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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Chapter Analysis

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The Challenge of Bravery and Courage are unexpected obstacles for everyone who was drafted into the Vietnam War, especially for Tim O’Brien who is the narrator and the Author of “The Things They Carried”. Before O’Brien gets drafted into the Vietnam War, he highlights the consumption of tone and juxtaposition on the effects of war while his allies are trying to empathize to his feelings. The theme also relates to Khaled Hosseini’s story “Kite Runner” where as a kid, Amir struggled with bravery and courage when he wasn’t there for Hassan. In Order for O’Brien to seek truth behind War, he’ll need to experience the environment in-action which is why he was forced to see everything later on in the story. One of the key characteristics of how O’Brien …show more content…

In this chapter, O’Brien remained silent when he was thoroughly analyzing the man he killed who had potential to live a successful life much like himself if it wasn’t for the war. O’Brien uses tone when he described that the soldier’s was a “slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole.”(Ch. 12, Pg. 124). The use of this tone is rather remorseful; showing readers that O’Brien develops sympathy after an unforgettable cause that resulted in killing someone who was innocent as much as him. In Kite Runner, Hosseini’s use of tone was rather unforgiving than unforgettable when Amir watches Hassan getting raped by Assef, and illustrates that “Hassan didn't struggle. Didn't even whimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. Saw the resignation in it. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb” (Hosseini, pg.133). This is evident that Amir also witnessed something that’ll impact his life as much as O’Brien’s kill, knowing that he was there long enough to illustrate the whole rape

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In some parts of the The Things They Carried, O’Brien demonstrates slight good in war. An example of which is spending time with your friends as well as making new ones. O’Brien and Lieutenant Jim Cross spend some good times with their friends, whether it’s smoking cigarettes or shooting for practice. All the soldiers spent time in a pagoda in Vietnam where they might some priest and had a little fun.

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1328 Words | 6 Pages

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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1661 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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724 Words | 3 Pages

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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212 Words | 1 Pages

In the first chapter of Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried, O'Brien takes time to create lists of objects each soldier carried with them while on active duty, along with their weight. Each list is separated into categories of necessities, personal belongings, and gear. This use of objects and weight creates a connection between the categories/objects and the physical or mental weight that each soldier carries throughout the war. In this chapter, O'Brien uses strong symbolism to show the reader the extent of physical and psychological exhaustion war can have on a soldier. Through each item mentioned in chapter 1, the reader is able to experience the weight of war through both a literal and metaphorical sense.

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957 Words | 4 Pages

More specifically, the novel depicts the adverse effects war has on soldiers during the war and after the war. O’Brien quickly shows the crippling effects of war through himself. He has been ripped from everything he knows and placed into a foreign land, in which, his life is constantly at risk. As the story progresses there begins to be a shift from the war, to life after it. It is again immediately apparent how difficult it was for soldiers to adjust back to normal life.

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1166 Words | 5 Pages

In the short story, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, it introduces the theme of weight that the soldiers must carry during the Vietnam War. The soldiers carried things that were either of physical weight (tangible) or emotional weight (intangible). The tangible weight included photos, comics, condoms, etc, but each tangible gives the readers an insight on the internal conflicts that weigh them down. Also, the intangibles discussed, show even more of the burdens they must carry. This being said the intangibles are shown to be the real weight that must be carried by each of the soldiers.

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2016 Words | 9 Pages

The novel acts as a response to the era it discusses by solidifying the un-generalized version of war through fictional anecdotes of the narrator and characters (Reed 1). The emotional truth is never portrayed correctly through historic context or media while the author was able to reciprocate the sentiments of the soldiers through the graphic battles or actions written in this novel. 3. Factors that influenced the author to publish this novel was partly due to his way of coping after war, using stories to keep the imagination alive. Towards the end of the book, O'Brien revealed that

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705 Words | 3 Pages

Although the soldier he killed was an enemy soldier, instead of vilifying him he was able to humanize the man. O’Brien was able to describe the physical appearance of the soldier and imagine her life before war. The author was able to portray an emotional connection and made the line between friend and enemy almost vanish. This was able to reveal the natural beauty of shared humanity even in the context of war’s horror. O’Brien is able to find the beauty in the midst of this tragic and horrible event.

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1444 Words | 6 Pages

Because he uses such explicit details, it signifies this particular experience was horrendous for a young soldier like himself to witness. This appalling experience definitely left a harsh impression on his memory of the Vietnam war, causing him to remember his time in the war in a horrific fashion. The narrator also explains, "His face was suddenly brown and shining. A handsome kid, really. Sharp gray eyes, lean and narrow-waisted, and when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms" (67).

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791 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien creates this backstory for this boy. How he grew up listening to stories of his ancestors protecting their land and that it was a tradition to die fighting for your own land. But O’Brien could see that this boy was weak and tiny and young. He could see that his face was smooth with no facial hair and fingers were thin. This brought so much more guilt onto him.

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1041 Words | 5 Pages

O’Brien uses the imagery of the description of the man he killed and the prank of scaring Bobby to show soldiers loss of innocence. In “The Man I Killed” O’Brien kills a young vietnamese soldier, he's in shock and can't stop staring at the

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1348 Words | 6 Pages

Realities of war The Vietnam war was a roll over from WWII, to help stop the spread of communism. On December 1, 1969, the first Vietnam wartime draft was announced1. Between the dates of August 1964 and February 1973 1,857,304 men were inducted to the united states military2. Most men drafted to the Vietnam war were between the ages of 18 and 24.

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1021 Words | 5 Pages

The fact that they took a moment of silence as they stared at Kiowa’s dead body showed how strong of a unit their platoon was. This is significant because it shows how O’Brien was a true Vietnam soldier: he was always engaged with what was happening with his fellow platoon members. Another example of this was Clarence Sasser, who was a medical aid in the war. Sasser would always continue to help out all his wounded men, even when he was wounded himself. In regards to receiving a medal of honor for his service, he said, “Well, it’s my job.

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1094 Words | 5 Pages

This forewarns the reader that they could be reading something that is real or something that is completely made up. O’Brien is a masterful writer who has created an unique story about the experience of war through his style of writing.

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