Intangible Objects In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1.) In our first chat session of the semester (way back in late January, the 22-26), one of the things we talked about was how Tim O’Brien favored the intangible over the tangible in his story, “The Things They Carried.” Tangible things are physical objects that a person could hold in their hands or something he or she could actually see, something with actual weight and mass – in O’Brien’s story, this could be things like weapons, helmets, equipment, and the like. Intangible things are non-physical objects that can’t be put on a scale to be measured, like emotions, fears, hopes, and the like. In “The Things They Carried,” why does O’Brien place more emphasis on intangible things than tangible things? And, how do these intangible things affect

Each soldier was affected by the war emotionally and mentally, dealing with heavy loads of stress causing them to feel fear, hope, and grief. Emotions could be argued the most severe and problematic on the soldiers. Keeping a strong, able-bodied mentality added with perception and decision making was a struggle for many in the war because they were overtaken with fear for their lives as well as others. These intangible things explain and reveal why the soldiers came back changed and what they went through to survive in a place where death surrounds them at every moment. These hardships created a negative state of mind which also adds to why they became someone

From looking at the point of view in his initial acceptance of creating a mate for the creature, I believe it shed light that Victor realized that he has duties and obligations to his society and himself included; no other person as well as Victor would have to come across the creature. Although Victor’s decision changes later in the story, he initially was convinced by the creature that the situation would be fixed if he was given a female mate similar to himself, ugly and unwanted When he abandoned and left the creature behind in the beginning, he never gave it the chance to have a normal life destroying a hopeful future for him. But when the creature finds Victor, it asks for one thing and one thing only, to have a mate and live a life without the pain of being alone and unaccepted on earth. Initially, Victor may have thought to himself that what he did was not completely fair, but for the most part, he wants to rid of the monster that killed William as well. When the creature came to him, he conferred that if he did create the mate he was asking for, they would disappear from his life and not disturb him anymore. All in all, Victor wanted to believe that the creature and his mate would leave as he explained and never return leaving Victor and his family