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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Chapter Analysis

Decent Essays

It took Tim O'Brien 20 years after the war was done for him to write the novel The Things They Carried. When O’Brien wrote the novel the things they carried, he had to relive everything he went through. The purpose of writing this novel was to let everyone that was not there themselves know what it was like on a person. O’Brien was the protagonist and the antagonist is the war in Vietnam. When O’Brien wrote this novel his intended audience was people that were not in the Vietnam War. The novel was more mortality and death but, also has shame and guilt a lot throughout the story.
In the chapter “The Ghost Soldiers” the men are driven to the limit of their mind and body which makes me believe this is perfect theme for mortality and death.”the first time, out by tri binh, it knocked me against the pagoda wall, and I bounced and spun around and ended up on Rat Kiley's lap” this quote from “the ghost soldiers” explains the meaning of mortality and death. O'Brien was shot twice but never was killed or injured in a crazy life changing way. His life was on the line everyday he was there. His comrades were killed and injured everyday but the only way he could stop it was to push forward and never give up. The new medic that replaced Rat Kiley was scared and could not act to save lives. …show more content…

The war took a toll on him, it scared him so much that it was difficult to make decisions rationally. The Vietnam war took so much of his life that it changed how he lived from then till now. This chapter has a lot of shame in it because of the things they did in Vietnam. For example when Tim O'Brien's platoon was saying “Hi” and greeting a dead man's body like he was

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