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The Things They Carried Norman Character Analysis

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In the introductory chapter of The Things They Carried that details the physical and emotional weight of the objects men carry with them through warfare, often the objects carried are emblematic of home which brings comfort and stability to the uncomfortable foreign setting of Vietnam. From photos, pebbles, pantyhose, and Bibles certain objects provide stability through their connection to America in contrast to the strange and foreign setting of Vietnam. However with the distinction between peaceful home spaces and foreign war spaces eradicated as illustrated through the story of Mary-Anne, despite “idyllic memories of home” providing comfort during wartime, in the period following the war soldiers find themselves alienated from the very national …show more content…

In examining Norman’s silence, the communication of trauma relies on a safe-space where personal trauma can be shared with a willing audience (Schick 1850). However while Norman imagines telling his story to his high school girlfriend, his father, or Max, he cannot. The sense of alienation Norman feels in the town is coupled with a perception “the town could not talk, and would not listen”, reflecting the local American perspective on Vietnam. While The Corpse Washer takes place in a war zone, once Norma returns to American, there is a divide between him and his home through the trauma of warfare (O’Brien 137). Unlike Norman who is permeated by the memory of Vietnam, notably the drowning death of Kiowa, the town “had no memory therefore no guilt” (O’Brien 137). While Norman carries the traumatic memory of global warfare with him into the domestic space, there is an unwillingness of the local American space to listen to the realities of war fought abroad. Rather than speak of the trauma suffered abroad, Norman traps his story inside him and allows the wound to destroy him rather break the idyllic American landscape with the reality of the horror of

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Norman had felt as if he had no one to talk to or relate to because no one around him had experienced war like he had. He tried to keep jobs when he was home from war, but not one of them had lasted more than 3 weeks. Since he feels he is unable to speak to anyone about war, he writes a letter to O’Brien, telling his entire war story. He soon feels as if he cannot do anything without thinking about war and hangs himself in the locker room of his town’s YMCA.

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“He's stopped talking to his friends, visits no one, avoids those who come to visit him. At work, he says as little as possible. He can perhaps learn to bear the destruction of buildings, but the destruction of the living is too much for him” (Galloway 32). Now, to see the city he has cherished for years be tormented by the tribulations of the awful war, he suffers in a constant pit of grief and sorrow for the city he once cared so deeply for.

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Philip Caputo’s narrative model of a “vicarious tour of duty” in his memoir A Rumor of War humanizes the American military in Vietnam by removing the reader from preconceptions, presenting a multifaceted account of combat, and describing the landscape and environment of the American War in Vietnam in vivid detail. As a Marine lieutenant and as a survivor of the war, Caputo’s account is limited by nature, but he maintains a broad representation of the American War through his descriptions of the environment and by reiterating the significance of his peers' deaths, especially as the American casualty rate increased. Caputo’s conclusion that the extent of suffering in combat cannot be described secondhand and his explicit goal of documentation

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Tillman, in Army fatigues, sits in a tree with an assault rifle in hand, waiting for someone to test his shooting skills. The landscape behind him is brown and looks dead and lifeless, just like his fallen comrades.one feels Tillman’s demeanor in the photograph, but whether he is focused on the seriousness of war or the fear of imminent death we will never know (SI “Remember” n. pag.). To appeal to their audience, this cover uses specific tactics. The fatigues induce a sense of patriotism that hits home with the American audience.

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Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

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In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

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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.

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Regret is a powerful emotion that has the ability to scar someone for the rest of their life. Moments of regret can come from relationships, self-made decisions and life changing events. The idea of regret also applies to “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh and “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien. Although these two literary pieces are very different in many ways, both authors describe the experience of the Vietnam War as a time of regretful decisions that negatively impacted people of both the American side and the Vietnamese side. Both authors tell a story about a character that recalls of flashbacks of the war, where they grieve over the past decisions that have affected them for the rest of their life.

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The novel focuses on coping with the death and horror of war. It also speaks volumes about the true nature of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the never-ending struggle of dealing with it. In the

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Already he had passed them six times, forty-two miles, nearly three hours without stopping” (O’Brien 139-140). As if Norman was stuck in a loop, he drove around that lake, reliving moments of his life from when he was in Vietnam. He questioned, doubted, and second guessed things that had happened. He wants to tell his story to his friends but they all moved on with their lives while he was in Vietnam in the war, leaving him with no one. He wanted to talk to someone but he couldn’t.

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David McLean’s short story “Marine Corps Issue” includes a beautifully vivid scene of Sergeant Bowen, the narrator Johnny’s father, “sitting on the edge of our elevated garden, black ashes from a distant fire falling lightly like snow around him” (620). While this scene is powerful by itself, it can be appreciated even more by understanding the symbolism and allusions embedded in it, as well as the psychological state of the father as he sits “on the edge of the garden with his head down and his eyes closed as if in prayer” (634). This is why McLean’s readers should use literary criticism: it enhances their appreciation for the story’s impact. Prior to the climax, Johnny has spent weeks researching the Vietnam War. The location in which he

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Originally published in 1990, The Things They Carried is a collection of war stories that took place during the Vietnam War. Due to its accurate and honest depiction of war, it has been banned for crude language, violence, drug use, and sexual innuendo. The author, Tim O’Brien, was born in Austin, Minnesota in 1946. Due to his service in the United States military during the Vietnam War, O’Brien is able to depict the war in a more graphic, and realistic manner.

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The novel written by Graham Greene, The Quiet American, conveys his point of view, as an English reporter, on the complexity of being forced to choose a side during the Vietnam Wars. While Phillip Caputo’s memoir, Rumor of War, is a heartbreaking journey of an American Marine who describes the true nature of the horrors experienced in the war zone. In addition, Le Ly Hayslip’s memoir, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, signifies a woman’s perspective as a Vietnamese peasant. Her story is unbelievable and inspiring because of the strength she has to battle against struggles and to forgive those who victimized her. These primary sources suggest how differing events of trauma

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The narrator of “Dulce” experiences the war first-hand, while the narrator of “Mental Cases” describes soldiers’ memories of

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In the story “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway the protagonist, a marine, “Krebs” returns to his hometown years after the war is over. To his surprise the town remained static since the day he left, the only thing changed being Krebs himself. By addressing Krebs’s disconnect to his hometown, using careful diction structure and expressing loss in faith the author highlights the physiological impact war can have on an individual, how past events can twist one’s reality, ultimately changing an individual from the inside out. Upon his late arrival, Krebs truly becomes isolated from his hometown realizing that the welcoming hands of home-comers have long been closed.

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