Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

Words: 1911
Pages: 8
Open Document
An individual reacts in a ruthless way to a chaotic environment to vent his or her feelings. Instead of finding a place to settle down, one becomes enraged and impatient easily for complex things under a disordered situation. However, when an individual is able to express his or her feelings, either good or bad, he or she is able to control the environment. Unleashing the feelings can help an individual cope with the chaotic environment because it serves as a healing process. O’Brien illustrates this idea and argues that in a war environment, soldiers become more violent because they have to face uncertainty, warfare and death every second. This idea can be explained in the example of Rat, who lost his best friend named Lemon in the war. Rat’s …show more content…
One’s character is constantly and subtly influenced by the states of his or her current situation. Hence, environment plays an important restrictive role in determining human nature. However, all the beautiful sentiments and expressions of humanity can be perfectly presented in a chaotic environment because the more chaotic situation one is in, the more likely he or she is going to pursue and yearn for a better life. Certainly, a chaotic environment does restrict human nature and behaviors because not everyone can surpass his or her situation. To illustrate this idea, Gladwell brings an example of the prison experiment, which assigns college student to play the roles of prisoners and guards, to explain how normal people conduct in response to a disordered situation. As one of the experimenters describes his behavior as “no matter how together I thought I was inside my head, my prisoner behavior was often less under my control than I realized” (Gladwell 158). When those students are under that chaotic situation, they subconsciously become much more like prisoners or guards. The prison environment is so powerful that it overwhelms their actual intentions. An individual’s original mind habits, internal cultivation, education, and social responsibility will briefly and unconsciously disappear at that moment because he or she cannot evade the great mental and physical impact from the chaotic situation. As a result, those actions that people conduct in response to their disordered situation define their true natures. However, under a chaotic environment, humans are not always powerless because if environment totally dictates human lives, people will live in a mess and their natures will be suppressed. O’Brien offers a different argument against Gladwell, and he claims that although a war environment is cruel for
Show More

Related Documents: Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

While dreams guide the narration of The Corpse Washer, the central motif in The Things They Carried is storytelling, with personal reflection by the author Tim O’Brien, seen through his own semi-autobiographical character, Tim O’Brien. Composed of short, fantastical stories that O’Brien repeats, changes, and claims are true only to later reveal they are false, reality is continually questioned in the text. Instead, O’Brien focuses on memory and fantasy, utilizing a number of different perspectives…

Words 1789 - Pages 8

Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

Tim O'Brien in “The Things They Carried” is a veteran from the Vietnam war that reveals how and what things were like over there with his friends Kiowa, Lt. Jimmy Cross, and Norman Bowker. The War started in 1955 and ended roughly 20 years later. Tim tells how he survived that traumatizing experience and reveals what gruesome things they faced out in another world where it rains water and mortars. He then talks about love and how to always cherish what you have because your life isn’t guaranteed…

Words 1116 - Pages 5

The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Literary Analysis

In the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien conveys colorful literary devices to illustrate the beliefs and values of the characters’ cultures. Many times throughout the book O’Brien finds ways to express the characters’ personalities without forgetting important details that will stick out to the readers. Some of the most prominent literary devices that reveal the character’s morals and values are vivid diction, detailed dialogue, and descriptive imagery. O’Brien utilizes literary…

Words 627 - Pages 3

Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Character Analysis

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells us not only about a war story, but about a love story all in one novel. Tim O’Brien, a young man, tells the story of how the day to day life is during the war for a soldier. O’Brien shares reality in what you need to do to remain sane throughout the war, if it is possible. O’Brien struggles throughout the novel to find himself but with the help of his fellow soldiers he makes it possible and finds more than just himself along the way. Tim O’Brien talks…

Words 586 - Pages 3

Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Chapter Analysis

Physical and emotional burden is shown throughout the book. The soldiers would carry more than a heavy physical item, they would hold emotional feelings like terror, composed of grief, love, and longing. For an example “He liked putting his nose into the nylon and breathing in the scent of his girlfriend’s body; he liked the memories this inspired; he sometimes slept with the stockings up against his face, the way an infant sleeps with a flannel blanket, secure and peaceful.” (Stockings/pg 111).…

Words 423 - Pages 2

TTTC Literary Analysis: The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

TTTC Literary Analysis Essay The Vietnam War was a conflict between the communist regime of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States from 1959 to 1975. Tim O’Brien, an American writer and a soldier at Vietnam, wrote the novel The Things They Carried. He writes about all of his experiences and stories in the battlefield. Moreover, this book how courage, cowardice, love, and hate can exist side by side within the soldiers and these are the things that keep the…

Words 918 - Pages 4

Lone Survivor's Takeaway: Every War Movie Is A Pro-War

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things they Carried, supported by Calum Marsh’s Lone Survivor’s Takeaway: Every War Movie Is a Pro-War,” O’Brien advocates for the beauty of war through defining his characters from a three-dimensional standpoint and entrolling the audience with in-depth action during the war. We first see O’Brien glorifying war through his in-depth analysis of the American heroes we follow throughout the war. What’s able to make a story more impactful to viewers is an interesting set of characters…

Words 754 - Pages 4