The Things They Carried Vietnam Essay - 1571 Words

How Society Influences Man: Tim O Brien in Vietnam Tim O Brien s novel The Things They Carried is meant to display the effects of Vietnam on both American soldiers as well as the boys they once were. Vietnam is a society where human decency is left behind, and death is embraced as either a joke or an escape--where the horrors of reality are turned comical and exaggerated in order to keep going. Tim O Brien shows how Vietnam turns him from a boy unknowing of death, to a young man unwilling to face it, to a soldier laughing in the face of it, to a veteran unwilling to leave it behind, and finally, to an author left to make sense of it all. Before describing the effects of Vietnam, first it is necessary to know how Tim O Brien was†¦show more content†¦By this point, he is a different person than he was as a child, a college graduate with a distaste for the Vietnam war like many other American citizens of the time. He believes himself to be too smart, too compassionate, too everything for the war (O Brien 26). By being forced to war by a draft board, he rages against having no options and the unfairness of it all---he revels in his righteousness, his feeling of being wronged, and uses this to help convince himself that he has every right to run from Vietnam. O Brien convinces himself he has every right to run from death, yet still managed to be divided when it came to actually getting up to run. Thus, when he abandons his little town to flee to Canada and escape the war, his constant juggle between doing what was expected of him and doing what would keep him alive is the conflict between the young boy clinging t o Linda alive and healthy and the soldier he will soon have to become. In the end, his fear of facing the disappoint of his family and peers is too great, and he returns home to face the war. While this decision is what gets him to Vietnam, however, it is not the decision that alters him forever. No, it is Vietnam that sheds away both the little boy O Brien once was and the righteous college graduate who feared his town s judgement. Vietnam, in a way, is much like a person, and how it adapts to affect individuals is beneficial to understanding how it changed O BrienShow MoreRelatedComparison of the Vietnam War and in The Things They Carried Essay1792 Words   |  8 PagesIn the twentieth century many young adults and many other men were chosen/ drafted to enter the war. The Vietnam War started during the time period of 1959 and this brutal war ended on 1975. It started with the United States sending aid and military advisors to the Southern part Vietnam. The U.S helped the southerners of Vietnam because the northern part of Viet was a communist state so the south wanted to end Communism up in the north. Also, this war was said to be one of the bloodiest wars thatRead MoreThe Vietnam War in The Things They Carried by Tim O ´brien Essay796 Words   |  4 PagesThe Vietnam War. A war that many Americans believed unfair and unnecessary. â€Å"Why am I being sent off to fight in a war I don’t know anythin g about? Will I ever return again?† Many draftees asked themselves these questions hoping to find comfort in the answers. But there was little to no hope, and they knew it. They were being drafted and they could do absolutely nothing about it, only hope that at the end they would be returning to the enlightened faces of their loved ones, something that not manyRead MoreEssay about The Things they Carried Symbolism772 Words   |  4 Pages The Things They Carried: Essay Prompt Two Tim O’Brien writes about both the physical objects they carry as well as their emotional burdens. The objects that these soldiers carry serve as a symbolism for what they are carrying in their hearts and minds. 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In the book The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien twists the idea of what is foreign to the common soldier in Vietnam. The opposite happens too, what was so familiar not too long ago back home seems almost completely unknown to them now. O’Brien even shows similarities between the American soldiers and the Viet-Cong. In the Vignette the â€Å"ManRead MoreWhen is war justified715 Words   |  3 Pageslook back at themself and wonder, â€Å"Was it worth all the lives we lost in battle?† The Vietnam War is a common reminder of a Humanitarian War that caused many people to look back and wonder if it was worth it. Imagine if you were chosen to fight in the Vietnam War. The thought of losing your life in a war that was fought out of national liberation would be terrifying to most. In the book, The Things They Carried, the chapter â€Å"On the Rainy River† is the perfect examination of a young man who has beenRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Things They Carried 1409 Words   |  6 PagesDenali Dickson Butler July 22, 2014 Long Form I. The Author and His Times: 1. Birth- October 1, 1946 to present 2. The Things They Carried was published January 1, 1990. This novel discusses stories from the Vietnam War, written many years afterwards. The book shares stories from several different people during the war and shares the truth as they remember it. 3. The factor that influenced the author in his decision to publish this novel was his desire to share his stories with the world. StoriesRead MoreAnalysis Of Tim O Brien s The Things They Carried Essay997 Words   |  4 PagesXizhao Liu(Amber) American Literature Essay #3 Nov. 11, 2016 Male love in The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a fictional book consisting of different stories from Vietnam war. Tim O’Brien was trying to convey the real perspectives of the war to his readers by telling facts and stories through his personal memories he got from the war, and how things effect them and their life after the war. In order to express the tension in the war, O’Brien depicts the experience of