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Juxtaposition In The Things They Carried

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The Vietnam War of the 1970s brought about much controversy when the soldiers returned from war to being completely disrespected by protesting against them. Due to this the soldiers were mostly traumatized after the effects of war and some went as far as suicide due to the remorse. Of these many soldiers many came home with the vivid memories of war and went on to tell their friends and family of the experiences of war. One such soldier named Tim O’Brien returned from the war and began writing the stories of his fellow soldiers in war. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien suggests that retelling stories creates a juxtaposition of what happened from what seemed to happen in order to induce emotion out of the reader.
He composes the stories particularly to …show more content…
I'm forty-three years old, true, and I'm a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented.” (Pg. 180) O'Brien wants to make up parts of his stories because of the way that he needs the reader to experience feelings rather than simple mental visuals. He describes these feeling loaded scenes as "story-truth" “Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier...Here is the story-truth. He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty.”(Pg. 181) because of the way that they are part story and part truth. The parts that are just for emotion shape and make the general story that he envisions it to be. In this way, readers can completely comprehend why O'Brien composes his considerations out as the book advances. As O'Brien adapts more about his reasons of being a writer, the reader adapts more regarding his war stories and how they aren’t the same without the feeling included as opposed to the visual

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