...“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he describes war, memory, and imagination through the coping mechanism of storytelling. He incorporates heavy symbolism in order to present his audience with the realities of war. For instance, the character Kiowa in O’Brien’s novel carried many symbolic things, both physical and abstract. O’Brien’s inclusion of physical items the soldiers carried served as an opportunity to reflect upon their individual attributes. The things Kiowa carried are indicated in the quote, “…a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament.” Being a dedicated participant in this religion, it is no surprise that Kiowa carries a Bible. O’Brien includes the details of this tangible object to symbolize the less...
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...It’s Not Just Physical: The Things They Carried Through Vietnam Soldiers of the Vietnam War marched miles and miles through the humid broiling forests of Vietnam. So the question every soldier asks themselves is, to hump or not to hump, though maybe not in those exact words. As Tim O’Brien so eloquently puts it in his novel, The Things They Carried, “To carry something was to hump it” (O’Brien 3). Already carrying twelve to eighteen pounds of necessities, an item must be of great significance for a soldier to lug the extra weight. Ted Lavender carried six to seven ounces of “premium dope” and an extra twenty pounds of ammunition, Kiowa carried an illustrated New Testament, and Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose wrapped around...
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...children and excitement to the elderly. An example of fiction filling in the gaps of history can be found in the selections of Fences, Of Mice And Men, The Things They Carried, and Night. Which these books filled in the gaps by using symbolism, exaggeration, and the act of just making things up, to just get their theme and point across to the reader. The definition of a symbol is a representation of something. Fictional books fill the gaps by using symbolism. For example, in the book Night by Elie Wiesel, there were many factors of symbolism throughout the book, but the main one would be the title itself. Night was about a young kid named Eli, that went through a horrifying experience that he will never forget due to the Holocaust. The title relates by being the darkest moment of his...
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...My Thought on O’Brien’s Writing Style Authors always have specific writing styles to attract and influence their readers. In the novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses selected diverse writing techniques to support what he intently wrote. In my opinion, these techniques are very immediate and compelling for his readers as well as are essential to support non-fiction writers’ styles. Tim O’Brien uses symbolism, common language, and fiction writing in his novel for the purpose of showing his readers the big picture of US soldiers in the Vietnam War. For one thing, symbolism is a technique that uses a word, a phrase, or a description in order to represent a deeper meaning than the words themselves. In the first chapter of The Things They Carried, the author states, “Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha,” ‘Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers, 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope” “Norman Bowker carried a diary. Rat Kiley carried comic books. Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament.” By listing the daily-using things the soldiers carried, the author not only indicates the soldiers’ characteristics but also implies unseen things as the love of Jimmy Cross for Martha, the fears of facing the unknown dangers from the mysterious land. By using of this technique, O’Brien can put messages behind the certain words so that his readers can actually understand what are being implied. Relate back to the thesis. Another technique...
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...O’brien’s Writing Style In: English and Literature O’brien’s Writing Style My Thought on O’Brien’s Writing Style Authors always have specific writing styles to attract and influence their readers. In the novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses selected diverse writing techniques to support what he intently wrote. In my opinion, these techniques are very immediate and compelling for his readers as well as are essential to support non-fiction writers’ styles. Tim O’Brien uses symbolism, common language, and fiction writing in his novel for the purpose of showing his readers the big picture of US soldiers in the Vietnam War. For one thing, symbolism is a technique that uses a word, a phrase, or a description in order to represent a deeper meaning than the words themselves. In the first chapter of The Things They Carried, the author states, “Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha,” ‘Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers, 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope” “Norman Bowker carried a diary. Rat Kiley carried comic books. Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament.” By listing the daily-using things the soldiers carried, the author not only indicates the soldiers’ characteristics but also implies unseen things as the love of Jimmy Cross for Martha, the fears of facing the unknown dangers from the mysterious land. By using of this technique, O’Brien can put messages behind the certain words so that his readers can actually understand...
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...The passage from ‘The Things They Carried’ is primarily focused on a dream regarding escape from the war. The passage is comprised of two solid blocks of prose including one enormous sentence with unconventional punctuation. Symbolism is used to great effect in the prose with special emphasis on falling and birds. O’Brien employs various literary techniques to create a giddy, dreamlike tone in the passage. Powerful themes are presented includingthe desire of release and the inability to rid oneself of blame.The passage gives insight into the pure and innocent psyches of the soldiers which are normally hidden through gruff exteriors. The structure of the passage is set as two almost solid paragraphs with very little form and shape. This physical density allows the reader to appreciate the immensity of the prose and becomeengrossed in the flowing movement of it.The initial paragraph is broken in the centre by an italicised sentence which deviates from the informal flowing style used previously to a coarse colloquial one. This serves to give the piece a sense of balance and symmetry while also reminding the reader that even in this ethereal vision the soldiers are still very much human. Partway through the initial paragraph one unusually large sentence begins making up the bulk of the passage. This creates a graceful, fluid tone that contributes to the dreamlike feel of the prose. This is enhanced by frequent use of dashes and commas which give the reader respite while not...
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...Quantavius Thornwell Kimberly Covington English 101 10-15-14 The Diverse Symbolism in “A Raisin in the Sun” Symbolism is a powerful tool. Throughout the play “A Raisin in the Sun” multiple types of symbolism are clearly shown. Lorraine Hansberry did a wonderful job of allowing the different types of symbols to be seen. She used symbols through people and objects to get certain points across. She is smart in her use of symbolism because she is able to get a feeling of the time period in which they are in, from certain objects that represent something else. The use of symbolism is very important and it helps the reader get a more detail sense of the issue, problem, or event that is occurring. The first use of symbolism is the plant in which Mama takes care of. The plant represents many things but the most obvious example is that the plant represents the family. Mama knows if she continues to deep nurture and care for the plant then the plant will survive through the living condition it is in. “Lord, if this little old plant don’t get more sun than it’s been getting it ain’t never going to see spring again.” In this quote, Mama explains that the plant is dying because the sun is not shining on it and no sun is shining on the Younger family either. She never gives up on the plant and puts great hope and care towards it. The way she treats the plant is the same way she treats here family in their fragile and rough living condition they are surviving in. At the end when all...
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...“The black crow stares at me with death in his eyes,” would be a good example of symbolism. Symbolism is the use of symbols, like the crow, to represent ideas, like death. Crows are seen as a sign of death to some. Symbolism is used in everyday life, from literature to even when we talk. The story “Once Upon a Time” written by Nadine gordimer had good use of symbolism. In the story, a wealthy family lived in a very poor and angered place. They were worried about the safety of their little boy so they decided to have a wall put up to protect themselves. In the end though, the wall didn’t protect them. An excerpt from the book, ”He dragged a ladder to the wall, the shining coiled tunnel was just wide enough for his little body to creep in, and with the first fixing of its razor teeth in his knees and hands and head he screamed and struggled deeper into its tangles……Then the man and his wife burst wildly into the garden…….the alarms screamed while the bleeding mass of the little boy was hacked out of the security coil with...
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...SUMMER ESSAY PROMPT 2 - “THE THING THEY CARRIED” What was once a peaceful Vietnamese rice field had become a death bed for many people. Two teenage boys huddled behind a small bush, holding their breath as the ground surrounding them exploded. They heard a scream from the commotion that lied in front of the leaves that masked them. Desperate, the boys looked at each other for they knew it was a fellow comrade who was in trouble. Grasping their rifles, they charged from behind the bush into the front lines of the war… a war they were forced and drafted into…. a war they which they could not find the meaning for. Such a story was faced by many soldiers during the Vietnam War, as they attempted to understand the destruction that lay amongst them in the small Asian country. Often, they searched for a symbol that would explain what they were doing there. In Tim O’Brien’s book, “The Things They Carried”, the author,...
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...In "The Things They Carried", the men carried many physical things but weighing even heavier were the experiences the men were forced were to go through. Tim O'Brien, the author, used many different items and situations in his book to symbolize how the war effected him and the soldiers he fought along side of. In chapter four, On the Rainy River, Tim O'Brien tells us how he runs to a little place outside of Canada and meets an old man who discreetly helps O'Brien make his decision to or not to dodge the draft. This story symbolizes that he is being forced to fight a war he does not believe in. O'Brien says "I was drafted to fight a war I hated," (O'Brien, 39). He tells us that he doesn't believe in the war but yet, he was forced to fight and be apart of it. O'Brien feared being ridiculed if he dodged the war but he also didn't want to be critiqued as a...
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...writing throughout his career as he in a sort disparages the the U.S in some ways, but mostly about going to the Vietnam War, and how America is doing unnecessary things. Born in Michigan, O'Brien thought many times to flee to Canada, to escape the draft that changed his life forever. Instead of leaving he was a “coward,” and was taken by the army, and learned many things about life, how to live it, what life is worth, in what a real soldier is. His use of blunt and sometimes extremely elaborate detail to immerse the reader in the experiences he had to push through, but to also go straight to the point and not “fluff up” the story like America does. O'Brien's unique style of objection of truth to storytelling has a great impact in the readers mind, because he is portraying his life experiences back to the reader in such a human like an emotional way that sometimes he substitutes other characters projects as his emotional or physical burdens. Tim O'Brien a Vietnam War veteran whose purpose is to address the misconceptions of war and illustrate the gruesome fax of how war really is, all using his own life experiences and his works and we a rating with the emotional and physical burdens at the soldiers carry both emotionally and physically. In almost every single one of his novels including The things they carried and The lake in the woods, O'Brien goes into an incredible amount of detail all events, with even more elaborating on the characters despite being in the whole book...
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...Tim O’Brien uses rhetorical devices throughout The Things They Carried to bring together a correlation between fear of failure, shame of not owning up to their full potential and courageous actions. Tim O’Brien uses constant repetition, precise syntax and symbolism throughout the chapter “On the Rainy River” in The Things They Carried to show the interconnection between fear, shame, and courage. Fear of shame motivates the soldiers to show acts of courage. O’Brien rhetorically uses the repetition of questions and the to show the feeling of being ashamed to not fight in the war therefore, showing courageous actions. “ Was it a civil war? A war of national liberation or simple aggression? Who started it, and when, and why?”(38) Tim O’Brien...
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...Interpretation means everything. Someone may say a song is great while another will say that it was awful. It is human nature to what to interpret things. The confederate flag is a part of American history. The way the flag is interpreted is different for different people. For some it represents states freedom, natural rights, and heritage. The confederate flag should not have been taken down at the Elizabethtown fair. The Elizabethtown fair takes place in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; at the fair this year two vendors were selling confederate flags. They were asked to stop selling the flags by fair security; both vendors stopped selling the flag. Firstly, banning the confederate flag is against the first amendment. “The First Amendment...
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...In Shirley Jacksons, ‘’The Lottery’’ creates a story that’s filled with symbolism, dramatic irony. Born in 1919 Shirley Jackson was an American author who wrote countless stories one better than the next but her most famous story is ‘’The Lottery’’ written in 1948 for new Yorker magazine the story offended readers because of how it suggested that evil could be carried out so easily and that stoning was a pointless and a violent sacrifice many of them cancelled their subscriptions because of how offensive the story was. Jackson’s use of irony and symbolism is brilliant and it is seen in all her stories. The use of symbolism is very present throughout the whole story. Which has different types of symbols with different types of meanings. Like For example, the representation of the stool that they use to put the black box on or even the black box itself. in “The Lottery’’Shirley Jackson wrote, "...
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...Thesis statement: The result of human folly is shown in both stories, which contain similarities and differences through the elements of themes, symbolism, and characterization. I. Theme A. Preservation of history B. Destruction of history II. Symbolism A. Black box - Symbol of the way things have always been, and the way people settle into doing things the way they were taught rather than thinking for themselves B. House - Symbol of the way things have always been, there is always an upper class, there is always corruption III. Characterization A. Tessie 1. Jokes around, vocal about opinions 2. Backed by feeling of injustice B. Trevor 1. Quiet, withdrawn, appears indifferent, schemes on his own 2. Backed by feelings of bitterness Both “The Destructors,” by Graham Greene, and “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson offer insight to the limited wisdom of man, as well as his stubbornness and sin nature. When man is left to his own devices and limited knowledge, destruction is sure to follow. The result of human folly is shown in both stories, which contain similarities and differences through the elements of theme, symbolism, and characterization. Although in both stories the prevailing theme is that of established history, one sets out to destroy history and the other seeks to change it for the better. Steve Maraboli stated, “Letting go means to come to the realization that some people...
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