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Burdens In The Things They Carried

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The Things They Carried is a story about wartime Vietnam during the 1960s. The Vietnam War is arguably one of the most controversial wars that the United States has been involved in. Many people were against the United States' involvement in Vietnam and believed it wasn’t America’s fight. While many were against the war, the men involved in fighting this war drastically change because of their traumatic experiences during the war. The characters in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien were by no means different from real soldiers and their lives change profoundly by the physical things they carried with them during the war and the emotional burdens that soldiers carried with them for many years to follow their combat.

The burdens that …show more content…

It can force soldiers to live with physical burdens like injuries that can negatively affect their quality of life. The experiences that soldiers encounter during the war can also drastically affect their lives. One example of this is the character Norman Bowker. Norman Bowker dealt with a couple of emotional burdens that affected his life after the war. One of these burdens was the guilt of his friend Kiowa’s death. The book, The Things They carried, reads “He wished he could've explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be” (98). In this part of the book, Norman Bowker is recalling how his friend Kiowa dies. Norman Bowker remembers how Kiowa was sinking into the muck and shit-filled swamp. Norman recalls how he had acted in a …show more content…

The book, The Things They Carried, is narrated by Tim O’Brien, or a story is told from the perspective of the author. While fighting in Vietnam, it is revealed that Tim O’Brien is the youngest in his platoon at just twenty-one years old. They also revealed it in the book that O’Brien is opposed to fighting in Vietnam and is scared of what would happen to him during the war. An example of how Tim O’Brien was correct in his assumption that something would happen to him in Vietnam is when the book reads, “Even now I haven't finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don't. In the ordinary hours of life, I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I'm reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I'll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog. I'll watch him walk toward me, his shoulders slightly stooped, his head cocked to the side, and he'll pass within a few yards of me and suddenly smile at some secret thought and then continue up the trail to where it bends back into the fog” (85). Earlier in the story, O’Brien expressed how he feared his innocence would be lost once he returns from war. O’Brien had thrown a grenade toward an enemy soldier and he recalls how it all seemed to happen in slow motion. He describes the grenade seeming to freeze mid-air as if someone had

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Through out the book titled The Things They Carried, many characters are brought upon us, who are portrayed differently from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. The author shows or portrays what can truly happen to humans as they go through time in war. War will change their character’s thoughts and appearance to the reader just by the way they are shown in the book. An example of a character that has changed throughout the book is Norman Bowker. At the beginning of the story, Norman Bowker was a young soldier who seems to be like anyone who has not experienced war themselves.

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The Things They Carried is a fascinating and illuminating novel written by Tim O'Brien. Published in 1990, it is a collection of interconnected short stories that depicts the experiences of American soldiers during the Vietnam War. In his novel The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien employs Juxtaposition to create the effect of long-term effects of trauma and an abrupt, violent loss of innocence. The chapters “The Man I Killed”, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, and “How to Tell a True War Story” work together to produce this effect.

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The short story, “The Things They Carried,” written by Tim O’Brien (1990), appears to be an unpretentious narration that list the tangible items carried by the soldiers while fighting in the Vietnam War. Upon further review it becomes clear that the lists of “things” have a much deeper meaning and carry an abundance amount of emotional weight. Not only is their load a physical burden that consist of hefty equipment that is necessary for survival, but they also bear the burden of internal conflict. The internal conflicts identified in the story center around the disturbing afflictions carried by the soldiers revealing that the men long for an escape from their dreadful surroundings, feel responsible for the lives of their fellow soldiers,

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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 Burdens They Carried: whether physical, emotional, or psychological, they affect the lives of many. Throughout the human experience, burdens have been something individuals carry with them, often acquired in times of adversity. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, the novel focuses heavily on depicting the weight of these burdens in the setting of the Vietnam War. O’Brien utilizes literary elements such as imagery, symbolism, and selective writing techniques to portray the theme of burdens. Not only the physical encumbrances of equipment, but also the psychological bearings of death and violence.

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In the chapter Speaking of Courage, the narrator explains how Norman tries to save Kiowa, “He would've talked about this, and how he grabbed Kiowa by the boot and tried to pull him out. He pulled hard but Kiowa was gone, and then suddenly he felt himself going, too.” (page 143). Norman lived with this for the rest of his life, playing what he could've done to save him over and over again in his head. Another example is in the chapter,

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Bowker had felt immense guilt for the Kiowa's death, in the chapter " Speaking of Courage” Bowker imagined how he would tell his father the story of his medals and how he almost won the silver medal but blew it when he let Kiowa sink into the muck. In “Speaking of Courage” Bowker is driving around the lake on the fourth of July in his father's Chevy where he realizes he has nowhere to go. He is reminiscing about his high school girlfriend, sally Kramer and the medals he earned while in the war but is still stuck on the silver star medal he almost got. In the next chapter, “Notes,” O’Brien says that “Speaking of Courage” was written at the request of Bowker.

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In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien explores the contrast between who we are and what we do, especially in “Ambush” and “The Ghost Soldiers”. In these stories, O’Brien becomes separated from his own actions and makes choices that contradict what he knows to be his personal morals and values, demonstrating how the emotional toll of war can separate a person from their “true” self. In “Ambush” (assuming the story is true), O’Brien recounts a time when he took the life of a young Vietnamese soldier who didn’t see O’Brien as he walked along a trail. O’Brien describes how the man posed no real threat to him, but something drove him to throw a grenade onto the trail.

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The Things They Carried, is a reflection on how Tim O’Brien spent his days in Vietnam. There are many factors to why it can be difficult to share a war story, there is no proof to tell how much he is just telling a story or saying something else to make it easier to share his experience. “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. ”pg.68.

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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.

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