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Emotional Burdens In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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The author was writing the story “The Things They Carried” expressed so many thoughts and feelings about what the soldiers had faced, they showed their feelings and duties, life or death, and overall fear and dedication. This story shows the theme of the physical and emotional burdens that everyone is going through in the war. By showing his readers what the soldier’s daily thoughts are and how they handle what is going on around them. Tim O’Brien expresses this theme by using characterization, symbolism, and tone continuously. In the story, physical and emotional burdens plagued several characters as they all had baggage weighing them down. Throughout the story Tim O’Brien uses characterization to bring out the theme of physical and emotional …show more content…

Characterization plays a big role capturing the theme due to the sacrifice from the soldiers. Symbolism shows how much of an emotional burden was the loss of fellow soldiers and the love the left back home. Tone expresses the buried feelings that have been kept within the soldier’s minds. When he uses these three elements he helped his readers see a deeper meaning. To see his reader not only look at a bigger picture but to really understand what the soldiers had to face day in and day out. When the author expresses the feelings within Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s troops we see their individual personalities. When the author used characterization, symbolism, and tone, they truly brought out the theme of physical and emotional burdens throughout “The Things They …show more content…

He accepted the blame of Ted Lavender’s death because he was more focused on Martha than he was about his troops. Wesley states that while Jimmy Cross accepts the blame he thinks this will make it all better by accepting heroic responsibility. This relieved the stress upon Cross and made him feel as if he was even more of a leader and not a coward. When Ted Lavender died they treated it as if it was nothing but a daily routine. They rolled him up in his poncho and took him to the patty and waited for the chopper to arrive and take Ted Lavender back to America. After the fact, they were constantly talking about how Ted fell to the ground. “Boom Down” is all they would say. Forcing the memory to repeat inside of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s

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In The Things They Carried the author, Tim O’Brien, uses rhetorical strategies in order to emphasize the events of war, which then assists the reader into experiencing the burden and overall experiences of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of Chapter One, O’Brien arranges his writing in a way that relates back to the experience of war. By organizing the paragraph into a list, the reader is dragged through the burden of a paragraph with it’s repetition and boring content. This directly correlates with the event of the war, the soldiers are going through the same feeling of burden when they constantly march. Along with war comes new relationships with the soldiers.

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In the book The Things They Carried Tim- O’Brien experiences many altercations that either happens to him or happens to his infantry group of soldiers. This was a nonlinear novel because the chapters jump from one subject to another. O’Brien experienced tragic lifetime events in his battle career when it came to him deciding if he was going to publish a novel or not with his twenty years of active duty. O'Brien's two themes shame/guilt and storytelling/memory was being used. The themes relate to him because these are the things he uses and experiences.

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In the book, the language used could really strike the reader and truly show the misery they experienced. “The morning was cold and wet. They had not slept during the night, not even for a few moments, and all three of them were feeling the tension as they moved across the field toward the river.” ( O’Brien, p.105) The author uses imagery to show first hand what the soldiers encountered on that wet rainy day.

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This is all utilized by the author to deepen the audience's knowledge of war’s impact on those who went through it. Imagery is a literary

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While the Lieutenant was daydreaming about Martha, Ted Lavender, a soldier of Alpha Company, was killed by a gunshot to the head on his way back from relieving himself. Jimmy blamed himself for the man’s death. He blamed himself because he was distracted with thoughts of Martha instead of his own soldiers. “He loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because her loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her, (O’Brien, 96).” After grieving over the soldier’s death, Jimmy decided that he would change.

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Have you ever been in such a stressful situation while trying to think normal? In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the author describes the situations these troops are put through. Along with the situations, the author tells the audience the thoughts and feelings going on with the men. Showing that the men are affected by the situations they are exposed to. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien explains the equipment that the characters need to carry to be prepared for the worst.

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Throughout the text, Cross “could not stop thinking about [Martha]” (p. 116), unable to concentrate on the war or the men he is charged with leading. Consequently, Cross’ distraction and inadequate leadership result in Lavender’s death. Cross finds himself accountable because “he loved [Martha] more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her” (p.

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A theme The Things They Carried is the emotion and physical burden the men went through the war. The men carried so much weight on their back walking miles and miles on end through jungles and swamp like lands days on end with very little breaks or sleep. And then they have the emotional effects of war like knowing you have to kill someone to stay alive it`s killed or be killed or knowing if you die a military officer is going to knock on your day and give your mom a folded flag. But Back to the physical side of things they walk walk and walk till they can`t walk no more it feels like and they still keep on walking their bodies are drained and exhausted their bodies and dead.

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Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried a map and compass, which symbolized his responsibility of leading his men. Cross also brought the desire for love and a normal life, wherever he went, in the form of letters and pictures from a girl named Martha. The letters were his way of escape from the pressure of leading his battalion. The heaviest baggage Cross carried, though, was grief. When Ted Lavender was shot and killed, Cross had been day-dreaming of Martha, instead on the lookout for danger.

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Tim O’Brien states, “Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (O’Brien 16). In this quote, Tim O’Brien explains that since Jimmy Cross blames himself about Ted Lavender’s death, he will always be in lieutenant’s head. Thus, the lieutenant will always feel the guilt. With this, Tim O’Brien makes the reader think that Jimmy Cross is the person to blame since he is the head of the group and he has to pay more attention to his plans. Having questions about his love, Martha, in his mind instead of being careful about his men is the reason of him feeling guilty that “the lieutenant’s in some deep hurt” (17).

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When most people think of war, they think of all the physical damages, terror, and destruction. Even though the physical damages and deaths are scary and can cause burdens, the emotional stance and psychological effects of war are the more devastating and destructive parts of war. Throughout the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien articulates how times of war brings out the powerful effects of shame, guilt, and fear on the human mind. The intangible negative emotions that every soldier carries may not have physical weight, but is a burden that every man possesses. Shame; the feeling of embarrassment, feeling as if other people are judging the actions one takes.

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The Things They Carried “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story set during the Vietnam War. In the story, O’Brien lists many different items soldiers in the Alpha Company carried with them as they humped across the rugged terrain. Many carried necessities such as rations, matches, ammunition and things of that nature; however, many soldiers also carried quite peculiar objects such as condoms, pantyhose, and M&Ms. Readers can grasp a closer insight of the characters’ lives after further examination of the symbolism and meaning of the things they carried.

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Burdens of a Soldier Soldiers are looked up to all around the world. They are heroes. They are role models. The things they do and go through are widely appreciated by all.

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Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person, marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of repetition, symbolism, and metaphors to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers during war. Though the literary device of repetition, O'Brien portrays the physical and psychological hardships of a soldier.

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Why did Lieutenant Jimmy Cross accept the blame for Ted Lavender 's death? He was the First Lieutenant and it was his responsibility to keep his unit safe. It also showed that Jimmy Cross was becoming a man.

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