ipl-logo

Things They Carried Symbolism Analysis

765 Words4 Pages

Over twenty years after his service in Vietnam was concluded, Tim O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried (1990). Tim O’Brien is a veteran as well as an author of memoirs, short stories, and war stories. O’Brien grew up an all-American child, after high school he went onto college and received his BA in Political Science. In 1968 O’Brien was drafted in to the United States Army and was then sent to fight in the Vietnam War. Twenty-two years after his service, O’Brien wrote the book The Things They Carried. This book is compiled of short stories based off his time in Vietnam but also takes place back in his comrade’s hometowns. The main characters in the book are his war pals that are enlisted with him under 1st Lt. Jimmy Cross. Throughout the book O’Brien uses symbolism, imagery, and the setting of the story to show the extensive emotional and psychological pain of warfare and what it can do to humans. …show more content…

The soldiers carried supplies required for their ultimate survival, “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity.” (565) Some of the other things they carried with them were not necessities but rather for their own comforting purposes. Some of the men wore crosses around their necks, some carried bibles, pictures of their loved ones, letters they have received and some of them also carried drugs to help sedate their agony. The personal items gave the soldiers a sort of crutch to fall back onto when the war became too much for them to handle. These things helped them get through the horrific experiences of war in some way or

Show More
Related
1350 Words | 6 Pages

Author Information The author, Tim O'Brien served in the United States military from 1968 to 1970, during the Vietnam War. The unit he served in was involved in the infamous My Lai Massacre. When his unit moved to the area of the massacre the place was very hostile to him and and his unit. According to him, the book The Things They Carried had a contrast between what was really happening, and the story part of the event. He is considered to write stories using Verisimilitude, the blur between fiction and reality in philosophical terms.

Read More
1004 Words | 5 Pages

Valor and Heroes in The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was published in 1990. The book is set during the Vietnam war, and It is narrated by O’Brien and tells about the war stories that happened. According to Kleinbard, “O’Brien provides a more substantive reality that has no heroes or valor.”

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
583 Words | 3 Pages

O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a third-person story about the Vietnam War. O’Brien was sent to Vietnam as a foot soldier in 1969 and left in 1970 with a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star for Valor, and a Combat Infantry Badge. O’Brien’s short story tells the tale of the Vietnam times, using characters to portray his horrors from the war. Mahini et al.

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

Read More
2081 Words | 9 Pages

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.

Read More
1505 Words | 7 Pages

The Disconnected Soldiers In “The Things They Carried,” written by Tim O’Brien, he creates images in the audience 's mind about what veterans truly experience before, during, and after the Vietnam war. Soldiers always have the strange feeling of disconnection but O’Brien brings this to the attention of people throughout his book. On the surface, the book appears to be a simple war novel, but beneath the surface it opens up into all of the struggles that war veterans face such as the disconnection from society. Disconnection occurs as a main theme in the novel and he presents this through multiple stories from different characters.

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

The book The Things They Carried is a fictional novel/narrative written by Tim O’Brien and it was first published in the year 1990 by Houghton Mifflin. The novel consists of 23 chapters, or vignettes, where they revolve around the main protagonist, narrator, and author Tim O’Brien and his military pack which includes Norman Bowker, Rat Kiley, Henry Dobbins, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Mitchell Sanders, Kiowa, Curt Lemon Ted Lavender, Lee Strunk, Dave Jensen, Azar, etc. The book takes place during the Cold War/the Vietnam War (1955-1975) in Vietnam, (as well as in Minnesota and Iowa) a proxy-war where the Communist forces battled the Anti-Communist forces in hopes of spreading Communism to them. The vignettes that Tim provides are multiple accounts that occurred during the time he served as a

Read More
774 Words | 4 Pages

The Things They Carried Surviving war is more than just dodging bullets and grenades, it 's being able to find purpose in what you are doing. In Tim O 'Brien 's book The Things They Carried he gives a first hand view portraying how the soldiers of Vietnam pressed through mental depression and despair. For some finding purpose ment trying to achieve glorified war medals, for others it was winning the war, but for most it was reliving the life they had before Vietnam. In his book O’Brien takes readers on his own and his fellow soldiers journey through the rough and demanding life that is war.

Read More
1178 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
776 Words | 4 Pages

Things They Carried Analysis draft In the short story “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’brien uses the literary element of symbolism to portray how people carry different items to represent certain things, and to represent the harsh realities of war and life. He also uses symbolism to show how people become attached to items, and how they take on deeper meanings in times of stress. The story takes place during the Vietnam war, and O’Brien talks about an army detail, and the different things that they carried. This story is a great example of the use of symbolism to represent many different things at once.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war.

Read More
1071 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

Maddie Sharp The Things They Carried Soldiers have experienced and lived things that are unimaginable to us. There is no possible way we can even begin to understand their concerns and the difficulty of their duties. Each soldier in this story carries something physically that in someway correlates to their emotional burdens. The things they carried were mostly based on need and rank with the exception of a few personal or superstitious items. Jimmy Cross carries love letters along with his compass and maps.

Read More
538 Words | 3 Pages

Symbols has for a millennial been used as a way to convey and transmit meaning to our everyday lives. It has been used by humans to express an idea and a meaning to that person or the culture. Because of the constant evolution of meanings, language is formed and how a context in language is unique from other languages. We will look on how symbols are assigned meaning, the significance it has to culture, and how it has shaped language. Symbols has influenced our ideas and language as we view our world differently.

Read More

More about Things They Carried Symbolism Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document