ipl-logo

What Are The Themes In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

839 Words4 Pages

In the book, The Things They Carried written by Tim O’brien, after effects of war are one of the main themes. Not everyone makes it out of war alive and most who do come home never go back to who they were. The Things They Carried is a novel about the Vietnam war. This novel shows different soldiers' experiences but is narrated by Tim O’Brien and mainly talks about his experience with the war. In this novel, it touches the effect war has on soldiers during the war and how death was dealt with differently. Rat Kiley, Norman Bowker, and Tim O’Brien are not the only three characters but the ones whose experience with the war will be touched on and show how they dealt with the war after leaving and the reasons some of them left.
Looking at the first soldier, Bob, AKA “Rat” Kiley, was a war medic during the Vietnam war who had a trusting relationship with the narrator, Tim O’Brien. O’Brien …show more content…

Bowker had felt immense guilt for the Kiowa's death, in the chapter "Speaking of Courage” Bowker imagined how he would tell his father the story of his medals and how he almost won the silver medal but blew it when he let Kiowa sink into the muck. In “Speaking of Courage” Bowker is driving around the lake on the fourth of July in his father's Chevy where he realizes he has nowhere to go. He is reminiscing about his high school girlfriend, sally Kramer and the medals he earned while in the war but is still stuck on the silver star medal he almost got. In the next chapter, “Notes,” O’Brien says that “Speaking of Courage” was written at the request of Bowker. In this chapter it is revealed that Bowker had written a letter to O’Brien talking about how he couldn't find meaning in his life and how he wasn't able to keep a job or stay in school. Bowker struggled to fit in with society after the war and find a purpose and is what likely led to him hanging

Show More
Related

  • Synopsis Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    898 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hunter Berman Ms.Silver AP English P-4 6/7/2018 The things They Carried Historical Report The Things They Carried is a novel written by Tim O'Brien about U.S. soldiers stationed in Vietnam and their personal stories of what they literally and emotionally carry. He focus on what the soldiers have on their person and how each of those items have an effect on them for reason specific to them.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1676 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Things They Carried details a young naive man’s life that changes after being drafted into the Vietnam War. The author Tim O’Brien shares with us the many tragedies that are engraved in his memory. Throughout the book he tells stories about the lives(right) of the dead. As he writes the stories, he dreams about the dead, so in his mind they are alive and have returned back into the world. The reader can feel the struggle that Tim has in relieving the pain of losing these people.

    Read More

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

    542 Words  | 3 Pages

    All characters cope with different situations in their own ways. In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, his character cope with the effects of the Vietnam War differently. O’Brien’s character Mary Anne and Norman Bowker deal with the war the only ways they know how to. Various characters in O’Brien’s novel deal with the war and its repercussions that occur.

    Read More

  • Craftsmanship In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    672 Words  | 3 Pages

    His stories are not political, and he explains his intent is not to teach a lesson, “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done” (O’ Brien 65). Rather, O’Brien’s focus is centered on the characters’ lives, the relationships formed, and the how his friends and others reacted, responded and survived the war. O’Brien refrains from judgement, even when characters’ actions seem questionable. For example, when Rat Kiley, the platoon’s medic, shot himself in the foot in order to get medevaced, O’Brien depicts the situation honestly and

    Read More

  • The Themes In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    496 Words  | 2 Pages

    The physical damage and emotional depreciation that the characters go through in the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, support the themes of the story by showing the traumatic effects the soldiers endure as a result of the war. December 1, 1969, changed lives of many people because it was the date that renewed mandatory service. The US draft for Vietnam brought many young boys into new surroundings and sent them crawling with an invisible enemy. Their normal lives were forever changed. No longer surrounded by familiar faces, their new homes were now foxholes, forcing them to stay alert at all times.

    Read More

  • What Is The Theme Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    413 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’ Brien, the author conveys the theme that the burdens of war last a lifetime through the use of the literary element Characterization. The author conveys the theme primarily through the use of characterization. One example of this is on page 131 of the chapter entitled Ambush in which Tim O’Brien states, “When she was nine, my daughter Kathleen asked if I had killed anyone… It was a difficult moment but I did what I thought was right, which was to say, ‘Of course not,’ and then take her into my lap and hold her for a while.”

    Read More

  • Emotions In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    550 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tim O’Brien deals with hardship during the war and after the war. He has trouble coping with it, he uses writing as a way to heal himself. Tim O’Brien writes about the man he supposedly killed. “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was a star-shaped hole – “Think it over” Kiowa said. Then later he said, “Tim, it’s a war” – Then he said, “Maybe you better lie down a minute” ”

    Read More

  • Characters In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    550 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Things They Carried, a war novel, by Tim O’Brien author introduces many characters. Those characters show the bitterness pain and suffering of Vietnam War caused situation. For better picture of what does the war do to young people Tim O’Brien introduces some major and minor character. Showing how they are at first represented, what kind of change do they go through and how do they end up. Different angles of viewpoint are depicted by the fact that author not only uses men to show the evolution, but also women.

    Read More

  • Innocence In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    991 Words  | 4 Pages

    This word choice gives Bowker innocence and youthfulness. When he returns to America, he commits suicide. Bowker is nothing but a young and innocent boy. He constantly blames himself for the consequences of doing a simple childish thing such as showing off his girlfriend. Norman Bowker was a victim of the war because it changed a young and innocent boy into a depressed veteran.

    Read More

  • Burdens In The Things They Carried

    1385 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Things They Carried is a story about wartime Vietnam during the 1960s. The Vietnam War is arguably one of the most controversial wars that the United States has been involved in. Many people were against the United States' involvement in Vietnam and believed it wasn’t America’s fight. While many were against the war, the men involved in fighting this war drastically change because of their traumatic experiences during the war. The characters in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien were by no means different from real soldiers and their lives change profoundly by the physical things they carried with them during the war and the emotional burdens that soldiers carried with them for many years to follow their combat.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Article 'The Grunts' By David Woods

    696 Words  | 3 Pages

    (O’Brien 107). The quote was significant at the time that Tim O'Brian was attempting to talk to Norman Bowker about his guilt over the death of Kiowa and to stop him from believing that he needed to continue telling war stories after the war. The letter O'Brien received from Bowker vividly depicts his struggles with depression and traumatic events. This demonstrates how the author is attempting to deal with the traumatic events from his time serving in the Vietnam War. Because this was the first war that America lost and because it can be used to illustrate how people suffered, it demonstrates how difficult it is for soldiers to talk about their experiences.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried: An Analysis

    688 Words  | 3 Pages

    “That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war.

    Read More

  • Imagery In The Things They Carried

    543 Words  | 3 Pages

    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. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Chapter Analysis

    2016 Words  | 9 Pages

    The novel acts as a response to the era it discusses by solidifying the un-generalized version of war through fictional anecdotes of the narrator and characters (Reed 1). The emotional truth is never portrayed correctly through historic context or media while the author was able to reciprocate the sentiments of the soldiers through the graphic battles or actions written in this novel. 3. Factors that influenced the author to publish this novel was partly due to his way of coping after war, using stories to keep the imagination alive. Towards the end of the book, O'Brien revealed that

    Read More

  • Theme Of Carry In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    512 Words  | 3 Pages

    The soldiers also carry the burden of memory. They carry the memories of the people they have killed, the friends they have lost, and the experiences they have had. These memories are a constant presence, weighing on the soldiers' minds and affecting their behavior. O'Brien highlights the importance of memory in the chapter " Speaking of Courage," which focuses on Norman Bowker's struggles to adjust to life after the war.

    Read More

More about What Are The Themes In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Open Document