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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.
For Veterans, war has impacted a majority of their life due to the traumatic events that they encounter, so they are left them with the last decision, which it could be drugs or suicide. In the book, The Things They Carried, Tim Obrien writes several short stories on the Vietnam War. A fictional book based on real events and how he describes the Vietnam War as the most significant event in his life because of the things he and his friends had to face. It studies the nature of young men in a time of war, and what made them do tough decisions in and after the war. The thing that is noticeable at first is how characters go into development, and how they listed the things the men had carried with the profound irony being that is not the physical thing they carried but the nonphysical thing they carried, the emotion, the experience and the guilt they encounter in Vietnam.
Will Carr Mr. Hovemeyer English 4 ACC 25 April 2024 The Things They Carry In Tim O’Brian’s work, “The Things They Carry,” the burdens borne by soldiers go beyond just the physical pain and suffering. Tim does an amazing job of showing the emotional trauma of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The mental part of war is not talked about as much as the physical side, and not for good reason. The mental and emotional suffering soldiers go through is worse than the physical pain that they have to endure, which is shown by the stories and experiences of Norman Bowker, Jimmy Cross, and Mitchell Sanders. All three of these soldiers from The Things They Carried have PTSD symptoms that exhibit how harsh war is emotionally for humans.
What Were the Things They Carried? In the novel The Things They Carried, the author, Tim O'Brien demonstrated both physical and symbolic objects that characters carried throughout their time in the Vietnam War. In the course of the novel, published in 1990, characters cope with sadness, sorrow, and the hope for love. Henry Dobbins is a solider in the Vietnam War whom is very superstitious.
Through centuries of great wars and battles, history has displayed brave men and women who have fought for their countries. These audacious people have helped propel countries for the greater good. However, the weight and responsibility, of the war, takes a heavy toll on soldiers that is often overlooked. Tim O’Brien, author of the novel The Things They Carried, records his stories, and the stories of his fellow soldiers during the war. However, three of these soldiers are affected in an outlandish way.
Combat is one of those incidents, where the best and the worst of people will be shown. The effects from combat could last minutes to a lifetime and will define people for the rest of their lives. To overcome the effects, people must have coping mechanisms. In the book, The Things They Carried, a platoon of soldiers is followed in their quest to survive the Vietnam War. The soldiers developed coping mechanisms to deal with stress so they can function normally and survive the war.
Cowardice is defined as a ‘lack of bravery,’ but in what ways can a person exhibit cowardice? Fighting in a war, especially for a cause that one believes in, is a strong show of bravery. Speaking up against and resisting a war that one does not believe in could also be considered bravery. Men who fought in a war they did not believe in simply because they were told to, exhibit cowardice. Those who showed a lack of bravery during the Vietnam War were those who did not take a stance for what they believed in.
In "The Things They Carried" by Tim O’Brien, coping mechanisms are central to the experiences of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. O’Brien’s work explores the various ways in which soldiers cope with the physical, emotional, and psychological traumas of war. Coping, in this context, represents the soldiers' attempts to manage the stress of combat and maintain their sanity in an environment of constant fear and danger. Through the characters and their stories, O’Brien demonstrates the importance of coping mechanisms in times of extreme stress.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien displays Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to a reader who is not familiar with what it is perfectly because of the many different perspectives and examples he gives in his stories. National Geographic started a program where war veterans could create a mask to show their experiences after the war. This is such an important program because it helps soldiers express themselves in a way that they can not do so with words, and it also spreads awareness to anybody who wants to look at the masks. Many of these masks happen to relate to the themes of different stories in The Things They Carried, both the stories and the masks are a great way to understand someone
War has a profound and lasting impact on individuals and society. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he tells different stories of before, during and after war and how it affects the soldiers, mentally and physically. In these stories Tim O’Brien illustrates these traumas and the long-lasting effects and impact that the war will always have on these men. Even though all the men didn’t survive the ones that did continue to have traumatic flashbacks. War has a lasting impact on individuals and society, affecting not only the physical but the mental and emotional well-being of those involved.
Dangerous and intense situations typically lead to certain devastating consequences to a persons both emotional and physical health. As result of these experiences, there is often not only exterior injuries, but also the non visual psychological damage that is just as hard, if not harder, to resolve. One commonality throughout all wars is this unseen casualty known as PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder. Tim O’Brien, veteran of the Vietnam war, demonstrates how PTSD affects soldiers in countless ways in his novel The Things They Carried. He uses fictional but lovable characters that readers can easily relate to, intensifying their emotional engagement in the book.
Psychological Warfare in The Things They Carried Unless you have been in war or have read The Things They Carried, you can't fully understand the psychological toll on a person's mind and body, you can't understand the psychological hardship soldiers go through in war. However, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is written to where it shows the overall psychological effects of war on soldiers in and out of Vietnam; as shown throughout the story, the recurring themes of trauma, love, and guilt give the clear psychological implications of war.
Veterans carry guilt and regret from war, which illustrates the PTSD they develop from witnessing traumatic deaths that they feel responsible for. In the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the soldiers in active war in Vietnam experience life changing events that leave them with emotional baggage that they have to carry with them throughout the war and after. In the chapter “Ambush” O’Brien speaks of the first man that he killed, and the guilt and regret that he carries from it. He said, “Even now I haven’t finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t.
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.
Subcultures are a significant part of society, and they certainly play an important role in any individual’s life, helping to explain how each person develops a “frame of reference”. Subcultures can be defined as sub-communities that arise within the larger world of a dominant culture. Peoples’ personal experiences lead them to have their own unique perceptions about the world, the society they live in, their values, and their life in general. Values, attitudes, gestures, and sanctions tend to stem from the dominant culture in which a person belongs and spends his or her time in, learning and changing. People have a variety of interests, careers, hobbies, values, and identities; belonging to a subculture allows people who share similar interests
