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The Things They Carried
The main character in The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, has the strength of observation and of empathy with the soldiers around him. His weakness is that he joined the army out of fear of...
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The Things They Carried
In the first chapter, O'Brien recalls how Lieutenant Jimmy Cross would carry around letters from Martha, a woman he loved, and describes how Jimmy would daydream about her while he was out in the...
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The Things They Carried
The language of the soldiers does indeed sound real in the sense that one would expect this to be the kind of vernacular soldiers would use. The author indirectly tells us that the soldiers' words...
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The Things They Carried
Early in his account of his tour in Vietnam, Tim O'Brien provides a detailed description of the equipment carried by each member of his platoon. The Things They Carried refers not only to the...
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The Things They Carried
As your question implies, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is an exercise in relating the truth of the Vietnam War experience and telling the reader how to interpret that truth. Several...
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The Things They Carried
Before answering this question, it's important to understand that it's quite difficult to say anything definitive about Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Indeed, the book's confusing structure...
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The Things They Carried
In the story, Kiowa feels ambivalent about Lavender's death; he feels guilty that he can't seem to muster up any anger or sadness regarding his colleague's death. The one thing he does feel is...
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The Things They Carried
In the novel The Things They Carried, the theme of burden is conveyed through O'Brien's use of symbolism. When an author uses symbolism, he uses an object or an action to represent something more...
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The Things They Carried
I listed the characters in the order they appear in the story, with a short descriptor afterward. 1. Tim O'Brien - narrator of this story, even though he is not mentioned by name. 2. Lt. Jimmy...
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The Things They Carried
First, please keep in mind that this is an opinion question. This means that there is no “right” answer, but the reader can make his or her own decision as to who the healthiest person is at...
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The Things They Carried
Dehumanization is a common threat shared among military members across centuries of warfare. It is lessening the human characteristics of the enemy through ridicule, denial, sarcasm and labels...
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The Things They Carried
Narrative point of view refers to how the narrator (or person telling the story) is positioned in relation to the actual story itself. Narrative point of view is interesting to consider in The...
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Literature
The list of items that the men carried is pretty vast, and makes up much of the content of the first chapter. O'Brien divides the things into various categories: what all of the soldiers carried...
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The Things They Carried
The primary idea that O'Brien presents is the notion and the nature of shame, guilt, and responsibility. In 1968, the main character in this story, Tim O'Brien, (intentionally the same as the...
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The Things They Carried
The story "Speaking of Courage" in The Things They Carried is about the difficulty of both speaking and courage. In it, we follow Norman Bowker as he drives around and around the lake in his...
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The Things They Carried
This idea of war stories not being moral, or having a moral, is centered around O'Brien's theme regarding war throughout the novel. O'Brien tells the readers many times and through many different...
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The Things They Carried
I'm assuming that you're talking about Tim O'Brien's short story "The Things They Carried," as opposed to the full length novel of the same name. In this case, the answer to your question would be...
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The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien grew up in Minnesota and fought in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970. His battalion was sent to the area where the My Lai Massacre had taken place the year before, though he was not...
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The Things They Carried
In The Things they Carried, Tim O'Brien uses vivid imagery to convey difficult emotional realities. For example, in the story "The Things they Carried," Lieutenant Jimmy Cross receives a good-luck...
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The Things They Carried
Three stories told in Chapter Seven are: 1)The story's narrator, Tim, relates about Bob Kiley/Rat writing to Curt Lemon's sister after Curt's death. In this story, Tim tells us about Rat writing to...
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The Things They Carried
The next mention of rainwater and the sewage field is located in the chapter "In The Field." As the chapter begins, the Song Tra Bong river has overflowed (due to the rains) and the muck is now...
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The Things They Carried
Tim O’Brien’s opening story in the novel by the same name, “The Things They Carried,” uses repetition to unify the entire story, and consequently, the rest of the novel. The main device he...
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The Things They Carried
"Night Life" is one of the final chapters in The Things They Carried. In it, O'Brien tells the story of how Rat Kiley wounded himself. The company was forced to move only at night ("night life")...
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The Things They Carried
The story of Lavender’s death is told early on in the novel, and it transitions the story from a description of the physical things the soldiers carried in Viet Nam, to the emotional baggage they...
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The Things They Carried
A good way to start the essay is to discuss what the psychological effects of war are on a soldier. Tim O’Brien wrote this novel in an attempt to come to grips with how war changed him and his...
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The Things They Carried
Throughout The Things They Carried, O'Brien contrasts the glorified expectations of war with the grim reality. Norman Bowker's experience camping in the field beside the Song Tra Bong is no...
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The Things They Carried
About midway through Tim O’Brien’s autobiographical, potentially-fictional memoir The Things They Carried, the author of this first-person account of his tour in Vietnam includes a chapter...
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The Things They Carried
In the chapter "Spin," O'Brien is putting a few different "spins" on the Vietnam War, and war in general. The chapter begins with the assertions that war has a sweet side to it too – it's not all...
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Saboteur
The protagonist in The Things They Carried is Tim O'Brien, who is also the narrator. In Ha Jin's Saboteur, Mr. Chiu is the protagonist. As for literary conflicts, there are four major ones: man...
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The Things They Carried
O'Brien's purpose in telling The Things They Carried is twofold; to tell a war story, and to explore the purpose of storytelling itself. Beginning with "How to Tell a True War Story," O'Brien...
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The Things They Carried
The "things" carried in The Things They Carried impede the carriers both physically and emotionally. The narrator takes pains to list every item carried by the company exhaustively. Not only does...
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The Things They Carried
The Greenies are an elite force of Army soldiers known as the Green Berets. They are a special forces group of men known for their abilities to engage the enemy in guerrilla warfare and to search...
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The Things They Carried
Compare and contrast essays in literature classes normally follow a standard, regular pattern. Your introduction summarizes the main aspects of the novels that you intend to cover in the body of...
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The Things They Carried
I think you are referring to the story, “The Man I Killed” in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. The story is a look at the guilt and sorrow O’Brien feels after killing his first...
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The Things They Carried
In the emotional story of “The Man I Killed” in The Things They Carried, O’Brien describes the first man he kills in the war. It is a terrifying time for O’Brien as he watches the dead...
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The Things They Carried
Henry Dobbins in The Things They Carried is described as the gentle giant of the company. He also carries the machine gun, the heaviest load one can carry in the war. He also carries canned...
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The Things They Carried
In "How to Tell a True War Story," Tim O'Brien tells of an incident in Vietnam in which his buddy "Rat" Kiley watched a friend blown to bits because he stepped on a booby-trapped 105 round, then...
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The Things They Carried
Former U.S. Army noncommissioned officer Tim O'Brien's fictionalized account (?) of his tour in Vietnam during that politically divisive conflict, The Things They Carried, presents the reader with...
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The Things They Carried
To make it easier to narrow down our options, we might start with a definition of guilt. According to a New York Times article by Nancy Sherman, there are basically two types of guilt: subjective...
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The Things They Carried
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is the leader of his company in Vietnam. He did not want the job but was picked to go to officer's school because he was well educated. The first thing he can't forgive...
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The Things They Carried
The key to writing a thesis statement is understanding that it is simply a one- sentence summary of the main claim or "thesis" of your essay. If you are struggling to write a thesis statement, that...
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The Things They Carried
What purpose do these stories within stories serve? In The Lives Of The Dead, Tim O'Brien tells us that stories can save us. He tells us about falling in love with Linda when they were both nine...
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The Things They Carried
The Things They Carried takes place during the Vietnam War during the 1960's and 70's. O'Brien's main purpose is to show the reader how important it is to remember and tell the stories of those...
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The Things They Carried
"Truth goose" is a created phrase by Tim O'Brien that is partly American slang. It was used by the author of The Things They Carried, a work of fiction that is a collection of tales about his...
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The Things They Carried
One example of a friendship lost in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried can be seen in the friendship between Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen, detailed in chapter 5, titled "Enemies." One morning...
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Going After Cacciato
One way in which both of Tim O'Brien's Vietnam War novels Going after Cacciato and The Things They Carried relate concerns the theme of reality vs. imagination. In both novels, the soldiers develop...
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The Things They Carried
Very welcome!
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The Things They Carried
The function of the overall narrative is to delineate O'Brien's disillusionment and ambivalence surrounding his soldier experience. The larger aspect of male bonding within a warrior construct is...
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The Things They Carried
In the novel, Lt. Jimmy Cross is an officer in charge of Alpha Company during the Vietnam War. He embodies all the characteristics of a soldier torn between duty and self-preservation. Having...
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The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien believed that the story of war can be best told from the foot soldier who experienced it each minute, hour, and day. O'Brien's central point in writing stories from this perspective is...