The Vietnam War in The Things They Carried by Tim O´brien...

The Vietnam War. A war that many Americans believed unfair and unnecessary. â€Å"Why am I being sent off to fight in a war I don’t know anything about? Will I ever return again?† Many draftees asked themselves these questions hoping to find comfort in the answers. But there was little to no hope, and they knew it. They were being drafted and they could do absolutely nothing about it, only hope that at the end they would be returning to the enlightened faces of their loved ones, something that not many Vietnam soldiers expected to ever see again. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, portrays his experience in the war along with his fellow squad members, in their fight for survival against the Vietcong. In The Things They Carried, each†¦show more content†¦The first story O’Brien decides to tell us is the story of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Cross represents a young and inexperienced soldier who went to war for all of the wrong reasons. He deals wit h the savagery of the Vietnam War through letters and pictures sent from the woman he loves back home, Martha. Cross carries physical objects, pictures, letters, as well as memories from his time spent back home with Martha before signing up for war. At one point in the story after describing a date between him and Martha, he mentions how â€Å"he should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long.† (5) His thoughts of Martha are enough to help distract him from the brutal realities taking place in the war. However, his distraction becomes too much, and it ends up resulting in the death of one of his fellow squad members, Ted Lavender. He carries regret for the death of Lavender, and years later confesses his guilt to O’Brien, and that he has never forgiven himself for his death. Despite his long-lived regret, Cross finds comfort in his thoughts of Martha, and hopes one day she will return his love. From Tim O’Brien’s point of view, Mitchell Sanders was one of the most likable soldiers in the squad. Not only was he a good soldier, but he was a good friend as well. Along with O’Brien, Mitchell Sanders carries his fair share of stories. However, his stories are more commonly used to entertain theShow MoreRelatedThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1169 Words   |  5 Pagesbut are set in the past and borrows things from that time period. A story that fits this genre of literature is The Things They Carried. The story is about Tim O Brien, a Vietnam veteran from the Unite States, who tells stories about what had happened when he and his team were stationed in Vietnam. He also talks about what he felt about the war when he was drafted and what he tried to do to avoid going to fight in Vietnam. The Things They Carried by Tim O Brien was precise with its portrayal of settingRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie The Things They Carried 1734 Words   |  7 PagesThe Actual War Scenario - Vietnam War The Things They Carried, is a novel based on the Vietnam War, and the book reveals the truth of the war as the author remembers the war after twenty one years and snows his guilt and emotions for the war. The Things They Carried, belongs high on the list of the best fiction about any war... crystallizes the Vietnam experiences for everyone and exposes the nature of all war stories.( New York Times, Book of the Century). Tim O Brien, the authorRead More Things They Carried Essay: Disembodiment723 Words   |  3 PagesDisembodiment in The Things They Carried  Ã‚  Ã‚   With some knowledge of war, one can begin to appreciate Tim O Briens The Things They Carried.   But when the work is viewed in its strict historical context, another layer of   meaning rises to the surface.   Tim O Brien is a veteran; as a result there are many things he takes for granted (or so we think) and does not tell us.   Americas involvement in the Vietnam war resulted from internal domestic politics rather than from the national spirit.  Read MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1242 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Tim O’Brien is obsessed with telling a true war story. O Brien s fiction about the Vietnam experience suggest, lies not in realistic depictions or definitive accounts. As O’Brien argues, absolute occurrence is irrelevant because a true war story does not depend upon that kind of truth. Mary Ann’s induction into genuine experience is clearly destructive as well as empowering† (p.12) Tim O’s text, The Things they Carrie d, details his uses of word choice to portray his tone and bias. Tim O’BrienRead MorePsychological Changes During Soldiers From The Vietnam War981 Words   |  4 PagesSOLDIERS FROM THE VIETNAM WAR The survival of a soldier depends on what he wears. In war, the line between life and death is thinner than ever, and often, supplies, weapons, and the equipment of a soldier is the only thing that can cause the line not to clear. But, a soldier also carries his memory, memories, amulets, ghosts of the past, and trivial objects that do not let him forget that there is another life-the life-beyond war. Soldiers of Alpha Company, who fought in Vietnam, carry everythingRead MoreThe Things They Carried Vietnam Essay1571 Words   |  7 PagesHow Society Influences Man: Tim O Brien in Vietnam Tim O Brien s novel The Things They Carried is meant to display the effects of Vietnam on both American soldiers as well as the boys they once were. Vietnam is a society where human decency is left behind, and death is embraced as either a joke or an escape--where the horrors of reality are turned comical and exaggerated in order to keep going. Tim O Brien shows how Vietnam turns him from a boy unknowing of death, to a young man unwilling toRead More OBrien and Fossie in The Things They Carried Essay862 Words   |  4 Pagescoming of age novel, or Bildungsroman. In many ways, The Things They Carried is an exemplary Bildungsroman as it carries the reader through the lives and problems of every soldier within its pages. Each man is witnessed as he goes through his own maturation and personal times of struggle and hardships. Some are focused on more than others, but each man has a story to tell, each a moral to teach. Throughout The Things They Carried, both Tim O?Brien and Mark Fossie experience a significant amount of personalRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1407 Words   |  6 Pagesintroduction stated that in â€Å"The Things They Carried,† author Tim O’Brien tells us not directly of the soldiers of Vietnam, or the situations they find themselves in, but about the things they carry on their shoulders and in their pockets. These â€Å"things† identify the characters and bring them to life.   I find that to be true as the author unfolds the stories about war and the uncommon things one carries in to war both inadvertently and on purpose.  Ã‚  Ã‚  As it was noted: Stories about war – especially today – usuallyRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien Essay832 Words   |  4 Pagesand large they carried these things inside, maintaining the masks of composure† (21). In Tim O’brien’s The Things They Carried, the American soldiers of the Vietnam War carry much more than the weight of their equipment, much more than souvenirs or good-luck charms or letters from home. They carried within themselves the intransitive burdens—of fear, of cowardice, of love, of loneliness, of anger, of confusion. Most of all, they carry the truth of what happened to them in the war—a truth that onlyRead MoreAnalyzing The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1539 Words   |  7 PagesAnalyzing of â€Å"The Things They Carried† The book â€Å"The Things They Carried† is written by Tim O’Brien, the author of â€Å"In The Lake Of The Woods† and â€Å"Tomcat In Love.† In this book, O’Brien tells the details of the Vietnam war as a form of storytelling. He includes several characters in it such as Tim O’Brien, Jimmy Cross, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, Ted Lavender and so on. He starts with the primary character, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who is carrying out a mission in Vietnam, and carries