O’Brien uses his rule of how to tell a true war story to make the reader think. By engaging the reader, he is able to better tell the stories he wants to tell. He created his rules to have readers think and question the truth behind every story in The Things They Carried, and that's how it should be with stories. You should never be able to just know the truth of the story, the best stories are the stories that engage the reader to think. When O’Brien breaks his rule, he is showing other authors how unique storytelling is and there are no set rules when crafting a…
I have found that a good strategy to use when reading this book, is to remember that often times things are not what they seem. The book was filled with figurative language and representation the O ‘Brien uses to emphasizes and support his points. This strategy is used with both people and objects. In the book, there are characters that O ‘Brian tells us that he served with in the war, but in interviews told people that he fictionalized them to emphasize his point. An example of this would be Mark Fossie’s girlfriend Mary Ann Belle who visits the men in Vietnam. She is the classic example of the “American girl”. “ A tall, big-boned blonde. AT best, Rat said, she was seventeen years old, fresh out of Cleveland Heights Senior High School. She had long, white legs and blue eyes and complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly, too.” She is a representation of what all them men left behind when the joined the war. The young, attractive, and vibrant…
In Conclusion O'Brien's overall purpose for writing the book “The Things They Carried” is to tell his stories that will give the reader a great understanding of vietnam but also help Tim cope with the…
The main themes of this novel are imagination, memory and storytelling. The soldiers found themselves using a strong coping mechanism, called imagination to survive the daily horrors of life during the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Cross carries a photo of Martha, his imaginary love interest and uses it to escape realism, calm his fears and control his emotions, thus coping to survive. The theme of imagination is also introduced in chapter one of O’Brien’s book. Besides Martha’s photo, Lieutenant Cross carries the heavy routine gear that the Vietnam soldiers were issued. These items included a heavy rifle, ammunition, food rations, water,…
In this book the author Tim O' Brien uses many different little stories to sum of the big picture of war. He focuses in on many different characters, stories, and their specific feelings to help the reader get an actual feel of what he felt. Which he states on pg. 171 " I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer than happening-truth". While O' Briens main connection to the title focus's in on what each soldier physically carried, deeper than that is the soldiers own feelings, doubts, and fears.…
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 fiction. The stories may not be real but they are based on what the soldiers were feeling during that year in Vietnam.…
This novel is more than just about the Vietnam War. It is about what a solider goes through on and off the battlefield. It’s about the art of a real war story. Most importantly it’s about what soldiers carried, physically, mentally, and emotionally; during, before, and after the war. The soldiers that made it back home suffered from many mental issues, mainly Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD).…
The novel illuminates light on the situation not just during the Vietnam era, but also rather throughout all history and the future to come. Throughout mankind’s occupation…
In the book, The Things They Carried written by Tim O’Brien, the challenges faced by war are explained in the form of stories. The effects that war can have on a soldier in Vietnam are not solely limited to the physical state, but also the mental state, as is shown when O’Brien introduces the character Mary Anne Bell in chapter nine. The corruption that war brought to an individual’s life led to an altered view of morality and Innocence, as well as the desensitization of an individual.…
She is the reason why he started to tell his stories, because she made him believe that storytelling will keep the memory alive: “And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.” Similar to the representation of Kathleen in the novel, Linda is represented as a very innocent person. As well as protecting Kathleen, O’brien also protects Linda in a particular way. He protects the memory he has in relation to her. By storytelling he tries to keep her alive. “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness.” There is a similarity between Linda and…
Tim O’Brien uses several rhetorical strategies in this story. A strategy that is easily found in the story is imagery. He uses a lot of sensory details to help the reader know what it feels like in a certain situation. “Except for the laughter things were quiet,” (67) and “You hear stuff nobody should ever hear,” (69) are some quotes that describes the sounds the soldiers are hearing. O’Brien uses sight as a big component for setting up the setting and describing what the soldiers saw. “A handsome kid, really. Sharp grey eyes, lean and narrow-waisted…”(67), “A deep pinkish red spilled out on the river, which moved with no sound…(68). Another rhetorical strategy that O’Brien uses is motif. The motif that he uses is “…true war story…” He uses this phrase throughout the story to help the reader understand how to write a story. “A true war story is never moral.”(65). This quote is basically saying that a true war story tells it how it is; it doesn’t try to make things easier for the reader to digest. “You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you.”(65) This quote is saying if you don’t want the offensive words or phrases then you don’t want the truth of the story. “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed.”(68) The last strategy that O’Brien uses in this story is irony. There are many places in this story when O’Brien’s ideas contradict themselves. When Curt Lemon dies, O’Brien describes it as beautiful. “…when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up…”…
Tim O’Brien, the author and a Vietnam Veteran, is the protagonist in this novel. Throughout the book he reflects on his experiences in an effort to bring about a sense of redemption.…
Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, provides an incredible realization of what life was like for an American soldier who fought in Vietnam from perspectives before, during, and after the war. The story’s power draws you in. It makes the events in the story seem real and provides the reader with a sense of what it feels like to be one of the soldiers. O’Brien’s talent as a writer made a fictional story more than believable to the reader. When reading this book, the reader struggles with depicting what is factual and what is fictional. O’Brien provides this effect by blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The book recollects many stories from O’Brien’s own experiences as a soldier and includes fictional aspects to enhance the story and to help O’Brien get his point across. O’Brien teaches us in all of these stories that there is no difference between what is factual and what is fictional in war. By doing this, the reader experiences the feelings that O’Brien and his comrades felt. The Things They Carried describes what those men carried to battle and back home, both tangible and intangible. The novel questions what war is and what the individual soldiers received out of it. This novel is an eye opener. Any person’s perspectives on the war and its soldiers are most certainly to change after reading this book. The Things They Carried brings the Vietnam War to life like no civilian could have ever imagined.…
Tim O’Brien was a brave man during his time in the Vietnam War. He had fear when fighting, but he was also brave for what he has done for his country. His stories about war can make readers feel the same emotions that soldiers have when in battle. He tells readers of how it feels like to be in a war full of…
“It was no decision, no chain of ideas or reasons, that steered me into the war. It was an intellectual and physical stand-off, and I did not have the energy to see it to an end”(O’Brien 22). This nearly sums up Tim O’Brien’s If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. In O’Brien’s autobiographical novel of his grueling tour and duty during the Vietnam War, we constantly see him struggle with his moral and ethical beliefs while participating in a war he believes is unjust, clearly becoming the main theme of this work, along with courage and the meaning of it to Tim.…