The Things They Carried

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried portray heartbreakingly candid representations of what it means to be a man or woman in society unlike any other novels one might read in their high school career. Both texts delineate the delicate relationships between men and women. O’Brien paints how toxic masculinity perverts men’s ability to have meaningful relationships with women while Morrison illustrates the demonization of maturity in women. Morrison and O’Brien…

in particular. Those brutal incidents that make it to the pages of the book are significant to the message that the writer wishes to present to the reader. This violence is not always limited to battles. One particularly vicious scene in The Things They Carried is when Curt Lemon is killed and in retaliation, Rat Kiley, his best friend, viciously kills a baby water buffalo (75-76). Regardless of the fact that this novel is essentially a war story, these moments are pivotal and further develop…

veterans suffer from harsh psychological effects such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many young men come back with an unusual thought perspective that can make their loved ones nervous. Tim O’Brien exemplifies this in his short story “The Things They Carried” about a young man named Lieutenant Cross who was drafted into the Vietnam War. This immature soldier becomes infatuated with a woman named Martha; however, after his indulgence in fantasies, he finds himself in a devastating situation.…

or maybe it’s fresh bloodstains that circle a close friend. It doesn’t matter what war, people died and some survived, but even if they were able to survive combat, the real obstacle will be surviving the mental toll of war. In the book, The Things They Carried,…

Tom Leyton, a Vietnam veteran, was once "so full of hope"- but the war changed him. Experiencing a terrible mental illness, he trapped himself in his own world for decades. Gun shots all around you. Soldiers falling one by one. An agonising image no one can get rid of. As Australian soldiers return home nothing would seem the same to them. Brave men and women who served the country have to continue with a personal battle, a battle with the world of chaos known as post-traumatic stress disorder…

“The Things They Carried,” is the title of Tim O’Brien’s story of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The title refers to the physical and emotional things the soldiers had to carry with them every day they were overseas. They are all were required to carry a certain amount of physical equipment with them and they also chose to carry their own unique items along with them. Along with their physical loads they each had their own personal emotions and thoughts that they carried and dealt with every…

person’s name. It creates expectation, and even allow readers to imply the plot. In O’Brien’s short story titled “The Things They Carried,” devices such as symbolism, persistent repetition, and extended metaphors are used to convey the significance of the title to the story as a whole (366). O’Brien uses repetition to create an unmistakable realization that men are always carrying “things” as referred to in the title; whether…

The Things They Carried The narrative “The things they carried” written by Tim O’Brien tells the tale of a group of soldiers marching through Vietnam during the Vietnam war. One of the main topics the story centers around is the physical and emotional burden soldiers had to carried with them. O’Brien uses several literary techniques to portray what he and other soldiers went through during the war. One of the techniques he uses is listing to exhibit some of the tangible and intangible things…

The Chaos They Carried “The Things They Carried” was written by Tim O’Brien and takes place in and around the small village of Than Khe during the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien is an American author who writes about his personal experiences guiding his readers through the horror of the war and the extreme situations that cause soldiers to commit unspeakable acts. His writing style is unique because he creates an explicit distinction between fact and fiction. The story is told in third person…

The Things They Carried written by Tim O'Brien is a series of war stories that consist of both tangible and intangible objects. O'Brien explains what each soldier carries, and the objects significance. The author conveys his messages throughout the story by using symbolistic objects such as the baggage the soldiers carry and the New Testament to portray the physiological effects of the Vietnam war. The soldiers carry many physical things on their backs, such as: knives, pictures, helmets,…