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O Brien's The Things They Carried Literary Analysis

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O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a third-person story about the Vietnam War. O’Brien was sent to Vietnam as a foot soldier in 1969 and left in 1970 with a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star for Valor, and a Combat Infantry Badge. O’Brien’s short story tells the tale of the Vietnam times, using characters to portray his horrors from the war. Mahini et al. divulge into the history of the Vietnam war, or “Bad” war, to better understand the actions of the soldiers in the story. As many readers cannot relate or completely understand the traumas soldiers endured during the war, the authors of the article provide a background for readers to put knowledge into the reading. The article is written to determine the moral compass of the soldiers and how the war shaped them to make decisions and actions. …show more content…

The morale was high as soldiers felt supported and that they were stopping something bad. However, the war took a turn when the soldiers' orders began to change. The article reads “By the end of the 1960’s decade, when President Johnson required American troops to take on the role of direct combat units, the number of American casualties significantly increased. Moreover, during President Nixon’s planned period of combat troop withdrawal, the troops’ morale took a dive as American soldiers struggled to stay alive during their one-year service tour.” (Mahini et al. 4) As many soldiers were fighting both physically and mentally to stay alive during the war, psychiatrists warned that the soldiers were having catastrophic consequences on the units and their performance in battle. It is because of this low morale and performance that the later period of the war became known as the “bad”

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In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried the narrator, Tim O’Brien, often blurs the lines between reality and fiction. As a young soldier, O’Brien recalls the Vietnam war including the sounds, sights, and his emotions, while 20 years later he again shares his feelings and experiences of the same event. This same event, however, is told differently in order to help him cope with the emotional pain of war. The details become blurry as the pain is too great to endure.

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“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story about a group of soldiers at war. Each soldier has either a physical or emotional “thing” that they carry with them to remember people or memories. One of the soldiers, Ted Lavender, is shot in the head while going to the bathroom and Lieutenant Cross takes the blame for his death. This burden of Lavender’s death is carried with Cross throughout the story. Lieutenant Cross continues to do his best throughout the rest of the war in memory of Ted Lavender.

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In Chapter one "The Things They Carried," by O'Brien has deeper meaning with the type of things soldiers were carrying with them all the time. In this chapter which took place in Vietnam during war time is very associated with the soldiers who carried emotional weight physical weight and psychological on their humps or in their minds. The purpose and the way O’Brien described the situation in the chapter tell us different aspect and reasons about carrying things with them or have to deal with it. It is directly correspond to the soldiers behaviors. It also shows that either the soldiers were adapted to the things they have to deal with by force or naturally.

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672 Words | 3 Pages

O’Briens novel The Things They Carried is a unique text because each chapter tells an individual story. The work also becomes misleading because the chapters are told from different viewpoints. Rather than O’Brien using a traditional flow of chronological order, he tells the stories of his comrades to appeal to the reader at different times in the book. The reader can also begin to question O'Brien's reliability and truthfulness because of his uncommon style. The purpose is O’Briens way to cope with his experience in the Vietnam War; he retouches each memory individually depicting the story of his tragic experience at war.

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The novel, “The Things They Carried”, is written by Tim O’Brien and is composed of short stories about O’Brien’s “experiences” in war. The setting is placed in various locations, but mainly around the 1950’s in Vietnam. Through his non-chronological stories, the reader learns about O’Brien’s experiences in the war along with the soldiers who were in his platoon. Through the book, we see both a memoir of the war and an autobiography, however, the book is considered fictional because of his storytelling technique. He writes how a true war story is hard to tell and elucidates the connection between storytelling and his war experience.

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Valor and Heroes in The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was published in 1990. The book is set during the Vietnam war, and It is narrated by O’Brien and tells about the war stories that happened. According to Kleinbard, “O’Brien provides a more substantive reality that has no heroes or valor.”

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Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

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In “A Rumor of War”, Philip Caputo goes into detail about the psychological effects that fighting in the Vietnam War had on American military personnel beyond just their physical injuries. The war was hard on all the people involved. The war deeply affected the values, ethics, and cultural norms of those involved. Caputo exposes the raw reality of war, he paints a vivid portrait of the loss of innocence, moral ambiguity, desensitization to violence, and the trauma that followed them after the war was over. Through the experiences of him and other people, Caputo illustrates the emotions and struggles that defined the Vietnam War generation.

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The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

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The Vietnam War explored the ideas of patriotism and personal beliefs. It was a tumultuous time in American History and caused division among the American people as many questioned the purpose of the war and it led to distrust in government decisions. The war had a huge impact on soldiers who fought in the war, as well as their families. Some men opposed the war but felt pressured to fight and these men were seen as courageous in the eyes of society while the men who deserted the draft were labeled as cowards. However, by looking into both sides it becomes evident that both the men who fought the war and the men who stood by their personal convictions by taking a stand against the draft demonstrated courage.

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More than just the chance to get shot, the war institutionalized the characters. "We became hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious, tough […] We did not break down but adapted ourselves. " The 20-year olds, fresh out of school, were forced to adopt a mindset that allowed them to acclimate to the constant death surround themselves. They learned to take pride is small victories, that to the everyday civilian were normal, but to them were rarities, like comradery and a good meal. "When I see them here [..] I feel an irresistible attraction in it, I would like to be here too and forget the war […] but also it repels me."

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A lot happens in Tim O 'Brien short story "The Things They Carried", at first, the reader speculates what the short story is about and why it is called "The Things They Carried". The narrator Tim O 'Brien tells and describes all the things that the men have to carry while "in-country" during the Vietnam War in the1960 's. The text 's artistic value comes from its plot, characters, conflict, and style. In the plot of the story the protagonist, Tim O 'Brien starts by describing circumstances that happened while he was in Vietnam. In the beginning of "The Things They Carried" we are introduced to each character by the things they carry.

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946 Words | 4 Pages

Tim O’Brien writes about the emotions of war in his book, The Things They carried.” There are many stories about the tragedy and violent nature of the Vietnam War along with stories of comradery and a togetherness that is only felt by brothers of war. Spending months of your life in this environment is bound to have lasting effects on a person. If you experience death, fear, and un-predictableness as your normal, the only chance of survival lies in adaptability. Tim O’Brien proves through his short stories about himself, Mary Anne, Norman Bowker, and others that war changes a person.

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1071 Words | 5 Pages

Originally published in 1990, The Things They Carried is a collection of war stories that took place during the Vietnam War. Due to its accurate and honest depiction of war, it has been banned for crude language, violence, drug use, and sexual innuendo. The author, Tim O’Brien, was born in Austin, Minnesota in 1946. Due to his service in the United States military during the Vietnam War, O’Brien is able to depict the war in a more graphic, and realistic manner.

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Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried plays two roles in the book as a writer and a soldier. The Things They Carried is a memoir about the draft and the Vietnam War. It focuses on the life of Tim O’Brien but also Lt. Cross and many other characters and their journey around the Vietnam War. The experience that Tim O’Brien writes about in the Vietnam War uses as many physical and emotional feelings throughout the memoir. His hatred towards the war and how war separates characters created two narratives during the war and after the war.

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