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Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, O’Brien is the narrator recounting his experiences as a Vietnam War veteran through the form of storytelling. After death, people and experiences fade away and are often forgotten, and the only way to keep their lives remembered is to continue to tell them through story. There were many traumatic events that O’Brien had to deal with, namely the deaths of soldiers, the vietnamese soldier he killed, and the death of his childhood friend Linda. Many of the surviving soldiers developed PTSD and had flashbacks, while O’Brien held them in and blocked away the memories, as a form of catharsis. Storytelling becomes his form of therapy, and method of preserving the lives of the deceased. Stories preserve and …show more content…

By telling stories about others, he is not only saving the lives and memories of the deceased, but also his own. In the chapter “Notes”, O’Brien shares the story of Norman Bowker and explains that “It occurred to [him] that the act of writing had led [him] through a swirl of memories that might otherwise have ended in paralysis or worse. (152) Writing about the soldiers that Tim O’Brien fought alongside in the Vietnam is a therapeutic act that helps him cope with what happened, in a sense saving his own life and preventing the “worse” from happening. In more universal terms, O’Brien conveys that telling stories of his deceased childhood friend, Linda allowed him to ease his pain and confusion surrounding death by letting her live on through imagination. “ [He’s] skimming across the surface of [his] own history, moving fast, riding the melt between the blades, doing loops and spins, and when [he] take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, [he] realizes it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.” (233) Storytelling is a way for him to release the immense amount of stress and trauma experienced post Vietnam war. By letting the stories of Vietnam soldiers live on, he is saving many lives, including his

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Tim O’ Brien’s book ‘The Things They Carried’ is a series of stories about the Vietnam War. Although all chapters in this book are related to the Vietnam War, each story transmits a different message to the readers and is narrated in different ways. In this essay, I have analyzed two stories to find the themes of each one and through what they are expressed. In “How to tell a true war story”, the author narrates two stories of the men in the Alpha Company and throughout the stories he disputes whether they are real or fabricated. On the other hand, in “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, Rat Kiley tells the story of his first assignment in the isolated mountains of Chu Lai.

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Tim O’brien’s historical fiction book The Things They Carried is focused around soldiers involved in the Vietnam War. This war was a difficult time for both the Americans who were drafted to fight in the war as well as for those who were at home and disagreed with the idea of currently being in war in Vietnam. As he writes about his own fictional experiences during the war along with the stories of many other fellow troops, O’brien expresses that it is difficult to “tell a true war story”. With the use of imagination and invention, he is able to successfully convey the difficulties involving truth-telling and wartime conditions. O’brien is open with his intended audience and blatantly states that it is hard to tell a true war story.

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Imagine what war looks like. An image of suffering, grief, guilt, torture. The story, while set in Vietnam, is just as relevant today with the conflicts we have. Tim O’Brien, the main character, had to go through all the discomfort that comes with war. Even with all of the external and physical battles, the real conflict might just be inside the soldier.

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As a father, educator, and successful author he reflects on the Vietnam War throughout various chapters of the novel. However, he faces another hardship, accepting the memories of his past. In a first attempt, O’ Brien makes use of storytelling as solace and as means of coming to terms with the horrors of Vietnam. For example, in the chapter, “ Speaking of Courage,” O’ Brien uses several layers of narration to tell the story of fellow soldier, Norman Bowker, and his emotional attachment to Kiowa’s death. Rather than focusing on Kiowa’s death itself, O’ Brien illuminates how Norman Bowker deals with the grief and guilt of the event.

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This makes the reader understand how he felt when he was in Vietnam. In a video from the internet Tim had talked about the book and what this story meant. He also talked about how it was not true. The real story is how Tim and his fellow soldiers had attacked a village

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The moral of this novel is unfolded extremely well. The character O’Brien plays in the novel, Tim, is a writer that, years later, chronicles the stories of the men and the entire novel is parallel to a flashback. Many of the stories of the hardships that the men went through, and brought home memories of, are almost unbelievable. In response to this, O’Brien writes, “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical.

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In “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien demonstrates the life of a solider during the Vietnam War. O’Brien describes what the soldiers went through physically and mentally before, during, and after the war. He also describes how the soldiers had to adapt to war at a young age and sometimes the things they did were deranged but nothing was normal about war. Also after going to war and coming home, these soldiers struggle with how to deal with what they went through. This is also demonstrated through the book and one can see this through the author.

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In the short story, “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien focuses on this to show that everyone fighting in a war has a story. He spends the story describing the man he killed and searching for justification of his actions. He carries around guilt with him because of it, and his fellow soldiers try to help him justify and come to terms with his action by saying things like, “You want to trade places with him? Turn it all upside down= you want that? I mean, be honest,” (126) and “Tim, it’s a war.

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O’Brien tells many stories about death, friends, and times during the war. These stories are all fiction because in the novel O’Brien is his own main character making the novel a fiction due to the changes in the stories and people. O’Brien consistently reminds his readers that the stories in his book are fiction, but explaining that stories

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Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are". (O'Brien 38) O’Brien uses his stories to reach his audience. There are generations of people who have no clue what war is really like, whether it is because of our misconceptions based on what media portrays or the fact that there are people who have not served in the military. Some people might know about Vietnam and know the outcome of the war, but they don’t have the experience and real life understanding of how that story ended. They might not be able to fully understand the feelings of a soldier.

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The soldiers in the Vietnam War are portrayed as losing themselves in the chaos and trauma of combat. Through the stories of the soldiers and their experiences, O’Brien explores the ways in which war strips away one's sense of identity and humanity. The author himself is depicted as losing himself in the war. O'Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his experiences inspired much of the book. Through the character of Tim O'Brien, the author explores the ways in which war can strip away one's sense of self and purpose.

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These soldiers devote their lives to the war, and sadly they are easily forgotten. But for Tim O’Brien and various other authors, “We kept the dead alive with stories” (239). These stories are a way for dead friends and family members to seem alive again. The stories reveal their character and many of their best moments alive. O’Brien utilizes storytelling to cope with the death that surrounds him, and to keep their memory burning on

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In November of 1955, the United States entered arguably one of the most horrific and violent wars in history. The Vietnam War is documented as having claimed about 58,000 American lives and more than 3 million Vietnamese lives. Soldiers and innocent civilians alike were brutally slain and tortured. The atrocities of such a war are near incomprehensible to those who didn’t experience it firsthand. For this reason, Tim O’Brien, Vietnam War veteran, tries to bring to light the true horrors of war in his fiction novel The Things They Carried.

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In the book O’Brien uses imagery, figurative language and repetition to put across his message. His purpose for the story telling, is to clear his conscience of war and to tell the stories of soldiers who were forgotten by society. The narrator was against the war. In The Things They Carried.

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He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

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