Enemies in Vietnam In The Things they Carried Tim O'Brien uses figurative language such as similes to highlight how the act of war drives people into a state of mind where they become crazy and aggressive. In this specific chapter ‘Enemies” he uses the fight between Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen. On page 63 In the Chapter called ‘Enemies; Tim O'Brien uses the title of the chapter to illustrate how much unknown needs to be highlighted when talking about the nature of Vietnam and what it is like fighting in Vietnam. Prior to this quote on page 62 Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen had gotten into a fist fight due to “a missing jackknife”. “Like fighting two different war, No safe ground: enemies everywhere” The use of the word enemies in this
In the book,” The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, an American novelist who is best known for his works of fiction which depict his experiences in the Vietnam War, he suggests to the audience how the Vietnam War was like to him and to the company he was in during the war. Through the use of his characters to show what they carried with them throughout the war and in the peace after the war, he uses sensory details to illustrate how it felt to be in Vietnam, he uses symbolism to depict certain points of the war, his use of irony to depict something which suggests but means something opposite, and his use of themes through the story. Tim O’Brien focuses on the characters, sensory details, symbolism, irony, and themes throughout the story
Tim O'Brien uses intentional narrative and rhetorical devices in his book "The Things They Carried" to advance various themes within it, such as storytelling, memory power and emotional baggage. O'Brien examines each theme through these narrative devices. O'Brien effectively explores these themes through imagery. His vivid descriptions bring home both physical and emotional burdens that soldiers carry, such as Lt. Cross's love for Martha being like "a stone in his stomach" (O'Brien 5). Such images create a powerful depiction of emotional weight soldiers carry with them and highlight its importance within military lives.
The Things They Carried by American author Tim O’Brien, who was drafted in the Vietnam war, describes the experience of the American infantry fighting in Vietnam. O’Brien utilises various rhetorical devices to illustrate the immense emotional & physical burdens the soldiers were to bear to enlighten the reader about the true horrors of war. For example, O’Brien employs asyndeton & polysyndeton in sentences listing the many things the soldiers carried. “They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades…,” (O’Brien). The lists of items carried carry on, overwhelming & exhausting the reader of the physical burdens of war.
The Things They Carried is an ugly book. The themes and topics throughout the book are gruesome and horrific, but Tim O’Brien writes about them in such a way that portrays the Vietnam War as almost beautiful. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the chapter, “The Man I Killed” is an example of a terrific piece of writing because it utilizes thoughtful symbolism, graphic imagery, and conflict to portray the Vietnam War in an accurate way. “The Man I Killed” uses symbols, imagery, and conflict to tell an accurate war story. First, O’Brien uses symbolism throughout the book, but specifically in “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien writes about the symbol of a butterfly.
Author Tim O’Brien once expressed, “It can be argued, for instance, that [the Vietnam] war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty….a powerful, implacable beauty—and a true war story will tell the truth about this, though the truth is ugly”(O’Brien 77). The breathtaking yet sanguinary jungles and devastating guerilla warfare of the Vietnam War had a particular grandeur that overwhelmed its victims, and the author of The Things They Carried demonstrates that element throughout many passages in his collection of short stories. In Tim O’Brien’s historical novel The Things They Carried, he uses the clash of breathtaking beauty with horrendous imagery and grim concepts to establish the theme of the dark beauty of war through the lens of his
Challenges at War Robert E. Lee once said, “What a cruel thing war is… to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors”. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien takes place in Vietnam. He and a handful of other men experience things only one can image and hope they will never have to experience again. They learn how death among them can greatly affect them, and many others. War is not an easy task to get through and these men all had different coping methods.
Men went through so many tasks during the Vietnam War physically and mentally. The beginning chapters focus on training for war and being prepared for the worst. For example, when there is a sergeant in a room with the marines. The sergeant walks to the chalk board and writes “AMBUSHES ARE MURDER AND MURDER IS FUN” (36-37). The
In “Enemies”, Jensen is scared that Lee Strunk will try to hurt him as much as he hurt him, and this causes him to question the “distinction between good and bad guys” even though he and Lee Strunk are fighting on the same side(O’Brien, 60). Jensen believes he has no allies in the war even though he is fighting amongst a group of men on the same side in the war. Jensen always takes precaution by setting up a foxhole on the far side of the perimeter; he is “always on guard”(60). In “Friends”, just like in “Enemies” Jensen is still conflicted as to what it means to be a friend. When Lee Strunk gets his leg blown off after the pact is signed, Jensen is faced with the task of killing Strunk in order to fulfill the pact or sparing Strunk’s life because he swore to it.
In the chapter when he describes the man he kills, he talks about the state of the dead body by saying, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole…the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips, his right cheek was smooth and hairless, there was a butterfly on his chin, his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him” (O’Brien Chapter 11). This brutal and horrifying imagery displays an irrefutable element of truth to O’Brien’s writing. Not only does this imagery highlight the truth to his writing, but it also sheds light on the brutal truth about the war in Vietnam. By using imagery as such a strong rhetorical device in his writing, he gives the average person a taste of just how barbaric and cruel Vietnam felt for the people who experience the war first hand on either side of the fighting. Tim O’Brien gives a very detailed and intense description of his time fighting in Vietnam during their war with America.
The Things They Carried was a very powerful and emotional book from the authors first person perspective. While he managed the art of good story telling by keeping the memories of his platoon mates alive through his stories, he also achieved good story telling by the use of specific narrative elements and rhetorical devices. Many people never really notice these specific things in novels or books until they are pointed out. So, what are these devices and how would they have any effect on the way he told the stories? To begin with, during the first chapter, Tim O'Brien uses anaphora as a rhetorical device.
Ernest Hemingway once said, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” The techniques used throughout the short story develop clear images and ideas of the characters. This includes their personalities, physical features, and habits. In the story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the author uses dialogue and figurative language to develop the characters.
War, destruction, devastation: all of these words have a similar connotation which all tend to lead to an unfavorable outcome. In The Things They Carried, the author, Tim O'Brien, describes a scene where new army recruits are deployed to a jungle-like area in Vietnam. The author makes use of various devices to describe this scene, specifically simile, imagery, and syntax to explain how it relates to the mood of the novel, a particularly difficult feat given that the author must convey these feelings through words. The author uses similes to describe the setting.
The Things They Carried The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells the story of soldiers during the time of the Vietnam War. Each of the characters in the story bear tangible things that have a deeper symbolic meaning to each of the individuals. The most prominent of all of the soldiers tales was that of Kiowa: he carried both his grandfather 's hatchet and a bible, each of these objects held a special significance.
I agree that the conflict between Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen alludes to future conflict between soldiers; however, I believe this conflict also reveals the degraded mindframe that these soldiers endured during the war. Like you pointed out, Jensen becomes wildly unstable after the fight. O’Brien even claims that, “The distinction between good guys and bad guys disappeared for him” (63). Jensen believed he couldn’t even trust his own ally. He would have restless nights and would break down, all because he believed Strunk would kill him over a measly broken nose.
In Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses symbols, both tangible and non-tangible to connect the reader get to the men in the platoon including their feelings and fears while they are in Vietnam. The story is told in third person, after reading through the first paragraphs, the reader then understands where the title is derived from. This not only makes things personal between each man and the reader, but the reader is able to understand and get to know that person based on their items. There are many items mentioned at the beginning of the story, the can of peaches that Henry Dobson carries. There are items such as gum, Kool-Aid and lighters.