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A Brief Review Of Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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Characters featured throughout various pieces of American Literature are often positively or negatively affected by their past. These past events can affect the character’s present feelings, ideals, or actions. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, one character is affected significantly by the past events of his life. As both the narrator and protagonist, Tim O’Brien is affected by the former occurrences and memories of when he was a soldier fighting in the Vietnam War. He carries with him the traumatic recollections of the time at war, which has led him to share his experiences with others through storytelling, attempting to effectively communicate the nearly impossible depiction to others: what it was truly like as a soldier in Vietnam. …show more content…

O’Brien, the narrator, notes that some of the stories may not be factually true but he adds them rather to represent the “story-truths” and to portray the effects of the events that actually occurred. All O’Brien carries with now is the memories of the war, which he uses to typify all of the burdens that the soldiers carried physically and mentally throughout the war. For instance, the soldiers carried with rather heavy equipment, but also carried with mental burdens, such as Jimmy Cross obsessing over Martha, the woman he loved. Tim O’Brien exemplifies “the things they carried” before and after the war through his …show more content…

These past events can affect the character’s present feelings, ideals, or actions. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, one character is affected significantly by the past events of his life. As both the narrator and protagonist, Tim O’Brien is affected by the former occurrences and memories of when he was a soldier fighting in the Vietnam War. He carries with him the traumatic recollections of the time at war, which has led him to share his experiences with others through storytelling, attempting to effectively communicate the nearly impossible depiction to others: what it was truly like as a soldier in

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