Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Words: 888
Pages: 4
Open Document
War is a topic that is particularly hard to understand without firsthand experience. All that the average person can learn about what it’s like to fight in war is through the stories of soldiers. However, these stories are not typically as glorious or exciting as one may believe. They are often tragic and inconclusive. Tragedies do not always have a lesson to be learned, and that is what Tim O’Brien is trying to express through his novel The Things They Carried. War stories are hard to tell because they have no morals or lessons. All they are is the experiences of boys who were forced to fight in a hopeless war. They are the only thing these soldiers have to show for their efforts, and O’Brien is no different. One of the earliest stories O’Brien …show more content…
As O’Brien tells it, Lemon and Kiley are messing around one day, as they normally do, and as Lemon walks out of the shade, he steps on an explosive trap that kills him. That’s all there is to it. There was no heroic self-sacrifice or glory, Curt Lemon only happened to step on an explosive. The purpose of O’Brien including this story was to prove a point: there is no morality in war stories. There was no reason Lemon had to die, but he died anyway, and those around him were forced to grieve and move on. Concerning Lemon’s death, O’Brien says, “It wasn’t a war story. It was a love story.” Rat Kiley, with no proper way to grieve, shot at a baby water buffalo and called Lemon’s sister a cooze for not responding to his heartfelt letter. He lost his best friend and had no one to blame. Even though it was a story that took place during the war, it wasn’t about the war. It was about love and loss and tragedy. There was no lesson to learn, and there was no happy ending. Even though there is typically no moral in war stories, that doesn’t mean soldiers won’t try to make them interesting. To make things entertaining for themselves, soldiers often exaggerate …show more content…
However, he later says that this didn’t happen as he first claimed at all and that he made the most of it. He says he does this because “I want you to feel what I feel. I want you to know why the story-truth is truer sometimes than the happening-truth.” O’Brien felt that his mere presence made him guilty of that man’s death. He didn’t kill him— he didn’t even know him— but he felt as if he did, and that is what he was trying to convey. That is what makes a war story so hard to tell; it’s difficult to make someone experience what was felt without bending the real truth. No one will be able to experience what those soldiers went through. Even Tim O’Brien, a phenomenal author, had to bend the truth to convey what he and his fellow soldiers felt. He has admitted that in numerous stories his retelling wasn’t the full truth, but at the same time, he was telling his truth. His goal wasn’t to find some hidden meaning through his writing, or to entertain his readers. Like Mitchell Sanders, he could’ve tried to hunt for one or tried to find some purpose for what he experienced, but he
Show More

Related Documents: Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

In 1990, The author Tim O'Brien wrote a book called "The Things They Carried" which was about a Vietnam war. It was the longest battle in U.S history. Since the U.S. couldn't get control of a South Vietnam and eventually North Vietnam took control of South Vietnam. The Vietnam war occurred in the year 1959 and ceased in the year 1975. There was a conflict between the U.S and communist government. The main idea of this war was to prevent the expansion of communism in Asia and Vietnam. The combat…

Words 244 - Pages 1

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien, Vietnam War veteran, perhaps more than any other author gives eloquent and contrary voice to American involvement in war. From his own experiences in Vietnam, O’ Brien wrote a series of anti-war theme novels, including his acclaimed 1987 short story “The Things They Carried,” considered one of the top 100 short stories of the twentieth century (e.g., John Updike and Katrina Kenison, eds., The Best American Short Stories of the Century, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999). In his…

Words 770 - Pages 4

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a short story that is semi-autobiographical account of O’Brien’s time as a soldier. The story is an account of a soldiers experience in the Vietnam war but because of O’Brien’s own history and talent for storytelling, we still talk about it today. They story relates directly to a soldier, but it connects with the very real and confusing emotions of attachment, young love, and loss too. To summarized, The Things They Carried is about a platoon of men who are…

Words 1325 - Pages 6

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

symbols about the things I carry throughout the poem, was not necessarily objects that I bring to school or have everywhere I go, but rather the things I carry from past experiences, and tied them to a physical object that I do own; in a sense working in reverse. I wanted to express how the burdens, experiences, and the emotions that I have experienced shape my identity. The structure of the poem is a series of reflections of different times of my life, or very different things, which I decided to…

Words 336 - Pages 2

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

is Beauty “The Things They Carried”, a series of short stories composed by Tim O’Brien, illustrates how the Vietnam War affects soldiers mentally through his incredible use of syntax and word choices. O’Brien brings to light the elements of beauty hidden behind the death of characters such as the boy he killed, Curt Lemon, and even the baby buffalo, to convey the various feelings and emotions brought upon during wars. Curt Lemon has one of the most beautifully depicted deaths in Tim O’Brien’s stories…

Words 499 - Pages 2

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

As I began reading “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, I started to believe that it was going to be about reuniting lovers, an once upon a time story. I wondered if his describing of Martha and how “he wanted Martha to love him as much as he loved her” would come up repeatedly in the story. However, as I began reading the rather extensive list of items such as “P-83 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, etc…,”(92) it appeared as if it was going to be a war story. I found myself questioning…

Words 347 - Pages 2

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

situation of the characters. Tim O’Brien writes his novels with numerous uses of metaphors, symbolism, and personification, all while telling different war stories that may or may not have been real. However, what evokes thought in the reader's mind is the specific choice to ask about their feelings and their thoughts as part of the book. How would they react to situations like these if they were put in the shoes of the soldiers? In the book, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien…

Words 1760 - Pages 8

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

careful the next time. So next time you're walking towards a door, you’ll make sure to check for a push or pull sign before humiliating yourself, or check the receiver's name of that text about your crush. Likewise, this occurs in Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried. Throughout the novel, O’Brien expresses that fear of indignity uncovers motivation in the soldiers of the Vietnam war of 1955. O’Brien…

Words 591 - Pages 3

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien intended, when writing The Things They Carried, to spread and raise awareness for the Vietnam war, and for those that fought in it. Although the story is historical fiction, it recounts Tim O’Brien’s personal experience being drafted and fighting in the Vietnam War. It gives insight into the personal lives of the fictional characters, and lets you step into their shoes. It also paints the picture of how one would look at the Vietnam War. Many people were not alive when the Vietnam war…

Words 444 - Pages 2

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

personal and professional understanding of Vietnam. As a language arts educator, I have an option to teach students about literature and experiences from a wide variety of places. One thing I do lack is personal experience in many of these places. For one particular novel, The Things They Carried by Minnesota local Tim O’Brien, students get to explore the Vietnamese jungles during the Vietnam conflict. For this reason, I am looking for the opportunity to explore the Vietnamese countryside and jungle…

Words 605 - Pages 3