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How Does Tim O Brien Present The Transformation In The Things They Carried

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Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried explores the experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam War, along with their thoughts and memories. Though the events that take place could be exaggerated or completely made up, the thoughts and feelings of the characters still shine through and feel very real. The stories use a grim and uncontrollable atmosphere juxtaposed with the normality of human action that works to suggest war is above common morality yet defends the humanity of the soldiers who fight it.
O'Brien begins his novel by listing the various items soldiers would carry to emphasize the literal weight on their shoulders, helping the reader see the humanity in these fighters. He uses the numerical poundage, which gives an understanding of how …show more content…

O’Brien describes himself as an unreliable narrator a couple of times throughout his book, but every thought and feeling of the characters he writes is very real, giving the reader glimpses into what Vietnam was really like. One story told by Rat Kiley embodies the transformation from innocence while in Vietnam. Having someone ship a girlfriend to spend time with them in Vietnam is not very realistic in a war setting; however, the evolution of her character is. Women are often pictured in literature as innocent beings, incapable of taking care of themselves, as in the introduction of the character Marry Anne. She was just "this seventeen-year-old doll in her goddamn culottes, perky and fresh-faced, like a cheerleader visiting the opposing team’s locker room. Her pretty blue eyes seemed to glow" (O’Brien 96). She is awe-stricken by Vietnam and is taken care of by the soldiers. Her boyfriend had control over her, and she was innocent. This is a perfect representation of a fresh soldier coming into war with nothing to fear and an army to hold them up. This soldier still embodies their ideals of home and peace, lacking any exposure to gore and only being there to take orders. However, as Mary Anne continues her stay, she begins tackling gruesome medical work, slowly desensitizing and changing her. The changes Vietnam enacts on her make her unrecognizable, like the many soldiers in similar situations. She begins yearning for the war and can’t get enough of it. In the end, her boyfriend is left lost to his previous lover, exclaiming, "I can’t find her" (O’Brien 100). Just like many soldiers in the war, Mary Anne became addicted to the war and a shell of the person she once embodied. The weight dropped on soldiers during the war is so heavy

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The Things They Carried by American author Tim O’Brien, who was drafted in the Vietnam war, describes the experience of the American infantry fighting in Vietnam. O’Brien utilises various rhetorical devices to illustrate the immense emotional & physical burdens the soldiers were to bear to enlighten the reader about the true horrors of war. For example, O’Brien employs asyndeton & polysyndeton in sentences listing the many things the soldiers carried. “They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades…,” (O’Brien). The lists of items carried carry on, overwhelming & exhausting the reader of the physical burdens of war.

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In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the reader receives insight as to what soldiers experienced during the Vietnam War and what thoughts consumed their minds in those times of hardship and heartache. As Americans, we typically picture military men and women as emotionally and physically strong, while in reality, that may not be the case. They deal with more emotional and physical trauma than we come to understand. People who carry physical or emotional burdens tend to seek some kind of release or do something to feel relieved of their burdens. O’Brien uses stories about the men in his platoon to depict how soldiers are bound by their own emotional weights, and each have a different way of trying to release themselves from those tensions.

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Although the soldier he killed was an enemy soldier, instead of vilifying him he was able to humanize the man. O’Brien was able to describe the physical appearance of the soldier and imagine her life before war. The author was able to portray an emotional connection and made the line between friend and enemy almost vanish. This was able to reveal the natural beauty of shared humanity even in the context of war’s horror. O’Brien is able to find the beauty in the midst of this tragic and horrible event.

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The short story, “The Things They Carried,” written by Tim O’Brien (1990), appears to be an unpretentious narration that list the tangible items carried by the soldiers while fighting in the Vietnam War. Upon further review it becomes clear that the lists of “things” have a much deeper meaning and carry an abundance amount of emotional weight. Not only is their load a physical burden that consist of hefty equipment that is necessary for survival, but they also bear the burden of internal conflict. The internal conflicts identified in the story center around the disturbing afflictions carried by the soldiers revealing that the men long for an escape from their dreadful surroundings, feel responsible for the lives of their fellow soldiers,

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1067 Words | 5 Pages

Tim O’Brien wrote this fictional story to allow the readers to understand how the war was for the people who fought in it while using the character of Rat Kiley to show how Vietnam can bring out the darkness in a person such as Mary Anne and Azar and how it prompts imagination that can make the reality even scarier and real. The book then narrates, “For Rat Kiley, I think, facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around, and when you listened to one of his stories, you’d find yourself performing rapid calculations in your head, subtracting superlatives, figuring the square root of an absolute and then multiplying

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2081 Words | 9 Pages

The soldiers in the Vietnam War are portrayed as losing themselves in the chaos and trauma of combat. Through the stories of the soldiers and their experiences, O’Brien explores the ways in which war strips away one's sense of identity and humanity. The author himself is depicted as losing himself in the war. O'Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his experiences inspired much of the book. Through the character of Tim O'Brien, the author explores the ways in which war can strip away one's sense of self and purpose.

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701 Words | 3 Pages

It’s scarier than I would imagine sometimes it could make you do things you would never imagine yourself doing. If you would ever ask me what I think about the Vietnam War or what I think about it. I would tell you to me it’s a different life and you’re a different person as soon as you walk into it and out of it. ‘’they carried the soldiers greatest fear which was the fear of blushing men killed and died because they were embarrassed not to it was what had brought them to war in the first place nothing positive no dreams or glory or honor’’[20]

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880 Words | 4 Pages

The transformation that Mary Anne went through after coming to Vietnam with Mark Fossie is unsettling to the readers and the characters in the story. As a human being, all of us assume that an innocent person is not capable of acting weird and having a change in their behavior. Therefore, when Mary Anne was completely consumed by the Vietnamese culture is was surprising. We only expect the worst in people who are unattractive.

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1213 Words | 5 Pages

Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried" is a short story that explores the experiences of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The story depicts the physical and emotional weight that soldiers carry with them during the war, highlighting the challenges that soldiers face both on and off the battlefield. Through the items that the soldiers carry with them, the story reveals the emotional and physical burdens of war and the masking of emotions because of masculine identity. The story begins with a list of items that the soldiers carry with them, ranging from physical items such as guns and ammunition to intangible items such as fear and guilt.

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1243 Words | 5 Pages

In Tim O'Brien's novel "The Things They Carried," the concept of "weight" is explored throughout the narrative, serving as a symbol of both physical and emotional burdens that the soldiers carry during the war. O'Brien uses both literal and figurative definitions of "weight" to convey the psychological challenges faced by the characters. In a literal

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1082 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Things They Carried,” we can emotionally relate thanks to the author, Tim O’Brien’s incredible tone, as well as his choice of words. O’Brien is a US veteran who fought in Vietnam. Unfortunately he was discharged after receiving a shrapnel wound in battle near My Lai. He did, however, receive a Purple Heart (Mandell 392). This story focuses on both the physical and emotional burdens that these particular soldiers can and do carry.

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1179 Words | 5 Pages

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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894 Words | 4 Pages

Some were very cold-hearted towards the woman, while others felt bad that they injured a woman (ch.12). He also illustrates how war can change people through Major Callicles, after the My Lai massacre the major becomes what he hated the most, and drunken alcoholic, in his drunkenness he makes rash decisions (ch 22). O’Brien continues to emphasize the fact that the soldiers hated the enemy they didn’t know. He didn’t see the Vietnamese soldiers as the enemy, rather he saw them as people in his position;

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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.

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823 Words | 4 Pages

The story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien is about First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross in the Vietnam War, struggling to balance his love for a young girl named Martha and his duties as the Lieutenant. Throughout the story his love becomes an obsession which he cannot control. In the story the narrator keeps naming everything the soldiers carried(tangible and intangible) and tells the reader how much they weighed. By the end of the story we, as readers, realize that the soldiers are carrying all of their gear, but the most important things they are carrying is the fear, memories, and thoughts of loved ones. In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien is trying to tell us that the heaviest things we carry are the ones which weigh nothing.

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