ipl-logo

Literary Devices In The Things They Carried, By Tim O Brien

174 Words1 Page

One of the strongest tools an author can use to strengthen his or her writing are literary devices. Literary devices allow authors to express their meaning in a creative way and produce a certain reaction from the reader. These devices are a main reason why many consider literature an art, as they help authors convey their messages in a more expressive way that goes beyond simple words. The effective use of stylistic devices is a clear sign of a well-crafted and impactful literary work. The Things They Carried, a mostly fictional novel written by Tim O’Brien about soldiers’ experiences in the Vietnam War, demonstrates how authors can target the reader in a particular way through the use of literary techniques. O’Brien uses a variety of these

Show More
Related

  • Comparing O Brien's The Things They Carried And Carl Hiaasen

    828 Words  | 4 Pages

    “What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.” ― Logan Pearsall Smith Logan Pearsall Smith, an American-born British essayist, comments on how good authors convey a deeper meaning in their work than what is simply written. Tim O 'Brien, the author of “The Things They Carried,” and Carl Hiaasen, the author of “Skinny Dip,” both use this technique in their writing. In both novels, the authors share details of the setting to inflict guilt onto the story’s character. Tim O’Brien emphasizes the struggles of war through the setting and shows how it affects the soldiers’ views of blame in the novel “The Things They Carried.”

    Read More

  • Characters In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1147 Words  | 5 Pages

    People all across the world carry a variety of objects and emotions. Specifically, in the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’ Brien characters carry certain objects that act as coping mechanisms throughout the war. Three characters that dealt with the Vietnam War through the use of objects were Henry Dobbins, Jimmy Cross, and Kiowa. Henry Dobbins is described as being a large bodied man and that is why he is company’s machine gunner. In addition to carrying his machine gun along with the ammo strapped across his chest, he wears his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck.

    Read More

  • Metafiction In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    509 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book The Things They Carried, the author, Tim O’Brien, uses many literary methods, including metafiction. Metafiction is while an author is writing a story, he or she breaks the fourth wall in order to make the audience feel like they are involved. It brings reality to a fictional story by speaking to the audience about what is going on, and it makes the audience forget that what they are experiencing isn’t real. Metafiction blurs the line between fiction and reality. Tim O’Brien uses many literary devices in this book, including symbolism, imagery, setting, a narrator point of view, metafiction, and a tone.

    Read More

  • The Thing They Carry By Tim O Brien Literary Analysis

    920 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Thing They Carried” by Tim O’Brien In the war novel “The Thing They Carry”, by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien open up his mind going down memories and stories he experience in the horrifying Vietnam war in 1950s-1980s. He used the signpost memory moment of truths and lies to reveal the burden of the war. Truth is what the soldier in the war, memories remember about, does whose location are unknown and what happens to them. Lies is everything that the soldiers can’t reveal to the public not just about the war but how they feel, damage which took place.

    Read More

  • Literary Standards In The Things They Carried, By Tim O Brien

    833 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Truth In The Things They Carried, By Tim O Brien

    543 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien is a fictional account of the Vietnam war that seeks to reveal a truth about storytelling. He shows this through several examples, most notably in "Speaking of Courage", where he describes a veteran who can't fit in and drives around the lake, "The man I killed", where the narrator, Tim kills a Vietcong soldier, and "In the Field", which is the opposite of that as it is more direct and isn't as fictionalized. He shows the audience what really happens with "Notes", and "Good Form". Using this book, Tim O'Brien seeks to reveal the truth on how using fiction in narratives can show a deeper truth than just the happening truth.

    Read More

  • Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis

    1292 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Narrator In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    285 Words  | 2 Pages

    The effect of a third person narration gives us a chance to really see the character from multiple views know what their past experiences thing were that they did and what not. The Narrator cannot be relied upon because the narrator won`t give us a full scenario of thinks that happened he`s only going to give his side of the story and add bits and pieces from the others. He lives a lot big chunks of the others stories so that his stories will the best sounding and the most impressive to readers. So we can`t get a full understanding of the novel because he hides to much from us about to other characters like how about they felt when they got drafted or how the war was from the since everyone takes things differently since we majority only have

    Read More

  • The Things They Carry Rhetorical Analysis

    702 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person, marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of repetition, symbolism, and metaphors to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers during war. Though the literary device of repetition, O'Brien portrays the physical and psychological hardships of a soldier.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried: An Analysis

    688 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Fiction And Reality In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    1413 Words  | 6 Pages

    Hidden somewhere within the blurred lines of fiction and reality, lies a great war story trapped in the mind of a veteran. On a day to day basis, most are not willing to murder someone, but in the Vietnam War, America’s youth population was forced to after being pulled in by the draft. Author Tim O’Brien expertly blends the lines between fiction, reality, and their effects on psychological viewpoints in the series of short stories embedded within his novel, The Things They Carried. He forces the reader to rethink the purpose of storytelling and breaks down not only what it means to be human, but how mortality and experience influence the way we see our world. In general, he attempts to question why we choose to tell the stories in the way

    Read More

  • Imagery In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    686 Words  | 3 Pages

    Controversy of the Iraq War sparked an ethical conversation that was similar to the Vietnam War, authors such as Tim O’Brien and Chris Kyle share their primary accounts on their thoughts of war. In 1990, about 15 years after the Vietnam war ended, Tim O’Brien publishes his work of fiction called, The Things They Carried. The Things They Carried was a melancholy, detailed collection of short stories that follows the protagonist, Tim O’Brien and his company of men before, during and after the Vietnam War. Later in 2012, after his tour of duty in Iraq, Chris Kyle publishes his memoir of his accounts in Iraq. American Sniper is a patriotic, straightforward novel that explains Kyle’s thought process while he’s at the Iraq War.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    648 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Things They Carried “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story set during the Vietnam War. In the story, O’Brien lists many different items soldiers in the Alpha Company carried with them as they humped across the rugged terrain. Many carried necessities such as rations, matches, ammunition and things of that nature; however, many soldiers also carried quite peculiar objects such as condoms, pantyhose, and M&Ms. Readers can grasp a closer insight of the characters’ lives after further examination of the symbolism and meaning of the things they carried.

    Read More

  • Obstacles In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    248 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the book, The Things They Carried, the narrator, and author, Tim O'Brien faces several different obstacles that he has to overcome. The main one that he goes through all starts when he gets his draft notice for the Vietnam Wa. He has to decide whether or not he should be brave, and fight. Or if he should pack up his things, and leave for Canada. For some people, making the decision to go to war or to flee would be a no brainer, but it was a different story for Tim O' Brien.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    376 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first chapter of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried gives a detailed description of something each soldier carried. You’re presented with a photo First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries, the extra rations that Henry Dobbins carries and the tranquilizers that Ted Lavender carries and an explanation behind each object. In each explanation there are rhetorical devices used to intrigue the reader and help further develop each character. O’Brien, on page 143, is focusing on Norman Bowker in the town he lived in as a child. O’ Brien conveys this part of the novel by personifying, creating dialogue, and giving an illustration that appeals to sound and sight.

    Read More

More about Literary Devices In The Things They Carried, By Tim O Brien

Open Document