A Lesson in Responsibility “The Things They Carried” by...

People carry things with them all the time on a daily basis. They might be physical, emotional or spiritual things. Some people could carry a traumatic past while others simply carry a bag of groceries into their house. The things one carries defines them as a person and brings out their qualities as well as their defects. Some people might think of those things as burdens while others see them as a way out of reality or as something to push them forward, something to believe in. In â€Å"The Things They Carried† by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien portrays a captivating message of responsibility to his readers. Its moral explains how we sometimes let ourselves â€Å"out† of our problems, because we would like to be somewhere pleasant. The excerpt†¦show more content†¦Each soldier carried with them items, some tangible others intangible, which helped them to adapt their minds and escape from the setting so that they could survive the traumatic events taking place. â€Å"Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope.† â€Å"Rat Kiley carried comic books.† The soldiers in the story do not only have a physical battle to deal with but also a mental one. Most of these items were a necessity in order to bear the war. However, there were a few items that the soldiers carried not because they had to or because they needed it to survive physically but because they needed it in order to survive emotionally. One soldier carried his wife’s pantyhose; another carried a new testament. One soldier permitted his items to take control of him and become an obsession, a trauma that took his focus away from his priorities, the war, and his men. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries with him a pebble given to him by Martha, a girl with whom he is in love and wishes to be back home with, along with letters and pictures of her. He would read the letters at the end of a long day in a foxhole he dug. He would sometimes lick the seal of the envelope because he knew that Martha’s tongue had been there. This obsession distracts Cross from the war and from his platoon. †¦She [Martha] wrote beautifully about herShow MoreRelatedThe Things They Carried by Tim Obrien1426 Words   |  6 PagesThe War at Home The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, transports the reader into the minds of veterans of the Vietnam conflict. The Vietnam War dramatically changed Tim O’Brien and his comrades, making their return home a turbulent and difficult transition. The study, titled, The War at Home: Effects of Vietnam-Era Military Service on Post-War Household Stability, uses the draft lottery as a â€Å"natural experiment† on the general male population. The purpose of the NBER (National Bureau of EconomicRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien865 Words   |  4 Pagesreoccurring theme in â€Å"The Things They Carried† by Tim O’Brien. Emotional baggage transcends the physical weight it manifests that was in the soldier’s packs. Emotional baggage can manifest as something intangible, like an obsession, or take on physical weight and mass, like something that gives comfort simply by having it on one’s person. However, there comes a time when the emotional baggage must be shrugged off if one is to move forward and onward in one’s life. O’Brien uses the reoccurring themeRead MoreThe Things They Carried1417 Words   |  6 PagesSpring Book Review In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien tells the tale of not about war, but rather about war’s effect on one’s mentality. Ultimately, this novel is built on a foundation of the items that the soldiers of the Vietnam War carried. Whether it was the way Jimmy Cross uses the pebble to escape from his duties as a soldier or when Norman Bowker realizes that courage comes form within, not from receiving a Silver Star; O’Brien uses baggage as a symbol throughout the book to teachRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1597 Words   |  7 Pages The Things They Carried is a breathtaking and captivating powerful war story memoir, which is beautifully and intensely well written by Tim O Brien. The novel explores the physical and emotional trauma of the Vietnam War and its impact on soldiers fears. The author and protagonist Tim O’ Brien communicates provoking nonlinear narratives or frame stories through his own point of view pre senting the audience with a window into the disturbing widespread, endless, and meaningless deathRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien Essay1646 Words   |  7 Pagesnovels about their experiences, however, Tim O’Brien, an American who was drafted into the Vietnam war and an American writer, has written numerous books about his war experiences. In particular, Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, tells all his experiences in detail about the war, what it was like, and his friends he made because of the war. He reflects his feelings through war stories that are difficult to grasp as â€Å"true†. The Things They Carried depicts that the young soldiers had a biggerRead MoreAn Inside Look At A Soldiers Life in the Vietnam War Essay1346 Words   |  6 Pagesthe thought of war, killing, or contend with their friends’ unexpected deaths. From the beginning of the story, O’Brien the author of â€Å"The Things They Carried† uses specific details and illustrations to show readers what the experience was like for the men during the Vietnam war. Among the many things that the men carry were guilt, fear, grief, and stress. Throughout the story O’Brien emphasizes the dreadful events that these men carry with them by incorporating the use of multiple themes such as:Read MoreThe Things They Carried And The Beginning1408 Words   |  6 PagesThe Inner Battle: â€Å"The Things They Carried and â€Å"The End and â€Å"The Beginning† â€Å"The Things They Carried† by Tim O’ Brien is a story in which the author details the possessions the emotions and the memories which were carried by the soldiers into the Vietnam War. The accuracy fact fullness and the attention to details make this story a truthful experience, riding on a thin line between fiction and a reality. It embodies the transformation that a soldier in a war zone undergoes. The author being a warRead MoreThings They Carry1851 Words   |  8 Pagesï » ¿The Things They Carried Staying alive through the war wasn’t the only struggle that the soldiers of the Vietnam War faced. In the novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, the damages are illustrated to see the psychological strain. For some soldiers, trying to forget the unforgettable for some soldiers was more traumatizing than the war itself: Killing people, watching them die; these are all the things that the soldiers have to live with, but some just can’t live with it.   The mental andRead MoreAnalysis Of The Fog Of War : Twelve Lessons From The Life Of Robert S. Mcnamara And O Brien2146 Words   |  9 Pagesexperiences and lessons to others as a means to not only enlighten and endow our listeners with what we have learned about life, but also how those lessons have served to shaped who we are. When sharing our stories and memories, we are able to better resonate with our audience by connecting with them on an emotional level. Such is the manner in which the personal exp eriences of war are shared in the pieces The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara and The Things They Carried. AlthoughRead MoreChange and Emotions in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and â€Å"Cathedral, by Raymond Carver975 Words   |  4 PagesAlbert Einstein once said, â€Å"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.† This quote relates to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross from the short story â€Å"The Things They Carried,† by Tim O’Brien and the narrator from â€Å"Cathedral,† by Raymond Carver in that they both change. Lieutenant Cross gets distracted by Martha, a girl he is in love with, during the War and one of his man dies. The narrator from Carver’s short story gets jealous about a