Valor And Heroes In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Andrew Carnegie was a hero in some people 's eyes , not so much in others . That’s why everyone has their own opinion. In this essay you will read one reason someone might think he’s a hero , and two reasons why he is not a hero for the rest of the people. What that means is that this paper mostly leans on that Andrew Carnegie is not a hero and you will read why .

If I Die in a Combat Zone, depicts a soldier’s internal battle whether to enter the war or to

Heroes put others before themselves and will do anything to ensure that thing’s safety. Many people have either risked their lives or have loss their lives due to trying to save others. An example of this would be the man in the red bandana or Welles Crowther. Crowther was working in the twin towers as planes were crashing into them. Crowther could have ran away from the other people when the planes hit, but he chose not to spare himself, but to save others and sacrifice his own life. In the documentary, The Man in the Red Bandana, which talks about a common hero who gave up his life to save others, it states,” Instinct grabbed him and he immediately tried to save lives.’’ This quote shows how Crowther, by nature, helps people. Also how he

Tim O’Brien never lies. While we realise at the end of the book that Kiowa, Mitchell Sanders and Rat Kiley are all fictional characters, O’Brien is actually trying to tell us that there is a lot more truth hidden in these imagined characters than we think. This suggests that the experiences he went through were so traumatic, the only way to describe it was through the projection of fictional characters. O’Brien explores the relationship between war experiences and storytelling by blurring the lines between truth and fiction. While storytelling can change and shape a reader’s opinions and perspective, it might also be the closest in helping O’Brien cope with the complexity of war experiences, where the concepts like moral and immorality are being distorted. “How to Tell a True War Story” and “Ambush” are stories that both explore on topics: truth, the real definition of a true war story, and the role of truth.

Is Odysseus a hero or a villain? In my eyes he is a hero struggling to do the best he can but often finds things don't always go as planned. One of the many reasons I believe this is because he shows that he cares for his comrades. He tried at great measures to help his men return home to Ithaca alive. When he faced the Cyclops he stabbed his eye, so the men could get away.The crewmen then escape the cyclops's cave by riding under the bellies of the cyclops's rams as Odysseus even ties each and every one of them to a ram by himself. Another example of him showing care towards his comrades was when Odysseus warns his crewmen of the potential dangers that awaits them if they happen to harm the cattle of Helios the Sun God. So those are just a few instances in the story where he shows compassion for his comrades and truly cares about them.

What makes a hero a hero? There are many traits one can have which would be described heroic. It can be their selflessness, bravery, intelligence, or even courage. In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible many of these traits are expressed through many different characters. One attribute that really stands out in the play is courage. The heroic trait of courage is seen throughout the play in many different characters.

The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam.

The men who served in the Vietnam War were just barely men, some of them were just hitting the age twenty. It was the draft which brought these boys into the fight involuntarily, to fight a war which they saw no meaning in. Many of these boys are the sons of veterans who fought in World War II, that came home to parades and were held up like heroes for fighting. Honorary men of the country and the soldiers fighting for Vietnam did not want to disappoint them. Thus, when O’Brien mentions in the quote, valor was not the point, he is trying to explain to the reader that the men went like it was a job they had to do, not a random act of courage that willed them to proceed. The draft pulled them into it. They did not want to dishonor their fathers, their country and society who told them fighting is honorable. In “The Things They Carried,” it was this ‘dishonor’ that had lead them to enter the war, it was “nothing

However, heroism can take place in our everyday lives by simple brave actions. A hero has many noble qualities such as courage, humility, patience, being selfless and caring. They will put other people before themselves and make sure others are content. Heros are also intelligent and like to think ahead to plan on a good result.

Joseph Campbell once said, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Being a hero doesn’t mean being “super”, it means having the courage to run towards danger when everybody else is running away from it. Heroism is the courage, the bravery to risk his/her life in order to save somebody else’s.

Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

The theme and his life experience are relatable because his experiences of war is what the theme is telling us readers, that war isn’t a friendly experience and sometimes a lie can better the truth of a war story. Within the article “Voicing Vietnam” it states, “ Tim O’Brien, who two decades earlier was a soldier in Vietnam. His account of what happened — amid the hamlets and forests of the Batangan Peninsula and in other areas of operation — to him and the other members of his platoon is punctuated by rueful, sometimes anguished reflections on the elusiveness of meaning and the fraught relationship between truth and invention.” Throughout the novel, there are different stories for each chapter that are all based upon being at war, however each story that is told are about different results that occur within the soldier's emotional state and also how each cope with their fellow soldier’s death. What O’Brien does to these stories that aren’t real, he continues to do small twists

Different voices and tones depict the various ways that characters in a novel suffer. Julia Alvarez, Tim O’Brien, Zainab Salbi, and Sebastian Junger illustrate the hardship of war, and how a war participant is shaped by the concept of war. All four authors/lecturers present a different perspective on war; however the four authors/lecturers are cohesive with the idea of war being complex. In Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, Alvarez parallels a historical event with fictional sisters who fight a war by not succumbing to the suppressive laws. Likewise, throughout his biography about himself as a fictional character, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried depicts O’Brien’s stories and tales of war, and how everything one hears about

America’s war heroes all have the same stories to tell but different tales. Prescribed with the same coloring page to fill in, and use their methods and colors to bring the image to life. This is the writing style and tactic used by Tim O’Brien in his novel, “The Things They Carried”. Steven Kaplan’s short story criticism, The Undying Certainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, provides the audience with an understanding of O’Brien’s techniques used to share “true war” stories of the Vietnam War. Kaplan explains the multitude of stories shared in each of the individual characters, narration and concepts derived from their personal experiences while serving active combat duty during the Vietnam War,

society's beliefs, regulations, and restrictions. There are heroes for both men and women of all ages. Every society has their own heroes, whether they are heroes because of their wealth, political career, war triumphs, athletic achievements or social leads.