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The Things They Carried Analysis Essay

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Tim Obrien’s 1990 story “The Things They Carried” describes the experience of a group of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The soldiers are under the responsibility of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. With Jimmy, he carries his love for Martha, and it distracts him from his duty. In the end, he tries to forget Martha because he thinks the death of Ted Lavender is his fault because he was distracted. Respectively, each soldier carries assets that are material and mental. By using historical context, narration, and character usage, O’Brien employs the theme of mental health across to the readers to show the mental health of soldiers during this time. O’Brien portrays the story from a monumental historical point, the Vietnam War, to show how mentally oppressive the war was. The soldiers that were drafted …show more content…

This is when the narrator is able to use pronouns such as “he, she, or they” but is also all-knowing and is able to fluctuate in and out of the minds of multiple characters. Through this type of narration, Tim O’Brien can choose what person and what situation to show the readers and can change how the reader views the story. Equivalently Tim O’Brien is able to bring the reader to the minds of different soldiers and exhibit what that particular soldier is carrying physically and mentally. This is important because the soldiers' minds are not completely stable nor the same, which is how readers witnessed first hand when Kiowa had a hard time processing Ted Lavender’s death. He can not stop talking about how quick it was and then internally thinks that he was a bad person because while he felt a little sad, he mostly felt glad that it wasn’t him. It affected Kiowa mental health as Ted’s death circled in his mind, which is revealed through narration. Among narration, O’Brien’s manipulation of characters helps the readers see into the mental minds of the

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