Tim OBriens The Things They Carried An Analysis

Student Network Resources Inc.  ©2003-2010 ________________________________________________________________________ Tim OBriens The Things They Carried is a short story told in the form of a catalogue. OBriens title provides both an accurate description of how the story is organized mainly by lists, with the narrative seeming an almost accidental intrusion but also as a sort of recurrent musical refrain in the text itself. The title phrase is repeated at semi-regular intervals in the text, and encourages the reader to understand the catalogue of items as adding up to something larger than the mere objects described. It is important to recognize, however, that the objects are in fact described with painstaking accuracy, and not impressionistically; as Kaplan notes of OBriens style in this story, all of the things are depicted in a style that is almost scientific in its precision. We are told how much each subject weighs, either psychologically or physically, and in the case of artillery we are even told how many ounces each round weighed. (Kaplan 44-5) I hope to demonstrate through an examination o f OBriens repetitions of the title phrase that the overall intent of the story is metaphorical. We are asked to understand the young soldiers in Vietnam through an analysis of the narrators lists of the things they carried. It is worth noting at the outset that OBrien quite specifically encourages the reader to understand the soldiers burdens as more thanShow MoreRelatedCharacter Analysis: Tim OBriens The Things They Carried962 Words   |  4 Pages One of the main characters in the short story â€Å"The Things They Carried†, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, althoughRead MoreEssay about The Things They Carried Literary Analysis764 Words   |  4 PagesLiterary Analysis of The Things They Carried: Metafiction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tim O’Brien brings the characters and stories to life in The Things They Carried. He uses a writing style that brings stories to life by posing questions between the relationship of reality and fiction (Calloway 249). This is called metafiction and it exposes the truth through the literary experience. Tim O’Brien uses metafiction to make the characters and stories in The Things They Carried realistically evocative of the VietnamRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Jonathan Culler1683 Words   |  7 Pagesso with embellishment or the expression of details as they seem. In a similar manner, author Tim O’Brien coins the term â€Å"story truth†, a derivative of â€Å"real truth†, within his novel The Things They Carried, to discuss how retellings of wartime events are often altered to convey the emotional significance they possess. It is through these two works, Culler’s analysis of performative langua ge and O’Brien’s notion of story truth, that the necessity of fictionalization to convey a personal truth to itsRead MoreEssay On The Things They Carried1624 Words   |  7 PagesFor the seventeen Soldiers portrayed in â€Å"The Things We Carried† by Tim O’Brien, the physical pain was very minimal weight to carry compared to the emotional scars that they will carry throughout their entire life. This story does an amazing job portraying full human emotion that anyone put into a situation would feel, such as heavy guilt, sadness, anger, lack of motivation, perseverance, horror, and false security. All of these are notorious feelings that every soldier back in history, and now stillRead MoreTim O Brien s The Man I Killed 897 Words   |  4 Pagesthe Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien failed to share any stories from his experiences in Vietnam. Finally he decided to write a book that he titled, The Things They Carried, in 1990 where he details all of the str uggles he experienced after being drafted into the Vietnam War. In chapter twelve, â€Å"The Man I Killed,† O’Brien details Tim’s uncertainty after killing his first Viet Cong soldier. As the soldier lay on the ground physically destroyed by a grenade that once resided in Tim’s hand, Tim could not lookRead MoreFiction Analysis Essay710 Words   |  3 PagesFiction Analysis There are many ways to supplement a story in order to add lucidity. It is done through literary devices and Tim OBriens The Things They Carried is no different. The Things They Carried is a narrative about a soldier at war in Vietnam. However, this story provides multiple layers of meaning through OBriens tone and style that help the reader further understand it. Both of these literary devices are embedded in the story and gradually help define it. To begin with, OBrienRead MoreArgumentative Synthesis The Things They Carried1783 Words   |  8 PagesArgumentative Synthesis â€Å"The Things They Carried† Tim O’ Brien, having the memories of war engraved in his mind, recalls the memories of his youth during battle in â€Å"The Things They Carried,† an intriguing collection of military accounts that symbolize his attempt to resist closure from past experiences. O’ Brien’s story reflects the difficult choices people have to make in their struggle to confront the war waging inside their bodies as well as on the ground they tread. In Steven Kaplan’s criticismRead More Myth of Courage Exposed in The Things They Carried Essay2662 Words   |  11 Pagesvalorous warrior praised. Yet, modern novels such as Tim OBriens The Things They Carried (THINGS) challenge those very notions. Like The Iliad, THINGS is about war. It is about battles and soldiers, victory and survival, yet the message OBrien gives us in THINGS runs almost contradictory to the traditional war story. Whereas traditional stories of war take place on battlefields where soldier battles soldier and the mettle of man is tested, OBriens battle occurs in the shadowy, private place of aRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien862 Words   |  4 PagesIn the repeated use of ideas of weight throughout his short story â€Å"The Things They Carried†, Tim O’Brien highlights its pivotal symbolism: the intense burden of fear, especially of their own mortality, experienced by the soldiers, and thus weight’s role as the most important word in the text. O’Brien accomplishes this effect through recurring references to weight in relation to Ted Lavender’s death, and his frequent use of weight and weightlessness metaphors in the dreams of Lieutenant Jimmy CrossRead MoreThe Things They Carried Critical Analysis1538 Words   |  7 Pagesafter the Fall of Saigon, the Vietnam War remains an affliction for Vietnam War Veterans and their families. Millions of our youth were forced to leave their home and carry inconceivable burdens. Thus, as a Vetera n, Tim O’Brien can depict thoroughly their burdens in â€Å"The Things They Carried†. His story brings us back to war-torn Vietnam and First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his platoon. Cross is the commanding officer; however, he does not concentrate on the war but on his unrequited love. As a result