Reaction to The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien

In The Things They Carried, Tim O Brien uses a variety of stories to explain the life experiences that he and many of his fellow soldiers endured during a single year in Vietnam. He tells these stories in a way that we can connect to these experiences. We never spent time in Vietnam, but O Brien wants us to feel like we were there. O Brien uses what he calls story-truth to write these stories. The outcome or the people may be different but the feeling is real; that s the truth in the story, the feeling. He wants us to feel what he felt, see what he saw. He doesn t just tell us what was happening exactly; he tells a fictional story that conveys the same emotion. He plays with the truth, that s the reason why this book is a work of†¦show more content†¦He didn t kill the man because he was in danger; he did it because he was scared. He was a coward. He tells us in the chapter Ambush that he was in no real peril and the young man would ve passed him by . He knew that he wasn t in danger but he killed the man anyway because that s what you were supposed to do in war; you were supposed to kill. He wasn t being brave; he was giving into the idea of war. He was doing something that he didn t believe in. The Vietnam War had a life changing effect on the soldiers, including O Brien. They came into the war as boys as young as seventeen and left either in body bags made of their own poncho or they came out alive. But were they ever really alive? No, they had their innocence ripped out. They weren t young boys anymore. Their young selves were killed out in that jungle and all that was left was a carcass of gruesome memories of the tragedy of war, the deaths of their fellow soldiers. They changed as people. O Brien came into the war as a young man against war. A young soul believing that the Vietnam War was wrong and there was no need for fighting or killing. However, toward the end of the book he tells us the story of how he got revenge on a fellow soldier. Thi s soldier, while in the middle of war, took too long in treating O Brien for a bullet wound and also should have treated him for shock. O Brien almost dies on the field but fortunatelyShow MoreRelatedThe Things They Carried : A Story Based On The Soldiers Experiences During The War936 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Things They Carried† is a story based on the soldiers’ experiences in the Vietnam War and their experiences after the war. The story begins with a character named Jimmy Cross, who is the Lieutenant of the Alpha Company. Jimmy Cross carries letters from a girl named Martha, who he dated before he joined the army. He also carries her good luck pebble in his mouth. The narrator later describes items the other soldiers in the Company are carrying. Some of the items were insect repellant, knivesRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Jonathan Culler1683 Words   |  7 PagesWhile constative language draws upon factual or literal interpretations, performative langu age deals more so with embellishment or the expression of details as they seem. In a similar manner, author Tim O’Brien coins the term â€Å"story truth†, a derivative of â€Å"real truth†, within his novel The Things They Carried, to discuss how retellings of wartime events are often altered to convey the emotional significance they possess. It is through these two works, Culler’s analysis of performative language and O’Brien’sRead MoreCharles Darwin s The Things They Carried Some Of The Soldiers1127 Words   |  5 Pagessmaller deal out of something that should mean more. While the first example is a generally healthy one, the latter is a dangerous way of coping with hard truths. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried some of the soldiers constantly try to quantify items brought from war to make the brutality of it less heinous in their minds. O’Brien illustrates this image to make readers aware of their own â€Å" taking the easy way out† of situations that sometimes would be better faced head on in reality. To protectRead MoreLack of Morality in War Depicted in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried1017 Words   |  5 PagesTim O’Brien’s book â€Å"The Things They Carried† epitomizes the degradation of morals that war produces. This interpretation is personified in the characters who gradually blur the line dividing right and wrong as the motives for war itself become unclear. The morality of soldiers and the purpose of war are tied also to the truth the soldiers must tell themselves in order to participate in the gruesome and random killing which is falsely justified by the U.S government. The lack of purpose in the VietnamRead MoreEssay on The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien1253 Words   |  6 Pages The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brein, is a story told through the eyes of members of a United States Army troop trudging their way through the Vietnamese country side and jungles during the Vietnam War. Each man has a specific job and so they carr y specific belongings that they need to fulfill that job as well as a few mementos from home. These men also carry unseen baggage that is all too real to these men, their families and responsibilities back home preying on their minds, the horrorsRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1276 Words   |  6 PagesIn The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses the art of fabricating stories as a coping mechanism. Trying to distinguish the difference between fictional and factual stories is a challenge in this book, but literal truth cannot capture the real violence that the soldiers dealt with in Vietnam, only â€Å"story truth† can. He explains, â€Å"If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made victimRead MoreA Study of The Things They Carried by Tim O ´brien1664 Words   |  7 PagesThe Study of â€Å"Things They Carried† by Tim O’ Brien George Carlin, during the early 80’s, had a routine that was a witticism on the importance of having personal effects. These â€Å"personal effects† or items that a person accumulates through life symbolize their identity. The impractical things carried in pockets, purses, bags and suitcases that make people feel as themselves while in strange surroundings. These things are so essential to identify the person these â€Å"personal effects† represents. IfRead MoreThe Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien Essay1233 Words   |  5 Pages‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien provides a insider’s view of war and its distractions, both externally in dealing with combat and internally dealing with the reality of war and its effect on each solder. The story, while set in Vietnam, is as relevant today with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Southeast Asia. With over one mill ion soldiers having completed anywhere from one to three tours in combat in the last 10 years, the real conflict mightRead MoreEssay On The Things They Carried1629 Words   |  7 PagesThe Things They Carried, reflects the saga of drafted soldiers during the Vietnam era who were sent to the Vietnam War. The author, Tim O’Brien, describes the things that the men carry during their tour of duty. The items carried are both physical and impalpable items and what these things are is subject to the individual soldier. They carry the necessities for survival in the jungles of Vietnam as well as the personal things each soldier feels necessary to make life as comfortable as possibleRead MoreEssay on The Things They Carried Chapter Analysis1989 Words   |  8 PagesThe Things They Carried: Chapter 1 Significant Quote: â€Å"In the accompanying letter, Martha wrote that she had found the pebble on the Jersey shoreline, precisely where the land touched the water at high tide, where things came together but also separated.† (8) Speaker: Tim O’Brien Audience: The reader Significance: This symbolizes Martha and Jimmy’s feelings for each other. They are separated by the war, but together in their minds. Questions: 1. What prompted the separate-but-together thought