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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

651 Words3 Pages

The Things They Carried” is a great short story by Tim O’Brien who displays the remarkable story of soldiers during the Vietnam War. Being away from your family, in an unknown place, giving up your life’s luxuries is difficult to handle mentally and physically. Similarly, in the short story we see how soldiers try to overcome their fear by escaping from the reality of the war time situation around them, to a world that is just an illusion. Throughout the short story we see several men coping through their fear in Vietnam as they had the responsibility of a solider and carried burdens of need and emotions. In order to cope with their fear, the soldiers talked with each other and told each other what they felt since the only thing that they had was time and pain. As O’Brien writes, “They shared the weight of memory. They took up what other could no longer bear. Often, …show more content…

For example as the author writes, “It was the burden of being alive….They would repair the leaks in their eyes….light cigarettes, try to smile…After a time someone would shake his head….someone else would laugh….” (O’Brien, 123). This line is a very powerful line in order to show how for the soldiers seeing death has become a ritual for them. The soldiers would laugh and talk and touch the dead body showing that they are seeing life in a differently familiar manner. In other words, for them seeing so much death has made them used to the situation, but, they tried to make death seem different and un-real as they laugh out their pain through this dead body. Also, as O’Brien wrote, “They found jokes to tell” (O’Brien, 123) explains that they tried to live different and enjoy life despite all the pain. For the soldiers the only thing that they had was each other that helped them release some of their stress and helped them continue

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Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1025 Words | 5 Pages

“It was very sad, he thought… The things men did or felt they had to do” (O’Brien 480). In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien (a Vietnam War veteran) details the experience of soldiers during the Vietnam War. As implied in the title, the story describes the many things soldiers carried physically. In addition, O’Brien shares the many thoughts and burdens the soldiers carried mentally during their time on the battlefield in Vietnam.

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Eventeen In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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In war, soldiers and civilians will experience the loss of friends and families. In Tim O’Brien’s work, The Things They Carried, the reader is introduced to soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war who lose their comrades’ loves due to mishaps. These soldiers in combat, along with civilians, learn to accept or become numb towards death by understanding the situation they are in and by finding comfort in oblivion. Early in the plot, the reader is made aware of how the soldiers comprehend their allies’ deaths. According to the author, when Lieutenant Cross’ team was contemplating about who is to enter the tunnel, “Lee Strunk drew the number 17” then he laughed (O’Brien 10).

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The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis

1158 Words | 5 Pages

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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Comparing Lord Of The Flies And All Quiet On The Western Front

845 Words | 4 Pages

This means they had already spent time together and got to know each other in some shape or form. When they were out on the battlefield, they knew this could be the last second of each one of their lives so when they were back in a “safe zone” they were able to mess around and try to have fun in someway with one another. These young men were able to create such an incredible, strong connection with his fellow soldiers. Additionally, the idea of comradeship creates such an intense bond that one would expect the death of one soldier to trigger a strong emotional reaction from the others. But unfortunately, grief is a luxury these soldiers cannot

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When Lyman was looking at the picture it dawned on him, unlike the car, Henry cannot be repaired. The dark truth behind the mental image of Henry’s brother shows that his soul did not return back from Vietnam. Lyman’s avoidance of the photograph shows the murkiness behind the photograph. His detail of the photograph creates a mental image of Henry’s suffering and distance from reality he could never overcome. He hides this photograph in his closet because he would never get to understand what his brother went through while being imprisoned.

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Imagery In The Things They Carried

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The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

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They didn’t have much. All they had was their will to live and each other for support. With those two things, they tried their best to survive. In the article, “Vietnam vet writes story of brotherhood and loss,” it says, “The hardships and horrors of war made them closer than brothers. In some ways, they were closer than they would ever allow themselves to become with another human being.”

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Emotional Burdens In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1509 Words | 7 Pages

The author was writing the story “The Things They Carried” expressed so many thoughts and feelings about what the soldiers had faced, they showed their feelings and duties, life or death, and overall fear and dedication. This story shows the theme of the physical and emotional burdens that everyone is going through in the war. By showing his readers what the soldier’s daily thoughts are and how they handle what is going on around them. Tim O’Brien expresses this theme by using characterization, symbolism, and tone continuously. In the story, physical and emotional burdens plagued several characters as they all had baggage weighing them down.

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Coping Mechanisms In The Things They Carried Essay

2081 Words | 9 Pages

In "The Things They Carried" by Tim O’Brien, coping mechanisms are central to the experiences of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. O’Brien’s work explores the various ways in which soldiers cope with the physical, emotional, and psychological traumas of war. Coping, in this context, represents the soldiers' attempts to manage the stress of combat and maintain their sanity in an environment of constant fear and danger. Through the characters and their stories, O’Brien demonstrates the importance of coping mechanisms in times of extreme stress.

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Emotional Characters In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

1161 Words | 5 Pages

Introduction The Things They Carried is a text where writer Tim O’Brien the stories he encountered throughout his time in the Vietnam War. These stories, traumatic as well as warm and humorous, are ones that the author will never erase from his memory. It seems that O’Brien is retelling these stories to enlighten those who have never had experience on the battlefield in order to reach a certain level of understanding and to discover repercussions that it brings onto the human condition, both physically and mentally. Evidently, he wants to convey emotion within the reader. The stories also recall the life lessons that O’Brien learned about friendship, forgiveness, respect and reputation as well as foreignness and the other.

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The Complexities Of War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1002 Words | 5 Pages

The soldiers regularly have to choose between their own life and the lives of others. As they engage in actions that may appear immoral in order to defend themselves and their comrades, they are forced to grapple with the moral complexities of battle. The physical anguish and wounds the soldiers sustain result in amputated limbs, deformities, and lifelong disabilities. The physical scars they bear as a result of the abuse they endured make it harder for them to cope emotionally and psychologically. " Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to" (O’Brien PAGE NUMBER).

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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1293 Words | 6 Pages

Interpreting the emotional effects and impacts of war on soldiers can be quite difficult. What most people do not understand is that post-traumatic stress disorder or commonly referred to as PTSD, is something that is lifelong and troublesome to treat. It was due to the soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War, that this disorder was discovered. The National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study (NVVRS) approximates that 236,000 veterans currently have PTSD from the Vietnam War, an enormous long-term emotional and human cost of war (Vermetten). Tim O’Brien captures an astonishing painful and powerful realism through the emotions that the soldiers experience in “The Things They Carried”.

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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1082 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Things They Carried,” we can emotionally relate thanks to the author, Tim O’Brien’s incredible tone, as well as his choice of words. O’Brien is a US veteran who fought in Vietnam. Unfortunately he was discharged after receiving a shrapnel wound in battle near My Lai. He did, however, receive a Purple Heart (Mandell 392). This story focuses on both the physical and emotional burdens that these particular soldiers can and do carry.

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The Things They Carried: An Analysis

688 Words | 3 Pages

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war.

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Theme Of Friendship In The Things They Carried

767 Words | 4 Pages

The chapter “Friends,” is a very good chapter showing friendship. There are many details of how good of friends people can become during a war. Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk weren 't good buddies for a while but they eventually started to trust each other. “In late August they made a pact that if one of them should ever get totally fucked up- a wheelchair wound- the other guy would automatically find a way to end it,” (O’Brien, 62).

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