ipl-logo

Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis Essay

1333 Words6 Pages

In war, there is a winning side and a losing side, but both suffer casualties. Afflictions are not always dealt in death and physical pain, but also emotional damage. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, he emphasizes war’s capabilities to change people. When Mary Anne, a sweet, innocent, all-American girl, arrives in Vietnam to be with her soldier boyfriend, change is inevitable, and she will eventually lose her naiveté. O’Brien utilizes personification, jarring imagery, hyperbole, and pathos to convey that war shatters all innocence, no matter how hard one may try to avoid the change.
O’Brien employs personification to convey how Mary Anne’s change after being exposed to war affects Mark Fossie, who so desperately wants her to remain …show more content…

Mary Anne’s transformation from a sweet girlfriend to an unrecognizable being that is even stranger than the Greenies represents the loss of innocence that all the soldiers in Vietnam go through. The men of Alpha Company each carried with them something that would anchor them to the world of cleanliness and peace they had left behind. Lieutenant Carter carried his letters, Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose, Kiowa carried his moccasins, and Rat Kiley carried comic books. These objects allowed them to stay temporarily anchored to their worlds without war. Eventually, they all inevitably passed into the war, and would never be able to regain their old innocence. The Things They Carried constantly emphasizes the juxtaposition between the war in Vietnam and the peace back home. O’Brien’s constant emphasis on the idea that war is a personal thing that can’t be fully explained or told about reveals his main purpose for crafting The Things They Carried- war does not leave even one person unscathed, and after it is over, those changes will never go away. The war is so personal an experience because it leaves everyone involved permanently altered, and each person’s change is too specialized to be explained to

Show More
Related

  • Is Mary Anne Bell's Transformation In Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong

    195 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Tim O’Brien’s “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” Mary Anne Bell’s evolution into adulthood is driven by her acquisition of the knowledge that she is a predator. From the beginning, she is absorbed by the carnage and danger of war, even “fascinated by it. Not the gore so much, but the adrenaline buzz that went with the job” (O’Brien 7). Mary Anne accepts, and even welcomes, her predator lifestyle, and presents herself as “someone perfectly at peace with herself” (O’Brien 17). Mary Anne may crave the kill because it gives her a goal and an objective, while life as Mark Fossie’s wife would not provide such a purpose.

    Read More

  • Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong Character Analysis

    674 Words  | 3 Pages

    She stopped wearing jewelry, cut her hair short and wrapped it in a dark green bandanna. Hygiene became a matter of small consequence.” (62). Eventually, Mary Anne gets ‘seduced by the greenies’ and is seen wearing a necklace of tongues. It’s obvious Mary Anne is used to represent a loss of innocence among the young soldiers who went to Vietnam (or really any other war).

    Read More

  • Vietnam War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    542 Words  | 3 Pages

    During their time at war, soldiers crack jokes and say things to cope with their surroundings. They do so to try and make light of horrible situations they encounter during the war. When Mary Anne first joins the men in Vietnam, she had a clear complexion, smooth skin, and nice clothes. Before joining the men, she is a girl who cares about looks and what she looks like and what is said about her. Once she reaches Vietnam, she wants to explore and see exactly what war is all about.

    Read More

  • Conflicting Desires In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    809 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, There are many ideas and desires running through the head of every soldier in Vietnam. It is a challenging war to fight, and also a very hard one to come home from as it was an incredibly unpopular war. Many soldiers faced conflicting desires on the battlefield, but the most interesting example of conflicting desires was Mary Anne Bell. She was the elementary school girlfriend of the young medic Mark Fossie, who was staying at a base in the mountains of Chu Lai. Many soldiers at the base always joked about it being so safe, and with so few officials, that someone could actually fly their girlfriend in and they would both be fine.

    Read More

  • Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis

    1292 Words  | 6 Pages

    Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

    Read More

  • Surrealism In The Things They Carried By Mark Fossie

    542 Words  | 3 Pages

    ”(92) Mary Anne acted as if visiting Vietnam was for a vacation. She did not care for “things like ambushes and snipers and the stopping power of an AK-47.”(92) Since she was innocent and new to the entire war situation, she thought of it very lightly. Although, throughout her entire stay, her old innocence, disappeared.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis

    899 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells the stories of multiple war veterans who have served in the Vietnam War. It takes a very in-depth approach to explaining the veterans’ experiences, feelings, and views both during the war, and after the war. Throughout the novel, readers learn that things you either do, or don’t do in life, can make you feel the same way as the war veterans. O’Brien uses symbolism and regretful tone to teach readers that the results of your actions in war can lead to you experiencing shame, remorse, and guilt for the rest of your life. O’Brien uses symbolism to show that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has to deal with the survivor’s guilt of letting his platoon member, Tim Lavender, die in the warzone.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried: An Analysis

    688 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Things They Carried, O’Brien reveals his view on war through telling his readers how the Vietnam War had no point, was emotionally devastating, and displaying that there is no purpose in war unless the soldiers know what they are fighting for. O’Brien shows the pointlessness of war by

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On The Things They Carried

    1071 Words  | 5 Pages

    Like the reporters and camera men at the time, this book provides in great detail what atrocities occurred during the war. “Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a montage of graphic scenes.”(pen.org). Because of its graphic violence and abundant use of profanity, The Things They Carried has been banned and challenged throughout the United States. In Troup, Texas 2016, a mother of an AP English student claimed that the book was “complete garbage, trash” and that it contains “nothing…that will benefit [students] physically, emotionally — mentally, morally, spiritually to be used as an educational tool.”

    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

  • The Paradox Of War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    705 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author skillfully presents a paradox about war and how it is both horrible and beautiful. Through O’Brien’s vivid storytelling and sorrowful anecdotes, he is able to demonstrate various instances which show both the horrible and beautiful nature of war. Within the vulnerability of the soldiers and the resilience found in the darkest of circumstances, O’brien is able to show the uproarious emotional landscape of war with a paradox that serves as the backbone of the narrative. In the first instance, O’Brien explores the beauty in horror within the chapter “Love.”

    Read More

  • How Is The Figurative Language Used In The Things They Carried

    1222 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the fictional story, The Things They Carried, author and Vietnam veteran, Tim O’Brien, walks readers through the experience of characters in the Vietnam War. Through the experience of multiple soldiers, Tim O’Brien highlights the way that they tell stories and why they’re meaningful to the young soldiers. It relates to the trauma that the young soldiers underwent. Following the soldiers, the author uses strong diction, literary elements, and figurative language to show how soldiers used stories to cope with the trauma surrounding the Vietnam War.

    Read More

  • His Eye Is On The Sparrow: A Short Story

    1548 Words  | 7 Pages

    Troops were streaming back to MaryAnn’s hometown of St. Helens, many of them leaving their humanity on the battlefield with their slain comrades. Though MaryAnn didn’t have any close family or friends who were in the service, her heart still ached for the pained, heartbroken and lonely. She didn’t like to see people torn. She wanted to help them; she wanted them to know that His eye was on the sparrow, and that He would watch out for them. MaryAnn was born on August 30th, 1930 in St. Helens, Oregon to Swedish immigrants Gunnar and Anna Levin.

    Read More

  • Innocence In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1049 Words  | 5 Pages

    Tim O’ Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, is a collection of short stories with a common topic that discuss events (before,during, and after the Vietnam war) that the men of the Alpha Companies live through; their challenges, thoughts, decisions, and of course the things they carried. The vignettes in this book put you in the characters shoes, allowing you to picture the certain joys and tragedies with detail, witnessing truth, religion, superstition, and loss of innocence. In the first chapter of the story, you are introduced to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, a weak and insecure leader, always daydreaming and fantasizing about the love of his life, Martha. He carries letters from her and when he reads the word “Love” at the end

    Read More

  • Summary Of Field Trip By Tim O Brien

    685 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story “Field Trip” from The Things They Carry, author Tim O’Brien’s portrayal of Kathleen as a “reader proxy” (an ordinary, shallow character that the audience can project themselves onto) and her innocent tone highlight the divide that is seen between veterans and civilians; the lack of mutual understanding results in the widening of the divide between the two, making war an intangible, incomprehensible event that is often dismissed as unimportant. In “Field Trip”, O’Brien takes his ten year old daughter Kathleen to Vietnam as a birthday present. Kathleen seems unexcited about the trip and does not understand the meaning of this journey for her father. Similarly, she is oblivious to what the war was about, and does not understand

    Read More

More about Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Open Document