War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

The Things They Carried written by Tim O’Brien the book parallels the experiences of war via the narrator himself. The book captured in great detail the lives of men in war, before, during and after. The affects, effects, and justifications everyone faced and lived through was particularly interesting to me. Though O’Brien followed no specific timeline. The title itself meant much more and was deeply embedded throughout the book, for the things they carried were not only physical, but also held in between the characters heads. I believe Tim O’Brien wrote this book to embark the reader on a mind boggling journey of love, horror, and a continuous longing. Love, an idea so often misunderstood. It brings forth mankind higher the than the soaring

Playing with the readers innate fears, O’Brien writing and story-telling embroidered the horrors during the Vietnam War. Like when Ted Lavender adopted the puppy and Azar strapped it to a bomb and just conveniently blew it away without giving it much thought “What sticks to memory, often, are those odd little fragments that have no beginning and no end:”(pg 32) This quote was the epitome of what was really being carried on in the soldiers' minds and their own realities. This was prevalent throughout the book, when O’Brien gave the description of how Curt Lemon would glance back at Riley with the sun beaming on his face, only seconds later to step on a rigged bomb. “It was not the sunlight. It was a rigged 105 round.” (Pg 61), this is a prime example of how O’Briens brought the intense feeling of shock was brought upon. You would think something really good would happen with the positive imagery used. Only to have it stripped away by the harsh unknown reality of war. An actual living horror story, the horrors faced by men in the Vietnam were atrocious from deaths, murders, and horrifying accidents such as Kiowas’. Lyndon B Johnson inherited the war through the succession of John F. Kennedy assignation and showed great respect towards the brave men and women who served during the war because of the many incidents of horrors they

The continuous longing for something. Otherwise also known as moping. O’Brien indicated to us very blatantly that the men of war were longing for something. Something everyone coincidentally missed to make them feel whole, whether it was going AWOL or longing for their lovers “a young medic named Mark Fossie kept coming back to the subject” (pg 66) This subject was in reference to bringing a girl back to the camp, something everyone yearned for deep inside, a companion. O’Brien indicated how lonely it could be out in Vietnam through descriptive language about the Isolation faced in the mountains and in the dark trenches. I believe one of the most horrifying experiences is in Isolation and not knowing anyone. I certainly longed for my friends, family and more money when I drove out to Houston an unfamiliar land to me with $60 and no job. Looking back it certainly was better longing for these things than death that many soldiers longed for post-war “his friends found him hanging from a water pipe” (pg 109) Norman Bowker committed suicide, possibly because he longed for his father recognizing his seven medals, only to realize his father passed away when he got back. The longing paired with severe depression could have been the plausible reason of his unfortunate death. I also felt O’Brien was trying to imply that the isolation brought forth the characteristics of longing for something, something almost