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Data Sheet: The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Vinne Virk
Miss Kopietz/Block E
Data Sheet The Things They Carried
22 Aug 2016
Data Sheet The Things They Carried
Title: The Things They Carried
Author: Tim O’Brien
Date of Publication: 1990
Genre: Fiction
Historical Information about the period of publication (cite source): On August 2, 1990, the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait. When negotiations failed, the United States-led coalition of military forces attacked the Iraqi Army in January 1991 and officially liberated Kuwait on February 25, 1991.
Biographical Information about the author (cite source): Tim O'Brien is from Austin, Minnesota. He was born on October 1, 1946, a birth date he shares with several of his characters (as well as with his webmaster!), and grew up in Worthington, "Turkey Capital …show more content…

He offers readers a story within a story within a story. The general frame is one of an author and veteran thinking about Vietnam. As the author recollects and presents a story about animating the dead, another story within that story unfolds, O'Brien recollecting the death of his childhood friend, Linda. This layer of stories characterizes the power of stories as devices for ordering the events of life and figuring out one's response to those events.
Diction: All throughout the novel, O’Brien uses profanity and informal diction when talking about specific events and characters. Because most of the events occurred during the Vietnam War, such diction creates a good visual to picture the time period of when the story takes place and allows the reader to gain a better understanding of the situation. O’Brien used terms that he would use when conversing with his fellow soldiers for example the word “humped” which is supposed to mean “to carry something” or “to walk” (O’Brien …show more content…

Memorable Quotes: 1) This quote, from towards the beginning of the book, explains how the Vietnam War was different from WWII. Rather than engaging in open battle with a distinct front, Vietnam was more about search and destroy. Finding the enemy was more tough than killing him. The endless repetitiveness of the march kept the soldiers from feeling as if they’ve even accomplished anything. This increases the sense of uncertainty in the war and in the book. 2) O’Brien gets to a quite important point of self-realization while out fishing on the Rainy River. 3) The soldiers within a platoon became close and started to form relationships, but when death occurred language helped minimize those relationships to make the parting of ways or separation not as painful. They used words like greased, zapped, offed, lit up, to describe the deaths of their friends. 4) Fear and shame also come along with courage. O’Brien believes that a lot of the things we do are lead by shame opposed to courage. The true reason why men would march up and down the mountains of Vietnam is because they were afraid to be cowards and humiliated in the eyes of their comrades, opposed to

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