ipl-logo

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

1048 Words5 Pages

In the Book ‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien, the author discusses the pointlessness of war, the burden of guilt and the character of Rat Kiley to dismiss the previous perspective of war previously upheld. The glorification of war was prominent before World War I due to propaganda and nationalistic views that the population followed. The novel, the things they carried, aims to disprove the heroic monomyth as O’Brien depicts the characters in his novels as riddled with self-doubt and distracted rather than the typical romanticised version of war seen in earlier texts (Baumgratner, 2017). The characters execute unnecessarily violent actions in the novel and are distracted from the war resulting in negligence which lead to consequences. …show more content…

Throughout the novel, the character demonstrates behaviour unfit for the idol image and due to the war suffers from hallucinations that drive him mad. In order to escape the war “He[Rat Kiley] took off his boots and socks and shot himself in the foot.”(O’Brien, 1990, pg.223) demonstrating coward and timid behaviour conflicting the morale of the perceived men of the heroic monomyth. Though Rat Kiley is a good-hearted person throughout the novel supporting the heroic ideal, the action of wanting to escape the war and not continuing fighting contradicts the theory of courage and strength. Due to the war, Rat Kiley suffered tremendously as he started hallucinating after having to do ‘Night Patrols’. Afterwards, Rat Kiley started hallucinating, “He began to see things. He heard a voice of his own. He couldn’t stop talking. Strange talks, too.”(O’Brien, 1990, pg.220-221) demonstrating that the war had a tremendous effect on his health as he started to lose himself. O’Brien’s use of short and simple sentences mimics Rat Kiley’s state of mind as disjointed, they also emphasise the intensity of his hallucinations, creating them to be overwhelming. The repetition of ‘He’ in the quote emphasises the tremendous hallucinations that Raat Kiley faces. Contrary to the heroic ideal, Rat Kiley faces hindrances that lead him to hallucinate and also in the end lead to him hurting himself in order to escape the

Show More
Related

The Things They Carried Analysis Essay

963 Words | 4 Pages

By using historical context, narration, and character usage, O’Brien employs the theme of mental health across to the readers to show the mental health of soldiers during this time. O’Brien portrays the story from a monumental historical point, the Vietnam War, to show how mentally oppressive the war was. The soldiers that were drafted

Read More

Coping Mechanisms In The Things They Carried And Tim O Brien

1435 Words | 6 Pages

It lay very still... Rat Kiley was crying. He tried to say something, but then cradled his rifle and went off by himself.” (75) This event had caused Kiley to

Read More

Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carry'

1029 Words | 5 Pages

The third and final type of thing the soldiers in this book, and war, carry, is the mental weight of war. One of the more obvious portrayals of this is when Rat Kiley started to lose his head a little, but there are much more than just this once specific part. This part of the book shows how much pressure the war is on their heads, and some men, just cannot withstand the pressure. There is also the part where Mitchell Sanders, on page 13, gives Norman Bowker a boys thumb as a gift. This shows how the war has almost started to dehumanize the soldiers.

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

Truth In The Things They Carried, By Tim O Brien

1020 Words | 5 Pages

After reading The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, it is astoundingly clear that truth plays an essential role in the story’s overall meaning and portrayal as an authentic Vietnam War story. In this complex narrative, the topic of truth has been interpreted in many specific and intricate ways. Many interpret his usage of truth similarly to one another, stating how “war inevitably imposes a compromised version of the interpretation of a genuine experience”, causing O’Brien to project altered truths so the experience can truly connect and express its true state (Wesley 2). This common trend seen in these authors’ coverage of truth is that they examine the synthesized, story truth that Tim O’Brien utilized in his story aimed to better emphasize

Read More

The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

651 Words | 3 Pages

The Things They Carried” is a great short story by Tim O’Brien who displays the remarkable story of soldiers during the Vietnam War. Being away from your family, in an unknown place, giving up your life’s luxuries is difficult to handle mentally and physically. Similarly, in the short story we see how soldiers try to overcome their fear by escaping from the reality of the war time situation around them, to a world that is just an illusion. Throughout the short story we see several men coping through their fear in Vietnam as they had the responsibility of a solider and carried burdens of need and emotions. In order to cope with their fear, the soldiers talked with each other and told each other what they felt since the only thing that they had was time and pain.

Read More

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

1772 Words | 8 Pages

“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” This was an illustrious quote famously said by former President John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy was addressing the United Nations General Assembly when he uttered these words. At the time, the second Secretary General of the United Nations was killed during warfare and the key suspect to his brutal murder was war. It was Kennedy’s wish to end the war before the war claimed more innocent lives.

Read More

War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

774 Words | 4 Pages

There were flares and mortar rounds, and the stink was everywhere- it was inside him, in his lungs- and he could no longer tolerate it”(149). Since the war the soldiers get flashbacks of different scenarios all the time. It takes a toll on how they think and the trauma, guilt, and grief they felt in that

Read More

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

247 Words | 1 Pages

Tim O 'Brien said that he didn't told anyone this story. The story took place the cruel life during the summer of 1968. On June 17, 1986, He graduated with high honors. After, He joined the army. A month later he received a draft notice him to go to the Vietnam War.

Read More

The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

2437 Words | 10 Pages

Jordan C. John Instructor Kirsten Blodgett English 108 28 March 2022 Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried To reject the ideals of modernist literature and discuss the philosophical questions of war, Tim O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried. Within this novel, the ideals of postmodernist literature permeate each chapter as he utilizes the literary conventions to their fullest extent. Further, O’Brien explores the philosophy behind what makes a true war story vs. a moral war story, as well as what justifies the cruelty that was exhibited by soldiers in the Vietnam War, of which he served. Therefore, an analysis of the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, demonstrates that it is not only a postmodern novel but an invitation to discuss

Read More

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

1701 Words | 7 Pages

War, some would say it is a necessary evil. Others would say that war is for the weak minded, or those that cannot settle matters with diplomacy. Most people that have experienced the terrors of war would say that war is hell. Nations across the globe experience wars and acts of violence as a means to settle differences. Racial hate, Xenophobia, trade disagreements; these are just several of the issues that wars are started over.

Read More

Charles Yale Harrison's Generals Die In Bed

687 Words | 3 Pages

Even though events of the novel occurred over 100 years ago, it is still relevant today to teach the modern reader valuable lessons, like how dehumanizing war is to soldiers, the impacts on their mental health, and the futility

Read More

The Day Was Cloudy Character Analysis

770 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien states, “Thank God for Rat Kiley. Every so often, maybe four times altogether, he trotted back to check me out. Which took courage. It was a wild fight, guys running and laying down fire and regrouping and running again, lots of noise, but Rat Kiley took the risks” (O’Brien 130). He also was a definite model of a masculine man.

Read More

The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1239 Words | 5 Pages

Alyssa Ramirez Mrs. Hill AP Language & Composition H 14 March 2023 Different Worlds When soldiers are asked to kill for their country they have little to no room for the consideration of morality within their actions; but what road do they walk to ever give up such a human trait? The American novelist, Tim O'Brien, wrote many stories highlighting his experiences of the Vietnam War and touched on, not only the struggles of the war but also the path soldiers take that others fail to mention. O´Brien believed that ¨storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is¨ to tell (“Chicago Public Library”). One of his most well-known novels, The Things They Carried, is a collection of linked stories based

Read More

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

823 Words | 4 Pages

The story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien is about First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross in the Vietnam War, struggling to balance his love for a young girl named Martha and his duties as the Lieutenant. Throughout the story his love becomes an obsession which he cannot control. In the story the narrator keeps naming everything the soldiers carried(tangible and intangible) and tells the reader how much they weighed. By the end of the story we, as readers, realize that the soldiers are carrying all of their gear, but the most important things they are carrying is the fear, memories, and thoughts of loved ones. In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien is trying to tell us that the heaviest things we carry are the ones which weigh nothing.

Read More

More about Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Open Document