Essays on Things They Carried

O’Brien says that stories can make the dead come back to life through remembering. O’Brien explains a story of about the first dead body he witnessed in Vietnam of an old Vietnamese man. Other people in the platoon to the dead man in a mocking manner: One man proposed a slice of bread to the corpse, but O’Brien would not participate. O’Brien says that the corpse reminded him of Linda, a girl she used to know, then O’Brien all over sudden segues into the story about Linda. Despite the fact that O’Brien was ...

Within each society, people build relationships that foster growth and development as people interact with each other. The relationships vary according to the work and social standards of the specific society. In other words, most people in a particular society will work together to develop a common idea that will help to bind people together as a community. Within these societies, there are those simple or common guiding principles that are practiced for extended periods and become an integral part of the culture and the traditions of the society. But, not all consensuses within the society will guarantee the ...

The book "The Things They Carried" written by Tim O'Brien is about a historical story during the Vietnam War. This book published in the year 1990 is also called as meta-fiction and there is a confusion that whether it is fiction or reality. But if we deeply read the book it is about the real facts that occurred when author was a soldier in the Vietnam war. The author tells about the life of the soldiers in the war field including him and the incidents that happened during that time. Through his vision the author highlights the mental status ...

Tim O'Brien's “ The Things They Carried” is a work of fiction but throughout the novel there is a blend of truth and fiction. The novel is a collection of twenty two stories interrelated stories that speak of the author’s experience in the Vietnam war. By including fiction as well as the comments of the characters in his stories,O’Brien presents an ambiguous story about war. He says that war and its experiences cannot be generalized and there is so much more to it than heroism, courage, fear, death and pain. Especially in the story, “How to tell ...

Many authors regard their work as being a single standalone piece of art. By this logic, it can be safe to assume that the authors work their literary pieces to stand out against similar genres of works. However, in some cases many different stories end up sharing the same motif and theme. In many cases like this, it is not because of two authors collaborating to come up with a theme, or lesson, to teach society but a stroke of luck. When forming their stories, authors use society around them to develop their characters, settings, and such so in ...

O’Brien’s novel “The Things They Carried” entails different tales that ranges from paragraphs to pages demonstrating how impossible it is to know the absolute reality of war. Sometimes the narrator begins a story only to abandon and continue it in another chapter. Other times, he lets another character finish the tale while others are told as if they are true only to be questioned later. O’Brien uses a technique that allows the reader to determine which of the stories are true, leading to the different angles that one can view the ways of telling war stories ( ...

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a novel about the experiences of a group of American soldiers during the Vietnam War. The fact that the narrator includes himself while also providing real names throughout the narrative creates a style of writing that borders fiction and non-fiction. The narrator introduces Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is the leader of the platoon of soldiers as well as his memories of Martha, a constant reminder of his unreciprocated love. When the platoon is faced with death, Cross reconsiders his priorities and burns everything that reminds him of his life before the ...

“The Things They Carried” seems like a simple story concerning the items carried by soldiers while in Vietnam. But in the real sense, Tim O’Brien uses the stories to focus on the terrible conditions of Vietnam as well as the death of one soldier. He believed that the things men carried inside, and those they did or the ones they felt they had to do was so sad (O’Brien 57). It can be described as a powerful meditation by the Vietnam soldiers that is somehow fictional and fact. Besides, the author created a protagonist as a fictional ...

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is a story about a platoon of soldiers caught in the commotion of the Vietnam War. Reading this story was enjoyable, but there were several things about it that concerned me. In a story about war, it is all but natural for the author and his characters to have to deal with death, and Tim O'Brien’s story is no different. Tim O'Brien has used various styles to write this story, and he has written it in a non-traditional format. Mainly, he has written this story in a limited omniscient, third person style. However, elements ...

Tim O'Brien “The Things They Carried” is an exceptional and challenging book that rises up out of a composite of multiple customs. O'Brien writes to his audience both a war diary and a life account, and confounds this presentation by making a fictional hero who offers his name. To completely grasp and admire the novel, especially the sections that gleam the way of composing and narrating, it is essential to recall that the novel is fictional instead of a routine genuine, historical record.

Through an arrangement of interfaced life stories, "O'Brien" enlightens the characters of the men with whom ...

[Client’s Name] Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried reads much like a list of physical items that the men of the Alpha Company carried during a tour in the Vietnam War, but at closer examination the short story is about much more than physical items. The Things They Carried blends fiction and non-fiction to detail the items American soldiers carried with them as they fight for their country – physical and emotional. Each member of the platoon carries something specific to their own state of mentality, physicality or beliefs. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries the memory of his ...

Book Report on

The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien was born in the town of Austin, Minnesota, and moved to Worthington at the age of 10. He went to Macalester College and participated in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1970 as an infantry soldier. After the war, he completed graduation from Harvard University and worked as a reporter with The Washington Post for a short duration. He launched his literary career in 1973 with the publication of If I Die in a Combat Zone which established him as a leading writer on Vietnam issues. In the book “The Things They Carried, Tim O’ ...

The Things They carried by Tim O'Brien is a story regarding a soldier who takes part in the Vietnam War. O’Brien is the narrator. The story has various themes regarding the war and a bunch of soldiers of an American platoon. One of the dominant themes is death among the soldiers. In the introductory part of the narrative, the author provides a description of the major characters by describing the things that they carry. His description of the characters goes from the physical objects to emotional expressions. He states thus, “they carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die, grief, ...

The character of Kiowa was the most decent and dignified characters in the book “The Things They Carried”. The character Kiowa was deeply religious by nature and was a devout Baptist. He was a Native American Indian. He always carried an illustrated New Testament, gifted to him by his father, who was a teacher at Sunday school in Oklahoma City. The way he carried his New Testament always and the way he felt Ted Lavender’s death was unchristian and his beliefs in the stories of New Testament confirm that he was a highly religious person. He would roll the New Testament and ...

The Things They Carried (1990) by Tim O’Brian is one of the most famous short stories in the history of English literature. The literary work has impressed the critics and readers alike, and it enjoys widespread popularity among literature lovers and readers across the globe. The stalwart author has used a number of literary devices with his aesthetic quintessence to accentuate the effect of the story on the minds of the avid readers all over. The paramount influence of the linguistic richness and the literary devices has immortalized the short story in the pages of history of literature. ...

In "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien and "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, the short stories' respective characters deal with their masculinities, and its emotional consequences in a similar manner. There are also striking differences between their characters' portrayal of masculine behavior, as well as its consequences. In "The Things They Carried", the protagonist, platoon leader Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, is beset by romantic reveries of his girl back home. He often daydreams about a girl from the States Martha (who was his college classmate), during his platoon's missions in Vietnam. As a direct result of his daydreaming, one of the platoon's ...

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried tells an anthologized story of a platoon of American soldiers throughout the Vietnam conflict, demonstrating just how significant the effect of the war was on everyone who experienced it. Drawing greatly on O’Brien’s own experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, the stories are greatly extrapolated from his recollections of being there, though they do not necessarily cover strictly accurate events in the life of O’Brien. Instead, the mood and atmosphere of O’Brien’s experiences is projected onto this semi-autobiographical group of characters, creating a stylized world in which people, places ...

The things They carried is a collection of short stories written by Tim O'Brien. This is a story describing a group of soldiers and the things they carried in their bag packs and hearts. The soldiers were forced to carry vital items, which they could need for survival during the war. This novel comprises of a group of interwoven stories, which describe the soldiers’ experiences during the Vietnam War. On the other hand, Three Day Road is a novel by Joseph Boyden. This novel about two soldiers Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskey jack fought during the First World War Xavier comes home wounded after ...

This paper proposes to chart out a road map of a journey of exploration of the life of the American author, Tim O’ Brien, emphasising on biographical aspects that have intumesced and embroidered themselves onto the fabric of his work en route, and delineating the interrelationship/s thus conceived. The paper seeks to lay special emphasis on the correlation between the author’s experential learning and his fiction, with an exclusive focus on exploring this association, as it emerges in his latest work, The Things They Carried. Critics, reviewers and commentators have oft-iterated and reiterated the presence of Tim O’ Brien’ ...

In the story, The Things They Carried the author Tim O’Brien tells the story of soldiers of Alpha Company, led by First Lieutenant Jimmy cross. Most of the men are low-ranking soldiers. The platoon is there to fight in the Vietnam War. The narrator, Obrien, is one of the soldiers. This story is all about what objects those soldiers were carrying with them, and their memories or emotions associated with those objects. How all those soldiers are confronting the tension between fantasy and reality. The Dreamer of that Company is lieutenant Cross. He comes to his senses when ...

Edgar V Roberts and Robert Zweig in their “Introduction to Reading and Writing” tell readers about the importance of symbolism within a story. “The Things They Carried” is a non-fictional account that centers on the main character Tim O’Brien about his experience in the Vietnam War. The novel starts by listing off different things that members of the author’s company, The Alpha Company, carried. Members of the company carried things with them on their assigned missions. The novel is a series of different stories, but some of the same characters weave in and out of them. Many of the things ...

Edgar V Roberts and Robert Zweig in their “Introduction to Reading and Writing” tell readers about the importance of symbolism within a story. “The Things They Carried” is a non-fictional account that centers on the main character Tim O’Brien about his experience in the Vietnam War. The novel starts by listing off different things that members of the author’s company, The Alpha Company, carried. Members of the company carried things with them on their assigned missions. The novel is a series of different stories, but some of the same characters weave in and out of them. Many of the things ...

“The Things They Carried” is a non-fiction that centers on the main character Tim O’Brien about his experience in the Vietnam War. The novel starts with him and author listing off different things that his company, The Alpha Company carried with them when they were on assignment doing missions. The novel is a series of different stories, but some of the same characters weave in and out of them. Many of the things within the story mean more than is readily apparent and are symbolic of deeper meaning. This essay looks at some of the symbolism found within the book ...

Both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tim O’Brien are Minnesota-based authors who have written prescient and affecting works that highlight the human experience. In The Great Gatsby, the Roaring Twenties and all its debauchery are encapsulated in the tale of Jay Gatsby, poor boy made good, whose fortune and ambition is all for the sake of one woman he wants back in his life. In Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," an American platoon experiences horror, death and loss in the jungles of Vietnam, all while carrying various objects of both practical and personal significance to them. Both stories ...

The two characters Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Oedipus the King of Thebes have been presented as being responsible characters. Oedipus is ruler who takes quick action with great insight working to the expectations of the people he rules. For instance, when the citizens request him to act on the plaque, he has is already a step in advance having sent Creon to the Delphi oracle for top seek advice on the issue. Jimmy Cross on the other hand takes responsibility in the Vietnam War. He is unwilling to take up a role as a team leader in the Vietnam War. However, he ...

“The things they carried” is a uniquely put together story by Tim O’Brien that is partially fiction and non-fictitious. This is a work that narrates events from the Vietnam War according to Tim O’Brien. Tim O’Brien is the writer of this work. Since he went and fought in the Vietnam War, it is evident that he used his own experiences as inspirations for this book. However, O’Brien maintains that the story is a fictions account of what actually happened at Vietnam (Bloom, 20). O’Brien uses the Alpha Company as the focus of his story. The story ...

Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam war anthology The Things They Carried follows a platoon of American soldiers both in and out of the field, showing the toll that the war itself took on these men and women. The nature of humanity, the senselessness of war, and the importance of relationships to human beings are highlighted in the metatextual and historical makeup of this short story collection. O’Brien makes heavy use of symbolism and metafiction to create a highly stylized world of the Vietnam experience, each of the stories providing their own perspectives and symbols to show the effect of Vietnam ...

Introduction

Fences is one of the great American plays of the 1950’s and as in most of Wilson’s plays it explores the theme of race relations. Most of the time, the play focuses on the main character which is Troy and his experiences in baseball in the segregated society which was prevalent in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fences continues to harp on the main theme which is race relations during the extensive discussion Troy has with his workmates and friends especially in the aftermath of his career in sport. Due to the fact that Troy was poorly piad, he ...

Reflective essay over literature

Reading through literature work by various authors has made me have a different perspective towards life. Analysing the literature I have read in class, i have come to appreciate the challenges that come with life and more especially the wars that i face on a day to day basis. Even though the main theme that has been presented in the literature is about war there is much more to it that reflects on the conflicts that we face and the consequences depending on how we face them. Conflict is part of human life and how a person faces it will determine the outcome. With ...

Memory is both a burden and a gift to humanity. Without memory, humans would have a much more difficult time connecting on any level with their fellow man; however, the burden of memories can be heavy for many, as well. When traumatic events in life occur, it can be human nature to want to forget them to try to escape the pain; however, truly forgetting is difficult and people have the tendency to carry these traumas throughout their lives. In both The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and “Janus” by Ann Beattie, the main characters are burdened by the things ...

One would wonder how it feels witnessing the Vietnam war firsthand in the combat. Well, Tim O’Brian takes us through a journey that portrays the emotional and physical burdens that the soldiers of war had to deal with during the Vietnam warfare in his book The things they carried. However, this is not a book about the Vietnam war but its story about the experiences of the soldiers and the emotional effect that was bestowed onto them. O’Brian skillfully employs various stylistic techniques of specific and a conscious selection of detail. The predominant theme in the book revolves around the ...

Social concerns are often expressed through different forms of media and literature. These avenues provide a way to analyze both popular and unpopular opinions about social interests. Many author strive to put forward new view points and better understand the psychology of the public. Some hope to make changes in the future, while others may only want to entertain an audience or make people remember events in a truthful manner. The truth is something that is very subjective to each reader, the truth is often clouded by opinions and social influence, literature and media gives people a chance to analyze issues and ...

In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” and Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried,” the death of a character serves as a focal point of the story. In both stories, the author builds suspense around the death, slowly revealing the fate of the character. However, while both stories feature the death of a character, Jackson uses a backdrop of normalcy to counterpoint the horror of death while O’Brien uses a foreign environment against which death seems almost routine. Each author achieves the goal of engaging the reader in a compelling narrative but they use different narrative techniques to achieve ...

In Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," an American platoon experiences horror, death and loss in the jungles of Vietnam, all while carrying various objects of both practical and personal significance to them. O'Brien's language in this story, as he delineates and describes in great detail the appearance and source of all of these objects and what they mean to the soldiers, is scattered and stream-of-consciousness at times. This is meant to convey the abstract importance of these things in the soldiers' lives; some of them, like the M-16, are supposed to protect them, while others, like Lt. Cross' ...

In his short story “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien uses a narrative technique of slowly revealing more information about a death that strongly affected a major character. In the first few pages of the story, the death is not even confirmed. When the narrator states, “Until he was shot, Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity,” the reader does not know whether the victim survived or not. In a similar way, the narrator provides details of the physical objects that the soldiers carry, but slowly adds more and more objects, each time explicitly ...

Classic English literature

The short story, The Things They Carried is a short story trying to describe vividly the soldiers’ experiences in the event of a war. He tries to describe the various dangers which the soldiers face and the difficult life they experience that almost always transform most of them into emotionless beings. It is so hard to tell a “true war story” (Bloom 47). Unless one is a soldier, it would be very difficult to imagine or to put one self into the shoes of a soldier and narrate a war story capturing all the experiences in the war. It is also difficult for the soldiers ...

English 11

Throughout history, there have been many stories surrounding love and war that have been expressed in the forms of written materials and rhetorical tales. There are also been many books written by men and women as they engage in war activities on the battle fields. Many of these books contain short stories as to how the entire actions unfolded in the Vietnam War and many other different war battles in the world. As depicted by Tim O’Brien in the novel “The Things They Carried,” it is quite difficult to retell stories involving war, fighting, and killing. Many soldiers ...

Tim O'Brien was born and raised in Minnesota and drafted for service in Vietnam after graduating from college in 1968. Like most students at the time he was opposed to the war, and even considered running away to Canada. Instead, he ended up as an infantry lieutenant in the notorious Americal division, which had been responsible for the My Lai massacre. After returning from Vietnam in 1970 he was a graduate student at Harvard University and then a journalism intern at the Washington Post. After returning to Minnesota he eventually took up a career as a university teacher of creative writing. His 1990 ...

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

“The Things They Carried” is a short fictitious narrative written by Tim O’Brien who explores the account of Jimmy Cross, an American officer and his soldiers serving in Vietnam. This powerful story is set in the Vietnam War, a battle which sounds prehistoric or ancient for most of today’s readers but which at the same time remains possibly vivid in the minds of the old generation. The narrative has been set in the postwar Vietnam and the author has illustrated this through the narrator, who revisits the country and the old battlegrounds where he fought at one time. The ...

This story is set during the American involvement in the Vietnam War and, as the title suggests, is preoccupied with “the things they carried” – all the items of military equipment and personal keepsakes that the American infantrymen carry with them on patrol. Because they are infantrymen, they walk everywhere, and what they can carry is limited by its weight and their ability to carry it. O’Brien also makes clear that the men carry not only physical objects, but memories, hopes and fears – all the emotional baggage of their past lives in the USA. In terms of narrative the ...

Introduction

The things they carried was published in 1990 and is regarded as an outstanding fictional work that is based on a platoon of American soldiers who participated in the Vietnam war and how they are fought boredom and trauma of combat throughout the Vietnam War. While it seems it is based on the experiences of O’Briens, the cover page recognizes the book as a work of fiction. In one of the short stories, Good Form, the narrator draws a clear cut distinction between the happening truth and the story truth. The author, O’Brien, has a feeling that, creating a story that is ...