ipl-logo

Courage And Shame In The Things They Carried

825 Words4 Pages

The Things They Carried is a novel by Tim O’Brien, and O’Brien includes himself as the protagonist and implements his experiences as an American soldier going into the Vietnam War. In the novel, O'Brien's a soldier who has to confront his internal conflicts and must deal with his conflicting obligations and desires towards the war. The obligation occurs once he receives a draft requiring him to fight in a war he doesn't believe in along with social pressures. These two conflicts with his desire to listen to his moral judgment which tells him to resist the draft and to just flee. This clash illuminates the work by executing the themes of courage and shame, which occurs again and again throughout the novel. O’Brien's character best describes that of a politically naive boy whose future of going to Harvard with a full ride scholarship gets dashed away. Dashed away by a single letter that says that he's getting drafted in the Vietnam War. However, he doesn't loathe this legal obligation just because he must abandon the future he had imagined himself to have, it …show more content…

Tim O’Brien’s struggle with his decision on the matters of his draft notice conveys an emotional turmoil that soldiers no doubt would have also have felt when seeing a similar notice. However, because of the shame that would have brought those soldiers and their families if they were to flee, they decided on what O'Brien also had decided, to fight and only having desires of fleeing away; never acting upon them. However, because he fails to do what he thought was right and follow through with his desire it causes him to believe that even though he survives the Vietnam War, "it's not a happy ending," for he "was a coward," when going into the war. He recalled this because his decision to go to war was motivated by shame, and he just saw himself as a coward who gave in to social pressures that came along with an obligation he never asked

Show More
Related
83 Words | 1 Pages

This quote is Important because Tim O 'Brien is explaining how he felt like every eye in his town was on him. Felt embarrassed because he didn 't wanted to go to war. He could hear people screaming at him,Traitor ! he couldn 't endure the mockery or the disgrace or the patriotic ridicule .And right then he Submitted.

Read More
345 Words | 2 Pages

“On the Rainy River”, an intimate chapter between Tim O'Brien and the reader digs deep within O’Brien’s mind, revealing his extensive fear of going to war and how far he would reach to avoid it. More than 60,000 men avoided the draft for the Vietnam War, O’Brien taking part in that number. Burning draft cards, ignoring “casting” calls and fleeing to Canada grew as young American men were being called to fight a war none had wanted to take part in. Without confronting his parents about the situation from the start, Tim O’Brien fled to the Tip Top Lodge which “jutted northward into the Rainy River”; not quite Canada, but close enough to execute his decision when made(47). Home, a place known to be safe and comforting for O’Brien, where his loved

Read More
604 Words | 3 Pages

The metaphor of the pork product assembly line also extends to the military machine that drafts soldiers and sends them to war. In the story O 'Brien sets up paradoxical relationships that are revisited in various forms throughout the novel. One such paradox is that of courage and fear. He explains that he was "ashamed to be doing the right thing" in following his conscience and going to Canada. This metafictive means of imposing meaning on moral disorder and personal conflict is not the only storytelling O 'Brien does in this chapter.

Read More
730 Words | 3 Pages

The men who served in the Vietnam War were just barely men, some of them were just hitting the age twenty. It was the draft which brought these boys into the fight involuntarily, to fight a war which they saw no meaning in. Many of these boys are the sons of veterans who fought in World War II, that came home to parades and were held up like heroes for fighting. Honorary men of the country and the soldiers fighting for Vietnam did not want to disappoint them. Thus, when O’Brien mentions in the quote, valor was not the point, he is trying to explain to the reader that the men went like it was a job they had to do, not a random act of courage that willed them to proceed.

Read More
839 Words | 4 Pages

In the book, The Things They Carried written by Tim O’brien, after effects of war are one of the main themes. Not everyone makes it out of war alive and most who do come home never go back to who they were. The Things They Carried is a novel about the Vietnam war. This novel shows different soldiers' experiences but is narrated by Tim O’Brien and mainly talks about his experience with the war. In this novel, it touches the effect war has on soldiers during the war and how death was dealt with differently.

Read More
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
2081 Words | 9 Pages

The soldiers in the Vietnam War are portrayed as losing themselves in the chaos and trauma of combat. Through the stories of the soldiers and their experiences, O’Brien explores the ways in which war strips away one's sense of identity and humanity. The author himself is depicted as losing himself in the war. O'Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his experiences inspired much of the book. Through the character of Tim O'Brien, the author explores the ways in which war can strip away one's sense of self and purpose.

Read More
1078 Words | 5 Pages

Literature Review - The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a semi-autobiographical novel based on O’Brien’s experience in the Vietnam War. In the book, O’brien tells about the events leading up to him being drafted, war stories, and some narratives about his comrades. He says that he did not join the war because of morals, but because he was scared not to. Throughout the book, the characters have been coping with death/mortality, social obligations/pressures, guilt/shame, and moral conflicts.

Read More
813 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien tells the readers about him reflecting back twenty years ago, he wonders if running away from the war were just events that happened in another dimension, he pictures himself writing a letter to his parents: “I’m finishing up a letter to my Parents that tells what I'm about to do and why I'm doing it and how sorry I am that I’d never found the courage to talk to them about it”(O’Brien 80). Even twenty years after his running from the war, O’Brien still feels sorry for not finding the courage to tell his parents about his decision of escaping to Canada to start a new life. O’Brien presented his outlook that even if someone was not directly involved in the war, this event had impacted them indirectly, for instance, how a person’s reaction to the war can create regret for important friends and

Read More
941 Words | 4 Pages

Through the chapter, O’Brien talks about what most people thought should be done with the draft. Some of society saw people that ran away as cowards. This thought haunted O’Brien as he thought of what might happen to his family if he chose to run away. O’Brien says, “Intellect had come up against emotion” (49). This quote shows how guilty he felt.

Read More
679 Words | 3 Pages

Courage The dictionary definition of courage is “strength in the face of pain of grief.” Throughout the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the common idea of courage is expressed with different meanings as each character interprets courage differently.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

“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.

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

The things these men carried were solid with weight and are able to be transported from one place to another by physically moving the object. However, the reader soon discovers it also refers to an emotional weight. As Kaplan states, “Obrien introduces the reader to some of the things, imaginary and concrete, emotional and physical, that the average soldier had to carry through the jungles of Vietnam” (2/8). In the Army there is a saying, “Go to war, or go to jail”. During the time of the Vietnam War, a majority of the men were drafted.

Read More
807 Words | 4 Pages

How it was shaped: Tim allowed the draft of the Vietnam war and societal pressures get to the best of him and he slowly tore himself apart, he started off as a confident incorrigible man. His morals later then became corrupted, he gave into the pressures, his self proclaimed Lone Ranger status had been infected and debunked by his end decision of serving in the Vietnam war. Thesis: In the story, On the Rainy River, the author, Tim O’Brien demonstrates that an individual allows societal pressures and expectations to override their core values, morals, and beliefs; peer pressure forces individuals to put their beliefs aside so they can fit in with everyone else. The narrator, Tim O’Brien faces a similar situation when he get’s drafted for the Vietnam War.

Read More
845 Words | 4 Pages

This is evident when Mr. O’Brien says, “I would go to the war – I would kill and maybe die – because I was embarrassed not to,” (pg. 57.) In the end the author realized what he must do and went back home, so he could fight in the Vietnam

Read More

More about Courage And Shame In The Things They Carried

Open Document