Things They Carried: Compare And Contrast Essay

The autobiographical memoir, Persepolis, published in the early 2000’s by Marjane Satrapi depicts the struggle of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Similarly, the semi-autobiographical novel, The Things They Carried, published in 1995 by Tim O’brien focuses on O’brien’s distressing experiences of getting drafted into the Vietnam War. Moreover, both O’Brien’s and Satrapi’s literature portray the struggle to be understood through the themes of religion and mental health. In Persepolis the struggle is more concentrated on the protagonist herself. In comparison, The Things They Carried the struggle of identity is presented through the perspective of multiple characters. While both works encompass the theme of religion to a certain

In contrast to Persepolis, where religion is more of a burden that causes pain and suffering, in The Things They Carried religion is a way to preserve their identity and find meaning in life. Thus, making it more of a communal issue rather than a personal one. For example, this can be seen when O’Brien talks about his friend's identity that is shaped by his religion: “Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father.” As it can be seen from this quote, it is not O’Brien who deals with religion alone but also other characters in the book. The testament acts as a symbol to perceive Kiowa’s native heritage and not to forget who he is while dealing with the harsh realities of war. However, the emphasis on, ‘presented to him by his father’ can also be misperceived and one could say that his father fabricated his identity through ‘brainwashing’ him with religious ideology. Religion is further introduced when Dobbins decides to find purpose and faith in life by joining monks: “after the war maybe I'll join up with these

Through emanata Marjane's intense stage of sadness is shown by the stripe of her crying sound and the puddle of tears. Also, her face not being represented in the panel shows how she no longer wants to face reality as the only person who she cared for and identified herself with was stripped away from her in such a short period of time. So, Marjane falling into depression is due to the fact that she is tired of constructing false identities of herself that she knows will be knocked over again. Hence, the author uses Marjane's downwards stumbling mental health to demonstrate her loss of hope in finding her self identity Nevertheless, in The Things They Carried the characters are shown struggling with mental health issues due to the war; for many of the soldiers mental health becomes a part of their identity. However, similarly with Persepolis mental health issues become so extreme that the soldiers are only defined by their mental illness and forget who they were. O’Briens intentions are effectively seen by his short stories that allude to clear signs of Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) alongside the psychological baggage the soldiers