“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story in which he talks about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam. The idea it gives you of why the story is named like that is quite literal. O’Brien talks mainly about what they carried and brought home after the war like their ‘post traumatic stress disorder’‚ all the memories of guilt and fear‚ and some other physical objects like matches‚ morphines‚ rifles‚ and candy. For example‚ when Tim O’Brien goes on telling two stories‚ “The Man I
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In the sixty-fourth paragraph in Tim O’Brien’s "On the Rainy River" chapter‚ the author uses some rhetorical devices such as repetition‚ fragments‚ and an allusion to help make his argument more effective. He uses repetition of words like "a crushing sorrow‚ sorrow like I had never known it before." to show how distressed he was over the fact that his dream to run away to Canada will never come true. Another repetition of words was when he was describing his childhood he kept saying how "I saw
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the reader can frequently see that the author has expressed his or her own personal life into these short stories. Tim O’Brien is an American author who has shared his experiences of the Vietnam War through many of his famous works such as “If I Die in a Combat zone‚ Box Me Up and Ship Me Home”‚ “Going After Cacciato”‚ and the work studied here “The Things They Carried”. Author Tim O’Brien was thrown in the middle of the Vietnam War when he was drafted. During his tour of duty he experienced very
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The Things They Carried By Tim O’Brien Describe your speaker. What do you know about him/her? What do you NOT know about him/her? What makes your speaker an effective story teller? What character in the novel do you believe to be the least effective? Why? How does the speaker relate to this character? I know that the speaker is conscious of what he writes about‚ meaning that he knows he writes only about the Vietnam War and that it has consumed his writing career yet can’t help
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In the short story Where Have You Gone Charming Billy‚ Tim O’ Brien‚ examines a conflict with the main character Paul Berlin and his internal fear of dying. The story takes place around 1965-1973 during the Vietnam War. It is Paul’s first day at the war and he has been fighting his anxiety. He has already seen one of the twenty-six soldiers in his platoon die of a heart attack because of tripping a mine bomb. Many soldiers continuously tell Paul to just get used to the fear of the jungle however
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Tim O’Brien’s novel‚ The Things They Carried‚ revolves around the frequent theme of courage however‚ his perception of courage is ignorant considering the actual meaning of courage. O’Brien uses courage as an antidote to the physical and moral weakness in the soldiers of Vietnam creating character obsession over his interchangeable perception of courage and weakness. Not going to war when drafted is perceived as weak‚ but O’Brien believes that going to war when one wants to flee is Canada is arguable
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In “The Things They Carried‚” a short story by Tim O’Brien‚ the reader is able to see‚ in great detail‚ each of the characters ways of dealing with the atrocities of the Vietnam War by what they choose to carry; how symbolically they use these objects as a means for remembrance of what they have left behind‚ to escape what they deal with each day‚ and for some‚ a false sense of security and/or control over the violence and death that surrounds them. Each soldier in the story “humps” an object
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veterans. Although the Vietnam War ended forty years ago‚ veterans are constantly haunted by the atrocious memories. The thought of war triggers their emotions and creates worry due to the encounters on the battlefield. In particular‚ a veteran named Tim O’Brien publishes The Things They Carried to demonstrate the realities of war. Through a compilation of stories‚ O’Brien inserts himself into the book as a character‚ narrator‚ and writer to depict how the war changed his life. He illustrates the
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Merriam Webster dictionary‚ or by the opinion of an English Professor. Humanity is defined by the individual‚ and so the focus here is on the Kurt Vonnegut’s‚ and Tim O’Brien’s definition of humanity‚ which is characterized by human spirit‚ heart‚ and empathy. In Slaughterhouse-Five and The Things They Carried both Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien describe the destruction of humanity caused by war. However‚ Vonnegut highlights how powerless in war leads to decimation of humanity within a solider‚ while
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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien uses narratives to evoke various thoughts within the reader. Yet Mary Anne Bell’s story is a cautionary tale of the influence the battlefield has on a person. One of the medics‚ Mark Fossie‚ decides to bring his high school sweetheart right into the war‚ not comprehending the cost of his action. The war turns innocent‚ naïve soldiers into brutal‚ desensitized killers; Mary Anne being no exception. Her tale illustrates how the war physically and mentally alters
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