The Weight Of War By Tim O Brien - 917 Words

The Weight of War â€Å"War is Hell!† These three words have stood the test of time and numerous wars. These words uttered by General William Sherman, a unionist Civil War Veteran, perfectly describe the hardships faced by all soldiers, from the American Revolutionist to the modern day soldier in Afghanistan. Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam Conflict from 1968 to 1970, (O’Brien 1131) during some of the most intense fighting known as the Tet Offensive (Durkin). During the conflict 58,202 Americans were killed in action (Durkin) and hundreds of thousands, more were left with not only the physical scars of war but the emotional ones too. In the short story â€Å"The Things They Carried,† Tim O’Brien uses symbolism and conflict to show that soldiers often carry more weight than what is on their backs. Each item we carry in our pockets and backpacks is symbolic to our personal beliefs, values, and attitudes. Tim O’Brien gives readers a look into each soldier’s beliefs, values, and attitudes by sharing what they were carrying with them. These items are symbols and give themselves more meaning than the item itself. (Madden 68). Most of the equipment the men were carrying were mission dependent and are things you would expect a soldier to carry; it’s the extra personal items they carry that really tell the readers about who that person really is. Jimmy cross carries 2 pictures of Martha, Henry Dobbins has pantyhose around his neck, Ted lavender carries marijuana and tranquilizers, Kiowa anShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Movie The Things They Carried 1734 Words   |  7 PagesThe Actual War Scenario - Vietnam War The Things They Carried, is a novel based on the Vietnam War, and the book reveals the truth of the war as the author remembers the war after twenty one years and snows his guilt and emotions for the war. The Things They Carried, belongs high on the list of the best fiction about any war... crystallizes the Vietnam experiences for everyone and exposes the nature of all war stories.( New York Times, Book of the Century). Tim O Brien, the authorRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1004 Words   |  5 Pages Tim O’Brien is a veteran from of the Vietnam War, and after coming home from his duty he decided to be a writer. His work â€Å"The Things They Carried† is about a group of soldiers that are fighting in the Vietnam War. The first part of the story talks mostly about physical items that each soldier carries, and also mentions the weight of the items as well. Though, there is one exception to the list of physical things. Lieutenant Cross is a character of the story, and Tim O’ Brien quickly states theRead More OBrien and Fossie in The Things They Carried Essay862 Words   |  4 PagesThe Things They Carried, both Tim O?Brien and Mark Fossie experience a significant amount of personal maturation by gaining new knowledge about themselves, the Vietnam War, and the world around them. There are very few times when a person goes through an experience that changes the way he or she thinks about themselves. Drastic things like war, deaths, and tragic incidents can change a person?s life and shape the way they live. In ?The Man I Killed,? Tim O?Brien describes his life changing eventRead MoreThe Man I Killed By Tim O Brien992 Words   |  4 PagesWar is known to be complex and confusing. It is also known to be completely chaotic and unpredictable. This is made clear in the short story The Man I Killed taken from Tim O Brien s war novel The Things They Carried. Set during the Vietnam war, American Soldier Tim O Brien is strongly affected by an unpredictable event. In The Man I Killed we consider how O Brien was heavily affected and shocked after killing a young Vietnamese soldier and the randomness of killing in war. We also take a lookRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1407 Words   |  6 Pagesin â€Å"The Things They Carried,† author Tim Oâ⠂¬â„¢Brien tells us not directly of the soldiers of Vietnam, or the situations they find themselves in, but about the things they carry on their shoulders and in their pockets. These â€Å"things† identify the characters and bring them to life.   I find that to be true as the author unfolds the stories about war and the uncommon things one carries in to war both inadvertently and on purpose.  Ã‚  Ã‚  As it was noted: Stories about war – especially today – usually emphasizeRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1459 Words   |  6 Pages1950’s, the Vietnam War turned to be the modern pinnacle for battles resulting in the deaths of 58,000 American soldiers and millions of Vietnamese death. It saw the viable destruction of modern technology such as the newly fashioned M-16 rifle and the Apache, a helicopter made for mass destruction. For the soldiers experiencing Vietnam, it was truly an experience which would shape their hearts and minds for ever. As evidenced in Tim O’ Brien’s The Things They Carried, The Vietnam War was an emotionalRead MoreReaction to The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien1706 Words   |  7 Pages In The Things They Carried, Tim O Brien uses a variety of stories to explain the life experiences that he and many of his fellow soldiers endured during a single year in Vietnam. He tells these stories in a way that we can connect to these experiences. We never spent time in Vietnam, but O Brien wants us to feel like we were there. O Brien uses what he calls story-truth to write these stories. The outcome or the people may be different but the feeling is real; that s the truth in the storyRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien Essay832 Words   |  4 Pagesinside, maintaining the masks of composure† (21). In Tim O’brien’s The Things They Carried, the American soldiers of the Vietnam War carry much more than the weight of their equipment, much more than souvenir s or good-luck charms or letters from home. They carried within themselves the intransitive burdens—of fear, of cowardice, of love, of loneliness, of anger, of confusion. Most of all, they carry the truth of what happened to them in the war—a truth that only those who fought in the jungles andRead MoreEssay On The Things They Carried1624 Words   |  7 PagesFor the seventeen Soldiers portrayed in â€Å"The Things We Carried† by Tim O’Brien, the physical pain was very minimal weight to carry compared to the emotional scars that they will carry throughout their entire life. This story does an amazing job portraying full human emotion that anyone put into a situation would feel, such as heavy guilt, sadness, anger, lack of motivation, perseverance, horror, and false security. All of these are notorious feelings that every soldier back in history, and now stillRead MoreAnalysis Of Tim O Brien s The Things They Carried Essay1574 Words   |  7 Pagesopposi ng parties. Today we re debating whether or not to ban â€Å"Tim O Brien s novel The Things They Carried. In this book author Tim O’Brien depicts the Vietnam conflict by distinguishing between the role of whether or not to be a civilian or a soldier. Though the book is fictional, Tim O’Brien portrays himself as a man who struggles with himself inside and his choice of wanting to join the army or turn tail and run to Canada. Tim O Brien has won the national book award, the james fenimore cooper