Tim O’Brien, author of “The Things They Carried”, tells a war tale which contains no heroes because his story showcases the blunt reality of war. Many men, in the past, did not go to war to become heroes; rather they were forced to enlist because of the military draft or because they felt cowardly due to the expectations of society. Tim O’Brien chose to share his story because he wanted non-military civilians to learn the truth about war; the realistic side of war that the news and Hollywood films won’t show you. War is hell; it is painful, traumatizing, and completely life changing, to say the least. In my opinion, O’Brien gives readers an inside look and understanding of how there are no heroes of war, because fighting for a cause that …show more content…
In fact, O’Brien debunks the assumption that men go to fight in wars to become heroes, for he did not go to the war to be recognized as a hero. Instead, Tim O’Brien, like so many others, initially wanted to avoid the draft, but succumbed to the pressures of society, that still continues on to this day. The men, especially the draftees, never quite know what they’re getting into, and wars bring out every emotion in a person through different experiences. In his book, O’Brien states, “Getting shot should be an experience from which you can draw some small pride…” (182). This quote emphasizes the moments of the war in which men muster up what little they would have ever opened up to when they speak of their experiences. O’Brien then adds, “the way your eyes focus on a tiny white pebble or a blade of grass and how you start thinking, Oh man, that’s the last thing I’ll ever see, that pebble, that blade of grass, which makes you want to cry” (182). This statement encompasses the ultimate reality of facing death on the battlefield. People might even ask themselves what sort of heroic death they are departing with, and whether they are truly proud of their sacrifice in that moment of departure. The truth is, soldiers are not thinking about their country when they’re being shot at, they’re thinking about everybody they know, especially themselves and their fellow infantry mates fighting viciously beside them; and that is the main idea that O’Brien cleverly articulates as the tone of all the firefights they encounter in the
The book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of stories from the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien was drafted into the war in 1968 and remained there until 1970 (“The Things They Carried”, N.d.). Kiowa is a Native American and he is gentle and peaceful. He discourages excessive violence but understands difficult decisions of war may not always please his gentle nature. Even though Kiowa strongly opposes excessive violence he later finds his platoon under attack and tragically loses his life fighting for a war he did not fully agree with.
Most war stories are labeled as fiction or nonfiction; however Tim O’Brien breaks this rule in The Things They Carried by creating a fictitious story that yet seeps the truth, and labelling it as a work of fiction. The book is compiled of various stories that correlate together, but it can be unclear what is fact and what is fiction. O’Brien purposely does this to draw in the reader to question what is and what isn’t, and no one exactly knows the right answer. By utilizing intentional, rhetorical tactics, O’Brien has the power of blurring the lines between fact and fiction; which allows the reader to distinguish between fact and fiction in chapters, such as “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, “Stockings”, and “Speaking of Courage”.
The Things They Carried details a young naive man’s life that changes after being drafted into the Vietnam War. The author Tim O’Brien shares with us the many tragedies that are engraved in his memory. Throughout the book he tells stories about the lives(right) of the dead. As he writes the stories, he dreams about the dead, so in his mind they are alive and have returned back into the world. The reader can feel the struggle that Tim has in relieving the pain of losing these people.
The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, focuses on the author’s experiences in the Vietnam war. This book confronts the truth about death and the wave of agony that hits after the fact. The story highlights the ways that Tim and his fellow soldiers find ways to cope with the immense amount of pain that comes with war. Throughout the book, Tim O’Brien explores the power of storytelling and how it allows those who are physically dead to remain alive in the memories of other. There are many ways in which O’Brien has found storytelling to help him confront the death that he has faced.
The Things They Carried-Tim O’Brien “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a collection of different short stories about American soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. The book focuses on the turbulent period in the American history where the author narrates the stories with insight and compassion to reach out to the audience. It is almost a hallucinatory book because it is neither O’Brien’s memoir nor a short stories nor a novel but an artful of combination of all these three. In the book, O’Brian narrates his experience in the Vietnam War but majority of the stories are fictional. The main character in the book has similar life experience as O’Brien himself.
O'Brien emphasizes the difference between the troops' actual experiences and how those experiences are portrayed in the society and by the government throughout the entire story. He discusses how soldiers are taught to "spin" their perspectives in order to make them more appealing to the American public, frequently by praising their own bravery and understating the atrocities of war. He explains how soldiers can eventually have feelings of remorse and shame due to their sensitivity to violence and
Author and war veteran Tim O’Brien, in his novel The Things They Carried, unveils the struggles and obstacles that soldiers are faced with. What they must overcome will help them gain back the life they used to live. The combination of the moral and emotional struggles, along with the memories that are trapped within them, make their lives tough to get back. The constant battle between themselves and the memories they have experienced, develops a barrier for soldiers to go against to gain back their lives from before.
I. —Introduction Today the average US soldier carries at least 60 pounds of gear, with an extended patrol almost doubling that weight. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is about a platoon of soldiers fighting on the ground during the vietnam war. These soldiers have to endure several challenges during their journey that will test their limits every second of every day. However, the things that get them through the day is what they carry. The things these soldiers carry represents their role in the platoon, as well as, their personalities.
Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, takes the act of revealing the uncertainties about war one step further. He does this in a unique way with the technique of imagination. The use of this technique is to reveal a world of imagination that is truer than the actual facts stated. It hooks the reader and allows the reader to see the connections of how O’Brien felt before, during, and after the war. More so, the main focus of O’Brien switching between what is real and what’s not, is to tell the real truth and story truth.
O’Brien begins thinking about how the soldier’s life must have been, simply by going off of his description. O’Brien says that this soldier loved math but was bullied for being smart and having a miniscule body. O’Brien also says that this soldier was told many stories about brave warriors who served their country just like us, but the soldier was scared, and he prayed that he wouldn’t become old enough to fight. This moment of O’Brien seeing life from the enemy’s shoes gives the reader sympathy for the vietcong soldier. O’Brien explaining this now gives a new way to connect to our “enemy” and truly questions if anyone in war is purely evil or purely
Tim O’Brien views heroism much differently than most. His comrades in Vietnam may base a hero upon his accomplishments in war; however, O’Brien’s version of a hero comes in the most casual aspect. O’Brien’s message on heroism communicates the simplicity of wisdom through the rhetorical elements of diction, tone, and ethos. In O’Brien’s acceptance speech, he uses effective diction to describe his hero, Elroy Birdall.
Tim O'brien's novel The Things They Carried follows Tim through his experiences as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Before going to war, Tim debates escaping his draft by running away to Canada. Before telling this story, he prefaces, “This is one story I've never told before. For more than twenty years I've had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to push it away, and so by this act of remembrance, by putting the facts down on paper, I'm hoping to relieve at least some of the pressure on my dreams” (37). O’brien expresses that for much of his life he has bottled up the emotions that come along with telling this story.
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.
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.
In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author skillfully presents a paradox about war and how it is both horrible and beautiful. Through O’Brien’s vivid storytelling and sorrowful anecdotes, he is able to demonstrate various instances which show both the horrible and beautiful nature of war. Within the vulnerability of the soldiers and the resilience found in the darkest of circumstances, O’brien is able to show the uproarious emotional landscape of war with a paradox that serves as the backbone of the narrative. In the first instance, O’Brien explores the beauty in horror within the chapter “Love.”