Symbolism In The Things They Carried

Words: 566
Pages: 3
Open Document
War Scar

Wars start at anytime when people want to start, but wars do not stop as people wish to stop. The short story, “The Things They Carried” by William Timothy O’Brien, sufficiently depicts some veterans’ expectation for peace and their disappointment after the Vietnam War. The protagonist, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his men challenged their moral limited to survive in the war. However, they have to face more difficult situation to enter the peaceful life, even though a peaceful life is a common motivation to wait war’s ending. Along with veterans’ hopefulness and hopelessness, Tim O’Brien uses symbolism to demonstrate that there will be a day, which becomes peace; however, the people who suffered the wars cannot back the peace again. …show more content…
In the first chapter, the first girl named Martha appears, and she as a friend wrote some letters to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. “They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack.” (Tim, 10) Soldiers only take the most important thing in their rucksacks everyday. Based on this description to this relationship, it clearly see that how important these letters from his unrequited girl are. Although he knew that the letters were not love letters, he hoped or pretended that it was. Tim set this scenery to strongly illustrate a real behavior of solider that they extremely expect there is a person still misses them in another side of the world. However, after a long time of grumbling, among the men, included Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, are not able to be hopeful all the time. “...But Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead. He would dispense with love; it was not now a factor.” (Tim, 26) The change of attitude to love indirectly reflects how dangerous wars are because it pushes the men into the desperation. The war mostly always deprives all of hope from people until people have nothing
Show More

Related Documents: Symbolism In The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried Symbolism Essay

Riddled with symbolism, the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is able to form a dense and intricate meaning to the work. Tim O’Brien creates everything in the novel a symbol; its structure, plot and characters within it all represent different ideas and concepts that adapt to different themes in the play. An important symbol O’Brien employs is that of a young girl, Mary Anne who was a soldier’s girlfriend. This girl, is said to have come visit the soldier in Vietnam. Although its unrealistic…

Words 476 - Pages 2

Symbolism in "The Things They Carried" Essay

A. Park The Things They Carried The symbols in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” are essential to understanding the soldiers and their lives during the Vietnam War. At the opening of the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross would dig into his foxhole and read the letters while imagining romance with Martha; however, at the end of the story after the death of Ted Lavender, he “crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters” (402). The inner feelings of Cross would be mistakenly…

Words 1107 - Pages 5

Symbolism In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

In the book The Things They Carried the Author usse of symbolism rather than fact to build up the topic. This an autobiographical narrative this way the setting is real. The story is discussed by Author Tim Obien and demonstrates to the reader a major aspect of Vietnam before and after war. this is represented from the writer's point of view, he is the character Tim O Brien and he is telling the story.After the war, Obrien describes how as Norman drives around the lake he sees things similar to what…

Words 437 - Pages 2

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Character Analysis

The Inconspicuous Life of a Soldier Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person perspective about life in the army, during the time of war. While marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions, he also records their hardships and struggles. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of metaphors, symbolism, and repetition to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers…

Words 907 - Pages 4

Essay about Tim O'Brien 2009 English Mr Phelt Jones

famous The Things They Carried, he vividly illustrated to the world the emotional and physical struggle young conscripts like him faced in the war (1793). The short story The Things They Carried uses a great deal of symbolism in order to express the voice of young soldiers. After opening up about a platoon leader’s infatuation to a college girl back home, the story goes into a list regarding the physical equipment and necessities each man must lug along. O’Brien uses this kind of symbolism to indirectly…

Words 1239 - Pages 5

The Things They Carried: A Theoretical Analysis

situation, kill or be killed. After his experiences in Vietnam, Tim O’Brien published his book The Things They Carried in 1990, a riveting, remorseful work of fiction that illustrated the horrors of war. In 2012, Chris Kyle published his novel American Sniper after his tour of duty in Iraq, a dedicated, aggressive memoir that depicts the war as a necessary evil. While The Things They Carried uses symbolism and point of view to describe the feelings of the soldiers fighting a war they hate, an excerpt…

Words 334 - Pages 2

They Things TheyCarried Essay

Guthrey EN 160 Lit & Comp 6 March 2014 Within the short story “The Things They Carried” the author, Tim O’Brien, recounts the experiences he had during the Vietnam War through the eyes of his fellow soldiers. Throughout the story O’Brien also describes the personalities of each one of his comrades, but without using any direct statements. He describes them through the art of symbolism. All the items listed in “The Things They Carried” are directly correlated to the characterization and overall nature…

Words 1155 - Pages 5

Theme Of Loss Of Innocence In Lord Of The Flies

of Lord of the Flies, Golding makes a statement about the loss of innocence revealed through the symbolism of the mob mentality and killing other innocent kids in the “game.” For example, Jack and the other kids jump on Robert and “[a]ll at once Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy. Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing the knife” (114). This quote shows the symbolism of the mob mentality because Jack is waving his knife over Robert and he would never do this by himself…

Words 302 - Pages 2

What Does The Slaughterhouse Symbolize

In The Things They Carried there was many types of symbolism. One type of symbolism is the slaughterhouse. It symbolized that the war was a slaughter. It gives a sense of thought of what they had to do to get through the war. If they came into contact with the enemy they had to slaughter them like in a slaughterhouse. When Tim O’Brien got back from the war years later he went back to the sewage field. He told his daughter it was a vacation trip. In reality it was for him to go back to where Kiowa…

Words 374 - Pages 2

My Childhood Memories: My Black Painted Eastpak Book Bag

Memory over Things My memories are filled with things or objects from my childhood that have emotional importance. When I was young, my mother used to send me lot of things from the United States of America. Some of those things were very useful and some of them were not, but that all depended on how important I considered them. It could have been just basic things that any children did not care about but to me it meant the world, or it could have been something every child wanted, but to me it…

Words 1303 - Pages 6