ipl-logo

Destruction In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

616 Words3 Pages

In the book “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien admits to killing only one man during his war career, and relays it in the chapter “The Man I Killed”. In this chapter, O’Brien surveys the mangled body of the Vietnamese man he has just murdered, and desperately attempts to humanize the dead man as a coping method for his guilt. The chapter embodies a unique, and extremely detailed repetitive writing style which serves as a symbol of O’Brien’s scrutiny over his irrevocable action. The chapter begins with an exceptionally detailed description of the Vietnamese soldier’s body, as O’Brien surveys his destruction. Yet, the paragraph seems to contain a certain positive connotation, mentioning the “butterfly on [the man’s] chin” (118) his “clean, …show more content…

Although he has no way of knowing anything about the man’s life, O’Brien attempts to humanize the soldier by creating a story for him, and memorializing it in order to place meaning on the man’s life. It is interesting to note that parts of O’Brien’s description of the soldier’s life reflect his own feelings. For example, while speaking about the man’s recruitment to the army, O’Brien tells, “…secretly…[the war] frightened him. He was not a fighter.” (119), and that “he could not picture himself doing…brave things. He hoped in his heart that he would never be tested”. This manifests the thoughts of O’Brien as, he too was fearful of going to war, and had no desire to fight, as well as preferred a classroom environment compared to a battlefield. In conclusion, the continuous repetition of the description of the soldier’s body represents the idea that this irrevocable action will forever be with O’Brien, and the minor details of the description serve to reveal different messages of the story. In the chapter “The Man I Killed” O’Brien struggles to understand the implications of his actions, as well as to cope with his guilt. Through the constant repetition and the vivid description O’Brien attempts to humanize the soldier, and assign meaning and purpose to the life of the man who suffered such an idle death. O’Brien writes a meaningful chapter

Show More
Related

  • Summary In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    547 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Things They Carried is an ugly book. The themes and topics throughout the book are gruesome and horrific, but Tim O’Brien writes about them in such a way that portrays the Vietnam War as almost beautiful. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the chapter, “The Man I Killed” is an example of a terrific piece of writing because it utilizes thoughtful symbolism, graphic imagery, and conflict to portray the Vietnam War in an accurate way. “The Man I Killed” uses symbols, imagery, and conflict to tell an accurate war story. First, O’Brien uses symbolism throughout the book, but specifically in “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien writes about the symbol of a butterfly.

    Read More

  • Emotions In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    550 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tim O’Brien deals with hardship during the war and after the war. He has trouble coping with it, he uses writing as a way to heal himself. Tim O’Brien writes about the man he supposedly killed. “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was a star-shaped hole – “Think it over” Kiowa said. Then later he said, “Tim, it’s a war” – Then he said, “Maybe you better lie down a minute” ”

    Read More

  • Truth In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    I blamed myself. And rightly so, because I was present” (179). Though the happening-truth was that O’Brien never killed anyone during the war, the story-truth made up by O’Brien himself is that he did. The emotions he felt were of such strong grief that that what he remembers and tells is that he killed someone, because in his mind he

    Read More

  • Why The Challenges At War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    757 Words  | 4 Pages

    O’Briens intended audience is people who have an interest in war, and uses mortality and death, along with morality to help the audience get a deeper understanding of what could possibly occur at war. First, O’Brien discusses how mortality and death greatly affected many of the men around him. In the chapter ” In the Field” Kiowa is gone and there is nothing they could do to save him. The

    Read More

  • Repetition In The Things They Carried

    682 Words  | 3 Pages

    40% of the males in the baby boomer generation served in the Vietnam War, as seen in the New York Times article “The Baby Boomer War.” Many of these people came home from the war feeling responsible for the death of someone. In his novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien employs repetition to create the effect that almost all people involved in war feel guilty for someone’s death, even if it was beyond their control. The chapters “The Man I Killed”, “Ambush”, and “In the Field'' work together to produce this effect.

    Read More

  • Spin By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

    791 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is assumed that no one actually enlists with the sole purpose of killing people. This next short story is entitled “The Man I Killed.” Right off the bat, O’Brien goes into extremely gruesome details of the body of the boy he just killed. He describes the wounds for half of a paragraph. In this story, the reader can feel the guilt in the author as he stands on the trail, thinking about this boy’s life before he brutally murdered him.

    Read More

  • The Ghost Soldiers Tim O Brien Character Analysis Essay

    844 Words  | 4 Pages

    This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.

    Read More

  • Guilt Quotes In The Things They Carried

    423 Words  | 2 Pages

    (page 68). This is why Tim O’Brien writes the way he does. He wants the reader to believe his story and get a sense of what war is truly

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried: An Analysis

    688 Words  | 3 Pages

    He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

    Read More

  • Imagery In The Things They Carried

    543 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

    Read More

  • War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    999 Words  | 4 Pages

    When O’Brien writes, “[m]y conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame. Hot, stupid shame. I did not want people to think badly of me,” (49) which conveys O’Brien’s critique of society during that time, showing the expectations of young men in the United States through strong imagery. The feelings of shame can be seen throughout the book, each dealing with it in different ways and by themselves to appear

    Read More

  • Courage In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    960 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Tim O’Brien’s novel, “The Things They Carried,” about the Vietnam war, courage is described as a necessity for all soldiers. He uses both him and his comrade’s circumstances to describe this. Throughout the novel the motif of courage evolves as characters serve in the Vietnam War. Being drafted into the Vietnam war forced O’Brien to become a soldier and participate in the war. His distaste for the war made it difficult for him to find the mental courage to fight in Vietnam which he thought was avoidable.

    Read More

  • PTSD In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    1504 Words  | 7 Pages

    This quote epitomizes the trauma caused by war. O’Brien is trying to cope, mostly through writing these war stories but has yet to put it behind him. He feels guilt, grief, and responsibility, even making up possible scenarios about the life of the man he killed and the type of person he was. This

    Read More

  • Good Form O Brien Quotes And Analysis

    1155 Words  | 5 Pages

    O’Brien’s story of killing a man was completely fabricated as he even admitted, but despite the falsehood it could be true to him. This is one reason for true war stories to be so hard, as the one telling it cannot always devise truth from the false claims he is making. This is noticeable the Man I killed, the chapter does not discern truth from fiction, it speaks in truth, but is all made up. It is impossible for the narrator to tell that he did not kill a man in the story, because he feels he must have. He was at war, many people died and he witnessed many of those deaths, so how could he not have been responsible.

    Read More

  • Ho Chi Minh's Letter More Persuasive Than Lyndon B. Johnson

    280 Words  | 2 Pages

    I find Ho Chi Minh’s letter far more persuasive than Lyndon B. Johnson’s. Using ethos, pathos, and logos, he forms a solid argument that supports Vietnam’s stance on the war. He appeals to one’s emotions by expressing the injustices faced by his people, writing, “In South Viet-Nam a half-million American soldiers and soldiers from the satellite countries have resorted to the most barbarous methods of warfare, such as napalm, chemicals, and poison gases in order to massacre our fellow countrymen, destroy the crops, and wipe out villages.” Words such as “massacre” and “barbarous” highlight the severity of these crimes, and invoke feelings of guilt and remorse in the reader. Chi Minh uses ethos to support his logos, or logical, views on the

    Read More

More about Destruction In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Open Document