The Things They Carried Essays

story an example of this is Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”. As the story goes on it shows not only the literal meaning of what they carried but also symbolically the burdens that they had mentally. In the literal sense O’Brien talks about what different members of a platoon in Vietnam carried. This helps him to move to a more symbolic sense at the end of the story. He starts by talking about necessities and slowly moves on to what they carried to remind them that there was a world out side

“The Things They Carried” provides a personal view into the minds of soldiers, and tells us the emotional and psychological costs of war. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is stationed in Vietnam in the middle of the war. He seems to be a man in love, or more like a man in love with the idea of a lady named Martha. He ends up changing from a love struck, blind man into a firm, leading soldier. In this story, the characters do the things they do because of desires and motivations. In “The Things

The Things They Carried, every soldier carried something different; different equipment, different memories, and different guilt. Their equipment would change as they travelled through the book, but one common thing that the soldiers would all be forced to carry is the weight of losing one of their own. Though it might weight differently from man to man, changing depending on how well they knew the soldier, it is a weight they all felt. Though several soldiers died in The Things They Carried, the

The Things They Carried Lorraine Fonger South University Composition III/Literature ENG1300 Colette Morrow October 29, 2017 The Things They Carried How many “things” do you carry with you every day? Everybody carries things that symbolize who they are or where they are from. Those things may be heavy, light, or even things that you cannot see. In the short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he introduces a lot of symbolism in every object mentioned, many of them you can see, some

life free from violence and turmoil. There is strong underlying metaphor in Tim O’Brien’s Novel The Things They Carried. Metaphor is used throughout the text of the book to create a sense of understanding or to convey a different meaning then the text originally suggests. The first use of metaphor to convey an underlying message to the reader is the use in the first chapter “The Things They Carried”. O’Brien

Christian Hernandez Professor Sarah Cantrell English 1102 “The Things They Carried”: Emotional side The story of "The Things They Carried" written by Tim O’Brien gives a good outlook on how the Soldiers feel and think during the war . The story describes the different things that the soldiers carry with them while at war. O’Brien talks about the different items in great detail such as weight, color, shape and size but he also gives extraordinary details about not only their personalities

“They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die, Grief, terror, love, longing – these were intangibles, but the intangibles, had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight” (O’Brien 20). A weight that the soldiers carry were not only physical, but emotional. In the novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, explains the physical and emotional hardships the soldiers dealt with. The physical “things” they carried were literal and the emotional “things” were figurative

In, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, there is a quote “they all carried ghosts.”, this metaphor can represent the many things the soldiers carried. Every soldier carries things that represent memories or security. In war, the soldiers are confronted with death every day so they carry things that remind them of people, memories, or hope. “They all carried ghosts.” (O’Brien, 9) this line means that the things they carry remind them of people or memories, things that can not be seen but only

The Things They Carried offered a unique and personal look into the life of one soldier’s experience. It showed how the war held obligations to its soldiers and expectations for each of the men to follow. The Things They Carried also showed a side of war that was not always seen in other documents and accounts such as Tim O’Brien thoughts and feelings during the war. However, many of the things O’Brien stated throughout his book is very similar to the experiences shared by men in the Civil War, World

“The Things They Carried” (10). “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water” (11). “As PFCs or Spec 4s, most of them were common grunts and carried the standard M-16