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The Things They Carried Literary Analysis

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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. In order to cope with his fear of death, Lavender heavily relied on his tranquilizers because taking them would calm …show more content…

He enters the war believing that what mark men as courageous are the medals and services awarded to them. Ultimately, Bowker is unable to leave the war behind and upon returning back he believes that “the town could not talk, and would not listen” meaning no one would truly be able to understand him (137). Bowker has no one to turn to and this leaves him with the only option he believes is the answer, and so he commits suicide. During the war, Bowker was a gentle character who carried the thumb of a Vietnamese corpse “that had been presented to him as a gift by Mitchell Sanders” and a personal diary. Like Lavender and Cross, Bowker’s escape from the war was his personal diary. By having his diary, he was able to write any of his lingering thoughts down, helping him ease his

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The short story “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, is about the experience of a team of American soldiers in the Vietnam war (Julia Guance et al. 323). O’Brien fought in the war of Vietnam himself and used writing as a way to express the realities of war (322). His works are realistic, given his personal experience at war. Each soldier in the story “The Things They Carried” carry specific objects that reflect their personality and priorities. Jimmy Cross is a twenty-four-year-old, American First Lieutenant.

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Tim O’Brien, in his novel The Things They Carried, provides a first-hand account of the experiences of a platoon of young American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Through the stories he tells, O’Brien is able to relate to the reader the atmospheres of the situations that the soldiers were placed in. He also emphasizes the roles of both the physical and mental “things” that he and every other soldier carried on their missions throughout the war. Many of the physical objects that the soldiers kept with them either served a vital purpose to their survival or an emotional purpose to help remind them of the things they loved.

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Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is a novel dedicated to recounting the lives and existence of the soldiers during the Vietnam War. The author writes his novel in the form of a personal narrative written from the point of view of an infantryman during the war, with the purpose of relaying emotional and long-term impact both the tangible and intangible things had on the soldiers. By appealing to the reader’s emotions through the use of narrative, O’Brien is able to convey his purpose. In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien utilizes multiple perspectives and events during the Vietnam War to illustrate the permanence of memories and emotional baggage the soldiers had to and still do carry with them. O’Brien uses personal anecdotes in his narrative to illustrate the significant impact of remembrance and memories on a person's life.

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Tim Obrien’s 1990 story “The Things They Carried” describes the experience of a group of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The soldiers are under the responsibility of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. With Jimmy, he carries his love for Martha, and it distracts him from his duty. In the end, he tries to forget Martha because he thinks the death of Ted Lavender is his fault because he was distracted. Respectively, each soldier carries assets that are material and mental.

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“Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April.” (O’Brien 11). Ted lavender carrying tranquilizers was a symbol for how scary and nerve wracking the war was. They also showed that the soldiers would be willing to do

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Tim O'Brien is an American novelist who served as a soldier in the Vietnam War. The topic of the book goes through the experiences of soldiers during the Vietnam War and expresses both the physical and metaphorical things the soldiers had to carry with them while deployed. His purpose for writing the book was to recount his personal experience in the Vietnam War and allow him to comment on the war. I chose this book because I thought it would be an interesting read and I would be able to learn more about how a soldier in the Vietnam War felt while deployed. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a story of his recalling of events that provides an honest depiction while maintaining an enjoyable read which shows how the soldiers were changed in the war.

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“The Things They Carried”, a story written by Tim O’Brien, is located within the small villages of Vietnam and is about O’Brien, who was drafted into the Vietnam War, alongside other soldiers of the Alpha Company, reacting and developing around the first friendly causality within the company, of whom was named Ted Lavender. The story continues on about how Vietnam was filled with immense boredom accompanied by a great awareness of the environment, allowing for the extreme imagination to rapidly overwhelm the company. With the story’s vast concept, the literary elements that are drawn in support for an accessible understanding include the overall theme(s) of the story, the characters described within the story, the writing style, and the diction

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Coping strategies are crucial to the success of the Vietnam War troops. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien conveys the experiences of War World Two soldiers, and the way soldiers cope through shifts of tone, setting, and character development. The Things They Carried, is multiple short stories put into one book that follows a group of soldiers told from the perspective of the narrator, who is also a character in the book during the time of War World One. The book is structured to reveal what the soldiers carry not just physically but also mentally.

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Lumumba White Hr.3 The Things They Carried Literary Analysis “Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can be in, Bringing out the best in people . All men are afraid in battle the coward is the one who let’s his fears overcome his senses of duty”(ExampleEssay.com).” The Thing They Carried” by Tim O’Brien showed some of theses characteristics in some of the characters in the book. That I want to include that some of the events and presentations are interpret a product of culture from the author.

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In literature there are two types of violence: the specific injury that characters bring upon themselves or other characters, and violence brought on by the author that causes characters to suffer in general. An example of injury that characters bring upon themselves or other characters is in the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien because it is about the Vietnam war. The soldiers in the story are fighting, planning attacks, and die by explosives, knives, and guns. An example of violence brought on by the author causing characters to suffer would be in the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini when Miriam’s mother kills herself. The author uses this death to advance the plot so Miriam has to go live with her father and

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The Things They Carried shows the significance of storytelling. Throughout the entire book, storytelling is almost the main thing. Tim O'brien shares most of his stories, and so do the other characters. Some stories were good and some were bad. Without the storytelling in the book, it would just be plain.

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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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The Power of Fiction in The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien, a veteran of The Vietnam War, and his experience has provided the literary world with a book called The Things They Carried. The book was written with a specific focus on the truths and false-truths of the Vietnam War and the stories that follow. These truths tied into untruths are continually highlighted by multiple uses of hyperbole seen throughout O’Brien’s short stories. This reveals the stories to be lies, but lies with the purpose to tell a story with a meaning that is backed by truth, the true feelings of the soldiers, displayed as a means of experience for readers. Tim O’Brien intends to pull the readers from truth as a way to help readers fully understand the real feelings that the perilous war created.

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The things they carried is a novel by Tim O’Brien. About the Vietnam war. About the lives of people going there. It’s a collection of war stories. Some of them true, some of the untrue and that’s the main topic that’ll be discussed in this paper.

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In time, different forms of protest have been used many different people. Writers write to protest with words. Writers use imagery, irony, and/or structure to protest war. Writers use imagery to protest war. In O’brien’s short story The Things they Carried he said, “each man carried a green plastic poncho”(O’Brien).

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