The Things They Carried Questions - 1139 Words

â€Å"The Things They Carried† Questions a) The main topic of this novel is burdens. O’Brien is writing about what burdens the soldiers and he had to carry throughout war, physically and emotionally. One way I know is because of the title- â€Å"The Things They Carried.† This title almost summarizes the whole book. O’Brien frequently showed and explained the burdens that were inner conflicts of his and outer conflicts too. In the chapter â€Å"The things They Carried,† O’Brien showed an emotional burden that he carries about him loving â€Å"Martha more than his men and as a consequence† his friend Lavender got killed. O’Brien described this emotional burden as â€Å"something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦The Vietnam War was a long, hard, and destructive war. The Vietnam War scarred O’Brien very much and he felt a way to escape from his memories and experiences were to write them down and create them into a story. I know this because the whole novel had to do with the experiences that O’Brien had gone through and at the end of the novel he saw that him writing â€Å"The Things They Carry† as â€Å"Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story† meaning that it was almost as though writing about his experiences brought back his innocence and happiness that he had as a child that the war had stripped him from. e) The purpose of this novel was for Tim O’Brien to try and cope with his painful memories from the war. The whole novel â€Å"The Things They Carried† was composed of different stories and memories from O’Brien’s experience in war. In all of these stories, you can sense pain, hardships and a sense of a burden on your shoulders. That is the way of knowing that O’Brien was almost venting, trying to get those painful memories and feelings out of his system and onto paper instead. He also intended for the audience to feel these pains and truly understand where his pain comes from. He wanted to give the audience a small experience from it, while trying to escape from himself and his memories. This becomes obvious in the chapter â€Å"Ambush† where his daughter asks if he had killed anyone before.Show MoreRelatedThe Things They Carried Discussion Questions1813 Words   |  8 Pages Tyler Mochizuki Mrs. Buzanis English 10 Honors, Period 2 13 January 2016 The Things They Carried Discussion Questions Chapters 1-4 1. Contrast the stone Jimmy carries in his mouth with the one in his stomach (p. 7-8, 16). The stone that he carries in his mouth and the one in his stomach contain two contrasting meanings to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. O’Brien first introduces the stone carried by Jimmy in his mouth when he receives a letter from Martha concerning their long distance relationshipRead MoreEssay about The Things They Carried Literary Analysis764 Words   |  4 PagesLiterary Analysis of The Things They Carried: Metafiction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tim O’Brien brings the characters and stories to life in The Things They Carried. He uses a writing style that brings stories to life by posing questions between the relationship of reality and fiction (Calloway 249). This is called metafiction and it exposes the truth through the literary experience. Tim O’Brien uses metafiction to make the characters and stories in The Things They Carried realistically evocative of the VietnamRead More Fact Verses Fiction in OBriens The Things They Carried Essay1454 Words   |  6 PagesFact Verses Fiction in OBriens The Things They Carried The difference between fairy tales and war stories is that fairy tales begin with Once upon a time, while war stories begin with Shit, I was there! (Lomperis 41). How does one tell a good war story? Is it important to be accurate to the events that took place? Does the reader need to trust the narrator? In The Things They Carried, Tim OBrien examines what it takes to tell a good war story. He uses his own experiences inRead MoreEveryday Use By Alice Walker959 Words   |  4 PagesEveryday Use by Alice Walker, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien are no different. Everyday Use tells the story between a mother and her two daughters, who are living two completely lifestyles. One who now lives a more â€Å"modern lifestyle† and the other who is still living traditionally like the mother. In The Things They Carried the author recites stories about the time he spent in the Vietnam War, he also goes on to talk about the objects people carried with them into the war, eit her physicalRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1407 Words   |  6 Pages       Our introduction stated that in â€Å"The Things They Carried,† author Tim O’Brien tells us not directly of the soldiers of Vietnam, or the situations they find themselves in, but about the things they carry on their shoulders and in their pockets. These â€Å"things† identify the characters and bring them to life.   I find that to be true as the author unfolds the stories about war and the uncommon things one carries in to war both inadvertently and on purpose.  Ã‚  Ã‚  As it was noted: Stories about war –Read MoreThe Truth Behind The War933 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Truth Behind the War† As I am reading The Things They Carried by author Tim O’Brien my heart becomes very heavy. The physical and emotional heaviness for the people who dedicate their lives for their country weighed on me. The war has always been a difficult understanding for me, in the sense of why do we need to prepare for war. I began to question if things could be handled differently in our society today. Pictures of what they go through on a daily bases filled my mind; killing people, watchingRead MoreThe Beauty Of The Beholder1198 Words   |  5 Pagesclarification. Objective truths are based on facts pertaining to the physical and material world. Primary qualities for example, are objective. The size, shape, and motion of a substance remain true whether or not there is someone present to perceive these things. On the other hand, secondary qualities are subjective. Subjectivity requires a perceiver to perceive the affects of a given substance. Sound, taste, color and smell are all secondary qualities dependent on the objectivity of a substance. NeedlessRead MoreEssay On Things They Carried722 Words   |  3 Pagesthe list of all the things the soldiers carried, what item was most surprising? Which item did you find most evocative of the war? Foot powder was most surprising to me. This also shows us how much these soldiers had to travel in the war. In what sense does Jimmy love Martha? Why does he construct this elaborate, mostly fictional, relationship with her: What does this reveal about his character? The sense Jimmy loves Martha is that she gives him perseverance. Martha is the thing that makes Jimmy getRead MoreThe 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 MoreEssay The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien1509 Words   |  7 PagesThe Things They Carried Tim O’Brien This work of art is a war story, with love, tragedy and personal responsibility, giving details of what one carries, survives and ponders during events that take place out of our control. The Thing Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien depicts human beings just like us that don’t get a choice of what happens around us but how to survive with the things we hold dear that help us make it through. It also shares with us the fear, risk and aftermath of the death