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Similarities In The Things They Carried

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The Things We Carry Can Be Similar to Others But They All Have Different Meanings. “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.” (O’Brien 7) In the book The Things They Carried the soldiers are at war and there is a list given for each soldier of the items he carried. In the book Wild Cheryl hikes the PCT trail to use as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy. Several of these things they carried are intangible (untouchable), including guilt and fear, and some touchable like physical objects: matches, drugs, weapons, candy, books, good luck charms, ETC... While some differences between emotional and physical things carried are noticeable, the similarities …show more content…

And doing heroin. …Never shoot it. Absolutely not. Then we shot it” (Strayed 53) Cheryl used the heroin for a way to grieve for her mother. “The place where there was no pain…. Okay that my mother was dead.” (Strayed 53) In the book The Things I Carried one of the soldiers named Ted Lavender, “who was scared carried tranquilizers” (O’Brien 2) to calm him and he, “carried six or seven ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity,” (O’Brien 3) In the book The Things I Carried “They carried all emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief…..”(O’Brien) The soldiers could not really show grief, “…. It required perfect posture. They carried their reputations. They carried their greatest fear…… fear of blushing.”(O’Brien) But no only in the war did they carry grief. “In the spring of 1956, when we were in the fourth grade…..” (O’Brien 216) “She had a brain tumor. She lived through the summer…and then she was dead…. Timmy stop crying.”(O’Brien 224) Tim would close his eyes and whisper her name almost begging to come back. “Linda. Please.” (O’Brien …show more content…

They carried the fear but against the Vietnamese people who they were at war with. They carried grief when their fellow soldiers were killed, and for Tim his first love who had cancer. Some of them carried a good luck charm to help them face an ambush, or they simply just thought it would keep them alive so they can make it back home. Ted carried drugs because he was scared so he used it to stay calm. And Tim carried disappointment because he was thinking of running away from war, something he was forced to do, even though he didn’t believe in it. The soldier’s in The Things They Carried, carried these items, “Pocket knives, salt tablets, canned peaches, mosquito repellent, two or three canteens of water, diary, comic books, lighter, extra clothes and they dug fox holes to sleep in.” (O’Brien 2) They carried these things to survive the war, either from hunger and thirst, weather, insects, death, and a safe sleep

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Now and then, however, there were times of panic, when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn’t, when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said Dear Jesus and flopped around on the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and sobbed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and to God and to their mothers and fathers, hoping not to die.” The title of the book, The Things They Carried, has so many meanings after reading the book. In the beginning, O’Brien goes into such detail as to what the soldiers carried in their ruck sacks going as far to say how much each thing weighed.

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The Things They Carried by American author Tim O’Brien, who was drafted in the Vietnam war, describes the experience of the American infantry fighting in Vietnam. O’Brien utilises various rhetorical devices to illustrate the immense emotional & physical burdens the soldiers were to bear to enlighten the reader about the true horrors of war. For example, O’Brien employs asyndeton & polysyndeton in sentences listing the many things the soldiers carried. “They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades…,” (O’Brien). The lists of items carried carry on, overwhelming & exhausting the reader of the physical burdens of war.

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In war, soldiers and civilians will experience the loss of friends and families. In Tim O’Brien’s work, The Things They Carried, the reader is introduced to soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war who lose their comrades’ loves due to mishaps. These soldiers in combat, along with civilians, learn to accept or become numb towards death by understanding the situation they are in and by finding comfort in oblivion. Early in the plot, the reader is made aware of how the soldiers comprehend their allies’ deaths. According to the author, when Lieutenant Cross’ team was contemplating about who is to enter the tunnel, “Lee Strunk drew the number 17” then he laughed (O’Brien 10).

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In Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried”, in which he speaks of a man referred to as “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross”, who is struggling in balancing his obsession with a woman named Martha back in New Jersey and handling his duties within his platoon in Vietnam. His love for her intrudes on the love he has for his men, after he is daydreaming about Martha he loses his awareness of his surroundings and one of his men, who is named Lavender, gets killed. In coping with this death it is explained that the reason soldiers deal with these “intangibles” such as death, love, and fear is all due the idea that, “they were too frightened to be cowards.” (O’Brien, 1990, p. 24). For it is not by courage that these men are being pushed but, by the sheer fact that they do not want to be seen as cowardice amongst the men they stand by.

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In the novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, the author describes a platoon marching through Vietnam at the time of the Vietnamese War. He does so by describing in detail the items that each of the men carry with them during their march. The things that the soldiers carry with them are not only tangible but intangible items as well, and what these things are depend fully upon each individual soldier. They carry Military Payment Certificates, the basic "necessities" for survival along with the bare minimum to make life as livable as possible during the time of war. The men decided on the items they wished to carry with them depending completely on their habits and rate of metabolism.

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The Soldier’s Fears First, in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” the tangible items carried by the soldiers reveal their fears of losing a connection to home, fear of the unknown, fear of reality. Holding onto their precious items from home helped them hold onto reality. Second, “the soldiers all had fears of the war and they all carried with them certain items that gave them the comforts of home.” (366). “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha” (366) he loved her and this was a way of keeping her close, “Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose and wrapped them around his neck as a comforter” (372) he must have felt wearing his girlfriend’s pantyhose connected her to him, “Kiowa carried an illustrated New Testament and an old hunting hatchet from his grandfather” (367) his grandfather must

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The short story, “The Things They Carried,” written by Tim O’Brien (1990), appears to be an unpretentious narration that list the tangible items carried by the soldiers while fighting in the Vietnam War. Upon further review it becomes clear that the lists of “things” have a much deeper meaning and carry an abundance amount of emotional weight. Not only is their load a physical burden that consist of hefty equipment that is necessary for survival, but they also bear the burden of internal conflict. The internal conflicts identified in the story center around the disturbing afflictions carried by the soldiers revealing that the men long for an escape from their dreadful surroundings, feel responsible for the lives of their fellow soldiers,

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They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide… These American soldiers carried a lifetime of burdens on their shoulders. O’brien wrote, “They carried shameful memories…” Meaning they carried the tangible but also the intangible death of Ted Lavender, for one soldier saw him drop dead, which could be considered

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Before reading the novel, one might merely think of tangible objects being carried during the war, but after finishing the novel, it is the intangible feelings of affection, passion, and heart-warming images that are the most important in the readers mind. In The Things They Carried, it is evident to the reader that the emotional feelings being carried have a much bigger effect on soldiers than simple materials used for

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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 author was writing the story “The Things They Carried” expressed so many thoughts and feelings about what the soldiers had faced, they showed their feelings and duties, life or death, and overall fear and dedication. This story shows the theme of the physical and emotional burdens that everyone is going through in the war. By showing his readers what the soldier’s daily thoughts are and how they handle what is going on around them. Tim O’Brien expresses this theme by using characterization, symbolism, and tone continuously. In the story, physical and emotional burdens plagued several characters as they all had baggage weighing them down.

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Everyone carries items with them, whether it is at school or work. These things are occasionally essentials. Sometimes though, we want them and they help us as individuals. In the short story “The Things They Carried” many of the characters which are soldiers bring personal items with them through the grueling events that show their true character; these are not essentials.

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The Things They Carried Surviving war is more than just dodging bullets and grenades, it 's being able to find purpose in what you are doing. In Tim O 'Brien 's book The Things They Carried he gives a first hand view portraying how the soldiers of Vietnam pressed through mental depression and despair. For some finding purpose ment trying to achieve glorified war medals, for others it was winning the war, but for most it was reliving the life they had before Vietnam. In his book O’Brien takes readers on his own and his fellow soldiers journey through the rough and demanding life that is war.

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It lists a variety of things that the soldier brought on their mission. For example, some of the things were intangible, such as sickness, guilt, and the atmosphere. Other soldiers were carrying physical objects, including P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wrist-watches, dog tags and etc. as listed in (O 'Brien). Throughout the plot of the story O 'Brien seem to focus on the things that were not important versus the things that 's were, and at the end, he was faced with a big consequence.

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O’brien portrays this idea in his short story when he says, “The things they carried were determined to some extent by superstition. Lieutenant Cross carried his good-luck pebble. Dave Jensen carried a rabbit’s foot” (pg. 9). Throughout the story, the men are faced with different adversities, and at each turn it ends back up with O’brien talking about their different items. O’brien does this because it is a universal truth that people carry things with them that they feel can help them in times of trouble.

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