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The Things They Carried Psychological Analysis

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“The things they carried” is a story that holds not even the slightest bit back and lays it out there for us. It tells the real straight forward story of Tim O’ Brien, And his alpha platoon mates. The psychological lens would be perfect for the chapter “Speaking of courage”, For the simple fact that this chapter is about O’Brien is trying to sort out everything that has happened in nam and what is happening till this day. By putting a psychological lens on the chapter “Speaking of Courage” is a good way to get into the head of Tim O’Brien and his platoon, to understand why he was driving around the lake, Norman, and how he was going to tell the story to the guy at Mamma’s Burgers, Norman and the silver star. The story “The Things They carried” …show more content…

Lastly I would like to bring up the story when O’Brien was telling us the story of Kiowa. “Norman Bowker remembered how he had taken ahold of kiowa 's boot and pulled hard, but how the smell was simply to much, and how he’d backed of and in that way had lost the silver star.”(TTTC, Pg 153) Norman bowker gets overwhelmed with thoughts after he is talking about how he “could’ve” prevented himself from not getting the “silver Star.” It continues to when “His father would have been quiet for awhile, watching the headlights against narrow tar road.” Well, anyway,” The old man would’ve said, “there 's still the seven medals, “right”, “Seven honeys.”(TTTC, Pg 154). In the chapter “notes” it states why they wrote this section and continues to explain “Speaking of courage was written in 1975 at the suggestion of Norman Bowker.” “who later hung himself in the locker room of his hometown YMCA.” That just shows you the Psychological damage the the soldiers went through and even after the war it is still branded in his head. To conclude “The things They carried” is a book about the Vietnam war, but if you try hard and analyze it, you will come to the conclusion that the soldiers went through various amounts of psychological damage throughout the war and even Till this day, they are still struggling with the memories branded in their head from the war. This story is straight forward and down to the “Cold, mushy

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