Abstract
This paper looks closely at the short story by Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried". The work selects as its thesis the items which were carried, and what they symbolize. The paper also comments upon what it means to not have items of value or to burn and give up the burdens which were first brought to war. It concludes that these items saved the soldiers and bring them humanity.

From the Paper
"Tim O'Brien's powerful words in the short story "The Things They Carried", the title and first chapter in his collection of work concerning soldiers during the Vietnam War, connect to readers as they remind us of burdens being carried--physical, emotional and spiritual. As the soldiers gain personality via their possessions--both those they carry as well as those they leave behind--we come to envision these men as the `everyman,' those who go off to war and symbolize a country. As the images of these burdens gain a solid presence in the story, they represent the lives and hopes of each soldier, even as they are cast away by the principle character in the tale, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Near the first lines of the story, O'Brien introduces the readers to the theme of the `carried,' or burdens. Each soldier is made unique by..."

Tags:o'brien, burdens, carried

Abstract
This paper explains that, in his National Book Award winning novel "The Things They Carried", Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien conveyed the reality of the war by telling his readers in plainspoken language what it feels like to be afraid, to kill and to see friends die in a useless war ten-thousand miles away from home. The author points outs that O'Brien's literary approach of conveying the realism of violent death in combat through emotion is very effective. The paper relates that this style has far more power and meaning than simply describing battles. The author underscores that O'Brien's use of fear, the trauma killing inflicts and the grief soldiers feel for lost comrades are the three primary reasons why this book has been acclaimed as one of the most realistic novels about the Vietnam War ever written.

From the Paper
"This passage conveys much more about the pervasive weight of fear and the awful finality of death than many war novelists have communicated in entire chapters, or even in entire novels. O'Brien (1999) describes his friend's sudden death on a warm, sunny April morning with compassionate finality and an authoritative essence that is eloquent in its very simplicity. "He was dead weight," O'Brien writes of Ted Lavender, a scared young soldier gone from this world in the twinkling of an eye."

Tags:plainspoken trauma, psychological scars, friends visceral

Abstract
This paper examines Tim O'Brien's, "The Things They Carried," which is a compilation of several short stories or vignettes, about the experiences of the men who fought in the Vietnam War. The author uses commentary from two other literary sources who have analyzed the materials that were covered in O'Brien's book. The author discusses how O'Brien's background influenced the structure and content of the book. Some of the themes found in the different stories include courage, loneliness and memories and how the men carry all of these, along with their supplies, with them throughout the war. This writer feels that it was the stories and the intimacy of the sharing of these feelings that helped many of these men survive the war, relatively intact.

From the Paper
"Characterization is one of the most important parts of this novel, and O'Brien manages to create vivid characters that are sympathetic and very real at the same time. How can a man named Rat be sympathetic? It is partly because of the thread of storytelling that is the backbone of the novel. "For Rat Kiley. . . facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around, and when you listened to one of his stories, you'd find yourself performing rapid calculations in your head, subtracting superlatives, figuring the square root of an absolute and then multiplying by maybe" (O'Brien 101). Much of O'Brien's novel reads like the folktales of old, passed down orally from generation to generation. Rat Kiley is clearly a born storyteller, for he makes his listeners think and think hard while he spins his tales."

Tags:vietnam, war, platoon, experience, enemy

Abstract
This paper mainly gives a personal perspective of Tim O'Brien, the author, focusing on his experiences in Vietnam. It discusses the shift in the tone of war writing, its views on combat and the outlook on war. It cites many of O'Brien's works to qualify this point. The paper manages to highlight that war literature is not to view the experiences of war only in historical and personal terms, but also to reflect the entire tension that was going on between the individual and the historical situation.

From the Paper
"Tim O'Brien was not very happy that American conscience had been able to digest the events of Vietnam very well and the country had got back to a situation of being "normal". On his side, he had gone to the extent of saying that he wished that the country was a little more troubled. When the society in the country is normal, it means that the history has been removed from the public conscience, and also changed human nature where these events will no longer raise public protests. In the stories of war, there are the dreams and lives of individuals, fighting as soldiers, and are not only a set of data. This is important to note. Since the point is only to talk about the event without highlighting the results, is it not more difficult to raise public interest?"

Tags:war, literature, individual, history

Abstract
This paper begins with a brief history of Tim O'Brien's life and background before he fought in the war in Vietnam. The writer then looks at the process that led O'Brien to become a writer from his time in Vietnam to his university years at Harvard. The paper looks at the recurring themes evident not only in "If I Die in a Combat Zone", but his other novels as well.

From the Paper
"Fear and fears is also one of the center points of the novel. Obviously, in wars and in the Vietnam War in particular, the utmost fear is the fear of dying. However, surprisingly or not, the fear of dying seems to be occasionally surpassed by other fears. One of them is the fear of getting lost at night. As O'Brien puts it, this fear refers to the terrible sensation of "of becoming detached from the others, of spending the night alone in that frightening and haunted countryside". This description of the fear of getting lost draws an interesting angle on what collectivity is in a war. Practically, you begin to refuse your existence as an individual and begin to exist as a group, because, as the quote underlines, it is the fact of being separated from the others that is most traumatizing in getting lost."

Tags:fear, vietnam, war, combat, die, death

Abstract
This paper examines "The Things They Carried" by Tim O' Brien, the story of 12 soldiers, members of the Third Platoon, Alpha Company, Fifth Battalion of the 16th Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade of the American Division in the Vietnam War of 1969. It looks at how O'Brien relates his and his companions' desolate and fatal experiences during that war and how he uses those experiences to explore the complications of memory and trauma, the most lasting of the things he and his companions endured, and which have remained with him to this day. It examines how it lists the many things they carried into war that were more real and terrifying than bullets, guns, grenades, and disease, such as the deaths, injuries, and sicknesses, and the overall brokenness they had to face in fighting.

From the Paper
"O'Brien gives major focus on the death of his closest friend, Kiowa throughout the book. It was a freak incident in that his own platoon killed him by mistake when it camped in a latrine on the banks of the song Tra Bong. It was plain to see why the author held Kiowa closest to his heart: Kiowa shared his sentiments about the cruelty of war. Kiowa was also a very compassionate and intelligent man, but precisely because of the kind of soul he was that O'Brien gave greater coverage of Kiowa's very costly death than his life. It was a gutting loss he carried with great pain and could never get over with."

Tags:kiowa, platoon, death, guns, alpha, company

Abstract
The paper discusses how Louise Erdrich's "The Red Convertible" and Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" offer complementary views of the war in Vietnam and their consequences. The paper relates that written nearly twenty years apart, with Erdrich's story crafted a year before the war's official end and O'Brien's story some fifteen years after that, they both offer surprisingly consistent and complementary views of the personal costs of the war through the battered psyches of the soldiers who fought it. The paper shows how O'Brien's tale is a powerful look at the personal costs of holding on too tightly to those things from home, while Erdrich gives readers a window into the psychological costs paid by those who suffered its immediate aftermath.

From the Paper
"Louise Erdrich's "The Red Convertible" and Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" offer complementary views of the war in Vietnam and their consequences. Written nearly twenty years apart, with Erdrich's story crafted a year before the war's official end and O'Brien's story some fifteen years after that, they both offer surprisingly consistent and complementary views of the personal costs of the war through the battered psyches of the soldiers who fought it. O'Brien's tale is a powerful look at the personal costs of holding on too tightly to those things from home,..."

Tags:vietnam, home, front, convertible

Abstract
This paper explains that Tim O'Brien's novel, "The Things They Carried",
illustrates that the greatest weight soldiers bear comes from nothing they can physically carry, but rather their emotions, grief, terror, and love. The author points out that O'Brien utilizes the composite novel form, which allows him to play with multiple settings, characters, the theme of storytelling, and even allusiveness, in a way that most fully incorporates the whole of humanity into his story. The paper relates that, through his unique narration, stylistic technique, and attention to detail, O'Brien captures the psychological aspects of war.

From the Paper
"The psychological burden of war goes far beyond that of simply fighting. The struggle of staying alive was always emphasized after encountering a battle for which they found themselves alive. "For the most part they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity. Now and then there were times of panic, when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn't" (19). The fear of losing life was compounded by the idea of being a brave and courageous soldier. The fact of surviving always brought a sense of life to the soldiers. The psychological pressure of fighting and surviving was always followed with a sense of reassembling themselves as soldiers. O'Brien states that for the most part, the soldiers were "afraid of dying but they were even more afraid to show it" (20). Coping with the pressure of war was discovered by way of telling jokes and creating a "hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness" (20). Their encounters with death were instances where "irony was mixed with tragedy" (20). These statements illustrate how the soldiers did their best to cope with the psychological pressure of the war."

Tags:psychological, composite, narrative, weight, storytelling

Abstract
The paper discusses how in his National Book Award winning novel, "The Things They Carried", Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien conveyed the reality of the war by telling his readers in plainspoken language what it feels like to be afraid, what it feels like to kill, and what it feels like to see friends die in a useless war ten-thousand miles away from home. The paper posits that his literary approach of conveying the realism of violent death in combat through emotion is very effective, for emotion is visceral and communicates his theme with far more power and meaning than simply describing battles. The paper asserts that his use of fear, the trauma killing inflicts, and the grief soldiers feel for lost comrades are the three primary reasons why "The Things They Carried" has been acclaimed as one of the most realistic novels about the Vietnam War ever written.

From the Paper
"In his National Book Award winning novel, "The Things They Carried", Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien conveyed the reality of the war by telling his readers in plainspoken language what it feels like to be afraid, what it feels like to kill, and what it feels like to see friends die in a useless war ten-thousand miles away from home. His literary approach of conveying the realism of violent death in combat through emotion is very effective, for emotion is visceral and communicates his theme with far more power and..."

Tags:vietnam, war, reality

Abstract
This paper describes the main character in the O'Brien's book about a young man who was drafted into the the war with Vietnam. The paper describes the man's conflicting emotions and turmoil he feels about the war.

From the Paper
"On June 17, 1968, Tim O'Brien received his draft notice. Many emotions must have erupted inside of him that day and in the following months to come. He said, "I remember the rage in my stomach. Later it burned down to a smoldering self-pity, then to numbness." In "On the Rainy River" O'Brien brings to life many places and characters to convey his feelings about his draft notice and the war in Vietnam. Elroy Berdahl and the Armour Meat Packing Plant for example brings to life and express to the readers his conflicting emotions about the war in Vietnam. Many feelings, such as desperation, rage, and fear come to the surface. "The emotions went from outrage to terror to bewilderment to guilt to sorrow and then back again to outrage.""

Tags:oppose, support, hanoi, meat, packing, plant, soldiers, vietcong, death, carnage, elroy