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Comparing War In The Things They Carry 'And Jarhead'

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When we hear or read about war, we only look for the positivity of it. You read about our strength as a nation and our historic victories. You see films that glorify war and show the fearlessness of our soldiers on the battleground. It instills a feeling of patriotism towards our country and gives reason on why we are at war. “The Things They Carry” by Tim O’Brien and the film Jarhead narrate a different side of war. The perspective you don’t see or hear about. For instance, Jarhead uses the dark experiences of war and negative representation of life as a marine to emphasize the theme of anti-war, whereas “The Things They Carry” uses weight as a symbol to highlight the theme of anti-war. Jarhead is not your traditional war movie. While in most movies you see soldiers portrayed as heroes, in this movie the soldiers are depicted as dumb and undisciplined children that have no concrete reason for joining the Marines. US soldiers are indeed shown as "jarheads," senseless, drunken ruffians. The movie has many scenes that showcase …show more content…

This mental trauma is called post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD. It is a stress disorder that can develop among people who have suffered a traumatic experience. The main character in Jarhead, Anthony Swofford, exhibits early signs of PTSD. He becomes to lose himself through the course of his time in the military. Both the stress from his home life and his current situation take a toll on his sanity. There comes a moment in the movie where he loses himself completely and violently attacks one of his peers. The pressure and stress of war is hard to escape from when you cannot turn your back on it. Life for Swofford doesn’t get any easier even after serving. Jarhead shows the viewers that it isn’t all its made out to be. Soldiers return home but don’t consciously return home. The life they once knew isn’t always

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328 Words | 2 Pages

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien exemplifies a central question in the book. The central question is, “Is war more good or bad?” To an extent, O’Brien answered that question. The answer is almost clear. O’Brien’s book on some his experiences in the Vietnam War captures nearly every detail need to answer the central question.

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1757 Words | 8 Pages

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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444 Words | 2 Pages

In the movie, a lot of scenes

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961 Words | 4 Pages

“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind” (John F. Kennedy). In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien he wrote stories about what being in Vietnam war was like. O’Brien wrote the book nonlinear because that is how he remembered the stories. Tim O’Brien let readers get a first hand look on what war is like and what it can really do to someone who was in war. Tim O’Brien used the themes shame/guilt and storytelling/memory to let people who want to understand what war is like to get a better understanding and what it does to a soldier mentally and physically.

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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.”

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791 Words | 4 Pages

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

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303 Words | 2 Pages

War is a topic most people have a strong opinion on. Most people clearly show if they are for a war or against it. Tim O`Brien the main character in the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. O`Brien view of war is very similar to Henry David Thoreau, the author of “Civil Disobedience ”, view on the war. O’Brien was against the Vietnam War and in his own words says, “ I was drafted to fight a war I hated (O`Brien 40)”.

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703 Words | 3 Pages

Physical articles such as guns, ammunition, food, and water, are carried to survive and keep the soldiers healthy, whereas intangible ideas are brought along with the soldiers to maintain a healthy mentality. For example, “they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb” (Back Cover). This quote explains an elusive idea of what the soldiers carried with them. Soldiers being forced to fight in the war do not go home unharmed emotionally, even if they were not physically injured. Each soldier goes home carrying feelings of guilt, confusion, and “unrelenting images,” while each soldier still fighting in the war carries their love, passion, and perseverance.

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a short story that would later be the first in a collection of short stories by the same name. It creatively retells the author’s experiences as a foot soldier in the Vietnam War. These stories are an uncensored look into the thoughts and experiences of a soldier in active combat and offer a perspective on war that the average person will never experience. While some critics believe that these stories perpetuate anti-feminist ideas and promote a hyper-masculine idea of war, I would disagree. I believe that O’Brien’s faithful retelling does the opposite, and rather than perpetuate these ideas, offers a perspective that shows readers how these ideas have become baked into the idea of war.

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1187 Words | 5 Pages

When people think about soldiers, what comes to their mind? Often, people think about bravery, discipline, and seriousness. These are positive adjectives for soldiers; however, these adjectives create a set of unattainable expectations for them. As we send these men and women into a war chosen for them by the United States Congress, these expectations bedevil them, and they are often left struggling to cope with the traumatic experiences they encounter. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien, chose to write about this injustice experienced by himself and other soldiers in his book, The Things They Carried.

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774 Words | 4 Pages

War has a profound and lasting impact on individuals and society. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he tells different stories of before, during and after war and how it affects the soldiers, mentally and physically. In these stories Tim O’Brien illustrates these traumas and the long-lasting effects and impact that the war will always have on these men. Even though all the men didn’t survive the ones that did continue to have traumatic flashbacks. War has a lasting impact on individuals and society, affecting not only the physical but the mental and emotional well-being of those involved.

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601 Words | 3 Pages

Everyone tends to act differently in some point of their life. It’s in the manner people act that dictates the real character in each person. For Herman Mudgett (H. H. Holmes) his actions were the very essence of contradiction much like the man described in the poem If Four is then this is a Parade for they share a similar behavioral pattern. The poet describes a person who has eight different personalities, five are harmless while the others are toxic.

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1314 Words | 6 Pages

Over the course of the years, war has been perceived as violent and unnecessary and most Americans hate the idea of it. They can’t understand the justifications for why America goes to war and they absolutely won’t stand for it. But there are some things that war provides and contributes to America that people often overlook. “The War Works Hard,” by Dunya Mikhail claims that war “works with unparalleled diligence! / Yet no one gives it a word of praise (49-50).”

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999 Words | 4 Pages

The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

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760 Words | 4 Pages

I believe that the movie implies that he has PTSD shortly after he is arrested. They tie his hands to the ceiling and bring out a straight razor to give him a shave. He begins seeing disturbing images of being tortured at the hands of the Viet Cong, who had him tied in the same way and repeatedly slashed him with a sword, and starts to panic. He has flashbacks of what they

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