences during the war and his current time being a post-war father. War takes a toll on a man in more ways than one. Many seek comfort in bringing personal items with them to battle to remember where they came from and what they have to look forward to when returning home.
Jimmy Cross, being only twenty-four years old, was very inexperienced, as were most of the others serving in Vietnam. As stated by Tim O’Brien, in this short story, “He was just a kid at war, in love” (600). He didn’t want to be the leade...
...are killers.” (O’Brien 1.37) These men kill on command; most of the soldiers just accepted everything they do during the war as their job. In the beginning of the chapter one Jimmy Cross was only twenty four year old and was the leader of his own platoon. He was still an innocent person, that all when Ted Lavender was executed in front of his eyes. Jimmy Cross had to give up his youth and start thinking like a soldier. When he burns the picture of Martha he symbolically lost his innocent. He had to give up his youth and start seeing the world in a different view. The unmistakable loss of innocence in the novel was the story "The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong", in which Mark Fossie girlfriend came from America to Vietnam only to become intoxicated with Vietnam and become a killer. Vietnam War materialize the changed of people and make them merciless and brutal.
Initially, Jimmy Cross started his mission with a distorted image in his head, which lead to his amazing turn around in the end. Jimmy cross had to learn the hard way, that fantasies aren’t real, they are just thoughts the mind wants to believe. He soon learned what reality was, even though it wasn’t the easiest or most of all pleasurable, way to figure out the truth. Ted Lavender’s death was a blessing in the sense that Jimmy turned his whole life around and started to focus on what support to give his men to succeed and be better survivors, than Ted Lavender was. Jimmy cared for his men towards the end, that lead him to understand what love is. “Love”, is a very powerful word, that has the power and prestige to make some people zone out of their own world and live in fantasy land, as did Jimmy. Jimmy cross carried integrity and grace in the beginning of the story, but by the end added faith and hope to his nap sack that helped him become a better person for his men.
Tim O’Brien wrote the novel The Things They Carried in 1990, twenty years after the war in Vietnam.In the novel,Obrien takes us through the life of many soliders by telling stories that do not go in chronical order. In doing so we get to see the physical and mental things the soldiers carry throughout the war in Vietnam.Yet the novel is more than just a description of a particular war. In the things they carried Tim O’Brien develops the characters in the book slowly, to show the gradual effect war has on a person. O’Brien shows this by exploring the life of Henry Dobbins, and Norman Bowker.
One of the hardest events that a soldier had to go through during the war was when one of their friends was killed. Despite their heartbreak they could not openly display their emotions. They could not cry because soldiers do not cry. Such an emotional display like crying would be sign of weakness and they didn’t want to be weak, so they created an outlet. “They were actors. When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying because in a curious way it seemed scripted”(19). Of course things were scripted especially when Ted Lavender died. It had happened unexpectedly and if they didn’t have something planned to do while they were coping they would all have broken down especially Lieutenant Cross. Cross...
In the Novel The Things They Carried it starts of by talking about the things the men carried physically mentally and emotionally. Throughout the book It gives many examples of how they carry emotional things such as guilt. They tell stories to keep their men alive in memory. It explains how O'Brien has coped with war and why he writes the way he does. Throughout the book they talk about the death of their men and some of the places they were assigned to. It talks about
The soldiers from this novel represent actual feelings about brotherhoods, misperceptions of war and the pointless fighting. They provide clear examples of these with their experiences from war. From sitting on their “boxes” and chatting, to the realization of a friend inside an enemy, these soldiers have been able to see the realities of war and have shared it with the rest of the world. People can now see how horrid it is to be in a war and now they try at all costs to prevent war. War is bad, that’s all there is to it. Not much more you can say about it except that. When viewing the death of innocent people, the question is asked once again, is it really worth it?
O’Brien spends a large amount of time describing what each soldier carried, both physical things and intangibles. Using this technique gives the reader more insight to what each character values, along with the duties they are responsible for. Listing the large amount of times that are in some of their packs shows what they were carrying physically. The more personal items like diaries and letters shows that each character has their own specific priorities. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross constantly refers to the letters from Martha that he carries, and how well he takes care of them. Just from that simple statement the reader can gather that Jimmy Cross finds much comfort in thinking about Martha. After Ted Lavender’s death Jimmy Cross takes on the burden of guilt because he thinks he is to blame for it. The reader sees what an emotion toll this takes on him by how he treats his letters. The letters now serve as a constant reminder of his lack of focus and leadership. Seeing Cross go through this shows the emotion baggage that can come from the war, and what that can do to a soldier mentally. This emotional baggage effects the soldiers in different ways. Mentally, some feel the guilt of those who died, along with the ones that will die. While others found solitude is the personal items, looking for any sort of distraction from the brutality of war, others could not shake the impact their environment had on
War is no child 's play, but unfortunately, we have had times in our past when the youth of our great nation had to defend it. Combat is not an easy for anyone; watching death, the constant ring of gunfire, the homesickness, fearing for your life, and witnessing bloodshed daily, this will begin to take its toll. The minds threshold for brutality can only handle so much and eventually will become sickened by these events. This sickness is called Post-traumatic stress disorder. As shown through the characters of The Things They Carried, soldiers of war may begin to show PTSD symptoms before the war is over, and may continue to fight the disorder after the war has ended.
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.
“Every war is everyone’s war”... war will bring out the worst in even the strongest and kindest people. The book tells about how ones greed for something can destroy everything for both people and animals leaving them broken beyond repair, leaving them only with questions… Will they ever see their family again? Will they ever experience what it’s like to
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 central theme of the story is the age-old conflict of life and death. On a more personal level with First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the round character and protagonist of "The Things They Carried", it is a conflict of love, his antagonist and of war.
...though people believe that, those on the home front have it just as a bad as the soldiers, because they have to deal with the responsibilities of their husbands, there is nothing that can compare to what these men have gone through. The war itself consumed them of their ideology of a happy life, and while some might have entered the war with the hope that they would soon return home, most men came to grips with the fact that they might never make it out alive. The biggest tragedy that follows the war is not the number of deaths and the damages done, it is the broken mindset derives from being at war. These men are all prime examples of the hardships of being out at war and the consequences, ideologies, and lifestyles that develop from it.