Violence In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Have you ever been walking down the hallway at school, or any public place, and you just so happen to hear a curse word, or maybe see someone fighting? It draws you in. Your attention is no longer toward you walking. This happens as well when reading a book, most people are not used to seeing violence or profanity in books. Then when you do, you become more engaged with the story. In the novel, “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, it contains violence and profanity that adequately makes the novel more authentic and appealing to the reader.

Profanity has an effect like no other. In the novel, O’Brien does well at using curse words to make the story more interesting. It’s known for being the book of cursing. For example, on page 125, “Oh

It’s a book about war, what do you expect. O’Brien uses different scenarios where violence is portrayed. For example, on page 118, O’Brien is explaining how the man he shot was presented. “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…” he goes on an on, on how gorey the scene was. O’Brien goes on to include events that happened to himself. “Like I was losing myself, everything spilling out. I remembered how the bullet had made a soft puffing noise inside me. I remembered lying there for a while, while listening to the river, the gunfire and voices…” (203 O’Brien) These incidents are genuine. They really happened. There is almost a feel like you were present at that time, in the war, watching O’Brien lay there. In a New York Times Article, “In Vietnam, Turning a Camera on the War”, James Hill wrote up about a foreign photographer named, Horst Faas, in Vietnam. Fass was front row in the violence. Capturing moments that you could say O’Brien is trying to portray in his writing. Interviews of veterans can bring the war to life as well, in a video “Vietnam War 12of12 Combat Veteran Interviews”, a man describes his experiences in the war. He explains all the violence and bloodshed he endured. Watching things like this could better your understanding on why explaining what happened, and all the fighting is significant. In another instance, O’Brien