ipl-logo

Essay On O 'Brien's Things Fall Apart'

445 Words2 Pages

This quote is from O’Brien the author himself admitting that he couldn’t be brave enough to leave his country and that he was embarrassed of what he was trying to do. So, he told himself that he would go to war, kill and maybe die because of the embarrassment idea he made. The idea of this quote is to explain what he feeling/confusion between what he’d do. Should he go to war? Or should he leave his loved ones and country behind.?

“Later we heard that Strunk died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve Dave Jensen of an enormous weight.” (p. 63)
This quote is about a relieve, feel free or better about a guy. Before Strunk died, Strunk keeps telling Jensen that he did not want to die and also said that “don’t kill me” to Jensen. Jensen was relieve because he couldn’t bare the pain that Strunk had but later was announced that Strunk died and Jensen was relieved. …show more content…

“the magic doesn’t go away.” (p112.)

In my perspective the character who said this quote was very sad and depressed because some tragic thing happened to him. I used to say this word “the magic doesn’t go away.” When I say “the magic doesn’t go away” I meant that the love that I have still didn’t go away. I’m pretty sure that’s what he(the character) meant too. The character was in the feeling between sadness and depression.
“All right then,” Henry Dobbins said, “Dance right.” (p. 130) …show more content…

He meant to say that give respect. Azar and Dobbin’s and the other platoon saw a little girl dancing. Azar made fun of her dancing and Dobbins was kind of mad and annoyed by Azar’s dancing because Azar didn’t dance to respect the little girl, he was making fun of her dance. It’s important because it shows the expression of the war, by the dancing

Show More
Related
941 Words | 4 Pages

The woods can change a person’s way of life. May people can account that they are forever changed, and that the way they process situations and perceive the world are entirely different. Not only that, but the wild can provide numerous opportunities to learn new information, even things they never knew about themselves. Franklin Crabbe retained a lot of new information from his time spent in the forest that he will be able to use upon his return to civilization. Firstly, Crabbe learned about placing blame.

Read More
841 Words | 4 Pages

Dobbins appreciated the girl’s dance enough to stand up for her and threaten Azar, “Dobbins, who moved gracefully for such a big man, took Azar from behind and lifted him up high and carried him over to a deep well and asked if he wanted to be dumped in. Azar said no. ‘All right, then,’ Henry Dobbins said, ‘dance right.’” (86). Dobbins is compassionate enough to understand grieving, but this doesn’t make him a pacifist he’s also stressed about this war, but instead of letting the idiocy of a comrade get to him, he keeps his temper in check and threatens the guy instead. Dealing with a stressful is challenging but possible in any way you can.

Read More
438 Words | 2 Pages

This was a result of what they went through and how they reacted to it at the moment. “But, Henry Dobbins who moved gracefully for a big man took Azar from behind and lifted him up high and carried him over to a deep well and asked if he wanted to be dumped in. Azar said. “Alright then,” Henry Dobbins said, “Dance right.” In this section, you see the two perspectives of how soldiers felt.

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
284 Words | 2 Pages

At this moment, O’Brien is going through remorse for himself. He does not think that he should be forced to fight in this war when he does not believe in what they are fighting for. O’Brien believes that the war was unjust because “certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (1002).O’Brien

Read More
839 Words | 4 Pages

‘’I was a coward. I went to the war’’ Pg187. In the short story, ‘’On The Rainy River’’ by Tim O’Brien, The protagonist faces a difficult life decision, he did not want to conform to society the way others wanted him to. He wanted to keep his personal beliefs. Tim O’Brien does not want to conform no matter how vital it is that he should.

Read More
1292 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
427 Words | 2 Pages

“And it was then, listening, that they would feel the trapdoor open, and they’d be falling into that emptiness where all the dreams used to be. They tried to hide it, though…” “an enormous white mountain he had been climbing all his life, and now he watched it come rushing down on him, all that disgrace” John’s mother was quoted saying “But sometimes I feel like his father made him feel-oh, made him feel-oh-maybe overweight” Anthony L. Carbo was quoted saying “He didn’t talk much. Even his wife, I don’t think she knew the first damn thing about…well, about any of it. That man just kept everything buried. Richard Thinbill, in a testimony stated, “We called him Sorcerer.

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
1504 Words | 7 Pages

This quote epitomizes the trauma caused by war. O’Brien is trying to cope, mostly through writing these war stories but has yet to put it behind him. He feels guilt, grief, and responsibility, even making up possible scenarios about the life of the man he killed and the type of person he was. This

Read More
1205 Words | 5 Pages

In the short story, “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, the author develops the idea that when an individual experiences a feeling of shame and humiliation, they often tend to neglect their desires and convictions to impress society. Tim, the narrator, starts off by describing his feeling of embarrassment, “I’ve had to live with it, feeling the shame”, before even elaborating on the cause of the feeling. Near the end of the story, he admits he does not run off and escape to Canada because it had nothing to do with his, “mortality...Embarrassment, that’s all it was”. The narrator experiences this feeling of intense shame and then he decides that he will be “a coward” and go to war. His personal desire is that he wishes to live a normal life and could never imagine himself charging at an enemy position nor ever taking aim at another human being.

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
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
708 Words | 3 Pages

The short story “On the Rainy River”, by Tim O’Brien is an exploration of how guilt and the pressures of society can shape one’s decision making. O’Brien feels guilty about going to war in Vietnam which contradicts his principles and his dream of becoming a writer. In the story, O’Brien admits, “I was a coward, I went to war” (O’Brien 80); he feared how the people of his community, and the rest of society would view him if he ran away. He feared the external embarrassment he would face if he dodged his draft notice instead of serving in the war; the fear of being judged by society was too unbearable for him to face. During O’Brien’s encounter with Elroy Berdahl, he is influenced to adhere to a decision, however, he chose to conform to the expectations of society.

Read More

More about Essay On O 'Brien's Things Fall Apart'

Related Topics

Open Document