The Vietnam War Reflected In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brian, the author discusses distinct items the soldiers carry with them during the Vietnam war. He explores weapons and equipment, but also talks about emotions and feelings the men frequently are approached by. The title of the novel is used to highlight the heavy emotional burden the soldiers had to carry during and after the war. In many cases, a soldier felt responsible for the death of one of his closest comrades.

In The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien constructs a seemingly autobiographical yet ostensibly fictional story of the war in Vietnam and its effects on a platoon of American soldiers. O’Brien’s inclusion of fact within fiction strengthens the rhetoric of the individual stories in The Things They Carried while leaving readers to question the overall truthfulness and validity of the stories. The members of the American platoon also question plausibility when struggling to grasp the credibility of Rat Kiley’s story of his first assignment near the Song Tra Bong river. Kiley describes his time in the Chu Liu mountains when a young medic named Mark Fossie decides to bring a girl named Mary Anne to the camp to demonstrate the camp’s lack of safety.

The struggle of war is more than a physical struggle. It is the emotional and moral struggles that weigh soldiers down even after the war. In O’Brien’s chapter “On the Rainy River,” he experiences different thoughts on whether

Madelyn Smith Ms.Reid English 11 Law 25 April, 2023 The Vietnam War was a horrifyingly gruesome and deadly altercation in which America sent hundreds of thousands of kids to fight in a grown man's war. Close to 60,000 American soldiers and 250,000 Vietnamese soldiers were killed in this fight of nonsense, in which the lives of innocent civilians and soldiers alike were taken, all while making no political progress. In the historical fiction, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien presents stories that show how the soldiers cope with the war, in order to depict the trauma and horror they experienced, ultimately illustrating that the soldiers who went to Vietnam lived through horrid battles and show their fear of uncertainties through their

People often reminisce about the decisive victories and suffering defeats of war, but the overwhelming horrors and tragedies of the actual soldiers are often overlooked. Because of this harsh truth, Tim O’Brien sheds light on the physical and psychological burdens on the life of a common soldier through his autobiography, The Things They Carried. Despite all the atrocities found in the Vietnam War, O’Brien still manages to appreciate life and all the people around him. Through all of this, everyone who reads this book can learn something new about the world around them in addition to something about themselves. Ultimately, The Things They Carried should stay in the curriculum because it truly shows the terrors and hardships of war, exemplifies

A novel written about the debatably unnecessary war in Vietnam, The Things They Carried authentically paid tribute to those that served for the United States in the fight against communism. The lives of these soldiers were talked about descriptively by the author of the book, Tim O’Brien as he had a great ton of experience in the war being that he was able to survive long enough to have two different medics in his squadron as well as strongly prefer one over the other. The war veteran showcased the effect the war had on a person with the example of Mark Fossie’s visitor that never left (Mary Anne). She adapted to the war very quickly and gradually became less recognizable by Mark. O’Brien made it clear that war was unable to be explained to

War carries important morals that heighten the perspective of men and women on their nation, but it also entails many acts and experiences that leave lasting effects on their emotional and physical state. Throughout the following texts, Paul Baumer, the dead soldiers, and Kiowa’s comrades all sustain losses that compel them to persevere and fight harder. All Quiet on the Western Front, Poetry of the Lost Generation, and an excerpt from In the Field all connect to the recurring theme, horrors of war, that soldiers face everyday on the front line through the continuous battle. War involves gruesome battles, many of which lead to death, but these events forever affect the soldier’s mind and body. In All Quiet on the Western Front, men experience horrific sights, or horrors of war, through the depiction of the terrain, death, and the

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.

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war.

In Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried”, in which he speaks of a man referred to as “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross”, who is struggling in balancing his obsession with a woman named Martha back in New Jersey and handling his duties within his platoon in Vietnam. His love for her intrudes on the love he has for his men, after he is daydreaming about Martha he loses his awareness of his surroundings and one of his men, who is named Lavender, gets killed. In coping with this death it is explained that the reason soldiers deal with these “intangibles” such as death, love, and fear is all due the idea that, “they were too frightened to be cowards.” (O’Brien, 1990, p. 24). For it is not by courage that these men are being pushed but, by the sheer fact that they do not want to be seen as cowardice amongst the men they stand by.

War Changes Molarity Tim O’Brien is both the author of the novel The things they carried, and one of the most important characters. Tim O’Brien narrator and some might say the protagonist. O’Brien seems to be really confused throughout the novel. He has some guilt that he tries to deal with over and over again throughout the novel, but when the war is over he uses his ability to tell stories to help him deal with his guilt and confusion. O’Brien might have been a character that abides the moral code but after entering the Vietnam war, morality never seemed to exist.

In November of 1955, the United States entered arguably one of the most horrific and violent wars in history. The Vietnam War is documented as having claimed about 58,000 American lives and more than 3 million Vietnamese lives. Soldiers and innocent civilians alike were brutally slain and tortured. The atrocities of such a war are near incomprehensible to those who didn’t experience it firsthand. For this reason, Tim O’Brien, Vietnam War veteran, tries to bring to light the true horrors of war in his fiction novel The Things They Carried.

The Vietnam War leaves a legacy of moral confusion with each and every soldier who serves. Soldiers are fighting for a cause they do not necessarily believe in, killing people who do not necessarily deserve it, and watching their brothers die beside them. Tim O’Briens’ book, The Things They Carried, illustrates the soldiers struggle to define morality throughout the confusion of the war. On the Rainy River, Tim O’Brien faces what he feels is his moral obligation to answer his country’s call and fight in Vietnam, and a personal moral issue with the reason for the war.

The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.