The Things They Carreid by Tim O'Brien

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From Vietnam to Paper

Taking place in the middle of the Cold War Era, the Vietnam War was a war not only over land but for many a battle to protect democracy and to fight communism. Much like any other account of a war, the details are gruesome and it is even more difficult to imagine. However, following the Vietnam War one author, who served in the war, decided to take up the task and make an historic account of one of them most grueling wars ever fought. Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam veteran who wrote the novel The Things They Carried. There is a fine line to be walked when writing the accounts of the war in a way that not only informs but also entertains; however, Tim O’Brien walks it successfully. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, his use of symbolism and Metafiction helps portray the events that befall the soldiers fighting in Vietnam. The novel is one that not only gives insight into the war itself, but also reflects on the effects that it had on those who participated in it.

Tim O’Brien’s They Things They Carried is novel that is a collection of short stories that depict the journey the narrator and his fellow soldiers of the Alpha Company embark on. Each chapter is told through the lens of the various items each soldier carries. While some of the items are physical and in the here and now, some are intangible and have a deeper meaning such as “the weight of memory” (O’Brien). The narrator and the author share many similarities: Their name of Tim O’Brien, both have to serve in Vietnam, and they are both authors writing about Vietnam. While this novel pulls from factual informations and true events, the novel is a work of fiction. Doing so speaks to the ambiguity of the war and the infrequency of depended able informa...

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... Apr. 2014.

Kaplan, Steven. "The Undying Uncertainty Of The Narrator In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried” Critique 35.1 (1993): 43. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.

McCarthy, Joanne. "The Things They Carried” Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition (2004): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.

Nomura, Koki. "Symbolic Aesthetics In Tim O’Brien’s "The Man I Killed” Short Story 16.1 (2008): 87-95. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 2009. EBook.

Smith, Jack. "The Things He Carries: For Tim O'brien, The Vietnam War Has Remained A Crucible In His Fiction, But The Power Of Imagination And Memory, And 'Our Elusive Interior Worlds,' Loom Large, Too” Writer (Kalmbach Publishing Co.) 123.7 (2010): 16-47. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.

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