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Synthesis Essay On 'The Things They Carried By Tim O' Brien

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Synthesis Essay Tim O’Brien wrote the book The Things They Carried 20 years after he returned from war, making him the protagonist of the novel. O’Brien felt that writing down his stories from the war brought him closer to it, and the people he came to know from the war. Bringing himself closer to the past allowed O’Brien to gain closure for the tragedies he witnessed. His novel allows readers to gain a new perspective on war, since many opposed the Vietnam War when it happened. O’Brien gives readers a closer look inside the war to show the impact that it has on veterans. O’Brien shows readers and those who know veterans, how moments of morality and shame and guilt arise in war. The chapter “In the Field” shows many moments of shame and guilt for the characters as the result of a death. In the chapter Kiowa dies from sinking into the mud, and his friends are …show more content…

Bowker is back home trying to readjust to life after the war. He didn’t know how to act or what to say, and others didn’t know what to say to him. Norman carried the weight of the shame and guilt that the war caused from the death of Kiowa, of whom he felt he could have saved. Norman could not stop thinking about the war and could even tell what time it was based on the sun, “The sun was lowered now. Five fifty five, he decided. Six o’clock tops.”(O’Brien 138). The quote shows how Bowker’s mind was still on war, which is shown by his ability to know what time it is within the accuracy of five minutes. He also could not stop thinking about how he could have saved Kiowa, winning him a silver star medal, but instead of pulling him out he got out before he could become stuck. “Speaking of Courage” shows the weight of war and the guilt that the soldiers carry home from the war, by showing how their minds get stuck in the

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