Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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.

The book The Things They Carried is a very touching book that explains what an American soldier went through and the choices they had to make in order to survive. This book is very wistful to me because my grandpa was drafted into the Vietnam war, and he could have very well been one of the men in this story. He also could have had an encounter with something that could kill him like some of the men in The Things They Carried. The author, Tim O'brien, was tangled up in the Vietnam war and is one of the characters in the book. Kiowa, who was in alpha company with Tim O’brien, was shot and perished in Vietnam.

The narrator in the book, The Things They Carried, Tim O’ Brien has a very peculiar life. He has been a lot of different things in his life. He worked in a slaughterhouse, served in the army, and hardest of all, raised a family. Tim O’ Brien has also had trials and tribulations. He has tried to leave America, he killed someone, and he still holds burdens of guilt and disappointment to this day.

In the book, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'brien, the title of the first chapter perfectly mimics the name of the book itself. The author talks about the many items soldier’s carried with them into the Vietnam War, as well as the effects they had on his many teammates. Each new chapter, though, gives new insight as to what they carried around with them besides physical objects. Despite palpable things in which they were required to have, young men would find themselves bearing the heavy weight of responsibility and emotional trauma that came with them. In order to cope with these endeavors, soldier’s would also bring with them something to help, whether it was simply the knowledge of God, or a reason for fighting. O’brien’s stories give

They are directly responsible for his death. They must bear the guilt that the other soldiers are spared of. The process of coping with reality is similar to a car crash. When a car hits a tree, the energy involved in the crash must dissipate, so nature finds the weakest point of the car, the shortest path to exit for the energy. The weak parts of the car become crumpled. and eventually the energy reaches the driver. In the same way, the emotions of the death must dissipate within O’Brien and Cross. The two try to dissipate the shock by rationalizing the scene in their heads. One seeks an imaginary council to persuade, one writes a paperless letter. Ultimately they cannot evade their own fault, and the reality of accepting their fault hits

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses Juxtaposition, Symbolism, and Point of View to show the burdens carried by the soldiers, and the effects war can have on individuals. He wrote the vignette in order to bring a greater awareness to Americans who were unaware of the dark reality of war. Juxtapositions, such as Desire versus Shame, Morality versus Crime, and Talking versus Distraction, are primary modes by which O’Brien shares the burdens of soldiers. Also, individual juxtapositions such as “Gentle Killer (O’Brien 66)” are used along with dichotomies as a window into the heart of the soldiers, and to show the ambivalence they held when making choices. “On the Rainy River” describes the Desire versus Shame conflict within O’Brien immediately after he was drafted for the Vietnam.

The Vietnam War began when the North Vietnamese government and the Vietnam congress fighting to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses themes such as love, shame and guilt to illustrate the tangible and intangible items the soldiers carry throughout the war and the rest of their lives.

The Civil War, World War I, the Vietnam War, World War II, and the conflict in the Middle East are all wars that have been fought over the difference of opinions, yet come at the cost of the soldier's fighting for those opinions; Humans killing other humans, and death is just one of the many emotional scars soldiers face in war. Why, then, do we go to war when mental health is the cost? Many readers would disagree that the Vietnam War changed the view soldiers had on the world. Most would see the war as just senseless violence or a noble cause in the name of freedom. However, they are unaware of the changes war has on soldiers' perceptions of life.

Tim O'Brien gives readers a greater understanding of underlying motivations of soldiers who fought in the Vietnam war in his short story "The Things They Carried." He shows the bond the soldiers share and how that bond helps to hide their fear in order to maintain an honorable reputation. He also depicts the soldiers’ common fear of showing weakness and the ways they hide that fear from the other men in order to avoid being judged. He shows how the men of Alpha Company have the principles of masculinity drilled into their minds, and therefore believe that their reputations hinge upon their manliness. In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” the author uses the brotherhood of the soldiers and the fear of weakness as motivators for the soldiers’ obsession with reputation.

In Tim O’Brien’s historical fiction novel The Things They Carried, O’Brien uses a character also called Tim O’Brien to tell about experiences from the Vietnam War (1954-57). In the chapter, “How to Tell a True War Story”, O’Brien states “a true war story is never moral.” (65) War is not only horrid and unsightly, it also affects a soldiers’ mental make-up. Filled with death and gore, the Vietnam War has the capability to leave soldiers physically and mentally unstable. O’Brien begins his journey as a frightened, inexperienced young man, terrified of the great dishonor that follows evading the war. Tim O’Brien departs the Vietnam War full of remorse then tells short stories throughout the novel, The Things They Carried, about the Vietnam war as a coping skill. To show vivid emotions O’Brien uses the novel to fill in the blanks of his memories. Indulging in The Things They Carried is comparable to sitting in a living room, having a conversation with a war veteran.

The setting of war causes the loss of multiple character’s innocence, some in more than one way. Tim O’Brien first loses a piece of his innocence when he is forced to see that he is nobody special and “stupidly, with a kind of smug removal I can’t begin to fathom, I assumed that the problems of killing and dying did not fall within my special province.” This use of self-mockery highlights the delusion that he would be exempt from facing true struggles in his life, taking away his ignorance of the world and therefore his innocence. The is relatable and therefore makes the text successful as everyone has to realise sometime that they are not any more deserving of something like protection than anybody else and they are exposed to what life is really like. The whole of Lieutenant Cross’s platoon, despite being different ages with varying life experiences, are used to show the loss of innocence that war causes.

The Things They Carried is a brutally honest novel about, not the Vietnam war itself, but about a veterans experiences with it. The war itself is merely a setting, taking a backseat to the characters who are coping with things ranging from love, fear, and, most importantly to this book, loss. The novel is somewhat reminiscent of an anthology, with each chapter usually surrounding a new story that O’Brien experienced or heard about. This haphazard way of storytelling reflects the war itself, and the way these soldiers had no idea where they would be the following day, if they were even still alive. O’Brien also consistently questions the honesty of the stories his fellow soldiers told, as well as the stories he himself is telling the readers. This, once again, may be to evoke feelings of deceit and fear, not knowing if anything being

America is a country revolved around war. The patriotism of Americans has composed multiple wars since 1775, henceforth we are currently at war with Afghanistan. It is a fact that as years proceed, the views of veterans and society have changed towards the idea of going to war. The vicious wars have not only changed those who fight it, but those who watch it as well. The novel, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien gives a vivid explanation of how the war, and the experiences of these brave soldiers took place. As we are still at war with Afghanistan since 2001, the comparison and contrast between both wars endure. The 10 year war with Vietnam and the 14 year continuing war with Afghanistan not only compare and contrast with the political

The events that take place during the war are often uncontrollable, but the guilt always falls on oneself."Lieutenant Cross felt the pain; he blamed himself (Mays p.567)

In the book The Things They Carried by, Tim O’Brien portrayed different stories from Vietnam War. Nobody really knows the different things that happen to soldiers in Vietnam. They get paranoid, lose their sense of morality they become angry and frustrated. No one will ever understand the things they are experiencing unless you were in their shoes. In the book there were stories about different historical events and situations the soldiers portrayed. Soldiers who are in the war sometimes do not know the severity and horrors of it all. Some of them have seen and been through a lot. In the war people suffer from physical, mental, and emotional anguish. The one thing they have a hard time doing is coping with it all. There are a lot of issues such