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War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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War is Hell Approximately 30% of men and 27% of women had PTSD at some point in their life following Vietnam. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a collection of interconnected stories about soldiers during the Vietnam War, exploring the physical and emotional burdens they carry. For the book club assessment choice, I chose to do a moodboard that represents the real aspects of war. Tim O’Brien’s novel, “The Things They Carried”, explores how war affects soldiers both physically and emotionally, while also making sense of how storytelling can help people find some relief from the heavy burdens they carry. “They carried their own lives” (O’Brien 15). This quote explains the heavy emotional baggage soldiers carry with them as they go into war. “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing” (O’brien 20). This quote shows that soldiers' fears go beyond physical aspects, it touches on the emotional aspects soldiers’ face as well. Like showing signs of weakness (blushing). …show more content…

They would touch their bodies feeling shame, then quickly hide it” (O’Brien 18). Moments like these contribute to their psychological struggles. Instead of showing fear, due to fear of failure, they bottle up these experiences, further complicating their time at war. “They carried their reputations” (O’Brien 20). This quote shows that the soldiers not only carry physical objects, but also non physical aspects as well. Such as their self-image. Portraying the belief that behind the facade of strength and bravery, there is also a side ruled of fear and

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In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author skillfully presents a paradox about war and how it is both horrible and beautiful. Through O’Brien’s vivid storytelling and sorrowful anecdotes, he is able to demonstrate various instances which show both the horrible and beautiful nature of war. Within the vulnerability of the soldiers and the resilience found in the darkest of circumstances, O’brien is able to show the uproarious emotional landscape of war with a paradox that serves as the backbone of the narrative. In the first instance, O’Brien explores the beauty in horror within the chapter “Love.”

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While fighting in a war soldiers form a special kind of bond. It is a unique brotherhood that only other soldiers of war can understand. O’Brien states that, “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die” (pg. 86, para. 10). In the article, “Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried: Initial Reception and Detailed Analysis,” Robert C. Evans (2015), explains that O’Brien uses this phrase as a way to remind the reader of the emotional baggage carried by the soldiers and how it can be at least as burdensome as physical weight, if not more so because emotional baggage is harder to shed or put down.

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“They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture.” (O’Brien 77) Tim O’Brien clearly demonstrates to the reader that one of the most difficult burdens to bear is being a coward because even though carrying over fifty pounds of equipment is hard on the body physically cowardice is among the worst pain because you can never put that feeling down for even a second to relieve the pain. The novel The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, intends to show the reader how the platoons soldier’s cowardice and dread can effect them in the form of regret later in

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Combat is one of those incidents, where the best and the worst of people will be shown. The effects from combat could last minutes to a lifetime and will define people for the rest of their lives. To overcome the effects, people must have coping mechanisms. In the book, The Things They Carried, a platoon of soldiers is followed in their quest to survive the Vietnam War. The soldiers developed coping mechanisms to deal with stress so they can function normally and survive the war.

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“Only the dead have seen the end of war. ”-Plato . As we read through the book we relize that soldiers have too much emotional truam due to the trumatic experiences they have gone through. These trumatic experience has caused soldiers to carry emotinal burdens when they come back home to society. In the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien shares his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam war and shows how much the war causes someone to carry emotional burdens.

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Throughout the story of The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, many different themes are expressed. The fear of shame is specifically shown throughout the story through the soldiers. These soldiers were constantly feeling the fear of shame and embarrassment if they were to flee from the war. They felt the fear of embarrassing not only themselves, but also their families and their communities if they were to flee from the war. No matter what is happening in the story of The Things They Carried, you will always be able to find the soldiers feeling the fear of embarrassment that the soldiers are carrying along with them through this tragic time.

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The author was writing the story “The Things They Carried” expressed so many thoughts and feelings about what the soldiers had faced, they showed their feelings and duties, life or death, and overall fear and dedication. This story shows the theme of the physical and emotional burdens that everyone is going through in the war. By showing his readers what the soldier’s daily thoughts are and how they handle what is going on around them. Tim O’Brien expresses this theme by using characterization, symbolism, and tone continuously. In the story, physical and emotional burdens plagued several characters as they all had baggage weighing them down.

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In "The Things They Carried" by Tim O’Brien, coping mechanisms are central to the experiences of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. O’Brien’s work explores the various ways in which soldiers cope with the physical, emotional, and psychological traumas of war. Coping, in this context, represents the soldiers' attempts to manage the stress of combat and maintain their sanity in an environment of constant fear and danger. Through the characters and their stories, O’Brien demonstrates the importance of coping mechanisms in times of extreme stress.

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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian , which shifts from the things the soldiers found memorible to all the tragedies of war, uses powerful diction, exhibits beautiful detail, and portrays the perfect tone to convey that friendships are always needed because sometimes they shed light on the hardest times. O’Brian’s tone and diction, throughout the book, creates a sense of meloncholy and anger. In the beginning of the book, O’Brian portrayed the souldiers as, “ Carriers of all the emotional baggage of men who might die.”(pg 20) A souldier carries enough of their own baggage that eventually over time they will carry to much of the worlds baggage, that it will take a tole on a person.

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War has a profound and lasting impact on individuals and society. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he tells different stories of before, during and after war and how it affects the soldiers, mentally and physically. In these stories Tim O’Brien illustrates these traumas and the long-lasting effects and impact that the war will always have on these men. Even though all the men didn’t survive the ones that did continue to have traumatic flashbacks. War has a lasting impact on individuals and society, affecting not only the physical but the mental and emotional well-being of those involved.

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This is just one of many traumatic events that replay in soldiers’ minds. The witnessed horrors of war lead to perpetual impacts on a person. Within The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, he reveals the untold horrors that encompass war which leave lasting impacts, through in-depth descriptions of events, the tainting of morals, and post-war reality. Tim O’Brien uses an in-depth description of events to reveal the horrors of

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Such as violent fights against their enemies, within their own group and mentally within their own minds. In order to survive through these hardships, the soldiers each develop coping mechanisms, specific to their own experiences. Depending on what the men went through some of them use multiple strategies as others do not help them. During

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Psychological Warfare in ​The Things They Carried Unless you have been in war or have read ​The Things They Carried​, you can't fully understand the psychological toll on a person's mind and body, you can't understand the psychological hardship soldiers go through in war. However, ​The Things They Carried​, by Tim O'Brien, is written to where it shows the overall psychological effects of war on soldiers in and out of Vietnam; as shown throughout the story, the recurring themes of trauma, love, and guilt give the clear psychological implications of war.

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Soldiers struggled with the imprinted images of war that they could not escape even after returning home. The book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, is a powerful work of fiction that provides insight into the experiences of soldiers who fought in the war. Through the stories in the book, we can learn several historical lessons about the war and its consequences it has on the soldiers fighting it mentally and physically. To begin with, the first

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Their drive to live on during battle did not come from courage, but their fear to be known as cowards

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