Similarities Between The Things They Carried And Elizabeth Bowen

Death is something that occurs often in a war due to the violence and dangerous areas. Everyone takes on the thought of someone dying in different ways, whether they maintained a close relationship with the person or not guilt could become an instant reaction of the persons' death because of a feeling of maybe being responsible for the death that occurred. The thought of maybe being responsible for one of the soldiers that you have spent day night serving with could leave an enormous amount of guilt in one person. When witnessing a death or anything traumatic it is easy to blame someone else or even yourself for the tragic accident. Multiple characters in the book The Things They Carried demonstrated the guilt and responsibility of another

When Lyman was looking at the picture it dawned on him, unlike the car, Henry cannot be repaired. The dark truth behind the mental image of Henry’s brother shows that his soul did not return back from Vietnam. Lyman’s avoidance of the photograph shows the murkiness behind the photograph. His detail of the photograph creates a mental image of Henry’s suffering and distance from reality he could never overcome. He hides this photograph in his closet because he would never get to understand what his brother went through while being imprisoned.

O’Brien does not exaggerate the blood or downplay the unsanitary conditions of war. Although he admits to “setting up in a shit field,” he does not not exaggerate the amount of fighting he witnessed in Vietnam (161). Rather than depicting a clean but gory war, O’Brien shares the disgusting, mind-destroying parts of his service. He emphasizes that serving in Vietnam does not entail fighting battle-after-battle. In fact, he mentions that in one year, he only saw one intruder.

In the short story, “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien focuses on this to show that everyone fighting in a war has a story. He spends the story describing the man he killed and searching for justification of his actions. He carries around guilt with him because of it, and his fellow soldiers try to help him justify and come to terms with his action by saying things like, “You want to trade places with him? Turn it all upside down= you want that? I mean, be honest,” (126) and “Tim, it’s a war.

O’Brien feels extremely guilty for killing someone. He is not sure what to do or how to feel. O’Brien does not exactly say if he was the man who actually killed him, or if someone else did. He hints that if it was not him that killed the poor man. Death has a way of changing a

In this chapter, O’Brien used repetition, a motif, and symbolism to stress the futility of the Vietnam war. First off, the word “Rain” is repeated numerous times throughout the chapter. This repetitious motif symbolizes war, as the war is all around, like how the word is all around the chapter. Furthermore, O’Brien used “Rain” when referring to everlasting events in the story, alongside setting a sad tone (war is never a happy event). For instance, during the hard trek through the waterlogged Song Tra Bong, the rain pounded on the men as they sought out Kiowa.

In the Novel The Things They Carried, the author, Tim Obrien recalls multiple stories during one of the most devastating wars in United States history. Through storytelling, Obrien casts light upon the horrifying reality of the Vietnam war and the struggles that Obrien’s men encounter, as well as all the other soldiers. Obrien uses the novel to represent the paradox that war is both horrible and beautiful. Obrien displays this through Ted Lavenders death, Curt lemons death, and the killing of the baby water buffalo. Obrien portrays the paradox that war is both horrible and beautiful through the death of Ted Lavender.

Death, especially of a close family member or friend, can cause one to lose hope. Death could include a loss of a loved one, a loss of oneself, or a loss of a passion. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien reveals the significance of death each soldier must come to terms with and the impact that death has on them, their character, and their actions. Each soldier carries objects that represent who they are, what they long for, and what they love. This is what remains constant for the boys in a world of war and death.

This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.

War was so much more than just war to O’Brien and he able to share this through his writing. " But this is true: stories can save us. ... in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world." (page

Contrary to people thinking the United States should not interfere, too many young men were being drafted, and the war was pointless, O’Brien still pointed out that soldiers were still fighting in the war and facing the possibility of not knowing whether they would live to see another day. He described the gruesome memories that he any many other military figures were bringing back home. One scene describes his friend Norman Bowker after coming back home, driving around a lake eleven times thinking about his friend Kiowa drowning in a field of sewage which represents the ability to cut right to the heart of the matter; soldiers coming back from war in emotional hardships. Bowker goes on to write O’Brien only to hang himself a couple years later showing the impact the war had on soldiers and the lack of help they received after the war due to many people not accepting the war. His expresses his opinion by stating, “If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth; if you don’t care for the truth,

In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author skillfully presents a paradox about war and how it is both horrible and beautiful. Through O’Brien’s vivid storytelling and sorrowful anecdotes, he is able to demonstrate various instances which show both the horrible and beautiful nature of war. Within the vulnerability of the soldiers and the resilience found in the darkest of circumstances, O’brien is able to show the uproarious emotional landscape of war with a paradox that serves as the backbone of the narrative. In the first instance, O’Brien explores the beauty in horror within the chapter “Love.”

This shows that they did not care for the death of that man. Also, everyone had mixed feelings about the death of one of their own, Ted Lavender. Kiowa really did not know what to feel when he discovered about Lavender’s death. For example, the story mentions, “He wished he could find some great sadness, or even anger, but the emotion wasn’t there and he couldn’t make it happen” (O’Brien 306).

This quote epitomizes the trauma caused by war. O’Brien is trying to cope, mostly through writing these war stories but has yet to put it behind him. He feels guilt, grief, and responsibility, even making up possible scenarios about the life of the man he killed and the type of person he was. This

At this moment, O’Brien is going through remorse for himself. He does not think that he should be forced to fight in this war when he does not believe in what they are fighting for. O’Brien believes that the war was unjust because “certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (1002).O’Brien