Why The Challenges At War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

(O´Brien 80). Kiowa standing up for O´Brien after being made fun of by Azar and letting him know that he had no other option, helped O´Brien feel more content with the situation. Kiowa ́s presence

Azar’s crude attempt to make him feel better by congratulating O’Brien on the kill and comparing the dead boy to Rice Krispies; Azar ignores and or disregards the shame O’Brien feels. Kiowa is a little more patient with O’Brien’s pain, he can only sympathize with O’Brien to a limited amount. In the end, Kiowa wants more to convince O’Brien that him killing the enemy is not a big deal, that was a part of war, than in helping him work through his emotions as he says when he tells him he has a few minutes to cope, before they

Kiowa was O’Brien’s closest friend in Vietnam, making his death extremely difficult, and guilt ridden; 20 years later, O’Brien finally forgives himself and accepts the ending. Death is never serene, and it will never get any easier, but grief can, and

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.

O’Brien creates this backstory for this boy. How he grew up listening to stories of his ancestors protecting their land and that it was a tradition to die fighting for your own land. But O’Brien could see that this boy was weak and tiny and young. He could see that his face was smooth with no facial hair and fingers were thin. This brought so much more guilt onto him.

The theme Mortality and Death goes with “Ghost Soldiers” because O’Brien was almost to death two times. First time he was shot in the stomach and second time was in the butt. First time Rat Kiley was there but the second time he was shot Kiley was not there and O’Brien did not like the new medic. A quote to go with this theme is, “It’s hard thing to explain to somebody who has not felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake” (O;Brien 183). This quote is talking about how when he got shot he was more aware of life and that he could die any

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war.

Hidden somewhere within the blurred lines of fiction and reality, lies a great war story trapped in the mind of a veteran. On a day to day basis, most are not willing to murder someone, but in the Vietnam War, America’s youth population was forced to after being pulled in by the draft. Author Tim O’Brien expertly blends the lines between fiction, reality, and their effects on psychological viewpoints in the series of short stories embedded within his novel, The Things They Carried. He forces the reader to rethink the purpose of storytelling and breaks down not only what it means to be human, but how mortality and experience influence the way we see our world. In general, he attempts to question why we choose to tell the stories in the way

The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

Although the soldier he killed was an enemy soldier, instead of vilifying him he was able to humanize the man. O’Brien was able to describe the physical appearance of the soldier and imagine her life before war. The author was able to portray an emotional connection and made the line between friend and enemy almost vanish. This was able to reveal the natural beauty of shared humanity even in the context of war’s horror. O’Brien is able to find the beauty in the midst of this tragic and horrible event.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian , which shifts from the things the soldiers found memorible to all the tragedies of war, uses powerful diction, exhibits beautiful detail, and portrays the perfect tone to convey that friendships are always needed because sometimes they shed light on the hardest times. O’Brian’s tone and diction, throughout the book, creates a sense of meloncholy and anger. In the beginning of the book, O’Brian portrayed the souldiers as, “ Carriers of all the emotional baggage of men who might die.”(pg 20) A souldier carries enough of their own baggage that eventually over time they will carry to much of the worlds baggage, that it will take a tole on a person.

This quote epitomizes the trauma caused by war. O’Brien is trying to cope, mostly through writing these war stories but has yet to put it behind him. He feels guilt, grief, and responsibility, even making up possible scenarios about the life of the man he killed and the type of person he was. This

After ten minutes and more pulling, Kiowa’s body is released from the fecal. Harrowed and relieved, the men clean him up and call the chopper. O’Brien discloses about the discrepancy between real truth and story truth. He uncovers that the man on the trail near My Khe was not killed by him, rather he made up the story. He explains he wants us readers to feel what he felt and because of that, sometimes story truth is truer than happening truth.

O' Brien revisits the place in which Kiowa died in an attempt to gain conciliation between him (emotions) and the Vietnam (war). In the chapter O'Brien states that he "looked for signs of forgiveness or personal grace" within the field therefore O'Brien seemed to want to make amends with his emotions towards the war by revisiting Vietnam (181). However he soon discovers that he can't blame Vietnam for who he has become as Vietnam "was at peace" (181). O'Brien has a dramatic change in character as he realizes he is now seen as some sort of civilian by his fellow platoon and no longer one of them. Throughout the chapter O'Brien seeks revenge from Jorgenson as he in some way blames him from his alienation from his platoon.

O'Brien uses a lot of offensive words in this story of Kiowa dying in the field, "As first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil," (65-66). The evil in the story is the enemy soldiers or the opposite side that you are fighting. While obscenity is the curse words, which the soldiers use in the story. But it is also the author who uses these words to describe a place or person in the story. As well evil is in most war stories, because there is always a point in the story where your friend got killed by enemy soldiers or if one of the soldiers was going against his friend.