Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Inside The Minds of Vietnam

Tim O'Brien was drafted to Vietnam when he was only 18 years old, taken from his normal everyday college life and sent to a world no American had ever seen. Where in a place so deadly you're never sure when or how you’ll die. Tim O'Brien survived Vietnam, but at home he’s still battling what he thought he had left overseas. The memories still haunt him and many other men who made it home. His novel, The Things They Carried, describes Vietnam and all the things he encountered including the people he lost. Tim O’Brien is the author of The Things They Carried and 8 other books and short stories. O’Brien began writing these stories as a way to cope with all the leftover reminiscence of the things that happened in

There was no twitching or flopping. Kiowa, who saw it happen, said it was like watching a rock fall, or a big sandbag” (O’Brien page 6) “Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye.The cheekbone was gone.”(O’Brien page 12) O’Brien talks about lavender's death multiple times each time giving greater detail each time by doing he reveals more detail to how lavender died and how it affected the other soldiers, he uses his excellent use of author's purpose to describe and give the best mental picture so the reader is able to get a clear image to what's happening around they too them or even their feels like a window into the life of being in the Vietnam War. Imagery is also used in the novel, Imagery is used to set you in a so give you all the 5 senses to really get the reader to feel what or where O’Brien was. In the chapter On The Rainy River show some great imagery, “The draft notice arrived on June 17, 1968. It was a humid afternoon, I remember, cloudy and very quiet, and I'd just come in from a round of golf. My mother and father were having lunch out in the kitchen. I remember opening up the letter, scanning the first few lines, feeling the blood go thick behind my eyes. I remember a sound in my head. It wasn't thinking, just a silent howl. A million things all at once—I was too good” (O’Brien page _). Imagery is also shown in the

Coping mechanism can range anywhere from laughter and joking, substance abuse, fantasizing, comfort objects, talking, writing, and destruction these are all components seen throughout The Things They Carried. O’Brien shows in various Situations how each of these coping mechanisms are used and effect each of his platoon members. After Curt Lemon is shot the whole team walks into a village and kills different animal and beings then burns the the whole village.“After the chopper took Lavender away, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross led his men into the village of Than Khe. They burned everything. They shot chickens and dogs, they trashed the village well, they called in artillery and watched the wreckage, then they marched for several hours through the hot afternoon,” (O’Brien page_). “He shot it in the hindquarters and in the little hump at its back. He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn't to kill; it was to hurt. He put the rifle muzzle up against the mouth and shot the mouth away. Nobody said much. The whole platoon stood there watching, feeling all kinds of things, but there wasn't a great deal of pity for the baby water buffalo. Curt Lemon was dead. Rat Kiley had lost his best friend in the world. Later in the week he would write a long personal letter to the guy's sister, who would not write back, but for now it was a