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Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brian, the author discusses distinct items the soldiers carry with them during the Vietnam war. He explores weapons and equipment, but also talks about emotions and feelings the men frequently are approached by. The title of the novel is used to highlight the heavy emotional burden the soldiers had to carry during and after the war. In many cases, a soldier felt responsible for the death of one of his closest comrades. For example, “he wanted to tell the lieutenant how in the middle of the night he had pulled out Billie's picture and passed it over to Kiowa and then switched on the flashlight. . . and how right then the field had exploded all around them” shows how Henry Bowker felt that he was the …show more content…

“But Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than 20 pounds of ammunition. . . and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus the unweighed fear” highlights the necessities men could’ve used to ease their fear of dying (12-13). Lavender carried tranquillizers to help calm himself, and extra ammunition to comfort him when he got too scared at times. Although Lavender is just one man, each soldier carried different items to help them cope with the fear. That fear drove men not only fight because it was their duty, but to also keep themselves alive. Men carried extra items to calm themselves because they didn’t want to show that they were scared. “They carried their reputations. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place. . . They died so as not to die of embarrassment” depicts how men carried the fear of being a coward (24). Like O’Brian himself, the men did not try to escape the war because they would have the nation, especially their loved ones, looking down upon them. They were trained to be strong and to set an example of what it means to be “strong”. All men had a fear of dying, but had a greater fear of dying as a coward than as a

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“What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.” ― Logan Pearsall Smith Logan Pearsall Smith, an American-born British essayist, comments on how good authors convey a deeper meaning in their work than what is simply written. Tim O 'Brien, the author of “The Things They Carried,” and Carl Hiaasen, the author of “Skinny Dip,” both use this technique in their writing. In both novels, the authors share details of the setting to inflict guilt onto the story’s character. Tim O’Brien emphasizes the struggles of war through the setting and shows how it affects the soldiers’ views of blame in the novel “The Things They Carried.”

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The irony in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is crucial to understanding that the mental burden the soldiers carry are heavier than their physical burdens. Each soldier is required to carry their entire lives on their back throughout their tour in Vietnam. The soldiers carried not only weapons and the means of survival, but individual objects that are unique to them. While the individuality of the tangible objects that each soldier carried is supposed to keep them sane, it is these very objects that provides an even heavier mental burden of guilt and pain that eventually drove them to insanity.

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Each soldier carried a rucksack that weighed between 15-20 pounds. “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity” (O’ Brien 108). Since they were at war they all carried basic necessities such as “can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, and etc.… Together, these items weighed between 15 and 20 pounds”. The items carried were basic need for them to survive and personal items that were required for physical and emotional reasons.

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The soldiers in Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, were no different than any other soldiers in any other war. They carried rifles, comforters, and pictures of loved ones with them throughout the war. However, most soldiers carried emotional and mental burdens around with them too. Some of these soldiers include Lt. Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, and Rat Kiley. Other soldiers in the book also carried around mental and emotional burdens, but these men in particular, stuck out to me.

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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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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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In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien expresses to the reader why the men went to the war and continued to fight it. In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather they were too frightened to be cowards.” The soldiers went to war not because they were courageous and ready to fight, but because they felt the need to go. They were afraid and coped with their lack of courage by telling stories (to themselves or aloud) and applied humor to the situations they encountered.

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The Things They Carried: Paper #2 This book is a recollection of the Vietnamese War from a soldier’s point of view that gives inside details about what the war was like. He goes to tell about different physical objects soldiers carry. As well as the types of events that experiences, and how the war affected him and the other soldiers around him. O’Brien gives details of deaths he saw and how others around coped with them, and other tragic things that happened.

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The Things They Carried, is a reflection on how Tim O’Brien spent his days in Vietnam. There are many factors to why it can be difficult to share a war story, there is no proof to tell how much he is just telling a story or saying something else to make it easier to share his experience. “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. ”pg.68.

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A storyteller invents comprehensible facts to fill in a story’s missing aspects. O’Brien continues to elaborate by explaining how “The pictures get jumbled; you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed” (O’Brien 67). Again, as a soldier, especially in the Vietnam War, it proves difficult to realize what actually occurs and find the ability to remember specific details to completely and precisely retell it some time afterwards. Tim implies imagination’s role when he writes, “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head.

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In Tim O’brien’s war story, The Things They Carried, the narrator describes the life of American soldiers and provides evidence of how the war has impacted their lives. In the 1960’s, young American men were sent to fight in the war thousands of miles away from their homes. At this time, most men had no prior experience of fighting in a war. Naturally, the men had no idea what kind of brutality the war held also how much of a vital role the war would play in their futures. O’brien’s own experience with the war displayed that the fear of getting shamed before ones own peers played a main and also motivating factor for joining the draft.

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After the death of character Ted Lavender it was obvious that many of the men dealt with the loss in many ways. They coped by joking about the situation and discussing the event multiple times. Each of the men all had to deal with the death as well as the potentiality of their own death themselves. While the men were scared of death they also secretly longed for a release from the hellish situation of war that they were forced into. Throughout these grievances, the men still had to remain strong throughout the situation.

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The Things They Carried written by Tim O’Brien is a collection of made up memories featuring stories from soldiers before, during, and after the Vietnam War. O’Brien compiled the stories together in order to bring a larger audience to the Vietnam War and although readers of the story will never be able to relate to the rates of the war, it will allow readers to understand how soldiers felt upon returning from the war. Interestingly, O’Brien presents the book as a “work of fiction” because through his writing he has a way of distinguishing the surreal aspects of the war through fiction and nonfiction. The stories of Ted Lavender, Curt Lemon, and Norman Balker are examples of soldiers reacting to the unsettling circumstances during the war and the effects of the war on them. Ted Lavender, the first to die in the Alpha Company, dealt with ironic circumstances as he was the most scared member to face death but became the first to fall into death’s hands.

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The platoon’s medic, Bob “Rat” Kiley carried his comic books and candy, “morphine and plasma, […] and all the things a medic must carry” (5). Dave Jensen “carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and hotel-sized bars of soap.” (2) Henry Dobbins carried a pair of pantyhose once worn by his girl as a comforter along with his M-60 and “between 10 and 15 pounds of ammunition draped in belts [.]” (5) The Native American soldier, Kiowa carried his Illustrated New Testament and a hatchet given to him by his grandfather. The men, “they carried each other often, the wounded or weak” (14) they carried “chess sets, basketballs, Vietnamese-English dictionaries [.]” Mostly what they carried was inside. They carried little emotion and sickness.

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