Stereotypes In The Things They Carried

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the reader receives insight as to what soldiers experienced during the Vietnam War and what thoughts consumed their minds in those times of hardship and heartache. As Americans, we typically picture military men and women as emotionally and physically strong, while in reality, that may not be the case. They deal with more emotional and physical trauma than we come to understand. People who carry physical or emotional burdens tend to seek some kind of release or do something to feel relieved of their burdens. O’Brien uses stories about the men in his platoon to depict how soldiers are bound by their own emotional weights, and each have a different way of trying to release themselves from those tensions.

22 million American men were drafted for the Vietnam War, 30,000 men leaving the country to avoid the inevitable draft. In Tim O’Brien’s 1990 historical fiction novel The Things They Carried, 22 short stories of the war are told by a first hand soldier who had experienced the guilt and grief associated with war. These stories follow O’Brien’s fellow soldiers and friends as they go along the war and the audience sees the development of these soldiers whose life had just been turned upside down. The readers see the guilt and grief associated with the war and the variety of how these soldiers cope with this loss. Rat Kiley, Mary Anne, and Linda are all characters the readers see whose innocence is ripped away from them at such a young age and

Tim O’Brien, in his novel The Things They Carried, provides a first-hand account of the experiences of a platoon of young American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Through the stories he tells, O’Brien is able to relate to the reader the atmospheres of the situations that the soldiers were placed in. He also emphasizes the roles of both the physical and mental “things” that he and every other soldier carried on their missions throughout the war. Many of the physical objects that the soldiers kept with them either served a vital purpose to their survival or an emotional purpose to help remind them of the things they loved.

Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried (TTTC) is a collection of short stories detailing the experiences of young soldiers deployed in the Vietnam War. He uses a variety of genres, such as magical realism and an unreliable narrator, to deviate from the traditional war autobiography. In doing so, he provides an insight into the emotional and psychological toll of war, as well as the social structures within groups of soldiers at the time. The experiences of the soldiers range from facing the victims of war to coming to terms with one’s unchosen fate as a soldier. O’Brien makes use of motifs and recurring themes throughout the book to influence the reader’s interpretation of the experiences of soldiers at war.

Tim O’Brien, author of “The Things They Carried”, tells a war tale which contains no heroes because his story showcases the blunt reality of war. Many men, in the past, did not go to war to become heroes; rather they were forced to enlist because of the military draft or because they felt cowardly due to the expectations of society. Tim O’Brien chose to share his story because he wanted non-military civilians to learn the truth about war; the realistic side of war that the news and Hollywood films won’t show you. War is hell; it is painful, traumatizing, and completely life changing, to say the least. In my opinion, O’Brien gives readers an inside look and understanding of how there are no heroes of war, because fighting for a cause that

Partly catharsis, partly communication, it was a way of grabbing people by the shirt and explaining exactly what had happened to me” (O’Brien 151-152). Tim explains the feeling of what writing a war story does to him. Writing war stories for the world to see helped him cope with the trauma of the war. It helps him express his emotions and establish a barrier from the atrocities he had witnessed. Tim O’Brien uses his passion of writing to cope with the trauma and atrocities, it helps him settle his grief and

During the time of the Vietnam War, most soldiers were young men, usually under thrity years old, who were especially susceptible to the unachievable masculine values

Between the danger of firefights, the suspense of night raids, and the explosions of mortar strikes soldiers experience many near-death experiences. These experiences, however, give soldiers an irreplaceable rush of adrenaline and endorphins. Throughout the novel “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien uses many different stories from his friends and his time fighting in Vietnam to illustrate the ups and downs of war and the effect it has on those involved. Through the use of different perspectives, he is able to give the full Vietnam experience ranging from the fun with group members to witnessing the death of a close friend. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien illustrates how war can give soldiers a feeling of belonging, camaraderie, and

The Vietnam War was a war of divisiveness, antagonism, and death. In the novel “The Things They Carried“, writer Tim O’Brien reflects on those aspects of war and takes the reader on a multifaceted journey. Throughout the novel, the author emphasizes the desensitization necessitated by the brutality of battle as well as the shame and guilt that the soldiers carried with them. O’Brien juxtaposes the burden of a soldier’s obligation alongside recurrent glimpses of youth and innocence. The weight of war upon humanity is a theme O’Brien develops through powerful symbolism of contradictory characters who resemble the loss of innocence and parallels with the soldiers fighting in Vietnam.

Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

The Vietnam War, the war that took the lives of many soldiers and left them with emotional wounds and physical scars, while also leaving many innocents to suffer and over two million from both sides to die. In Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, we read about the experiences of soldiers during this war and how some died, how some carried grief and guilt until after the war, and how some had to endure physical and mental wounds post-war. In this work of fiction, we get to dive into a deeper understanding of the fictional soldiers who lived through the war Although The Things They Carried is a work of fiction, it coveys truths about the Vietnam war through accounts of fictional characters who experienced the long-lasting impacts and

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

The soldiers in the Vietnam War are portrayed as losing themselves in the chaos and trauma of combat. Through the stories of the soldiers and their experiences, O’Brien explores the ways in which war strips away one's sense of identity and humanity. The author himself is depicted as losing himself in the war. O'Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his experiences inspired much of the book. Through the character of Tim O'Brien, the author explores the ways in which war can strip away one's sense of self and purpose.

As O’Brien tells what he would consider to be a ture war story of two young Vietnam soldiers he writes, “ They were kids; they just didn’t know. A nature hike, they thought, not even a war … they were giggling and calling each other yellow mother and playing a silly game they invented” (O’Brien 270). With O’briens words he reminices with his readers about childhood. The soldiers he writes about, under different circumstances, could have easily been kids in a school yard or a summer camp. True war stories show the gruesomeness of war, childrens lives lost faster than the blink of an eye.

In Tim O’brien’s book, The Things They Carried, we see the detrimental causes and effects of the enforced stereotype of male masculinity. Tim uses many factors including the setting, characters, symbolism and other components like these to conveys his feelings and emotions. Many of those feelings and emotions derive from his personal experience in the war. The Things They Carried accurately shows what it is to struggle with the stereotypical image of a man in how it presents itself in everyday life along with its adverse and restricting effects.