Essay On Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

“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. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien reveals his view on war through telling his readers how the Vietnam War had no point, was emotionally devastating, and displaying that there is no purpose in war unless the soldiers know what they are fighting for.

While Paul, the main character, was on leave from the war he says, “I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world” (168). For the soldiers the real world is hard for them to cope because they are so accustomed to battling for their lives. They are so used to be in a world where all they do is fight; to come home to normalcy where there is no battling and worrying is

When faced with war soldiers change, for better or for worse. Modern culture celebrates the glory of patriotic sacrifice. However, this celebration often leaves out the gritty details and trauma of violence behind war and the way it affects people. Homer’s The Odyssey and William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives clearly discuss these details. Both debate the long-awaited return of warriors that went off to fight a war and the way the experience changes the protagonists. A warrior’s homecoming is typically thought to be full of loving comfort from family and friends, exemplified in images in popular culture. However, there is in fact a tragedy behind the whole ordeal, caused by the lack of effective communication by the homecoming warriors.

"The first casualty of war is innocence.” Said by screenwriter Oliver Stone. A Separate Peace by John Knowles is about a set of boys at a boarding school in New England. The reader can clearly see the theme war is unforgiving though war affects friendships, changes lives, and war kills a lot of people.

The word “truth” can be interpreted numerous ways regarding different situations and also the person that is telling the story. In the book, “ The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien wrote about his experience in the Vietnam War and how the war had impacted him and his fellow soldiers. Throughout the story, O’Brien begins to doubt himself and the accuracy of the story that he was telling. “ And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed” (O’Brien 54). Knowing that everything might not be what it seemed, O’Brien began to realize that “fact” and “truth” are two different items.

The long duration of war takes a toll on soldiers and they are forced to tuck their emotions into a place far away, and not feel anything. If these emotions drove their actions, they would never accomplish anything at war. They turn into dehumanized machines in order to survive the horrors of war. Writing and telling stories of war allow for them to feel emotions again, “But this too is true: stories can save us” (O’Brien 225). Human beings need to release their emotions, and these

Right from the first few sentences the author already starts to impress. There is a mix between the writer 's memoir and autobiography. With a memoir a writer will usually recount scenes from his or her own life. The way the writer writes depends on the conditions of the mental and emotional for the writer. When he starts off saying that "this is one story I 've never told before" signals two points to the reader. First, the story builds a confessional tone and creates an immediate empathy between the reader and the O 'Brien character. Second, in the context of the next chapter, the reader knows that this is an unresolved story, perhaps a fragment of memory that, given O 'Brien 's attitude of storytelling, is being crafted into a story as a means for understanding the events of the past. But the story isn 't abruptly moving

The effectiveness of rhetorical devices is no better illustrated than in the essay “Duty, Honor, Country” by General Douglas MacArthur. Throughout this piece the tone and opinion is made clear without being heavy handed making the piece infinitely more relatable. MacArthur’s use of the socratic appeals(Ethos,Pathos and Logos), not only makes the reader contemplate what he is saying but how it is being said.

In the novel Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, the main character is Richie Perry. At seventeen he graduated high school in Harlem, and he wanted to go to college, but his mother couldn’t afford to send him to college since she was an alcoholic. So he joined the army to escape his unfortunate future, but joining the army meant he had to leave his little brother Kenny, who saw him as a father figure since their father left when they were younger. Perry was sent to Vietnam and through his journey, he made lifelong bonds with many different people such as PeeWee, Monaco, and etc. Also in his journey, he suffers from mental and physical wounds. In the end of the book he was completely changed, he has lost his innocence, his sense of normalcy and morality, their hope, and his faith, and the

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.

The theme of “How to Tell a True War Story” is war, the true stories, and how it is perceived to those who don’t understand it. Author O’Brien really shows the readers the true meaning of war and its truths and lies. O’Brien does this by giving a gung-ho story, and a tear jerking story of how it is easily told in a lie, and then explain what truly happens. “How to Tell a True War Story” gives insight on how telling a story should be told and how to identify a false story to a true story. Truth plays a great role, in fact the truth is used to underlie what really happened and what the soldiers thought happened. The truth creates a conflict in the story, such as when the men heard the music playing in the jungle; that music is not really what

The Things They Carried by Tim O´Brien is a story that can be hard to swallow. O´Brien

Stories, irrespective of its origin, topic, length, genre, always hold a special place in both our culture and our heart. Stories are generally a description, an account of an event or some occurring, which could be real life or fictional. With different types of events and all, stories also vary across different types and genres. Stories always attract our wandering mind with a set pace language and the way, the story is being told. According to human anthropology, storytelling is inherent in human nature and he couldn’t help it. This, one of the fine art offered by literature thus is one of the most acclaimed, entertaining and demanding too in our society.

America’s war heroes all have the same stories to tell but different tales. Prescribed with the same coloring page to fill in, and use their methods and colors to bring the image to life. This is the writing style and tactic used by Tim O’Brien in his novel, “The Things They Carried”. Steven Kaplan’s short story criticism, The Undying Certainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, provides the audience with an understanding of O’Brien’s techniques used to share “true war” stories of the Vietnam War. Kaplan explains the multitude of stories shared in each of the individual characters, narration and concepts derived from their personal experiences while serving active combat duty during the Vietnam War,

The nature of war has always been a cruel and inhumane part of our world and its history. Many themes, such as desperation and trickery, play a large role in the development of the short story, “All The King’s Horses” by Kurt Vonnegut. However, what is most particularly interesting is how Vonnegut portrays war the story and is represented the most throughout the novel is the theme of how destructive war is and how impactful it can be on many lives.