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Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carry'

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A book 's title is something that no matter what you read, has significant meaning. The book The Things They Carry by Tim O’Brien, is no different. It has meaning on all levels, from physical, to mental, all the way to spiritual. A a book 's title goes much farther than just the words on the cover, all books have a title with a meaning much deeper than most would choose to believe. The soldiers carry much more than physical objects, and these things they carry affect them in many different ways and levels.
One of the more obvious things they carry, are physical objects. From pantyhose to pictures, all the way to M16’s, the things the men carry, in this book, vary greatly. When it came to actual military equipment, they had a great deal of …show more content…

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. They are starting to become less and less of themselves, war, and Vietnam itself is changing them. They are doing stuff that, if they were not in the middle of a war, they would never do.This is also depicted when it talks of the men talking and shaking hands with the dead, which is something that anyone, with a rational human mind, would never do. One way that they try coping with this mental weight or pressure is telling the “true” war stories. They make up, or do not make up, stories that for even a little bit, can take their mind off the war. They are desperate for an escape from all the death and the war, that any story, can be a true war story to them. These stories help them forget about it all and just escape through words and through stories, which sometimes, is just enough to stay sane enough to return to their family, friends, and in essence, the real

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290 Words | 2 Pages

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a novel that emphasizes symbolism in chapter 7, “How to Tell a War Story” the character/narrator Tim O’Brien expresses The struggle that affects a soldier in the war. “He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn't to kill; it was to hurt it” (O'Brien, 75) In Chapter 7 How to Tell a war story, the story expresses the grief that Rat Kiley goes through.

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368 Words | 2 Pages

The book The Things They Carried was a book about a platoon of American Soldiers in the Vietnam War. Tim O'Brien wrote the book as the Author. Published on March 28 1990, with 233 pages. In the book the men had set up camp, which later found out to be a sink hole. The moltar started coming off the camp.

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3211 Words | 13 Pages

Now and then, however, there were times of panic, when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn’t, when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said Dear Jesus and flopped around on the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and sobbed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and to God and to their mothers and fathers, hoping not to die.” The title of the book, The Things They Carried, has so many meanings after reading the book. In the beginning, O’Brien goes into such detail as to what the soldiers carried in their ruck sacks going as far to say how much each thing weighed.

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990 Words | 4 Pages

Synthesis Essay Tim O’Brien wrote the book The Things They Carried 20 years after he returned from war, making him the protagonist of the novel. O’Brien felt that writing down his stories from the war brought him closer to it, and the people he came to know from the war. Bringing himself closer to the past allowed O’Brien to gain closure for the tragedies he witnessed. His novel allows readers to gain a new perspective on war, since many opposed the Vietnam War when it happened. O’Brien gives readers a closer look inside the war to show the impact that it has on veterans.

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553 Words | 3 Pages

This brings focus specifically to the things the men are carrying, both tangible and intangible, without deemphasizing the narration. O'Brien gives only straight forward descriptions in these sections and the writing is nugatory of any feeling or sentiment whatsoever. On the other hand, when describing the intangible items, the writing is automatically perceived as more in tune with the emotions of the characters in the novel. The author's writing tends to be taking more sentimentality in these segments and adds a great deal of emotional weight for the reader. The soldiers all clearly want to escape the reality of what is going on around them in the war.

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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.

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648 Words | 3 Pages

The things men carried inside.” (par. 6) In conclusion, the characters in “The Things They Carried” can be better understood through a closer look at the objects they brought with them. “They carried all they could bear, and then some, . . . “ (par 2).

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1293 Words | 6 Pages

In the article, “Vietnam’s Psychological Toll” by Leslie Roberts examines how impactful the war was on Vietnam soldiers. “Fifteen to twenty years later, Vietnam veterans are more than twice as likely to suffer from serious physiological problems--alcohol abuse, major depression, and anxiety--as soldiers who did not serve in Vietnam” (Roberts). These physiological problems are the number one leading result to feelings of guilt and blaming themselves for their mistakes. Jimmy Cross experiences an extreme amount of guilt and blame after the death of Lavender, “he felt shame. He hated himself.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

O’Brien’s intended audience was young people who were not educated about the war and he discussed the themes shame/guilt and mortality/death. The chapter “The Things They Carried” gives an introduction about the men in the group, it also shows shame/guilt. The chapter talks about the equipment each soldier carried and how it affected them. During this chapter it focuses primarily on LT.

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1946 Words | 8 Pages

Entry 1 In the first chapter titled “The Things They Carried,” the author said that they carried the physical items like ponchos and ammunition, but what resonated with me was how he described the intangible things that each of them carried. They carry the life that they left back in the United States. I can’t imagine what it would be like to leave the life that’s lived for eighteen years to fight for something that’s not even clearly understood.

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610 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout our lives, we individually carry items that are of importance to us and have significant meaning. We all carry a sort of substance that incorporates an interpretation, whether the items may be mental or physical. In the short story “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, we are informed of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and the physical items and mental overviews that individual soldiers carried throughout their expedition. There is frequently more to someone than meets the eye, for we never truly know what sort of tranquility or obstacles one has been through—until we have heard their story.

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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.

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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.

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702 Words | 3 Pages

Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person, marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of repetition, symbolism, and metaphors to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers during war. Though the literary device of repetition, O'Brien portrays the physical and psychological hardships of a soldier.

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

Tim O 'Brien writes The Things They Carry, which is based on his experience in the vietnam war. O 'Brien utilizes parallel structure in his works. An example is “Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations….head.” It begins with the soldier 's name.

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