ipl-logo

Things They Carried Innocence Quotes

886 Words4 Pages

Innocence and guilt earned throughout the book The Things They Carry are mentally or physically challenging, it affects the innocence lost at war or the war trauma. Tim O'Brien explains a fictional and nonfictional sense of war through the book of The Things They Carried by using stories to explain things that most humans do not live through. The Things They Carried show how loss of innocence at war can carry with you war trauma for the rest of your life. The loss of innocence and gain of war trauma affects almost every soldier in the war either during or after the war. Which is seen through the killing of Kiowa and the death throughout the chapters. O'Brien had tried to show Kiowa a picture at night with and turned a flashlight on and …show more content…

O'Brien shows us that "In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. It's a question of credibility. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn't, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness." (pg. 71). O’Brien goes into great depth in this small quote on how loss of innocence and war can affect people in the war. The quote “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t” shows how war is so different from what any human experiences at home. After that small quote he follows it up by bringing up how you have to use normal stuff to show how crazy these things are and how much of a pole it can have on somebody during a war. The way that war is treated for many is mostly the mental part that is struggling. But for many "War is hell, but that's not half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead." (pg. 80). The effect of war on each soldier who fought in it was different and unique, and as a result, each soldier's experience with war has a different effect. For some soldiers,

Show More
Related

A Brief Review Of The Things They Carried 'By Tim O' Brien

1328 Words | 6 Pages

His stories are images of his own experiences in the war, as he is the narrator and main character in most of the stories. Some of his points of view are how war is an ambiguous thing and how it changes people. For instance, in “How to tell a true war story” the author reflects on the feelings of being alive after a fight, proposing that war is hell but also many other things. In O’Brien’s words “You feel an intense, out-of-the-skin awareness of your living self- your truest self, the human being you want to be and then become by the force of wanting it.

Read More

Tim O 'Briens Ambush And The Morally Injured'

420 Words | 2 Pages

In the novels “Ambush” by Tim O'Brien and “The Morally Injured” by Tyler Boudreau discuss both the consequences of war being a curse by having effects on the soldiers by being morally injured on what they experience in war. Furthermore when solider go to war they develope invisible wounds that affect the way the soldiers think when they return home. In the essay “The Morally Injured” by Tyler Boudreau shows that memories of war affect the way soldiers think by saying,”Thousands of veterans have come home in state of near mental collapse, harried by their memories of the battlefield”(P1) This affects the soldiers by having to carry the horrid memories of the war with them for the rest of their life. When coming home they have the experiences

Read More

The Changing Experiences In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

957 Words | 4 Pages

More specifically, the novel depicts the adverse effects war has on soldiers during the war and after the war. O’Brien quickly shows the crippling effects of war through himself. He has been ripped from everything he knows and placed into a foreign land, in which, his life is constantly at risk. As the story progresses there begins to be a shift from the war, to life after it. It is again immediately apparent how difficult it was for soldiers to adjust back to normal life.

Read More

Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1676 Words | 7 Pages

When Kiowa lost his life the field was a wet mess from a flood. The war doesn’t only change people it also changes the land. What once was a war zone was now a peaceful farmers field. “This field had embodied all the waste that was Vietnam, all the vulgarity and horror. Now, it was just flat and dreary and unremarkable” (O’Brien

Read More

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

705 Words | 3 Pages

Although the soldier he killed was an enemy soldier, instead of vilifying him he was able to humanize the man. O’Brien was able to describe the physical appearance of the soldier and imagine her life before war. The author was able to portray an emotional connection and made the line between friend and enemy almost vanish. This was able to reveal the natural beauty of shared humanity even in the context of war’s horror. O’Brien is able to find the beauty in the midst of this tragic and horrible event.

Read More

Comparison Between 'Facing It And Spin By Tim O' Brien

671 Words | 3 Pages

O'Brien emphasizes the difference between the troops' actual experiences and how those experiences are portrayed in the society and by the government throughout the entire story. He discusses how soldiers are taught to "spin" their perspectives in order to make them more appealing to the American public, frequently by praising their own bravery and understating the atrocities of war. He explains how soldiers can eventually have feelings of remorse and shame due to their sensitivity to violence and

Read More

Paradox In The Things They Carried

992 Words | 4 Pages

Obrien perfectly describes the duality of war saying, “war is nasty; war is fun” and “war makes you a man; war makes you dead” (76). War has many positives for some men, and it gives them a chance to honor their country. War is also horrible and leads to the death of countless young men with bright futures ahead. O’Brien uses the story of the water buffalo to describe all the emotions described in the description of war. The shooting of the water buffalo shows how desensitized soldiers become due to the mindless killing of Vietnam.

Read More

How Does Tim O Brien Use Story Telling In The Things They Carried

1094 Words | 5 Pages

This forewarns the reader that they could be reading something that is real or something that is completely made up. O’Brien is a masterful writer who has created an unique story about the experience of war through his style of writing.

Read More

Death In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1069 Words | 5 Pages

Most of the time soldiers are sent to war and are expected to return to their families and lives unchanged, expected to pick up where they left off. War, however, has a different lasting effect. Experiences of war leave soldiers scared for their life and change who they are as a person. War and death change a person both physically and mentally, Tim O’Brien shows this when Rat Kiley loses Kurt Lemon at war. Rat Kiley sees unimaginable events over and over again and it changes who he is as a person, “ ‘These pictures in my head, they won’t quit’…

Read More

Mary Anne Bell Character Analysis

1137 Words | 5 Pages

The Lasting Effect of War It is impossible to undo the changes caused by war. People often go into war as one person and return a completely new one. Not only does war have extreme physical effects on a person, but greater effects on the mind and mental state of the people involved. The traumatic and life changing effects of war are evident in The Things They Carried and are especially noticeable in the characters of Mary Anne Bell, Tim O’Brien, and Rat Kiley and the lives they live.

Read More

Characters In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

550 Words | 3 Pages

In The Things They Carried, a war novel, by Tim O’Brien author introduces many characters. Those characters show the bitterness pain and suffering of Vietnam War caused situation. For better picture of what does the war do to young people Tim O’Brien introduces some major and minor character. Showing how they are at first represented, what kind of change do they go through and how do they end up. Different angles of viewpoint are depicted by the fact that author not only uses men to show the evolution, but also women.

Read More

Women's Role In Vietnam In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1444 Words | 6 Pages

The constant war zone does not only weaken the physical state of soldiers, it can also take away the stability of some men’s mentality. Although O’Brien does not directly state that the other characters in the novel are mentally unstable, he uses the women, who are close to the soldiers, as mirrors of the soldier's emotions. As an example, O’Brien uses his daughter to convey how the fighting in the Vietnam war and how reminiscing on Vietnam has changed him mentally. O’Brien tells a story twice, one time telling it truthfully and the other time “story-truth”(179). He comforts himself through the entire chapter because of this, telling one story and stating that it was untruthful, but it does not become apparent to the reader until the daughter asks, “‘Daddy, tell the truth,’ Kathleen can say, ‘did you ever kill anybody?’

Read More

The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis

899 Words | 4 Pages

(O’Brien 128.) With the tone being used in this quote, readers already know that the actions you commit in war have the ability to stick with you for the rest of your life, but they also learn that although a significant amount of time has passed, that doesn’t necessarily mean that becoming comfortable with the situation will become easier, because O’Brien and his other platoon members are the perfect examples of this. Dealing with situations like these can even become harder as you progress throughout life because every time you think of a resolution, more and more questions arise about what you should and shouldn’t have done. Readers recognize that the things they do, or don’t do in life can make them feel the same way as the war

Read More

Psychological Warfare In Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

772 Words | 4 Pages

The tribulation the soldiers have to endure with all the violence in O'Brien's novel brings a tremendous slap of psychological trauma in their lives. This psychological trauma has been

Read More

Trauma In The Things They Carried

858 Words | 4 Pages

This reveals the challenges soldiers face in readjusting to civilian life,

Read More

More about Things They Carried Innocence Quotes

Open Document