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Essay On O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

1388 Words6 Pages

“I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to war” (61). A main theme in The Things They Carried is how a man must find a way to overcome fear. The characters learn that they must have enough courage so they are able to overcome their fears. Years after the war, O’Brien reflects on his decision to fight in the Vietnam War. When he was drafted, O’Brien was pressured to go to war by the people of his hometown of Worthington. They would not let O’Brien make his own conscious decision to either fight or flee. Although he did believe in parts of the mission of the war, O’Brien was taking a stance against it while he was still in college. When he fled, O’Brien was undecided on going to war. He could not figure out whether it was worth it to let down his town, or follow his own moral beliefs. O’Brien believes it was his own choice to run from the war. At the time, O’Brien thought it was in his best interests to avoid the war. O’Brien did not completely support it, and even though he would let down his hometown, he felt it in the end it was his own choice. O’Brien thought he was being the real man that he is when he flees because he stands up for what he believes in. When he opposes the war, O’Brien feels justified by his own morals. O’Brien works hard at the lodge in which he resides so he can earn the money to …show more content…

Many people care too much about how others view them. Whether someone else approves of their thoughts and actions affects what anybody does. Many other stories describe soldiers that fight in the war for the pride of the country, or because they wish to die honorably. In The Things They Carried, the men do not want honor, but do not want the embarrassment of avoiding the war. Fighting in the war and dying honorably gives a man a great sense of pride and accomplishment. However, these men do not care about their own self pride. They only work for the approval of

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In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien expresses to the reader why the men went to the war and continued to fight it. In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather they were too frightened to be cowards.” The soldiers went to war not because they were courageous and ready to fight, but because they felt the need to go. They were afraid and coped with their lack of courage by telling stories (to themselves or aloud) and applied humor to the situations they encountered.

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O’Brien is trying to present young warriors in war as fragile living creatures who are blood and bone, not fantasy fighters who bring glory to the cause, “This idea of the deified nation, a replacement god of abstract principle that can be honored and worshipped through war, has been gradually ousted from its place as the center of the American story” (Ooms 42) That is what the many sides of the story are in conflict while purporting to be the one true version of what happened. No one’s account is really reliable. All of the accounts are based on individual impressions including those of solidarity among the soldiers. O 'Brien demands that outdated stories of grit and valor be put aside to make room for a new kind of war story.

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A Marker On The Side Of The Boat Analysis

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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

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1413 Words | 6 Pages

Hidden somewhere within the blurred lines of fiction and reality, lies a great war story trapped in the mind of a veteran. On a day to day basis, most are not willing to murder someone, but in the Vietnam War, America’s youth population was forced to after being pulled in by the draft. Author Tim O’Brien expertly blends the lines between fiction, reality, and their effects on psychological viewpoints in the series of short stories embedded within his novel, The Things They Carried. He forces the reader to rethink the purpose of storytelling and breaks down not only what it means to be human, but how mortality and experience influence the way we see our world. In general, he attempts to question why we choose to tell the stories in the way

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

This decision stemmed from the military draft, which occurred during the month of June. Thinking the war in Vietnam was a war in which “certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (O’Brien 38), his first instinct was to leave the United States and avoid the draft all together. On the other hand, if he were to go to war, he would be fighting a war of which he hated. Canada became his safe-haven for escaping the draft. O’Brien stayed at the Tip Top Lodge on the border of Canada and Minnesota, contemplating whether to leave his old life behind or be forced into war.

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688 Words | 3 Pages

He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

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561 Words | 3 Pages

The Things They Carried is an interesting novel not like many others in that it is not one continuous story on a single plot line, but rather the novel is a collection of fictional short stories from a young soldier’s time stationed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The stories do not follow a specific order either, and they often are set in different time periods, like how Chapters 1 (The Things They Carried), 2 (Love), and 3 (Spin) are set in the time period when the main character, Tim O’Brien, is deployed in Vietnam, while Chapter 4 (On the Rainy River) is set before the war started right after Tim was drafted, and tells the story of him trying to escape the war. The stories tell the reader the story of the differing backgrounds of many

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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

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