...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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... Tim O’Brien Readers familiar with details from O’Brien personal life find in this novel “links” between his art and his life. The New York Times selected the book The Things They Caried as one of the best works of war fiction for the year, and Chicago Tribute awarded the novel its Heartland Prize. According to O'Brien, in using these interrelated sections of facts, story, confession, commentary, and narration of other people's experiences, he forced himself to invent a new form that blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction, short story and novel, memory and imagination. Tim O’Brien, who describes himself as “strict realist”, who dismisses critics labels of “surrealist” or “magical realist”, but admit, that he is “war writer”. Tim O’Brien uses a mixture of facts and fictions (truth and reality) to reveal the complexities of war. Tim O’Brien mixes truth and fiction in his stories. O’Brien explores the way stories are told throughout his work . In his stories he demonstrate the way truth always seems to be around the next story. Tim O’Brien himself revised his stories. In his novel are revision, after revision of what could happened, what might have happened, what did happened and what did not happened. The things they carried as a complete work is different from reading the stories. O’Brien calls the book simply “A Work of Fiction” ...
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...was like. Tim O’Brien is one of the most popular when it comes to this. In his novel, The Things They Carried, questioning morality, O’Brien gives first hand narrations of stories which show the impact of the Vietnam War on society. Tim O’Brien’s life is filled with many wonders and success. O’Brien...
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...inside” (O'Brien 4). As the Alpha company of soldiers carries a handful of memories and along with them, The Things They Carried gives a reason behind each thing the soldiers carry. Some things may contain sentimental value, while others are for health and fighting purposes. The soldiers have to deal with death and learn to persevere through the hardships. The theme of The Things They Carried is the physical and emotional effects of being a soldier...
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...Creative title Tim O'Brien was drafted to Vietnam when he was only 18 years old, taken from his normal everyday college life and sent to a world no American had ever seen, a whole new world. Where in a place so deadly you're never sure when or how you’ll die. Tim O'Brien survived Vietnam, but at home he’s still battling what he thought he had left overseas. The memories still haunt him and many other of the men who made it home. His novel, The Things They Carried, describes Vietnam and all the things he encountered including the people he lost. Tim O’Brien is the author of The Things They Carried and 8 other books and short stories. O’Brien began writing these stories as a way to cope with all the leftover reminiscence of the things that happened...
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...thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do.” In The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien, A soldier recalls his Vietnam stories. Through storytelling and various other methods, he is able to remember what happened when he was younger. He tells the stories of all of his friends and the memories he created years back in the Vietnam war. An apparent theme during the storytelling is describing what his fellow comrades had with them while in Vietnam. Symbolism wafts through this book, for each thing that various characters represent who they truly are. Key characters like Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, and Kiowa are all symbolized who they are through the items these soldiers...
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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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...Tim O’Brien and The Effects of The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a horrific war that changed many people forever. Young men between eighteen and twenty-three years old were shipped off to a foreign land to fight in a war that they didn’t fully understand. Over the years, there have been many literary works about the Vietnam War, but none compare to the accuracy and brutal reality of Tim O’Brien’s works. Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” explores the hardships of the Vietnam War during combat, and his short stories “Speaking of Courage” and “Field Trip” show the after effects of the Vietnam War and how it changed people forever. Tim O’Brien is considered one of the only authors who portrays the Vietnam War exactly how it was. Through the use of tone and characterization, Tim O’Brien demonstrates a soldier’s constant fear of impending death, and the emotional toll of war. Tim O’Brien uses tone throughout is stories to show what the Vietnam War was like, and how it affected people. The tone in O’Brien’s short story, “Field Trip”, emphasizes the meaning of the trip and why the field is important. The whole purpose of the narrator’s trip to Vietnam is to get closure about Kiowa’s death. The narrator said, “I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d finally worked my way out” (Field Trip 736). By visiting the site where Kiowa died, some of the burden of his death is taken off the narrator’s conscience. The tone of the passage is shown when the...
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...What Soldiers Carried The soldiers from Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried all had to carry something during their service in the Vietnam War. O’Brien expresses these objects in his novel through the perspectives of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and himself, detailing their characters from what they carried both physically and symbolically. Initially, Jimmy Cross, the lieutenant of O’Brien’s company, brought with him memorabilia from a girl he loved named Martha and the responsibility of his men’s’ lives. He writes how Cross’s letters, “Were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping” and Martha who, “had found the pebble on the Jersey shoreline, where things came together but also separated.” Jimmy Cross, being extremely lovesick,...
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...upon to none Tim O’brien, A well-known Vietnam war veteran author, and 1977 national book of the year recipient, uses a notable and unusual style of 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...
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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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...themselves. This is the case for all the soldiers in Vietnam but specifically the Alpha Company of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. The soldiers in the company bond while serving in Vietnam. However, regardless of how close they become, they always have the inclination to never show fear or weakness and always attempt to maintain their reputations. The soldiers within The Things They Carried struggle to determine what is more important to them, their reputation or well being. This concept brings up the questions: How does Tim O’Brien depict the role of reputation within The Things They Carried and to what extent do the soldiers go to in order to...
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...name Professor English II April 27, 2014 Tim O’Brien: An American Novelist Tim O’brien is a great American novelist very known for many of his work. He has written many stories and novel’s which has made him very popular and won him many awards. Tim O’brien is very know for his books and stories but how does his past life influenced on much of his writing. Tim O’brien has gone through very tough times in his life which has greatly contributed to the ideas that are displayed in his work. The most important and most popular of his work was “the things they carried”. This was one of his most successful piece of work that skyrocketed his carrier as an author and writer, a successful story about the experience and atmosphere during World War II. Tim O’brien used his experience in combat to recreate a story of himself that goes into the smallest details about war and how it felt to be in it. Many of his other stories and novels that he has written as well talk about War and his experience in it. So what do we know exactly about him, the story that goes behind all his work. This is the story of a man who’s past has shaped his future. A man whose ideas shaped his life, his work, and his success. Tim O’Brien was born on October 1, 1946 in Austin Minessota. His father was was William Timothy O’Brien, a salesman. His mother was Ava Eleanor, a school teacher. Both of his parents served in the U.S Navy during the World War II. Tim O’Brien lived in Austin only to the age of nine. Later...
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...Shame, and Courage The Things They Carried Essay Fear; the controller. Shame; the feeling of guilt. Courage; the sound of a lion's roar. All feelings align together like a perfect puzzle piece. Tim O'Brien in The Things They Carried does an impeccable job conveying the cause and effect relationship between fear and courage, shame and courage, and fear and shame. In The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien continuously shows the reader how fear drives courage and sometimes leads to an unthinkable, but act in a courageous manner. The chapter Enemies portrays how if one feels enough shame, this shame will lead to a courageous act. “Because late that same night he borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it...
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...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 O’Brien uses in his novel is common and conversational language. “Sure, Norman...
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