When asked to write a comparison essay between “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, one could wonder how that was possible. While both novels were intriguing, their plot lines were rather different. Tim O’Brien wrote about his experience in Vietnam and his time as a soldier – although he makes the reader question the believability of the entire book. Charlotte Bronte, on the other hand, wrote an autobiography about Jane Eyre, a young girl who grew up in Europe and experienced personal conflicts throughout the novel. If a reader were to analyze both stories, they would find more differences than similarities. The differences would be rather obvious: the plot lines, the settings, the main characters, the …show more content…
Yes, readers could believe that Jane Eyre grew up as an orphan and became a successful governess under the power of Mr. Rochester. However, the idea that every single event in the story is not exaggerated is putting a lot of faith into the author. For example, the character of Bertha Mason, the abandoned wife of Mr. Rochester, seemed to be a little extreme. In chapter 15, when Bertha sets Mr. Rochester’s bed on fire – and the accident is ignored by the majority of the household – readers can question the believability of the incident. In reality, if a bed caught fire and almost burned the master of the house, certain precautions would be taken. In fact, every event in the novel that includes Bertha Mason appears to be over-exaggerated. In chapter 20, when Bertha attacked Richard Mason, readers were both surprised and a tad bit scared. Mr. Rochester’s explanation for the woman, however, did not give insight as to why she would attack anyone. The idea that she was insane was believable, but the idea that she was as monstrous as the novel seemed to describe her was not realistic. When Jane saw her in the bedroom the night before the wedding, she stated, “It was a discolored face – it was a savage face. I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments!” (Page 116) Insanity is one thing; however it does not cause a woman to have red eyes …show more content…
In “The Things They Carried”, the characters offered a different perspective to the war and provided a sense of reality among the lies. However, some readers could believe that the characters were mentioned because they all related to O’Brien in a way. For example, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was a brave man yet was unsure of how to correctly lead the group. The same goes for O’Brien; in the beginning, the author wanted to be courageous but wasn’t sure if he should act on it. The medic on the field, known as Bob “Rat” Kiley, suffered from insanity throughout the war. Many readers could believe that O’Brien experienced mental distress during or after the battle in Vietnam. The deaths of both characters Curt Lemon and Ted Lavender show the physical impact that the war had on the people. Norman Bowker, the man who witnessed Kiowa’s death and never recovered from the incident, related to all of the men on the battlefield – none of them were able to forget. Of course, readers were touched by the author’s constant mention of his daughter, Kathleen. The idea of Kathleen seemed to push O’Brien to continue writing his war stories, even if they all weren’t true. Another touching moment in the story came through a character named Linda. O’Brien claimed to have loved Linda at a young age and was heartbroken when she died due to a brain tumor. In this way, readers could learn his obsession with
Prewriting: Introduction: Often revered as a battle to defend Vietnamese ideologies, the Vietnam War is personified by many as a horrendous, unnecessary war that yielded to many detrimental after-effects, specifically on soldiers. In O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, initially it seems to take the same old generic personification, but after further reading, it is evident that Tim O’Brien’s desire to take on a different representation. Rather than taking on the violent, bloody interpretation of war, O’Brien focuses more on the relationships developed between the soldier and the severities experienced whilst in war. Throughout the novel, the themes of shame and guilt are manifested through the post war stories of the veterans, demonstrating that no soldier is able to escape this perpetual chasm of culpability.
In “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien demonstrates the life of a solider during the Vietnam War. O’Brien describes what the soldiers went through physically and mentally before, during, and after the war. He also describes how the soldiers had to adapt to war at a young age and sometimes the things they did were deranged but nothing was normal about war. Also after going to war and coming home, these soldiers struggle with how to deal with what they went through. This is also demonstrated through the book and one can see this through the author.
Both a novel and a collection of interrelated short stories, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a book that emerges from a complex variety of literary standards. O'Brien presents to his readers both a war journal and a writer's autobiography, and complicates this presentation by creating a fictional protagonist who shares his name. To fully comprehend and appreciate the novel, particularly the passages that gloss the nature of writing and storytelling, it is important to remember that the work is fictional rather than a conventional non-fiction, historical account. Protagonist "Tim O'Brien" is a middle-aged writer and Vietnam War veteran. The primary action of the novel is "O'Brien's" remembering the past and working and reworking the
The Veracity of War One who is inexperienced and uneducated with war can have many thoughts and opinions about the subject, but only those who have experienced war can understand its true meaning, or lack thereof. In 1990, Tim O’Brien published an appalling, loathsome collection of short stories called The Things They Carried. O’Brien’s experiences in the Vietnam war is what influenced him to write the truth about war, or his version of the truth. O’Brien depicted this by describing his own warped and questionable story; “The Man I Killed.” Chris Kyle, another American author, later wrote in 2012 an enthralling, morbid memoir called American Sniper.
In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien we learn about O’Brien and his soldiers during the Vietnamese war. The Vietnamese war was a deadly and very costly war between the North Vietnam and their communist allies versus the Southern Vietnam and the United states. Throughout the novel Tim O’Brien narrates many stories about the war. Stories about traumatic incidents, pleasant occasions, sorrowful events, and even peculiar event. Personal accounts about himself and also tells about experiences his fellow soldiers faced.
Plato once said, “ Only the dead have seen the end of the war”. Tim O’Brien is the protagonist of the novel The Things They Carry. He describes the events that occurred in the middle of his Vietnam experience. The book was written to share his memories and O'Brien's own stories. In those stories we discover characters like Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Kiowa,Dave Jensen and many others whom he served with in the war.
Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.
Author Steven Kaplan interpretation went as followed. “In his most recent work of fiction, The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien takes the act of trying to reveal and understand the uncertainties about the war one step further, by looking at it through the imagination.” (Kaplan, Steven) Although Tim O’Brien actively served his country by fighting in Vietnam, his character Lt. Cross was a representation of O’Brien in this story. O’Brien gives his readers a combination of Uncertainty mixed with imagination, this enabled the story to have a complex variety of issues to keep his readers engaged in the story.
A lot happens in Tim O 'Brien short story "The Things They Carried", at first, the reader speculates what the short story is about and why it is called "The Things They Carried". The narrator Tim O 'Brien tells and describes all the things that the men have to carry while "in-country" during the Vietnam War in the1960 's. The text 's artistic value comes from its plot, characters, conflict, and style. In the plot of the story the protagonist, Tim O 'Brien starts by describing circumstances that happened while he was in Vietnam. In the beginning of "The Things They Carried" we are introduced to each character by the things they carry.
But Tim O’brien flips those ideas upside down using the chapter “How To Tell A True War Story” in The Things They Carried. The reader learns of a young man whose best friend dies in war, and how he writes a letter to the sister about his life, only to never get one in return. Throughout this chapter, the reader learns how truly contradictory the idea of a “true war story” really is. With a reflective and didactic tone, Tim O’brien effectively teaches those who have not fought in a war how to tell a true war story-- that “a
In The Things They Carried, O’Brien reveals his view on war through telling his readers how the Vietnam War had no point, was emotionally devastating, and displaying that there is no purpose in war unless the soldiers know what they are fighting for. O’Brien shows the pointlessness of war by
In the story, "The Things They Carried" a narrator describes the life of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The narrator lists what some of the soldiers carried during their experience in the war, emotional and tangible. Tim O'Brien presents the character of Ted Lavender, an obviously frightened soldier, in order to be a spokeperson to symbolize obvious stress within soldiers during their journey. He presents the character of Kiowa, a devoted Baptist, in order to represent how some of the soldiers cope with the exorbitant amount of stress. Tim O'Brien characterizes Ted Lavender as stressed and frightened in order to portray fright during the war within soldiers.
The Stories Told by the Soldiers In the book The Things We Carried by Tim O'Brien, he tells the reader stories about his experience in the Vietnam war. He tells stories about before, during and after the war. O’Brien explains his feelings towards the war by hinting it in many of his stories. He uses juxtaposition, diction, irony, metafiction, and repetition.
In war, there is a winning side and a losing side, but both suffer casualties. Afflictions are not always dealt in death and physical pain, but also emotional damage. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, he emphasizes war’s capabilities to change people. When Mary Anne, a sweet, innocent, all-American girl, arrives in Vietnam to be with her soldier boyfriend, change is inevitable, and she will eventually lose her naiveté. O’Brien utilizes personification, jarring imagery, hyperbole, and pathos to convey that war shatters all innocence, no matter how hard one may try to avoid the change.
Author Tim O’Brien, in his novel The Things They Carried, indicates the mental, emotional, and physical changes they go through due to the Vietnam War. The novel shows the obligation and burden the soldier’s go through to perform their duties, despite their own personal beliefs and experiences. O’Brien’s purpose is to illustrate the moral dilemma and internal struggle soldier’s experience in order to survive the true nature of war, as well as the fear and obligation that they have to cope with throughout their time spent at war. War forced the soldier’s morality to be stripped from their beliefs in order to perform their duties, causing soldiers moral dilemma.