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Obstacles In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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In the book, The Things They Carried, the narrator, and author, Tim O'Brien faces several different obstacles that he has to overcome. The main one that he goes through all starts when he gets his draft notice for the Vietnam Wa. He has to decide whether or not he should be brave, and fight. Or if he should pack up his things, and leave for Canada. For some people, making the decision to go to war or to flee would be a no brainer, but it was a different story for Tim O' Brien. He went through a very tough time when making his decision. In the chapter, "Spin", he talks about his situation when deciding if he should stay or not. He says that he pretty much goes crazy and hardly ever sleeps because the thought of war scares him so much. He
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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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The book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of stories from the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien was drafted into the war in 1968 and remained there until 1970 (“The Things They Carried”, N.d.). Kiowa is a Native American and he is gentle and peaceful. He discourages excessive violence but understands difficult decisions of war may not always please his gentle nature. Even though Kiowa strongly opposes excessive violence he later finds his platoon under attack and tragically loses his life fighting for a war he did not fully agree with.

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The United States of America conducted lotteries to determine the order of call to the military service in the Vietnam War for men ages 16-21. Many men were forced to leave loved ones and special people behind. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien gives readers the inside look of what it was like to be an American Soldier in the Vietnam War. His memoir includes unforgettable images of a nightmarish war that people are still trying to absorb. The book is a set of connected short chapters that tell the stories of soldiers before, during and after the war.

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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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928 Words | 4 Pages

Most war stories are labeled as fiction or nonfiction; however Tim O’Brien breaks this rule in The Things They Carried by creating a fictitious story that yet seeps the truth, and labelling it as a work of fiction. The book is compiled of various stories that correlate together, but it can be unclear what is fact and what is fiction. O’Brien purposely does this to draw in the reader to question what is and what isn’t, and no one exactly knows the right answer. By utilizing intentional, rhetorical tactics, O’Brien has the power of blurring the lines between fact and fiction; which allows the reader to distinguish between fact and fiction in chapters, such as “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, “Stockings”, and “Speaking of Courage”.

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841 Words | 4 Pages

Tim O’Brien writes us a wonderful fictional tale of a platoon of men in vietnam during the vietnam war, The Things They Carried shows the reader that when the men are over in this distant and strange land, not only do they carry physical objects, but emotional baggage and ideas that truly make, or break a man in war. Tim and his men show several signs of stress and turmoil while fighting the war, and while they survive they begin to understand what is really means to live, die, and what is right, and wrong. While over in vietnam the men are in a war, not a simple skirmish or fight, but a full on war against an enemy that they were not sure they are the enemy. The men would walk from location from location seeing what there is to do and trying

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1176 Words | 5 Pages

The Things They Carried was written by Tim O'Brien and he writes about the stories he remembers relating to the time he spent in the Vietnam War as well as how he feels about other stories from the War. The stories that O’Brien writes are about the fate of all the soldiers he served with and how their lives are after the war. Most of the stories that he writes are strange and he changes the point of view in which each chapter is written. To a large extent, the narrator's closeness to, or being a part of the story leads to the readers being persuaded of the realism within the story. Specifically, in “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and “Spin”, the use of first person and the author inputting his emotions makes the reader think that the events

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1469 Words | 6 Pages

In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, he uses metafiction by writing about how he made up most of the stories. The stories of his experiences from the Vietnam war in his book, create a war-like perspective for his readers to better understand war because often, battles can be spotty in the mind and the imagination fills the gaps. O’Brien uses his book to help the reader find truth. Many things in The Things They Carried are confusing and contracting.

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The Things They Carried details a young naive man’s life that changes after being drafted into the Vietnam War. The author Tim O’Brien shares with us the many tragedies that are engraved in his memory. Throughout the book he tells stories about the lives(right) of the dead. As he writes the stories, he dreams about the dead, so in his mind they are alive and have returned back into the world. The reader can feel the struggle that Tim has in relieving the pain of losing these people.

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666 Words | 3 Pages

The things they carried Tim O’brien had strong feelings about the war. He despised it and protested against it but that still didn’t stop him from being drafted into it. He felt depressed and isolated after being drafted. O’brien tried to get out of it but failed. Tim hated war, he understood that sometimes there needed to be one but, he did not feel that way about the vietnam war.

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

War, in whatever form it may be, significantly affects an individual’s life and postwar identity. The experiences one must endure place a tattoo, an imprint on one’s past and future. This permanent marker of the atrocities of war and of the psychological effects of violence remains with a soldier throughout his or her life. In the novel, The Things They Carried, narrator and protagonist, Tim O’ Brien, uses his gift of pen to illustrate his personal experience in the Vietnam War. His collection of stories, blurred by lines of fact and fiction, highlights the importance of the act of storytelling rather than the objective truth of a war story.

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1292 Words | 6 Pages

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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512 Words | 3 Pages

The concept of carrying is central to O'Brien's work, and it is manifested in various forms throughout the book. At its most basic level, carrying refers to the physical burden that the soldiers carry with them during the Vietnam War. They are laden with weapons, ammunition, rations, and other supplies that are necessary for their survival. These objects serve as a reminder of the constant danger and uncertainty of their situation, as well as the weight of their responsibility as soldiers.

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466 Words | 2 Pages

The Things They Carried Essay The burdens people carry everyday can be different because people have their own battles they have to deal with. Some people deal with physical burdens while others deal with emotional burdens. Most people probably prefer to deal with their burdens privately because they feel more comfortable that way.

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In the end he stays, but it’s a close call. I can understand his motives and actions, but I don’t believe in them. I wouldn’t have run in the first place, though I would have felt the same as him. There are several reasons why I wouldn’t have run, but the most important would be a strong sense of patriotism. Like O’Brien I figure I would fight for a war if it were called for, but unlike O’Brien I would probably fight even if it weren’t the “right one.”

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