The Things They Carried Irony Analysis
Yalissa Kargbo
Ap Literature
4/A Day
Note and Notice Essay: The Things They Carried In the novel “The Things They Carried” author, Tim O’Brien, uses shifts in mood and irony to successfully exposes guilt of the items the men carried physically and emotionally which led to the fatal decisions while at war. In chapter one the narrator gives insight on a man named Jimmy Cross describes his love for a girl named Martha. Martha is a girl from New Jersey that Jimmy regrets not taking a chance with. Before Jimmy was sent to Vietnam Martha and him were on date that led to Jimmy placing his hand on her thigh, only for her to pull away. Cross did not get to do all that he wished to do with Martha romantically due to his cowardliness and …show more content…
“You're pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your a** delivered to kingdom come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet...even though you're pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.” (32), O’Brien states this ironic statement that leave readers with open insight on how he felt. There is contradiction to his statement, there is no peace while at war there is nothing but chaos and violence; yet, he found sanity and peace in a whirlwind of mayhem. In another occurrence, two soldier men, Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk, got into an altercation over a knife which led to the hospitalization of Strunk. Jensen was described as “much bigger and much stronger...pinned him down and kept hitting him on the nose. He hit him hard. And he didn't stop.” (49) Ironically, when Trunk returned from the hospital Jensen feared what he would do. As a reader this is ironic because Jensen is seen as the person that has no fear after his actions in the fight. Ultimately, this guilt of his actions as well as fear leads to Jensen surprisingly breaking his own nose in order to avoid the consequence of harming Strunk, “he borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own
Ap Literature
4/A Day
Note and Notice Essay: The Things They Carried In the novel “The Things They Carried” author, Tim O’Brien, uses shifts in mood and irony to successfully exposes guilt of the items the men carried physically and emotionally which led to the fatal decisions while at war. In chapter one the narrator gives insight on a man named Jimmy Cross describes his love for a girl named Martha. Martha is a girl from New Jersey that Jimmy regrets not taking a chance with. Before Jimmy was sent to Vietnam Martha and him were on date that led to Jimmy placing his hand on her thigh, only for her to pull away. Cross did not get to do all that he wished to do with Martha romantically due to his cowardliness and …show more content…
“You're pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your a** delivered to kingdom come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet...even though you're pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.” (32), O’Brien states this ironic statement that leave readers with open insight on how he felt. There is contradiction to his statement, there is no peace while at war there is nothing but chaos and violence; yet, he found sanity and peace in a whirlwind of mayhem. In another occurrence, two soldier men, Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk, got into an altercation over a knife which led to the hospitalization of Strunk. Jensen was described as “much bigger and much stronger...pinned him down and kept hitting him on the nose. He hit him hard. And he didn't stop.” (49) Ironically, when Trunk returned from the hospital Jensen feared what he would do. As a reader this is ironic because Jensen is seen as the person that has no fear after his actions in the fight. Ultimately, this guilt of his actions as well as fear leads to Jensen surprisingly breaking his own nose in order to avoid the consequence of harming Strunk, “he borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own