...“The Things They Carried” written by Tim O’Brien is a book based on the life of the author who was a soldier in the Vietnam war. The book can be said to be unchronological since there is a mixture of the past and the present, life after and during the war. O’Brien talks about the experiences he went through as well as some of the ones his friends went through. Even though the novel was written based on the Vietnam War, there are multiple times where the author states that the novel is fiction. In an interview with Texas Monthly, O’Brien stated,"Good movies -- and good novels, too -- do not depend upon 'accurate portrayals.' Accuracy is irrelevant. Is the Mona Lisa an 'accurate' representation of the actual human model for the painting? Who knows? Who cares? It's a great piece of art. It moves us. It makes us wonder, makes us gape; finally makes us look inward at ourselves." Accurate portrayal, in my opinion is based on real life but may have some exaggeration in order for many people to believe it and relate to. Without that, people will doubt the author’s credibility because they know that whatever they’re...
Words: 1266 - Pages: 6
...“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a novel about O’Brien and his memories of the Vietnam war. O’Brien’s personal experiences depict shame as one of the most impactful factors in a human’s life. Through the use of storytelling, embarrassment is proven to be a major source of motivation for the troops in before, during, and post-war. In chapter one, “The Things They Carried,” the fear of shame is a burden that every soldier carries with them, a burden that motivates every single one of them to fight, survive, and kill. They carry their own emotional baggage and physical weight, but they all carry the secret of cowardice. “ They carried their reputation. They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which is the fear of blushing… They died so not to die of embarrassment(20).” This quote states right away that holding a respected reputation has more weight in the army than staying alive. The fear of being...
Words: 1012 - Pages: 5
...The author will be required to have an imagination for securing the concrete by associating the inner unity of the historical consciousness. Tim O’Brien’s story, The Things They Carried is unique and challenging, so it stimulates readers about the curiosity of the story. Even though the story is dealing with the fiction story about the Vietnam War, O’Brien named the main character of the story as “Tim O’Brien” which was the same name with him and used the third person narrator method to bring a realistic effect to the entire story. His experience of participating in Vietnam War helped him to describe the story more perfectly. Therefore, this story makes many people fall into the illusion of passing through the jungle of Vietnam with a gun on their shoulders. The story was based on situations that Tim O’Brien and his army comrades faced with during the Vietnam War (O’Brien’s). Unlike other obvious historical stories that drops bombs and bullets or explodes land mines everywhere, it spreads its story like a sunlight coming through the dark and damp Vietnam jungle by bursting comical gesture from the most desperate circumstances of war and telling the story about the extremely universal human inner, such as desire...
Words: 468 - Pages: 2
...Creative title Tim O'Brien was drafted to Vietnam when he was only 18 years old, taken from his normal everyday college life and sent to a world no American had ever seen, a whole new world. Where in a place so deadly you're never sure when or how you’ll die. Tim O'Brien survived Vietnam, but at home he’s still battling what he thought he had left overseas. The memories still haunt him and many other of the men who made it home. His novel, The Things They Carried, describes Vietnam and all the things he encountered including the people he lost. Tim O’Brien is the author of The Things They Carried and 8 other books and short stories. O’Brien began writing these stories as a way to cope with all the leftover reminiscence of the things that happened...
Words: 462 - Pages: 2
...“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” - G.K. Chesterton. This quote shows Tim O’Brien’s feeling towards going to Vietnam in The Things They Carried. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien talks about a platoon of U.S. Soldiers in Vietnam, organized in short stories. O’Brien’s decision to go to war reflects mine. The reasons include a love for the country, a duty to serve, and a desire to be a part of something bigger than myself. First, service would happen because of a love for America. America is a place to be proud of, it is and a place of security. O’Brien, who is weary of the war says “Who started it? When, where, and why?” (O’Brien 38) A feeling of uncertainty...
Words: 446 - Pages: 2
...Countless stories have been told about the honor, glory and courage about war. In present day, veterans are perceived as heroes, the defenders of our freedom. However, in the novel The Things That They Carried, Tim O’Brien says otherwise. The novel portrays the concept of moral ambiguity regarding war. Tim O’Brien’s concept of moral about going to war vary from the people. Most people would agree that going to a war would be courageous, rather than running away from it. However, that idea is totally the opposite for Tim O’Brien who doesn’t believe in the cause of the Vietnam war. “I was a coward. I went to the war.” Moreover, Tim O’Brien instead expressed his disappointment in himself for going to the war, saying “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending.” Sometimes, morality is defined by the eyes of the beholder....
Words: 406 - Pages: 2
...Have you ever made a mistake in public and someone pointed it out? You might have felt ashamed or even had a bad experience. Well, your identity can be shaped by many aspects, including shame, guilt, and good or bad experiences. The Things They Carried is a postmodern novel by Tim O’Brien that explores exactly that. It shows how shame, guilt, and tragic experiences shape your identity during a war. Our identity is shaped by shame, guilt, and our experiences that make us feel less than ourselves. Identity is shown with shame about ourselves within a situation. Many people express shame in different ways, but it makes us feel less than who we are. Curt Lemon had a “toothache” and told the dentist he needed them to take the tooth out. He felt...
Words: 1166 - Pages: 5
...around the 1970’s, but roughly 300,000 men resisted the draft. The term resisted is extremely different from dodged. The men who fled America were draft resistors, not draft dodgers. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of stories about American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. The narrator, Tim O’Brien, was in a platoon of soldiers based in Vietnam and survived through the war....
Words: 859 - Pages: 4
...The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is a novel centered around Alpha Company during the Vietnam War and what the young soldiers brought with them, physically and metaphorically. From comforting items like comic books, illustrated Bibles, pictures of loved ones, to deeply-ingrained emotions and trauma, O’Brien carefully crafts each character to represent a different aspect of war. Kiowa, the Native-American and Christian best friend of the character Tim in the novel, is one of many complicated, tragic stories brought to life through literature. While there are other facets of war demonstrated by different characters in the novel, Kiowa is specifically used to demonstrate the most devastating of them all: the human cost of conflict....
Words: 1286 - Pages: 6
...The Things They Carried Essay In the book, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, he tells many War Stories of the Vietnam War and his childhood. By telling the stories he can remember all of his past and his childhood but also his time at the Vietnam War. His stories are keeping his memories alive by writing them down. O'Brien's stories save himself because he enjoys creating stories. He also misses his childhood and his early adult life. He enjoys talking about the war and all of his occurrences in Vietnam. He likes to remember about Linda, Kiowa, Curt lemon, and Ted lavender. His stories save his own mind. Stories can entertain other people. They can also help you remember your past. A story is like a written picture. You can write down...
Words: 353 - Pages: 2
...War has been a constant presence throughout human history, leaving permanent impacts on communities, civilizations, and individuals alike. In the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, he shows how wars change you profoundly. It takes the meaning out of peoples lives when they are done with the war. It can totally change a person mentally and make people erratic, and how it makes a person mentally ill. War takes the meaning out of people’s lives. When people return home from war, they have issues dealing with their loss of purpose in life. Tim O’Brien shows this with the character Norman Bowker. This quote is from Tim O’Brien about a letter he received from Norman Bowker. When he was going through a difficult time of his life after the war, dealing with the emotions from it, and having no...
Words: 646 - Pages: 3
...maintaining a strong, viable state, capable of resisting attempted subversion or aggression through military means” (Eisenhower). Many consider this letter to be one of the initial communications with Vietnam that led to our entrance into what became one of the most controversial wars in American history. However, most were not directly connected to the war until a draft notice arrived in the mail. This was the case for Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, who received his draft notice in 1968. Having grown up in small-town Minnesota, O’Brien was able to have a normal, peaceful childhood. He prospered in school and was eventually Harvard-bound, until the Vietnam War threw him off-course. Tim opposed the war just like so many other Americans, and gave serious consideration to the idea of fleeing to Canada. However, he eventually decided to go to war, albeit reluctantly, and it was his first-hand...
Words: 1940 - Pages: 8
...The Vietnam war created immense changes across all lives. Whether people changed or their surrounding all components were affected by the brutal war. Not only soldiers changed, lost their innocence, or forgotten their home, over time, all people experienced these events. In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, the women represent innocence, home and change. Women display these components before, during, and after the war. All of their connections to the war or men reflect upon their actions. Kathleen’s role represented home and innocence. She is still young and she looks up to her dad. When Kathleen asks him if he had ever killed anyone in the war, O’Brien struggles to find the right response because he knows that she would not understand...
Words: 729 - Pages: 3
...Abhay Shakhapur Ms. Thomas American Literature 3 May, 2018 Orientation in Space and Time: Final Assessment “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien begins with a look into the belongings of the Alpha company during the Vietnam war. The Alpha company being an infantry division of the U.S. Army. Each member of the company carries different items that give a glimpse into the personality of each character. The book does not stop there, through the story the reader is able to understand that the members of the Alpha Company are not only weighed down by their physical baggage, but also by their mental baggage. The Vietnam War was not kind to the soldiers, presenting them with a variety of terrifying experiences. These experiences weigh heavily upon the human spirit making it difficult for war veterans to fit back into society with their civilian counterparts....
Words: 830 - Pages: 4
...The Things They Carried was a book written to teach you a lesson. Whether you learned a lesson was up to you. One thing Tim O’Brien was trying to teach us is that war is dirty. In the chapter “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” Rat Kiely says ”You come over clean and you get dirty and the afterward it’s never the same. A question of degree. Some make it intact, some don’t make it at all.” This quote stands true to every character in this novel but Tim O'Brien and Norman Bowker stand out to me the most. Even though these two men are alike in many ways there is a major difference that separates them. That difference is that each man had different ways of dealing with the war. We all know Tim’s outlet to help with the war was writing. The Things...
Words: 335 - Pages: 2
