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Data Sheet: The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1362 Words6 Pages

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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These stories show the harsh realities of the Vietnam War communicated by Tim O’Brien’s memory. O’Brien does not shy away from the importance of friendship during the war. Soldiers are

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Tim O’Brien writes us a wonderful fictional tale of a platoon of men in vietnam during the vietnam war, The Things They Carried shows the reader that when the men are over in this distant and strange land, not only do they carry physical objects, but emotional baggage and ideas that truly make, or break a man in war. Tim and his men show several signs of stress and turmoil while fighting the war, and while they survive they begin to understand what is really means to live, die, and what is right, and wrong. While over in vietnam the men are in a war, not a simple skirmish or fight, but a full on war against an enemy that they were not sure they are the enemy. The men would walk from location from location seeing what there is to do and trying

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One of the important truths of a war story is that it doesn’t leave out the dirty gritty details that really tell the experience. A reader may see this quote and feel strange that O’Brien chooses to point out that war stories aren’t for feeling uplifted, they probably chose this book to get a good story about some soldiers in Vietnam. Rather, O’Brien wants the reader to see that any war story worth telling is going to leave in the terrible parts that cause disgust and retching. War is not something to be used to feel that there is a greater

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Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

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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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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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Rather, the significance of O’Brien’s work is his utilization of a metafictional novel as a representative vehicle for the Vietnam War. Within The Things They Carried

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There is the illusion of aliveness” (O’Brien 218). Storytelling and its process involves fabrication in order to make a story flow and intrigue those who hear it. While, inevitably, imagination and the human condition manage to disturb recalling the war’s reality, O’Brien finds solace in rearranging his perceptions, hoping to discover

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The fear also impacted the relationships the American soldiers had with one another. Most soldiers were concerned about obtaining social acceptance during the war. Social acceptance may seem to be unimportant but played a factor especially since the idea of coming close to death united them daily. Shame was often tied to the soldiers being engaged to dangerous and ridiculous actions. Soldiers were often blinded by the idea of shame and attempted to fight not only in the war but also fought for their loved ones

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Many soldiers that served in the Vietnam war suffered dramatically pertaining to mental and physical health. O’Brien and many other soldiers also had the same views on the Vietnam War, such as that it was pointless for the United States. Most soldiers were frustrated with the fact that they were fighting for their country with no purpose or benefit for the American people. In the book O’Brian said, “I can’t stop crying. I can’t stop thinking of what a waste it all was” (O’Brian 7).

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There are a lot of ways that my essay is like a book the things they carried. First the use of tone is one lit devise that both O’brien and I used. I used deeper language and try to make things feel more important with the tone. O 'Brien the way uses tone in the things they carried is in the way he talks about war he uses emotional and epic tone as seen in the quote “ The town could not talk, and would not listen.” "How 'd you like to hear about the war?

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