Laos

The Things They Carried Essay In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the soldiers carried many things during the war that were linked to the person they were. The story takes place in 1960’s during the Vietnam war, and is a collection of short stories by Tim O’Brien who was drafted into the war in his early twenties. The book is based on events and emotions that affected him during the war, and in the first chapter he writes about all of the things that the men carried in Vietnam.…

The Things They Carried is a fictional account of the nature of men during the Vietnam War. The power of the novel comes from the blurring of the line between fiction and non-fiction. O’Brien used his actual memoir as a Vietnam soldier with a collection of what appears to be fictional short stories that he attributed to the members of his platoon. This style of writing shows that sometimes a person 's subjective thoughts and feelings about an event, which O 'Brien calls story-truth, is more…

In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien writes about his experience during the Vietnam War. Many of these stories are what he can or cannot remember. An interesting approach the author takes is whether or not a story has happened or if he imagined what happened and then later on reveals the truth to some of them. As the readers, we may or may never find out if certain stories are true or not which causes the reader to become indulged in the selections of the chapters. Throughout the…

“Over 20 years, more than 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam and more than 150,000 wounded, not to mention the emotional toll the war took on American culture.” (Blake 1 ) In Tim O’Brien’s novel “The Things They Carried” death was a daily occurrence, on both the American and the Vietnamese side. O’Brien writes about the function of memory, traditions of war literature and the difference between Tim as a soldier and Tim as a writer. Tim O 'Brien 's novel “The Things They Carried” is…

One response was to "call [death] by other names (21)." "If it isn't human, it doesn't matter much if it's dead . . . a VC nurse, fired by napalm, was a crisp critter. A Vietnamese baby, which lay nearby, was a roasted peanut (238-239)." This detachment made death easier to handle. Furthering the illusion that the dead were not really people, the men would interact with the corpses on a very dehumanizing level. For example, there was a corpse of an old man in a small town. "Dave Jensen went over…

Not very many books and short stories have figured out how to elucidate, in any enduring procedure, the method for the war in Vietnam for America and for the troopers who served there. With ' 'The Things They Carried, ' ' creator (Tim O 'Brien), catches the war 's beating rhythms and attempting threats. Be that as it may he goes plentiful any. By moving to the far side the ghastliness of the battling to take a gander at with affectability and knowledge the character of friendship, valor and…

Careful analysis of Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” and Harold Moore’s and Joseph Galloway’s “We Were Soldiers Once… And Young” reveals two markedly different portrayals of the United States’ army during the Vietnam War. This change mirrors the dwindling optimism of the American people from Moore and Galloway’s account of the 1965 Battle of la Drang and O’Brien’s more comprehensive account of the later stages of the war and post-war period. While O’Brien, Moore, and Galloway all served…

Harbaugh’s Veteran Stereotype In a commentary aired on National Public air, navy pilot veteran, Ken Harbaugh argues about the stereotypes of “damaged” veterans. He speaks about how veterans are portrayed through the media in a negative light, that in terms, is not always true. Harbaugh does this by comparing and contrasting, “damaged” veteran stereotypes, to how veterans really are outside of combat. He mentions several statistical studies, and how media influenced stereotypes corresponds…

Sometimes a mask is easier to put on when the alternative is to be a coward. Tim O'Brien, in his short story "The Things They Carried," pieces together what several soldiers experienced during the Vietnam war. Through the narrator, Tim O'Brien, the reader encounters his hatred of the war. In a passage within "The Things They Carried," O'Brien pursues the theme of masculinity by using simile, anaphora, and personification as figurative language, religious and moral symbolism, colloquial diction,…

In Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Facing It,” he writes about his poignant experience visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in a way that suggests he is perhaps regretful of his time as a soldier and remorseful as a survivor. Komunyakaa explains to the readers the inner workings of his brain and how permanent war is not only in his mind but in the reality of the death toll. In order to accomplish giving a detailed and understandable explanation to the audience, Komunyakaa uses techniques such as…