ipl-logo

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

1388 Words6 Pages

“I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to war” (61). A main theme in The Things They Carried is how a man must find a way to overcome fear. The characters learn that they must have enough courage so they are able to overcome their fears. Years after the war, O’Brien reflects on his decision to fight in the Vietnam War. When he was drafted, O’Brien was pressured to go to war by the people of his hometown of Worthington. They would not let O’Brien make his own conscious decision to either fight or flee. Although he did believe in parts of the mission of the war, O’Brien was taking a stance against it while he was still in college. When he fled, O’Brien was undecided on going to war. He could not figure out whether it was worth it to let down his town, or follow his own moral beliefs. O’Brien believes it was his own choice to run from the war. At the time, O’Brien thought it was in his best interests to avoid the war. O’Brien did not completely support it, and even though he would let down his hometown, he felt it in the end it was his own choice. O’Brien thought he was being the real man that he is when he flees because he stands up for what he believes in. When he opposes the war, O’Brien feels justified by his own morals. O’Brien works hard at the lodge in which he resides so he can earn the money to …show more content…

Many people care too much about how others view them. Whether someone else approves of their thoughts and actions affects what anybody does. Many other stories describe soldiers that fight in the war for the pride of the country, or because they wish to die honorably. In The Things They Carried, the men do not want honor, but do not want the embarrassment of avoiding the war. Fighting in the war and dying honorably gives a man a great sense of pride and accomplishment. However, these men do not care about their own self pride. They only work for the approval of

Show More
Related

The Things They Carried Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Character Analysis

1568 Words | 7 Pages

O’Brien starts to explain about the waits that the soldiers goes through and explains that it was boring. He feels guilty about writing war stories and his daughter tells him that he is obsessed with the war.

Read More

War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

643 Words | 3 Pages

In the book, many of the soldiers do things in order to not be made fun of, to survive, and to not regret decisions. The fear of humiliation may have been a leading cause as to why many of the soldiers survived. After O’Brian receives a draft notice he thinks about leaving and heading to the Canadian border. In the Chapter On the Rainy River, O'Brien has the chance to leave behind his life, family, and friends in order to refrain from going to war. While he has the chance at creating a new road to a different life he decides to stay in order to avoid being shamed by his family, friends, and community.

Read More

If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

970 Words | 4 Pages

At the beginning of the book, O’Brien explains his thoughts on how the war was misguidedly conceived and inadequately justified (18). O’Brien didn’t believe that the war was morally right because it resulted in people dying, thus conveying to the reader that it was in fact evil. He insinuates the idea that he didn’t want to observe the war, let alone join it. O’Brien didn’t want to kill the people because he hated them, but he was scared for his life (98). O’Brien knew the war was evil, but he had to undergo these situations to fulfill his duties as a soldier.

Read More

Journey In On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien

595 Words | 3 Pages

I would go to the war—I would kill and maybe die—because I was embarrassed not to. That was the sad thing.” O’Brien is trying to show the readers that he is not courageous and he followed what everyone else did which does not make him a hero at all. This proves that he does not overcome his fear of starting a new life in Canada and conforms to what his friends,family, and the government want him to do which goes against the heroic archetypal

Read More

O Brien's The Things They Carried

466 Words | 2 Pages

The environment that surrounds one will have a big affect on him or her; in a good environment, people will gradually improve, but in a harsh environment, people will be influenced negatively. O’Brien introduce the reality of the soldiers in the Vietnam War and brings to life the setting of the entire novel. The soldiers were primarily teenagers and young men in their early twenties who had not yet had the chance to experience life. O’ Brien states, “war is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love, War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery.

Read More

The Man I Killed Chapter Analysis

951 Words | 4 Pages

The guilt of murdering the young Vietnamese soldier hit his brains, where his emotions and thought divide into two paths. One part of his brain convinced him that he had no otherwise other than killing the man because it was a war where anything can happen. The next part of O’Brien mind told him that he had killed an innocent young soul, who could have become a scholar one

Read More

Is Social Obligation In The Things They Carry By Tim O Brien

1022 Words | 5 Pages

This decision stemmed from the military draft, which occurred during the month of June. Thinking the war in Vietnam was a war in which “certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (O’Brien 38), his first instinct was to leave the United States and avoid the draft all together. On the other hand, if he were to go to war, he would be fighting a war of which he hated. Canada became his safe-haven for escaping the draft. O’Brien stayed at the Tip Top Lodge on the border of Canada and Minnesota, contemplating whether to leave his old life behind or be forced into war.

Read More

Things They Carried Reflection

561 Words | 3 Pages

The Things They Carried is an interesting novel not like many others in that it is not one continuous story on a single plot line, but rather the novel is a collection of fictional short stories from a young soldier’s time stationed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The stories do not follow a specific order either, and they often are set in different time periods, like how Chapters 1 (The Things They Carried), 2 (Love), and 3 (Spin) are set in the time period when the main character, Tim O’Brien, is deployed in Vietnam, while Chapter 4 (On the Rainy River) is set before the war started right after Tim was drafted, and tells the story of him trying to escape the war. The stories tell the reader the story of the differing backgrounds of many

Read More

A Marker On The Side Of The Boat Analysis

813 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien tells the readers about him reflecting back twenty years ago, he wonders if running away from the war were just events that happened in another dimension, he pictures himself writing a letter to his parents: “I’m finishing up a letter to my Parents that tells what I'm about to do and why I'm doing it and how sorry I am that I’d never found the courage to talk to them about it”(O’Brien 80). Even twenty years after his running from the war, O’Brien still feels sorry for not finding the courage to tell his parents about his decision of escaping to Canada to start a new life. O’Brien presented his outlook that even if someone was not directly involved in the war, this event had impacted them indirectly, for instance, how a person’s reaction to the war can create regret for important friends and

Read More

Essay On O 'Brien's Things Fall Apart'

445 Words | 2 Pages

This quote is from O’Brien the author himself admitting that he couldn’t be brave enough to leave his country and that he was embarrassed of what he was trying to do. So, he told himself that he would go to war, kill and maybe die because of the embarrassment idea he made. The idea of this quote is to explain what he feeling/confusion between what he’d do. Should he go to war? Or should he leave his loved ones and country behind.?

Read More

The Things They Carried: An Analysis

688 Words | 3 Pages

He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

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

Courage In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

730 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien expresses to the reader why the men went to the war and continued to fight it. In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather they were too frightened to be cowards.” The soldiers went to war not because they were courageous and ready to fight, but because they felt the need to go. They were afraid and coped with their lack of courage by telling stories (to themselves or aloud) and applied humor to the situations they encountered.

Read More

The Things They Carried Internal Conflict Analysis

845 Words | 4 Pages

This is evident when Mr. O’Brien says, “I would go to the war – I would kill and maybe die – because I was embarrassed not to,” (pg. 57.) In the end the author realized what he must do and went back home, so he could fight in the Vietnam

Read More

Vietnam War Pros And Cons

417 Words | 2 Pages

O’Brien is trying to present young warriors in war as fragile living creatures who are blood and bone, not fantasy fighters who bring glory to the cause, “This idea of the deified nation, a replacement god of abstract principle that can be honored and worshipped through war, has been gradually ousted from its place as the center of the American story” (Ooms 42) That is what the many sides of the story are in conflict while purporting to be the one true version of what happened. No one’s account is really reliable. All of the accounts are based on individual impressions including those of solidarity among the soldiers. O 'Brien demands that outdated stories of grit and valor be put aside to make room for a new kind of war story.

Read More

More about Essay On O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

Related Topics

Open Document