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Honor In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

618 Words3 Pages

Despite his past actions or fears, a man can carry on the legacy of honor. In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, the young men struggle with not only their lives as soldiers, but also with the weight of their reputations amongst themselves. They desperately want to be men, and being a man means they must be honorable. However, honor is the perception of his character, and it is only granted when a likeable man accepts his actions, and doles out justice as he sees fit. It is almost paradoxical to honor an unlikeable man—whether the dislike stems from his actual character, or his peers’ perceptions of him. Therefore, he must be a symbol of [agreement?] amongst the people who deem him worthy of honor. One of the first casualties in the novel is Curt Lemon, who was blown up by a rogue detonator. Throughout the chapter, his best friend, Rat Kiley, mourns and tries to cope with his loss by remembering Lemon’s character. Rat wrote in a letter that he could trust Lemon with his life, and that he and Lemon were very similar in so many ways; the dedication needed to respect the memory of his friend blooms from the connection between their personal lives, and who they thought they were. A dishonorable man will surely be remembered, but he will not evoke the same response from his peers. …show more content…

He has grown into a body that moves the way it does because his friends said the way he used to walk was feminine. Tim O’Brien decided to go to the Vietnam War in fear of the social repercussions. In his novel, he reveals his intention of dodging the draft, however, the character based on O’Brien bit the bullet and stayed away from the Canadian border when he realized he cared about what his family and friends would say about him back home. He wanted to be one of the good guys, and, though he opposed the war, O’Brien opposed the legacy of cowardice even

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War is one of the most complex yet completely understood subjects to read or write about. Tim O’Brien has captured the true essence of being drafted into a war. “The Things They Carried” is a novel composed of multiple short stories; Each taking the reader through the perspective of the narrator showing his multiple landscapes, situations, and changing feelings from being drafted into the Vietnam War to surviving it. These stories really help one understand the effects of war on someone’s mind as well as body. Tim O’Brien is the main character and protagonist in this novel.

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Lemon’s sister does not understand how valuable Lemon was to Rat. Rat said that Lemon made the war fun and he was the most influential man in the world. People ignore what

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In Tim O’brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried,” O’brien explains more than just what people face at war. O’Brien gives detail of each burden, struggle, and memory each soldier carries into the war. He describes of a battle more destructive than a war filled with guns, bombs, and knives. He describes of a mind battle, one in which is the hardest any man can face. A mind battle controls your every decision.

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The antagonizing adversity, the convoluted hardships, and the reassuring lies – a war story that engulfs its audience in morality by tapping into a soldier’s inner memories back in the Vietnam War. The memories that Tim O’Brien possesses are documented in The Things They Carried, as it details the tragedy of mindlessly wandering on the battlefield with the disturbing thought of possibly being dead in seconds while carrying the burdens of the companions who died. It is a tragedy from the perspective of insiders versus outsiders, as one persists while the other watches them mourn their lives. Looking back to old memories like a distant friend, Tim O’Brien compounds fear, friendship, and falsehoods to retell his experiences as an American soldier to demonstrate that we are human individuals coping

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599 Words | 3 Pages

People get so caught up in what others think and expect of them that they let it completely control the decisions they make. The soldiers in “The Things They Carried” have a fear of looking weak and cowardice. They let this fear and their pride control them even if it is not what they want. Tim O’Brien, Norman Bowker, and Curt Lemon are examples of soldiers who let fear control them. The soldiers fear that the people close to them and around them will discover their weaknesses.

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862 Words | 4 Pages

The Things They Carried Thematic Essay “Special honor or respect shown publicly,” is the definition of homage and homage is the biggest motivator in Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried. He wrote this book to pay homage to the men who died for our country during his fight in Vietnam. It is a theme that carries throughout this collection of stories. The Things They Carried is a way to see what these soldiers went through and who they were before passing away.

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“A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (83). The theme of “happening-truth” versus “story-truth” is a constant opposition Tim O’Brien uses to convey his “true war story” to his audience. Many times in the book The Things They Carried, O’Brien lies to the reader to attempt to give the reader realistic events, so they can relate to the emotions O’Brien felt during the Vietnam war. O’Brien makes it clear in the chapter “Field Trip” that a person who has not been to war cannot comprehend what it was like. He uses a fictional character, Kathleen, to be a stand in for the reader; she is innocent and free from the burden of serving in wartime.

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990 Words | 4 Pages

Through centuries of great wars and battles, history has displayed brave men and women who have fought for their countries. These audacious people have helped propel countries for the greater good. However, the weight and responsibility, of the war, takes a heavy toll on soldiers that is often overlooked. Tim O’Brien, author of the novel The Things They Carried, records his stories, and the stories of his fellow soldiers during the war. However, three of these soldiers are affected in an outlandish way.

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500 Words | 2 Pages

The Things They Carried is a novel written by Tim O'Brien which follows the daily thoughts, actions, and moments of a company serving in the Vietnam War. The meaning of this work was to depict the gruesome images and effects of war as well as the toll it can take on people. This is executed by utilizing morally ambiguous characters, which are characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evi or purely good. Many characters in the book are morally ambiguous, but one, an unnamed vietcong soldier who was killed in the novel stands out the most.

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950 Words | 4 Pages

The Things He Felt Written by Tim O’Brien and being a postwar novel, The Things They Carried differs highly from the other books associated with the same genre by its unique structure and distinctive approach towards events. The book does not have an uninterrupted flow, nor does it leave the audience with the satisfaction of knowing the exact truth. However, these lacks turn out being precisely what O’Brien aspires to accomplish. Throughout the novel, the narrator rotates around his memories “...clockwise as if in orbit”(133), not being able to identify a starting or an ending point, thus conveying his experiences to the reader in the same way he feels: blurry, repetitive and ambiguous.

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651 Words | 3 Pages

The Things They Carried” is a great short story by Tim O’Brien who displays the remarkable story of soldiers during the Vietnam War. Being away from your family, in an unknown place, giving up your life’s luxuries is difficult to handle mentally and physically. Similarly, in the short story we see how soldiers try to overcome their fear by escaping from the reality of the war time situation around them, to a world that is just an illusion. Throughout the short story we see several men coping through their fear in Vietnam as they had the responsibility of a solider and carried burdens of need and emotions. In order to cope with their fear, the soldiers talked with each other and told each other what they felt since the only thing that they had was time and pain.

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Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is stories centered around the American soldiers in the Vietnam war. O’Brien explains how the harsh atmosphere of war can mentally and physically traumatize a soldier. In order to escape this atmosphere some men fantasize about the women they love. The men do not think of the women as people with their own thoughts and feelings, instead they think of them as forms of comfort or motivation for survival. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Mark Fossie profess to hate the women they love because the women do not fulfil the fantasies the men have created.

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