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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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The Things They Carried is a book by Tim O’Brien, who appears as a character in this fictional book as a sort of self-insert in this fictional story. The book has 232 pages, and is divided into several unnumbered chapters. It was published in 1990 by Houghton Mufflin, and was printed in the USA. The story goes in a rather confusing and awkward order, rather than telling the story in a linear passage of time, each chapter takes place during a different part of O’Brien’s life. It’s written from O’Brien’s point of view many years after the Vietnam war. The story opens with O’Brien recounting all the things his fellow platoon members brought with them to the field: Lieutenant Cross brings a picture of a girl he loves, Martha. Ted Lavender brings marijuana to help calm his anxiety, …show more content…

Though they plan to get married later, Mary Anne ends up becoming so obsessed and curious with Vietnamese culture that she decides to stay in Vietnam and not marry Fossie. Fossie saw Mary Anne as nothing but one-dimensional whose purpose is only to make him happy, and because of that, she lost interest in him and became interested in other things, and became accepting of Vietnamese culture to the point where she no longer wants anything to do with Fossie. In “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien feels remorse for a small group of Vietnamese soldiers he kills with a grenade. Kiowa tries to comfort him, saying that they would have died anyway, but O’Brien believes that the people he killed were just as innocent as he was, and that they wanted absolutely nothing to do with the war, just like him. He imagines one particular boy as a farmer who came from an honest-living, innocent family, and feels horrible for what he’s done. Azar, who is cruel, jokes about the people he killed, making O’Brien feel

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In the chapter, “Ambush” and “The Man I Killed” is in the perspective of O’Brien when he describes the man he had killed. When he was telling the story he knew many intimate details about the man he killed. O’Brien does not know the man but because he killed him for the first time he felt the guilt for killing. His guilt and his creation of the story of the man created the man to produce many images of how he was before he was killed. He describes him as a young innocent man, which the thought of the man created more guilt for himself.

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Brief Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried Summary. The Things They Carried is a collection of twenty-two stories, or chapters. All focus on the Alpha Company and the fate of its soldiers after they return home to America. A character named Tim O'Brien (same name as the author) narrates most of the stories.

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The Things They Carried is a harrowing story about the trials and tribulations of the Vietnam War by author and veteran Tim O’Brien. However, the qualities of the characters and the tangible/intangible things they carry with them are applicable to anybody who has witnessed the tragedies of war for themselves. O’Brien shows us the things these soldiers carry - and what they mean to them - through details, repetition, and a blunt tone. First, O’Brien shows the physical things the soldiers carry by listing them. Basic and/or regulatory items they have are stated, such as “safety picks, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades, chewing tobacco,” etc.

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The Things They Carried Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Character Analysis

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He explains about a boy with a plastic leg asking for chocolate and Azar gave the chocolate to him. O’Brien thought it was nice of Azar to give the boy the chocolate. O’Brien starts to recall more of what his friends have done during the army, such as Bowker and Dobbins playing checkers every night in a foxhole. O’Brien explains that he is 43 years old and that he is a writer after the war has ended. O’Brien recalls how he and the guys enlisted and worked for this Vietnamese man during the war, and everyone started to get along with the man, even though he works for the enemy.

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The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a great collection of short stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Perhaps some would feel that all of these stories are entirely unrelated; however, I believe that they all somehow come together to create one ultimate message. I truthfully think that one short section of the text can represent O’Brien’s entire collection. The idea of the emotional baggage that these American soldiers carry shows up in various stories in the book, as well as plays a major role in O’Brien’s final message. What strikes me as a reader is that soldiers carry more than just physical memorabilia; they endure and carry all of the emotional baggage that comes with the job.

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It was first triggered post-war when his daughter Kathleen asked him if he had ever killed someone else. Instinctively his answer was no, however, this was not the truth. O’Brien took the reader back to Vietnam on a night where he was on guard along a path. A young Vietnamese man, who was armed, came into view down the track. Without intention to kill, merely just to warn the man off, O’Brien through a grenade in his direction.

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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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However, O’Brien continually alters the truth, making facts dependant on his emotions. He does this by repetitions, adding up to the blurry atmosphere of his book. Writing about Kiowa’s death numerous times, the narrator repeats the same event with different realities. He first claims that Norman Bowker was the one who did not save Kiowa, creating a story of him driving aimlessly, not being able to forgive himself. Later he confesses that the narrator was the one who let Kiowa go, leading the audience to believe Bowker was a metaphor for his guilt and remorse.

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O’Brien feels extremely guilty for killing someone. He is not sure what to do or how to feel. O’Brien does not exactly say if he was the man who actually killed him, or if someone else did. He hints that if it was not him that killed the poor man. Death has a way of changing a

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“'How to tell a true war story': Metafiction in 'The Things They Carried.' Calloway, Catherine, 'How to tell a true war story': Metafiction in 'The Things They Carried.'. , Vol. 36, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, June, 1995, pp 249 ff. . Tim O'Brien's most recent book, The Things They Carried, begins with a litany of items that the soldiers "hump" in the Vietnam War - assorted weapons, dog tags, flak jackets, ear plugs, cigarettes, insect repellent, letters, can openers, C-rations, jungle boots, maps, medical supplies, and explosives as well as memories, reputations, and personal histories.

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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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His obsession of Martha causes him to neglect his duty as a lieutenant. After the death of his platoon member, Jimmy burns the letters and photographs from Martha, symbolizing his hate for her and showing that he blames her for his failure to protect his men. Mark Fossie loves Mary Ann because she fits the fantasy of the perfect American life. Many Ann exemplifies an ideal American woman during the 1960s. She is described as a beautiful blonde with blue eyes and fair skin.

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Theme Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1223 Words | 5 Pages

The Things They Carried is an excellent story by Tim O'Brien. What is most interesting about this book is that it reads like a collections of stories told by the people who are involved. Sometimes the author acts as a narrator, and sometimes he is a direct character in the novel. The story is one of deep emotion and symbolism. I will discuss the three most important themes in the book.

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Reflective Essay: The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Synthesis Essay In the Vietnam war, there were many soldiers at war with each other, and most soldiers were not prepared for the fight. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien was in the Vietnam war when he was young. The book was not in order but he still talks about his experiences while in the war. His purpose for writing this novel was because he wanted younger audience to know what happened in the war and what the soldiers experienced.

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823 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien talks about the death of a young man with skinny wrists, skinny ankles, and a star-shaped hole in his eye. He gives him life by making him into a story, so that way he could be distracted by the fact that the young boy won’t be able to read it. He wrote this chapter to express his remorse, guilt, and shame for the boy that lost his life in front of O’Brien’s eyes, whether the death was by his hand or not. Although the title of this chapter, The Man I Killed, is about a man who died, it is unclear if O'Brien killed anyone in the war. Remorse can be described as a distressing emotion experienced by someone who regrets their actions which they have

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The Things They Carried Literary Analysis

1178 Words | 5 Pages

A lot happens in Tim O 'Brien short story "The Things They Carried", at first, the reader speculates what the short story is about and why it is called "The Things They Carried". The narrator Tim O 'Brien tells and describes all the things that the men have to carry while "in-country" during the Vietnam War in the1960 's. The text 's artistic value comes from its plot, characters, conflict, and style. In the plot of the story the protagonist, Tim O 'Brien starts by describing circumstances that happened while he was in Vietnam. In the beginning of "The Things They Carried" we are introduced to each character by the things they carry.

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