Fear In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

The author beings the story by discussing items that were carried, which were everyday life things, such as cigarettes, matches, sewing kits, and water. These items made life in Vietnam bearable for the time being. Colleagues, Henry Dobson carried canned peaches and pound cake, while Dave Jenson carried extra hygiene supplies. Tim O’Brien also mentions Lieutenant Cross’ obsession with a girl named Martha and how he carries her letters. This shows the author’s lack of expressing his true emotions by only discussing non-military items, however, he mentions the soldier who died, Ted Lavender. He was so scared that he carried tranquilizers and in mid-April he was shot in the head. Although this was a vital pathos rhetorical device, it was described

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross kept close to him several letters and photos that were given to him by another character outside of the war named Martha. Though his love and unconditional affection that he had for her was significant for him to survive the war, his belongings were the same reasons why he began to ignore the responsibilities that he had toward his soldiers. It completely blinded him from what was actually happening right in front of him which was why he neglected his task and team that he needed to take care of during the time. Although he did carry items that were related to the character Martha, he also brought along with him things that were necessary for him and his soldiers to survive the war. Things included compasses, code books, and maps, etc. "He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men" (O' Brien 5). This quote is significant in showing

In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, the first chapter of the book titled The Things They Carried describes the kind of emotional toll experiencing war does to an individual which extends from their very own safety, to emotional burdens distracting them from war, to their life before the war. Obrien forms a connection between the object and the individual, he uses parallel structure to list the objects and their reasons for being carried, and he forms an unemotional and straightforward tone throughout the chapter.

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried places readers in the shoes of soldiers such as Jimmy Cross, Kiowa or Rat Kiley in order to offer readers a better understanding of what American soldiers faced during the Vietnam War. By recreating the atmosphere of the Vietnam War time period accurately, O’brien had the freedom of adding realistic, but truly fictional elements to make his story more life-like. While none of the soldiers in this story are real individuals, his use of character’s point of view and their stream of consciousness helps to present their emotions and reactions in a very accurate way. Tim O'Brien employs the literary elements of perspective and syntactical expression to bring readers into a very realistic, yet fictional parallel

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’brien describes his perspective on how he came to be in the war and his view on how people behaved towards death. O’brien published the book 20 years after the war to show the events that O’brien had gone through in the war. Tim O’Brien has portrayed acceptance of death in order to show how the characters reacted to the deaths that surround them in The Things They Carried.

One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way

This not only weighs on their psyches during the war, it lingers to haunt them further. All off this starts to add up, the mind becomes overloaded. It further dissolves the barriers between reality and the imagined, it further jeopardizes the focus of these soldiers, it further risks their

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. In the beginning chapter, O’Brien rambles about the items the soldiers carry into battle, ranging from can openers, pocketknives, and mosquito repellent o

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien is a story of a group of soldiers going through Vietnam during the war. It describes the mental burdens outweigh the physical agony that soldiers in war must carry. Depends on each soldier, they carry both tangible and intangible items. O’Brien argues that uncertainty, responsibility, and fear that soldiers experience much outweigh the physical torture that they had to endure to keep them alive, burdens eased only slightly after the hope of returning home.

In the first chapter in the book, titled The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross is one of the many examples throughout the novel in where a soldier has a way to escape from the realities of war. Cross, who is a lieutenant in his company, carries two photographs of a girl named Martha whom he truly loves and wishes nothing else but to be with her in the end. Along with the photographs, he carries letters from Martha herself as well as her good-luck pebble in his mouth. Martha’s letters has a huge impact on Cross’s escape on reality because those letters do not mention war at all but for him to stay safe. All of these items comforts Cross and eventually reminisce about the times when he was back home with Martha away from any war. He relives a moment when he was with Martha at the movies, and then remembers that he touched her knee but Martha did not approve and pushed his hands away. Now while he’s in Vietnam, he does nothing but fantasizes taking her to her bed, tying her up, and touching that one knee knee all night long.

     How does death affect the behavior of people? Although death affects everyone's behavior differently, knowledge of one's imminent death is a main force behind behavioral changes. This knowledge causes emotions that motivate people to act in ways that they normally would not. In Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried,'; the knowledge of death and its closeness causes the men in the story to alter their behavior by changing they way they display power, modifying emotions to relieve guilt, and by exhibiting different actions to ease anxiety.

Throughout the story, Jimmy Cross symbolized that he is a very romantic person for the girl named Martha. "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity." Each soldier carried different types of materials to represented themselves. " First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a

War is often thought about as something that hardens a soldier. It makes a person stronger emotionally because they are taught not show it and deal with it internally. People say that death in war is easier to handle because it is for the right reasons and a person can distance themselves from the pain of losing someone. However, there is always a point when the pain becomes too real and it is hard to maintain that distance. In doing so, the story disputes the idea that witnessing a traumatic event causes a numbing or blockage of feelings. Rat Kiley’s progression of sentiment began with an initial concern for the buffalo, transforming into an irate killing of the animal, and then ending with an ultimate acceptance of death. These

In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien created several allusions that each character endured during the Vietnam War. Throughout the story were vast representations of the things soldiers carried both mentally and physically. The things they carried symbolized their individual roles internally and externally. In addition to symbolism, imagination was a focal theme that stood out amongst the characters. This particular theme played a role as the silent killer amongst Lt. Cross and the platoon both individually and collectively as a group. The theme of imagination created an in depth look of how the war was perceived through each character which helped emphasize their thoughts from an emotional stand point of being young men out at war.

Sometimes fear has the ability to make one feel as if they are losing their mind completely. Fear often has the ability to eat away at a person. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author demonstrates how fear can cause paranoia.