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Essay about the things they carried by tim o brien
Essay about the things they carried by tim o brien
Essay about the things they carried by tim o brien
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The Things They Carried by American author Tim O’Brien, who was drafted in the Vietnam war, describes the experience of the American infantry fighting in Vietnam. O’Brien utilises various rhetorical devices to illustrate the immense emotional & physical burdens the soldiers were to bear to enlighten the reader about the true horrors of war. For example, O’Brien employs asyndeton & polysyndeton in sentences listing the many things the soldiers carried. “They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades…,” (O’Brien). The lists of items carried carry on, overwhelming & exhausting the reader of the physical burdens of war.
Tim O'Brien uses intentional narrative and rhetorical devices in his book "The Things They Carried" to advance various themes within it, such as storytelling, memory power and emotional baggage. O'Brien examines each theme through these narrative devices. O'Brien effectively explores these themes through imagery. His vivid descriptions bring home both physical and emotional burdens that soldiers carry, such as Lt. Cross's love for Martha being like "a stone in his stomach" (O'Brien 5). Such images create a powerful depiction of emotional weight soldiers carry with them and highlight its importance within military lives.
I agree that the conflict between Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen alludes to future conflict between soldiers; however, I believe this conflict also reveals the degraded mindframe that these soldiers endured during the war. Like you pointed out, Jensen becomes wildly unstable after the fight. O’Brien even claims that, “The distinction between good guys and bad guys disappeared for him” (63). Jensen believed he couldn’t even trust his own ally. He would have restless nights and would break down, all because he believed Strunk would kill him over a measly broken nose.
War: The Idea of Friendship In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the stories are mainly focused on the Vietnamese War and it’s effects on the soldiers. The two stories, Friends and Enemies clearly portray the personal problems faced by the soldiers during the war instead of problems in the actual war that the soldiers are fighting. In Enemies, Dave Jensen breaks Lee Strunk's nose over a stolen jackknife and is later found contemplating whether or not Strunk will get his revenge on him, causing him to become delusional. In Friends, however, both Strunk and Jensen agree to sign a pact that says if anyone of them gets hurt badly, the other will kill them.
Men went through so many tasks during the Vietnam War physically and mentally. The beginning chapters focus on training for war and being prepared for the worst. For example, when there is a sergeant in a room with the marines. The sergeant walks to the chalk board and writes “AMBUSHES ARE MURDER AND MURDER IS FUN” (36-37). The
The Things They Carried was a very powerful and emotional book from the authors first person perspective. While he managed the art of good story telling by keeping the memories of his platoon mates alive through his stories, he also achieved good story telling by the use of specific narrative elements and rhetorical devices. Many people never really notice these specific things in novels or books until they are pointed out. So, what are these devices and how would they have any effect on the way he told the stories? To begin with, during the first chapter, Tim O'Brien uses anaphora as a rhetorical device.
In the book,” The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, an American novelist who is best known for his works of fiction which depict his experiences in the Vietnam War, he suggests to the audience how the Vietnam War was like to him and to the company he was in during the war. Through the use of his characters to show what they carried with them throughout the war and in the peace after the war, he uses sensory details to illustrate how it felt to be in Vietnam, he uses symbolism to depict certain points of the war, his use of irony to depict something which suggests but means something opposite, and his use of themes through the story. Tim O’Brien focuses on the characters, sensory details, symbolism, irony, and themes throughout the story
In the chapter when he describes the man he kills, he talks about the state of the dead body by saying, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole…the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips, his right cheek was smooth and hairless, there was a butterfly on his chin, his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him” (O’Brien Chapter 11). This brutal and horrifying imagery displays an irrefutable element of truth to O’Brien’s writing. Not only does this imagery highlight the truth to his writing, but it also sheds light on the brutal truth about the war in Vietnam. By using imagery as such a strong rhetorical device in his writing, he gives the average person a taste of just how barbaric and cruel Vietnam felt for the people who experience the war first hand on either side of the fighting. Tim O’Brien gives a very detailed and intense description of his time fighting in Vietnam during their war with America.
The Things They Carried “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story set during the Vietnam War. In the story, O’Brien lists many different items soldiers in the Alpha Company carried with them as they humped across the rugged terrain. Many carried necessities such as rations, matches, ammunition and things of that nature; however, many soldiers also carried quite peculiar objects such as condoms, pantyhose, and M&Ms. Readers can grasp a closer insight of the characters’ lives after further examination of the symbolism and meaning of the things they carried.
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.
Challenges at War Robert E. Lee once said, “What a cruel thing war is… to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors”. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien takes place in Vietnam. He and a handful of other men experience things only one can image and hope they will never have to experience again. They learn how death among them can greatly affect them, and many others. War is not an easy task to get through and these men all had different coping methods.
Author Tim O’Brien once expressed, “It can be argued, for instance, that [the Vietnam] war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty….a powerful, implacable beauty—and a true war story will tell the truth about this, though the truth is ugly”(O’Brien 77). The breathtaking yet sanguinary jungles and devastating guerilla warfare of the Vietnam War had a particular grandeur that overwhelmed its victims, and the author of The Things They Carried demonstrates that element throughout many passages in his collection of short stories. In Tim O’Brien’s historical novel The Things They Carried, he uses the clash of breathtaking beauty with horrendous imagery and grim concepts to establish the theme of the dark beauty of war through the lens of his
At the end of World War II, America made history by becoming the first country to use an atom bomb. A scene of dust in the air, debris of buildings all around, people crying, dead bodies lying on the ground... This is what it was like after the bombing of 1945 in japan at the end of World War II. After the atom bomb, fears and social political problems occurred influencing the Cold War.
War, destruction, devastation: all of these words have a similar connotation which all tend to lead to an unfavorable outcome. In The Things They Carried, the author, Tim O'Brien, describes a scene where new army recruits are deployed to a jungle-like area in Vietnam. The author makes use of various devices to describe this scene, specifically simile, imagery, and syntax to explain how it relates to the mood of the novel, a particularly difficult feat given that the author must convey these feelings through words. The author uses similes to describe the setting.
I was so excited to begin high school and attend the same school my father and uncles had attended. But, the beginning of my high school career was very difficult and challenging for me. In the beginning of my freshman year, I had a very hard time finding a group of friends that I could trust. The idea of popularity drowned me when I entered high school and I began to loose myself. I had a hard time focusing on my studies and this caused my grades to plummet.
