ipl-logo

The Vietnam War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

607 Words3 Pages

Did you know during the Vietnam War a process known as the draft lottery was used to draft soldiers into the Vietnam War? Birthdays were randomly drawn and randomly assigned a number between 1 and 365. Men, ages 19 to 25, were drafted into the Vietnam War if their birthday fell within the 1 to 195 bracket. Tim O'Brien, the author of the novel "The Things They Carried" , illustrates his story about being drafted into the Vietnam Wart and his personal experience. The important themes O'Brien uses to help readers understand his personal experience fighting in the Vietnam War is the felling of guilt and love. A soldier's guilt becomes very strong throughout the war. Soldiers feel they are responsible for what happens to each other. In "The Things They Carried", the soldiers felt they were responsible for Ted Lavender's death because they formed a strong relationship with Lavender. …show more content…

Having a relationship and children can become very stressful during the war because one partner is overseas fighting while the other partner is praying fr the partner fighting, taking care of the family, and doing chores. When soldiers leave for war this may be the last moment that a family could see one another because neither the soldier or their family are certain about whether or not the soldier will return home. Throughout "The Things They Carried", Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is questioning whether or not he will ever see Martha, a girl that he meet and dated in high school again. "They'd run into each other he said, at a college reunion in 1979. Nothing had changed. He still loved her. For eight or nine hours, he said they spent most of their time together(27)." Soldiers are also praying that they will be able to return home from the war and show strong emotions for each other and their families. They begin to fell homesick and afraid something terrible has happened at home. The feeling of guilt and love become very strong during the

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    495 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is a novel dedicated to recounting the lives and existence of the soldiers during the Vietnam War. The author writes his novel in the form of a personal narrative written from the point of view of an infantryman during the war, with the purpose of relaying emotional and long-term impact both the tangible and intangible things had on the soldiers. By appealing to the reader’s emotions through the use of narrative, O’Brien is able to convey his purpose. In “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien utilizes multiple perspectives and events during the Vietnam War to illustrate the permanence of memories and emotional baggage the soldiers had to and still do carry with them. O’Brien uses personal anecdotes in his narrative to illustrate the significant impact of remembrance and memories on a person's life.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    412 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though some were beneficial in helping them return home, some were fatal distractions. The author Tim O’Brien shows us these items to help us identify who these men were and what they could not leave behind. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross brought letters that a woman named Martha whom he was infatuated with wrote for him. The two were not in a relationship but in Jimmy’s mind, they were. The letters he kept from Martha were not love letters but Jimmy had felt they were in a romantic relationship.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien Summary

    724 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried the pictures and letters from Martha as a way to remind himself what mattered to him and to get him through the war. O’brien described something that each soldier carried as a way to build their character for the readers to

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1423 Words  | 6 Pages

    Before going to war, one could not fathom the emotional and physical strain it has on the body and mind. Once these men have fought in battle, the reality they face is overwhelming. What the soldiers experience is indescribable to those who were not there to witness it. In order to cope many soldiers will distract themselves from the hard truth that sits in from of them. In “Love,” Jimmy Cross keeps his mind on his love for Martha and how she is in love with him and they will be together when he returns from Vietnam.

    Read More

  • American Soldiers In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    270 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, all of the characters are American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Each day, the soldiers are faced with traumatic situations, like the death of a fellow soldier. O’Brien repeats phrases/events to showcase the PTSD that all of the soldiers, including Jimmy Cross, obtain. The audience begins to see the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder the characters face, when the narrator continues to bring up the death of Ted Lavender, an American soldier. The narrator says, “But Ted Lavender [...] was shot and killed.”

    Read More

  • Guilt In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    645 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien explores how war affects the mental state of those involved. O’Brien uses the things the soldiers carried with them through the war as symbols of how they dealt with their grief and guilt. The author focuses on Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his attachment to his high school crush, using this obsession to showcase how some people cope with guilt by detaching themselves from their present situation. In addition, O'Brien uses shocking and detailed imagery to illustrate how the soldiers distracted themselves from their circumstances. O’Brien explores the theme that people carry guilt differently through his use of imagery and symbolism.

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1006 Words  | 5 Pages

    In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien discusses his experiences in the Vietnam War through fictionalized stories. Throughout his stories, he develops the idea that as a witness or soldier experiences the Vietnam War, they develop a new outlook on life. In the stories; “The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,”“Church,” and “Speaking of Courage” soldiers and other individuals involved in combat have gained a new perspective. For certain characters such as Mary Anne and Norman Bowker the Vietnam war had an extremely negative effect on them, whereas the character of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was positively affected as he was able to mature on the battlefield. The most tragic story of the novel is the transformation of Mary Anne from an innocent young

    Read More

  • Vietnam War In The Things They Carried 'By O' Brien

    156 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the short narrative “The Things They Carried’ by O’Brien Deputy Jimmy Cross of the Alpha party describes in contingent the affair the workforce in his company carries. For example, Lavender carry drugs and narcotics to keep him calm as possible from all that was going on. Other men they carried other items which can only fit their physical description needs. However, the story also relates to the account of the Vietnam War. All the men carry the emotional loading placed upon them on their backs by the war.

    Read More

  • Quotes From The Things They Carried

    995 Words  | 4 Pages

    War is a heavy topic for most soldiers as it brings back painful memories that they wish to eliminate from their minds. Most soldiers attempt to escape from reality because it is all they can do in a time of violence. The Things They Carry is a perfect example of this. This is a short story created by Tim O’Brien where First Lieutenant Jimmy cross, a soldier who is in love with a girl named Martha, is the type of man to focus on a false reality instead of what is occurring. However, this all changes when one of his men, Ted Lavender is killed by the Vietnamese.

    Read More

  • Unrequited Love In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Unrequited love can go hand in hand with romantic love and often does. In the first few chapters of The Things They Carried, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross talks about the love of his life who remains back home. He loves her with everything he has but she does not return the feelings. He loves her before he leaves for the war, he loves her during the war, and even loves her after the war. Unrequited love follows Jimmy Cross throughout the novel.

    Read More

  • A Brief Review Of The Things They Carried 'By Tim O' Brien

    252 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien lists everything a group of soldiers carried while they were serving overseas. In total, some variation of the word “carry” is used at least one hundred and nine times, and the narrator lists everything from weapons to different thoughts and mental conditions. Throughout the short story, the point of view changes, in order to fully explain the emotions that the soldiers are experiencing while at war. Most often, the story is told with the focus on Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his deep emotions for Martha. We see how the emotions he “carries” for Martha distract him and result in him allowing a member of his group to get shot.

    Read More

  • Repetition In The Things They Carried

    682 Words  | 3 Pages

    40% of the males in the baby boomer generation served in the Vietnam War, as seen in the New York Times article “The Baby Boomer War.” Many of these people came home from the war feeling responsible for the death of someone. In his novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien employs repetition to create the effect that almost all people involved in war feel guilty for someone’s death, even if it was beyond their control. The chapters “The Man I Killed”, “Ambush”, and “In the Field'' work together to produce this effect.

    Read More

  • Psychological Issues In The Things They Carried

    635 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author discusses the psychological issues soldiers, went through during the war and throughout the rest of their lives because of it. To begin with, the story starts by talking about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his love for Martha. Martha was a junior at college sending Cross letters of everyday activities she partook or events going on in her life and signed each letter ending with “Love, Martha” (O’ Brien1). Though Jimmy Cross knew she did not actually love him,

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    869 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lieutenant Cross is the best example of how responsibility is another emotional burden that the soldiers have to deal with. Cross is responsible for all the soldiers as stated above. Cross’s thoughts of Martha cause an unfortunate problem which is the death of Lavender and Cross must suffer and carry guilt with him because he allowed one of his men to die because he was thinking of Martha at the time. This makes Cross realize that he cares more about this faraway girl than he does his own men which is another example of the guilt that Cross has to carry with him. Since Cross let Lavender die on his watch and he felt responsible for his death Cross burns all the pictures and letters that Martha sent him.

    Read More

  • Soldiers In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    689 Words  | 3 Pages

    The soldiers in Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, were no different than any other soldiers in any other war. They carried rifles, comforters, and pictures of loved ones with them throughout the war. However, most soldiers carried emotional and mental burdens around with them too. Some of these soldiers include Lt. Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, and Rat Kiley. Other soldiers in the book also carried around mental and emotional burdens, but these men in particular, stuck out to me.

    Read More

More about The Vietnam War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Open Document