Things They Carried Essay: The Living Dead

832 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: mental and physical consequences of war for soldiers

The Living Dead in The Things They Carried I have done things that I am not proud of and some things that will never be mentioned in public again. In everything that I did wrong I tried to justify or make it seem to be less of a negative act. Tim O'Brien does not do this in his short story named "The Man I Killed." O'Brien instead gives the young Vietnamese man a history, a present, and a whole life. He does this by creating an elaborate story of teenage love, family conflict, and personal pride. O'Brien was a solider in the Vietnam War, fighting against the communism. He has wrote the book The Things They Carried, about his personal experiences as a solider. The environment that he was in was one of constant death and unending turmoil. Most of the death he writes about was concerning his fellow comrades. After seeing all this and the needless deaths of Vietnam civilians it should harden the heart of a fighting man. O'Brien seems to be different he is still powerfully effected by the gunning down of this young man, who belonged to the communist group. The death of the Vietnamese solider lingers in O'Brien's mind for what seemed like an eternity to him. He vividly recalls the shape of his body noticing the most minuet details. The deceased boy was considered to be a dainty young man, clean fingernails, light freckles on his forehead and a frail and fragile figure. O'Brien uses great detail in describing the body after multiple bullet wounds. He explains how the left cheek is peeled back, that the spinal cord was open through his neck, and of all things a gold ring on his right hand the third finger down. The gold ring is the point which Tim forges a young lover for the young man. From the frail image of his body, O'Brien deems the departed as a scholar who was at school when he met his young love of seventeen years old. O'Brien considers her to have an admiration for the narrow waist and cowlick that rose on the back of his head. the young scholar was a mathematician and enjoyed school. This scholar was unable to defend himself and was constantly picked on by the school yard bullies. He would pray at night with his mother for an end of the war.

Show More
Related

  • If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried: An Epigraph Analysis

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    He admits that some parts of his writing are made up, and he is intentionally vague about the truthfulness of other parts. When asked if he had ever killed anyone, O’Brien said that he could reply, honestly, with both “Of course not,” and “Yes” (172). He explains that even the guilt of being present when the kill took place was enough that it doesn’t matter if he himself threw the grenade or not, he would feel the same way. It doesn’t matter the exact events that took place; this story is about how he felt about seeing murder up close and personal. O’Brien explains that “by telling stories, you objectify your own experience... You pin down certain truths. You make up others” (152). Writing was a way to verbalize his past, and he told the vague details how he experienced them, if not necessarily how they happened. He was able to separate himself from his memories and remorse allowing himself to cope with his past in the war. While the reader will never know the exact truth, they can still understand the guilt and that O’Brien felt as a

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    O’Brien takes time to develop all the characters in the book. Some he develops fully in one chapter and by the end he shows us there demise. Others O’Brien chooses to develop slowly throughout the book. picking those that people can relate to, who truly show what war could do to a person. Henry Dobbins was the tough guy that we all know but who truly had a sweet inside and believed in being nice to everyone and live on respect. Well on the other hand Norman Bowker was the good kid who wanted nothing more but the approval of his father and blamed everything that went wrong on themselves. In the end when he felt like he didnt get that approval that he wanted for. So he stayed lost and searching (out more).

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried - Themes

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Truth about the Morning-After Pill

    2001 Words  | 5 Pages

    The emergency contraception pill (ECP), most commonly known as “the morning-after pill,” is a back-up birth control method that is used after unprotected sex, contraceptive failure, or rape. It prevents pregnancy from occurring, however, it is not a method for abortion nor does it protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

    Read More

  • On the Rainy River

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    Overall, the author showed us the courageous and coward s acts of O’Brien the character. The fact that he was a coward made him do a heroic act. O’Brien made the valiant decision to go to war. It would have been easier and cowardly to jump and swim away from all his fears. However he decided to turn back, and fight for something he did not believe in. Thinking about the consequences of running away makes him a hero. He went to war not because he wanted to fight for his country, but for his own freedom. Either choice he could have made would take some kind of courage to carry out. Going to war required some sort of fearlessness. In other words, running away from the law would have been brave; but going to war was even tougher.

    Read More

  • Foreignness in Vietnam: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Vignette the “Man I Killed” Tim O’Brien relates himself to the man he killed. He makes up a life for the man who he didn’t even know. “But all he could do, he thought, was wait and pray and try not to grow up too fast.” This quote shows an assumption about the man that Tim O’Brien makes based off close to nothing. This analysis could also relate to Tim’s experience with the war too. O’Brien was hesitant to go to war in the beginning for that exact reason he assumed the Vietnamese man was. O’Brien related to the man and through this realized that the soldiers fighting each other weren’t very different aft...

    Read More

  • O Brien's The Things They Carried: Chapter Analysis

    953 Words  | 2 Pages

    This story, unlike “The Man I Killed,” focus on how O’Brien killed the man and not the body after it had died. Although the content was slightly different, the writing style that O’Brien uses to recall this episode of the war was similar to “The Man I Killed.” O’Brien writes in close detail and keeps a minute to minute account of what happened at that time. If the two stories are pieced together, the reader gets a detailed knowledge of what exactly happened with the dead Vietnamese man O’Brien encounters. Like the first episode, O’Brien feels guilty about killing the man; he was “almost [certain] the young man would have passed me by” (127). O’Brien seems to keep this story close to him because he was able to see a face with all the deaths. He is able to see the man he killed and although he doesn’t know much about the victim, he is guilt ridden because he believed he took the life or an innocent

    Read More

  • Coping Mechanisms Used for Survival in The Things They Carried

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    When O’Brien first arrives to Vietnam, the men of the platoon show him how the grief of war can be covered up by humor. As the men were patrolling near a village off the South China Sea they suddenly started to encounter sniper fire. The firefight only lasted a few minutes but Lt. Cross decided to order an airstrike on the village anyways. After the strike was over, the platoon proceeded to the smoldering village to find nothing but “…an old man who lay face up near a pigpen at the center of the village. His right arm was gone. At his face there were already many flies and gnats.”(). To many, this image of a destroyed village and the mutilated old man would cause horror and plight. Instead of that normal reaction, “Dave Jensen went over and shook the old man’s hand. “How-dee-doo,” he said.”(). The other men of the platoon also went up to the dead man’s body and shook his hand while adding a comment. This disturbing response the men have to the dead old man isn’t one of disrespect, it is their coping mechanism for realizing what they just did. Because O’Brien was new to Vietnam he had yet to understand why the men were all doing this. He was awestruck by the actions...

    Read More

  • Why Do We Continue to Debate the Use of Contraception

    1569 Words  | 4 Pages

    Simonds, W., & Ellertson, C. (2004). Emergency contraception and morality: reflections of health care workers and clients. Social Science & Medicine, 58(7), 1285-1297.

    Read More

  • Short Story 'Ambush By Tim O' Brien

    480 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the short story, Ambush, O’Brien tells the story to his daughter, Kathleen, after she asks him if he has ever killed someone. He cannot admit to her that he killed someone, but he is questioned by her, on why he also writes many war stories. In an attempt to

    Read More

  • Emergency Contraception Papers

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    Concluding the research “Overall, 3% of women reported that a clinician had discussed emergency contraception with them in the past year, and 4% of those who had ever had sex with a man reported having used the method. Only 4% of those who had seen a gynecologist in the past year reported having received counseling. Women's likelihood of having received counseling was reduced if they were 30 or older (odds ratio, 0.2), and was elevated if they were Hispanic (4.1), black (2.6) or ever-married (2.4). Receipt of counseling in the last 12 months was the strongest predictor of eve...

    Read More

  • Oral Contraception Essay

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    Taking oral contraception is commonly known for calming excessive menstrual bleeding, regulating highly irregular menstrual cycles, treating acne, and of course preventing pregnancies. Less commonly known uses for oral contraception are that they have been proven to protect against ovarian and endometrial cancer, benign breast disease (which is a non-cancerous lump in the breast that needs to be removed

    Read More

  • Male Birth Control

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    Who should be responsible for stopping the 120 million sperm that are released during a male orgasm from fertilizing a female’s egg? The context of that question has been a societal debate in terms of the consequences of unplanned pregnancy and whether it is a female, male or both sexes responsibility to practice “safe sex”. Introducing the birth control pill for women in the 1960s created a huge controversy between sexual conservatives and the women who would benefit from the pill, but the responsibility still remained in the hands of women. However, as medicine has advanced and the possibility of a male birth control pill has amounted, many wonder if the same issues would arise if a male birth control pill did in fact become available. In order to understand the effects on society of both individual female and male responsibilities it is essential that the women birth control pill is discussed, the male pill and lastly, what the stigmas and potential effects of both birth control pills mean.

    Read More

  • Human Instinct

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "On the Rainy River," O'Brien reveals his mindset and character before fighting in the war. He views himself to be “too good for the war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything… above it” (O’Brien 45). O’Brien’s decision to stay in the United States and fight in the war is an act of choice instead instinct. However, war robs its participants of personal choice by rendering them unable to control their actions. In war, soldiers are instead controlled largely by raw emotion, and therefore instinct as well. For example, O’Brien reflects on his experiences with death in “Ambush,” describing the kill as “automatic… to make him go away – just evaporate… [he] had already thrown the grenade before telling [himself] to thr...

    Read More

More about Things They Carried Essay: The Living Dead

Open Document