ipl-logo

Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1507 Words7 Pages

Life is a bountiful experience, brimming with wonderful opportunities and difficult hardships; filled with experiences that form a person, regardless of whom they are. The way one will approach moments of success to trying times will ultimately be different from one another. When life brings one at a crossroads, it will not remain stagnant while they choose. In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, his short story On the Rainy River focuses on the author himself, who is drafted for the war against Vietnam. He is troubled with the choice of fleeing northwards to Canada in order to avoid serving in the war, or to choose otherwise, and go against his morals. In the process of deciding whether or not to fight in Vietnam, O’Brien is …show more content…

This serves as an effective reason for O’Brien to be critical in himself because prior to deciding to serve in Vietnam. “[He] imagined [himself] doing things [he] could not do – charging an enemy position, taking aim at another human being.” (O’Brien, 44) He was against the idea of violence against another human being. Deciding to serve in this war contradicts this statement. Prior to receiving the draft notice, O’Brien holds himself in higher regard in terms of “who knows better”. He would “carry on fierce arguments with those people.... sending [him] off to fight a way they didn’t understand and didn’t want to understand.” (O’Brien, 45) He is aware that the reasons for this war is more complicated then jut stopping the Communists and considering that he would argue this fact proves that he is indeed “above others” in terms of self-awareness. But even so, he relents to the wishes of his peers and serves war, thus dismissing his original beliefs against the war. This is worthy of shame, as one of the main reasons he relents to his peers is because he was embarrassed. “It had nothing to do with morality. Embarrassment, that’s all it was.” (O’Brien, 59) He could not stand the fact that his community would shove him away, and use derogatory slurs against him because he knew better. In the final moments of his time at the Tip Top Lodge, as O’Brien sat in that fishing boat 20 yards away from Canada, he felt the whole universe’s eyes on him. O’Brien exaggerates the amount of people who care about his decision, but this depiction of his hallucination reminds others about the heaviness of the decision he was making. But even so, his acclaimed morals are thrown away for the sake of his

Show More
Related

  • Tim O Brien The Things They Carried Summary

    1110 Words  | 5 Pages

    During the War young men were taken away from fully experiencing their adolescence lives and were sent to fight in war. In the short story, “The things they carried” by Tim O’Brien, the narrator discusses his personal experience in the Vietnam War along with his fellow soldiers. He tells the story in an unusual way when he shares parts of his story from past and changes to present which allows the reader to feel the emotions and experience what each soldier went through and learn more about the characters personalities. O’ Brien uses an unusual narrative technique that allows the reader to visualize the experiences they went through such as death and guilt. Throughout the story we also learn more about the characters personalities and the importance

    Read More

  • Summary Of Imagine Dying By Rick Loomis

    451 Words  | 2 Pages

    No civilian has the right to describe the experience of a bloody war if they have never stepped foot onto the battlefield. In addition, nobody can fully comprehend war until they experience it firsthand. While deciding whether or not he should go to war, O’Brien felt disappointed in how his family and friends “were sending [him] off to fight a war they did not understand and did not want to understand” (O’Brien 43). People back at home and in society sometimes put an immense amount of pressure on particular people to go to war. It is unfair for society to pressure an individual into fighting a war because they are completely unaware of the role war will play in that person’s life forever until they die.

    Read More

  • Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Novel Analysis

    1469 Words  | 6 Pages

    But there are a few things the O’Brien validates for the reader. He did fight in the Vietnam War. Several different places in the book show this. He received his draft letter on June 17, 1968. He responded in not the normal way, but he ran away to the Canadian border where he spent six

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1276 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1352 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

    1399 Words  | 6 Pages

    To go into it, I’ve always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us,” (O’Brien 37). O’Brien succeeds at telling this war story because in the short story, On the Rainy River, he contemplates escaping the draft by fleeing to Canada or being a man and going to war. He knows that if he flees to Canada, he will be painted as a coward in

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried Morally Ambiguous Characters

    500 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    446 Words  | 2 Pages

    O’Brien did not want to shame his family by ignoring the draft to the Vietnam war he received. He confirms how he “feared ridicule and censure” to explain how his hometown would disapprove him fleeing to Canada instead going to the war (O’Brien 42). Shame motivated him to go to the war because he do not want to seem cowardly or shameful. Although love and shame affect the men , enemies does as well.

    Read More

  • Change In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1008 Words  | 5 Pages

    The sight of blood made me queasy, and I couldn't tolerate authority, and I didn't know a rifle from a slingshot” (O’Brien 26). O’Brien had just gotten the draft letter and is feeling mixed emotions because he believes that he is too smart for war and it must be a mistake that he got the letter. He says that he hates pretty much every aspect of war, and he knows absolutely nothing about firearms. Later on in the story, when O’Brien has experienced some of the war, he said, “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.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1293 Words  | 6 Pages

    Interpreting the emotional effects and impacts of war on soldiers can be quite difficult. What most people do not understand is that post-traumatic stress disorder or commonly referred to as PTSD, is something that is lifelong and troublesome to treat. It was due to the soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War, that this disorder was discovered. The National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study (NVVRS) approximates that 236,000 veterans currently have PTSD from the Vietnam War, an enormous long-term emotional and human cost of war (Vermetten). Tim O’Brien captures an astonishing painful and powerful realism through the emotions that the soldiers experience in “The Things They Carried”.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried: An Analysis

    688 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Things They Carried Innocence Quotes

    886 Words  | 4 Pages

    O’Brien goes into great depth in this small quote on how loss of innocence and war can affect people in the war. The quote “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t” shows how war is so different from what any human experiences at home. After that small quote he follows it up by bringing up how you have to use normal stuff to show how crazy these things are and how much of a pole it can have on somebody during a war. The way that war is treated for many is mostly the mental part that is struggling. But for many "War is hell, but that's not 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.

    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

  • Multiculturalism In The Things They Carried

    743 Words  | 3 Pages

    Either it being self defense, economic gain or for a political movement, War is influenced by many factors that lead to catastrophic results. Both the Gulf and Vietnam wars are explained by the article, “Military Multiculturalism in the Gulf War and After” and short story “The Things They Carried” that signify the blind eye displayed by humans during these wars. What allows Humans to process traumatic events is to turn the other way around and fill their minds with joyful moments in their life. A couple of ways are displayed in both the short story and article are the soldiers letting their mind escape and thinking about the things they brought with them from home and the public accepting the medias filtered perspective of war by supporting

    Read More

  • Moral Confusion In The Things They Carried

    645 Words  | 3 Pages

    (p. 126). Though he does not see him as the enemy, O’Brien reacts as he had been taught to in war; to forget most of your morals and shoot before you can be shot first, a fact Kiowa points out to him. “Later, I remember, Kiowa tried to tell me that the man would 've died anyway. He told me that it was a good kill, that I was a soldier and this was a war, that I should shape up and stop staring and ask myself what the dead man would ' ve done if things were reversed” (p. 127). Soldiers are expected to forget their morals and act as a soldier should.

    Read More

More about Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Open Document