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Irony In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Tim O’Brien that signifies the use of literary acuity in explaining the beauty of his piece of art. Considering the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the book lays bare stories, especially of experiences a soldier may go through in war; and that is the standpoint of the piece of art. A number of themes are brought out clearly by the book as per the author’s storytelling prowess; however, the principal theme that is explored in Tim O’Brien’s literary work includes the war storytelling portrayals (O’Brien 9). In regard to this, the book plays a vital role in determining the real picture of the accurate portrayals one may endure during the time of war. Therefore, accurate portrayals are descriptions, facts, and analysis of a given …show more content…

This is evident by the fundamental portrait of literary skills employed by Tim O’Brien. The book portrays emotional and physical burden (O’Brien 83). The story shows characters with both emotional burdens, such as grief, terror, longing, and love. For instance, Henry Dobbins lifts his girlfriend Pantyhose and shows love and longing for her, as the author says, “the way Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend's pantyhose around his neck like a comforter” (O’Brien 28). This is an indication of literary skills that clearly portray feelings of affection used to make the story lively. Also, considering the survivors of the war, they underwent psychological challenges and feelings associated with it. The feelings survivors have include confusion, guilt, and grief, thus, the collection stories indicate how the war experience is linked to the piece of art. In regard to this, Jimmy in the story laments of the feeling he has about death, as the author in the book says, “Jimmy Cross confides in O’Brien that he has never forgiven himself for Ted Lavender’s death” (O’Brien 30). According to the book, a number of lessons, episodes, and characterization depict an art form, especially the accurate portrayals. This is evident from a myriad of experiences as put forward by the

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In The Things They Carried there was a lot going on in my essay. I had a weak thesis to, I did not explain how the rhetorical devices O’Brien used was significant to the audience, and I did not have a conclusion. First, for my thesis, I kept most of the order I had before, but deleted the metaphor part and moved it somewhere else. Also, in my body paragraphs, I was skipping important ideas such as the most important: the audience, I had to make sure I wrote about how O’Brien’s rhetorical devices affected them. Such as when he use polysyndeton it was so that the readers understand that soldiers did not have one feeling throughout the war but multiple.

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376 Words | 2 Pages

The first chapter of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried gives a detailed description of something each soldier carried. You’re presented with a photo First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries, the extra rations that Henry Dobbins carries and the tranquilizers that Ted Lavender carries and an explanation behind each object. In each explanation there are rhetorical devices used to intrigue the reader and help further develop each character. O’Brien, on page 143, is focusing on Norman Bowker in the town he lived in as a child. O’ Brien conveys this part of the novel by personifying, creating dialogue, and giving an illustration that appeals to sound and sight.

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403 Words | 2 Pages

Rhetorical Analsys Novelist, Tim O'Brien, in his anecdote, "Style", connects the effects of war on both the soldiers and the victims. O'Brien's purpose is to reveal the dark contrast of the war-hardened soldiers, and the ravaged victims. He adopts a objective tone in order to convey the normality of the war and all of the death and pain brought on by it. O'brien opens his anecdote by describing the village, the dancing girl, and the soldiers' reaction to the dancing girl. He constructs the dancing girl while the soldiers walk through the blown up village.

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1782 Words | 8 Pages

But Tim O’brien flips those ideas upside down using the chapter “How To Tell A True War Story” in The Things They Carried. The reader learns of a young man whose best friend dies in war, and how he writes a letter to the sister about his life, only to never get one in return. Throughout this chapter, the reader learns how truly contradictory the idea of a “true war story” really is. With a reflective and didactic tone, Tim O’brien effectively teaches those who have not fought in a war how to tell a true war story-- that “a

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844 Words | 4 Pages

This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.

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1541 Words | 7 Pages

Tim O’Brien Research Essay Truth is something that Tim O’Brien wants his readers to comprehend about war throughout his writing. For example in The Things They Carried O’Brien mentions that he doesn’t support the Vietnam war, but he supports the fact that he is fighting for his country and for their safety. “They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity.” (The Things They Carried,39) O’Brien uses figurative language to emphasis his writing and uses symbolism to convey the importance of a message to the readers.

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934 Words | 4 Pages

Tim O’Brien states, “Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (O’Brien 16). In this quote, Tim O’Brien explains that since Jimmy Cross blames himself about Ted Lavender’s death, he will always be in lieutenant’s head. Thus, the lieutenant will always feel the guilt. With this, Tim O’Brien makes the reader think that Jimmy Cross is the person to blame since he is the head of the group and he has to pay more attention to his plans. Having questions about his love, Martha, in his mind instead of being careful about his men is the reason of him feeling guilty that “the lieutenant’s in some deep hurt” (17).

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648 Words | 3 Pages

The Things They Carried “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story set during the Vietnam War. In the story, O’Brien lists many different items soldiers in the Alpha Company carried with them as they humped across the rugged terrain. Many carried necessities such as rations, matches, ammunition and things of that nature; however, many soldiers also carried quite peculiar objects such as condoms, pantyhose, and M&Ms. Readers can grasp a closer insight of the characters’ lives after further examination of the symbolism and meaning of the things they carried.

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701 Words | 3 Pages

What is surrealism? How do you know what’s real or unreal? Sometimes when authors write we can’t tell if it's real or more of an exaggeration. We can't really understand the truth. In the novel ‘’The Things They Carried’’ by Tim O’Brien is about the Vietnam War and his experiences with it.

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540 Words | 3 Pages

Symbolism in O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, plays a huge part in trying to support the author’s message. O’Brien uses symbols everywhere such as with the characters and to help develop the structure of the novel. The author decides to hide some of the symbols while some of the other symbols are in the open, making the symbols easy for the readers to pick up or understand clearly. The author uses symbolism in different forms, mainly intangible for an example. The main point of using symbols in a novel is to engage the readers, wanting them to continue reading, get the hidden messages across, and mainly addressing the theme.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

O’Brien’s intended audience was young people who were not educated about the war and he discussed the themes shame/guilt and mortality/death. The chapter “The Things They Carried” gives an introduction about the men in the group, it also shows shame/guilt. The chapter talks about the equipment each soldier carried and how it affected them. During this chapter it focuses primarily on LT.

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1652 Words | 7 Pages

Many stories throughout history attempt to recreate what war seemingly feels like. War is largely undescribable to those who have not actually experienced it, but literary devices can bridge the gap between actual experience and “experience” gained strictly through reading. Specifically, in The Things They Carry, the author appeals to the reader's senses and by doing this creates an image in the reader’s mind. This image helps the reader create an empathetic and more legitimate depiction of the war experience. Furthermore, word choice helps the reader decipher the mucky world of war by creating imagery that helps them relate to their own experiences.

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1284 Words | 6 Pages

Tim O’Brien never lies. While we realise at the end of the book that Kiowa, Mitchell Sanders and Rat Kiley are all fictional characters, O’Brien is actually trying to tell us that there is a lot more truth hidden in these imagined characters than we think. This suggests that the experiences he went through were so traumatic, the only way to describe it was through the projection of fictional characters. O’Brien explores the relationship between war experiences and storytelling by blurring the lines between truth and fiction. While storytelling can change and shape a reader’s opinions and perspective, it might also be the closest in helping O’Brien cope with the complexity of war experiences, where the concepts like moral and immorality are being distorted.

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1622 Words | 7 Pages

Weight and Truth, two terms with definitions that appear as simple and concrete ideas. Simply put, Weight is the measure of how heavy something is. Truth is a fact about an event or idea. However, in the Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a fictional novel about a squad of American soldiers in the Vietnam War narrated by a character who takes the author’s name, O’Brien uses his own definitions of Weight and Truth. The men carry physical and mental burdens both during and after the war.

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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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