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A Brief Review Of Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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Characters featured throughout various pieces of American Literature are often positively or negatively affected by their past. These past events can affect the character’s present feelings, ideals, or actions. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, one character is affected significantly by the past events of his life. As both the narrator and protagonist, Tim O’Brien is affected by the former occurrences and memories of when he was a soldier fighting in the Vietnam War. He carries with him the traumatic recollections of the time at war, which has led him to share his experiences with others through storytelling, attempting to effectively communicate the nearly impossible depiction to others: what it was truly like as a soldier in Vietnam. …show more content…

O’Brien, the narrator, notes that some of the stories may not be factually true but he adds them rather to represent the “story-truths” and to portray the effects of the events that actually occurred. All O’Brien carries with now is the memories of the war, which he uses to typify all of the burdens that the soldiers carried physically and mentally throughout the war. For instance, the soldiers carried with rather heavy equipment, but also carried with mental burdens, such as Jimmy Cross obsessing over Martha, the woman he loved. Tim O’Brien exemplifies “the things they carried” before and after the war through his …show more content…

These past events can affect the character’s present feelings, ideals, or actions. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, one character is affected significantly by the past events of his life. As both the narrator and protagonist, Tim O’Brien is affected by the former occurrences and memories of when he was a soldier fighting in the Vietnam War. He carries with him the traumatic recollections of the time at war, which has led him to share his experiences with others through storytelling, attempting to effectively communicate the nearly impossible depiction to others: what it was truly like as a soldier in

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War is one of the most complex yet completely understood subjects to read or write about. Tim O’Brien has captured the true essence of being drafted into a war. “The Things They Carried” is a novel composed of multiple short stories; Each taking the reader through the perspective of the narrator showing his multiple landscapes, situations, and changing feelings from being drafted into the Vietnam War to surviving it. These stories really help one understand the effects of war on someone’s mind as well as body. Tim O’Brien is the main character and protagonist in this novel.

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In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried the narrator, Tim O’Brien, often blurs the lines between reality and fiction. As a young soldier, O’Brien recalls the Vietnam war including the sounds, sights, and his emotions, while 20 years later he again shares his feelings and experiences of the same event. This same event, however, is told differently in order to help him cope with the emotional pain of war. The details become blurry as the pain is too great to endure.

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During the War young men were taken away from fully experiencing their adolescence lives and were sent to fight in war. In the short story, “The things they carried” by Tim O’Brien, the narrator discusses his personal experience in the Vietnam War along with his fellow soldiers. He tells the story in an unusual way when he shares parts of his story from past and changes to present which allows the reader to feel the emotions and experience what each soldier went through and learn more about the characters personalities. O’ Brien uses an unusual narrative technique that allows the reader to visualize the experiences they went through such as death and guilt. Throughout the story we also learn more about the characters personalities and the importance

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In the book,” The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, an American novelist who is best known for his works of fiction which depict his experiences in the Vietnam War, he suggests to the audience how the Vietnam War was like to him and to the company he was in during the war. Through the use of his characters to show what they carried with them throughout the war and in the peace after the war, he uses sensory details to illustrate how it felt to be in Vietnam, he uses symbolism to depict certain points of the war, his use of irony to depict something which suggests but means something opposite, and his use of themes through the story. Tim O’Brien focuses on the characters, sensory details, symbolism, irony, and themes throughout the story

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Love, regret, fear, and courage are all intertwined into Tim O’Brien's book, The Things They Carried. O'Brien uses his own experiences with the Vietnam war as well as stories told from his companions to create a book to show how the war affects people differently. By using his own story, he is able to have an honest outlook into the war that tells about the things that happened off of the footage that the nation could watch. The individual stories of the men are shown throughout this book to allow for a full circle story that captures most all aspects of the war, in essence, what happened other than the fighting. Instead of discussing the book as a whole, I am focusing on the main themes that are shown throughout the book.

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“The Things They Carried” "The Things They Carried" is a short story collection which was written by Tim O’Brien. The story is about American soldiers who were fighting in the Vietnam War and the experiences they encountered on the battlefield. The novel carries main themes such as struggle, sacrifice, self pity, and also interpersonal battles that not only affected, but also tested the patience of the soldiers at war. Tim O'Brien has brought up these events in his style of writing in a language that is so descriptive, it makes the reader feel as though he or she was there. The active theme of physical and emotional burdens is a main idea that resonates throughout the story.

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War-caused distractions, misinterpreted reality and limited control due to the human condition appear frequently throughout the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien, as a narrator describes his struggle with storytelling during and after the war. The constant challenge to determine reality versus personal perception arises in his memory. Some uncontrollable factors associated with recalling events include imaginative interference and uncertainty resulting from the human condition. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, telling story-truth, rather than happening-truth, is necessary, as no replica can be as genuine as the original.

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In Vietnam 1960-1970, as death surrounded the land and homes, a story was born. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien is a heartbreaking and shivering story. Through O’Brien’s writing, he manages to portray strength, courage, loss, and love in such a dark place and time. Before, during, and after the Vietnam War characters struggle with their emotional traumas, O’Brien illustrates the various coping mechanisms and how a variety of characters use them to survive their experiences during and post-war. O’Brien uses multiple characters to portray the mental damage war causes.

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The soldiers of the Vietnam War were mostly innocent young men that were forced to face overwhelming emotional distress like the fear of their own deaths, guilt associated with taking the life of another soldier, and sorrow after witnessing their fellow comrades’ deaths. In The Things They Carried, author, Tim O’Brien, uses fictional stories to display the immense emotional burdens that the soldier Tim and his fellow members of Alpha Company experienced before, during, and after their unforgettably haunting time in Vietnam, and how each handled this “baggage” they carried. O’Brien’s sympathy belongs to the soldiers in the novel, knowing full and well that none of them belonged in the middle of the unjust war. Whether it was by the use of

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It’s ironic that one would want to relive the horrors of war. Traditionally, a veteran would do anything in his power to forget everything he saw and experienced at war. However, for Tim O’Brien, it’s the exact opposite: Storytelling is the way that he copes, the way he keeps the dead alive, and the way he allows for outsiders to feel what he felt during the war. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien portrays the power of storytelling by using it to rehumanize the soldiers during the hardships of war.

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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.

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The literary readings of The Things They Carried, Passing and “Hate Poem” demonstrates the struggles of the protagonist through hardships of mental pressure, external issues, and difficulties of coping. The variance of actions between the protagonists from the readings, shows the apparent disconnect between their emotions and reality, thus, making their environment extremely difficult to withstand. The multiple literary pieces truly embody each protagonist’s emotions of struggle through hardships. The protagonists grew from their difficult circumstances, or deteriorated emotionally because of the hardships. Protagonist Tim O’Brien of The Things They Carried, experiences from the Vietnam War proves that his state of mind is determined by the

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Estimated over 30% of Vietnam Veterans suffer from PTSD. Many suffer from a vast variety of mental health issues. A majority of Veterans feel that they cannot ever explain the negative experiences they suffered in war and the consequences of those. There is a fear of embarrassment and being perceived as weak. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, the author, conveys that Vietnam Veterans conceal their bad experiences with war; if these are revealed to others, no one knows how to respond.

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“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war.

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Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person, marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of repetition, symbolism, and metaphors to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers during war. Though the literary device of repetition, O'Brien portrays the physical and psychological hardships of a soldier.

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