In the last chapter of The Things They Carried, all the stories interlock into a jigsaw puzzle that creates a great message. Each theme is highlighted by each of the major stories that are being retold. The sun in which everything revolves around is the presence of O'Brien and his own experiences; writing about himself alternating between the first and third person narrative voices.
Tim O'Brien explains that stories can bring the dead back to life through the act of remembering. He describes the first dead body an old Vietnamese man he saw in Vietnam. Others in the platoon spoke to the dead man, but O'Brien could not even go near the body. The men proposed a toast to the dead man, but O'Brien would not join in. He told Kiowa that the dead man reminded him of a girl he used to know. O'Brien then eases into the story of a girl named Linda. Although O'Brien was only nine years old, he felt as if he was in love with the girl. In spring of 1956, young O'Brien escorted Linda on their first date, supervised by O'Brien's parents.
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O'Brien still wishes that he would have stood up to her biggest bully, Nick Veenhof. In class, Nick returned to his desk after sharpening his pencil and deliberately pulled off Linda's cap. Most of her hair was gone, and she wore a large bandage covering stitches across the back of her head. Linda suffered from a tumor in her brain, and she lived only through that summer. You can tell through O’Brien’s words that he wishes he had done something different, to help Linda and even wishes maybe he could have saved the old Vietnamese man. Still, the way O’Brien connects such a devastating thing, being the death of an old Vietnamese man’s, to that of a little girl’s was kind of disturbing to
O’Brien looks back into his past, to the time when he was called to serve in the Vietnam War. O’Brien’s initial
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.
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.
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
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.
After more time and experience O’Brien never fully gets used to the humor but understands that jokes are other soldiers’ way of coping as dreams and stories are used by O’Brien to cope with his own personal experiences. It wasn’t long into his first days in Vietnam that the memory of Linda would resurface. This memory resurfaces after being with his platoon for just four days. O’Brien and his group encounter a small amount of sniper fire and even though no one was hurt, an air strike was called and soon after O’Brien had his next experience with mortality.
The last chapter of the novel, “The Lives of the Dead”, is meant to emphasize that the novel is not about war and has a much broader meaning than just the fighting. The story of Linda and O’Brien fits into the overall theme of the novel because he keeps her alive through stories (239). Linda is a symbol of his innocence, when she passed away so did his innocence; She was talked about for so long because it was a significant change in O’Brien’s life, even though he was just a child. She continued to impact his life because she was his guardian angel; symbolically she wore a red cap and a white tassel similar to guardian angels in the Christian religion. Linda’s statement “Timmy, stop crying. It doesn’t matter” is Linda’s attempt to help O’Brien realize that he must not mourn over the little factors and continue to fight his war like she fought hers for as long as he
It is known that he was a sergeant, he was shot multiple times, and his friend,Linda, died when he was young. It is also known that O’Brien would make up stories to bring his friend back to life. O’Brien tells us “I made elaborate stories to bring Linda alive in my sleep (O’Brien 243).” Later, O’Brien would bring his other friends back using stories. This shows that there was something wrong with O’Brien before he went to war. It also helps to show that the problem was made worse by the war. O’Brien says that “something had gone wrong. I’d come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person, a college grad...but after the seven months in the bush I realized that those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed under the weight of the simple daily realities (200).” O’Brien had directly stated his realization that the war had changed him. He figured out that his personality had changed; he realized that he now felt more mean.
O’Brien loved a girl who died. He experienced a tremendous loss that he could not comprehend. He did not understand why Linda was one of the people who “don’t ever get better” (237). However, when he writes about their first date and he writes about their experiences together, he is reviving her. He is bringing her to life for that sliver of time where he can forget the reality of her death and just remember how she made him feel during that time. She made him feel something that people
Courage and Cowardice in The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien Through The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien moves beyond the horror of fighting in the Vietnam War to examine with sensitivity and insight the nature of courage and fear. Included, is a collection of interrelated stories. A few of the stories are brutal, while others are flawed, blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. All the stories, however, deal with one platoon. Some are about the wartime experiences of soldiers, and others are about a 43-year-old writer reminiscing about his platoon’s experiences.
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.
The word "hero" is so often used to describe people who overcome great difficulties and rise to the challenge that is set before them without even considering the overwhelming odds they are up against. In our culture, heroes are glorified in literature and in the media in various shapes and forms. However, I believe that many of the greatest heroes in our society never receive the credit that they deserve, much less fame or publicity. I believe that a hero is simply someone who stands up for what he/she believes in. A person does not have to rush into a burning building and save someone's life to be a hero. Someone who is a true friend can be a hero. A hero is someone who makes a difference in the lives of others simply by his/her presence. In Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, the true heroes stand out in my mind as those who were true friends and fought for what they believed in. These men and women faced the atrocities of war on a daily basis, as explained by critic David R. Jarraway's essay, "'Excremental Assault' in Tim O'Brien: Trauma and Recovery in Vietnam War Literature" and by Vietnam Veteran Jim Carter. Yet these characters became heroes not by going to drastic measures to do something that would draw attention to themselves, but by being true to their own beliefs and by making a difference to the people around them.
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
Tim O'Brien is confused about the Vietnam War. He is getting drafted into it, but is also protesting it. He gets to boot camp and finds it very difficult to know that he is going off to a country far away from home and fighting a war that he didn't believe was morally right. Before O'Brien gets to Vietnam he visits a military Chaplin about his problem with the war. "O'Brien I am really surprised to hear this. You're a good kid but you are betraying you country when you say these things"(60). This says a lot about O'Brien's views on the Vietnam War. In the reading of the book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O'Brien explains his struggles in boot camp and when he is a foot soldier in Vietnam.
Throughout the novel, Tim O’Brien illustrates the extreme changes that the soldiers went through. Tim O’Brien makes it apparent that although Vietnam stole the life of millions through the death, but also through the part of the person that died in the war. For Tim O’Brien, Rat Kiley, Mary Anne and Norman Bowker, Vietnam altered their being and changed what the world knew them as, into what the world could not understand.