Blog #91 – Vietnam
Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, focuses on the members of Alpha Company as they hump across Vietnam and also how they dealt with civilian life (“Speaking of Courage”). 
1. The things that the soldiers carried in battle were not just physical things but mental / emotional as well. Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck as a comforter. But after the war is over and done with, the soldiers, like Lt. Cross, carry guilt and pain around with them.
2. The novel is also about truth, especially with the story, “How to Tell a True War Story,” which seems contradictory in many cases. But maybe that’s what the truth really is in a war-time environment – unclear.
3. The novel also captures loneliness and isolation experienced by the American soldiers while in the Vietnamese jungle. Though the soldiers are surrounded by their comrades in arms, many don’t feel a connection to each other. Could this be because they’ve been drafted into a war they don’t want to fight? Or that war is the most loneliest experience – do or die on the battlefield?
4. How does shame or the idea of letting another person down motivate Tim and other soldiers in the stories?
“They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.”
1. As you get deeper and deeper into the book, it quickly becomes apparent that the title, The Things They Carried, had a deeper meaning than one might expect. The Things They Carried references not only the excessive gear that the humped across the jungle, but also the emotional baggage that they carried with them during (and long after) the war. Each individual had something of a comfort item that they liked to carry along with them; Lieutenant Cross carried letters and a small pebble that a girl gave him, Henry Dobbins carried with him his girlfriend’s pantyhose, Ted Lavender carried dope to calm his mind. Everyone carried pounds and pounds of gear. Some of it made them feel better, but most of it weighed them down. However, the emotional baggage that they carried is far heavier. As Tim O’Brien describes his feelings after he killed somebody for the first time, it’s apparent to the reader how terrifying and scaring that moment was, though the reader can never truly understand his experiences. All of the men had baggage like this, sometimes from killing a person, sometimes from watching their best friend die, or sometimes from the guilt that game after burning down and killing an entire village. Unlike the physical things they carried, the emotional burden cannot be put down.
3. O’Brien makes it very clear that war is incredibly lonely. Even though he might be surrounded by a bunch of other soldiers that are his same age and even quite similar to himself, there is a clear lack of connection between the men. I think that this is due to the fact that their minds are too preoccupied to be focused on building relationships with their comrades. These majority of these men are terrified and the number one thing on their minds is likely whether or not they might be about to step on a landmine and die. When they aren’t worried about that, the might be worrying about their family and everything they left behind at home. And while all of this is happening, they’re wondering what they are even doing fighting in a war that they didn’t want. There was far too much stuff on their minds to form close connections and feel not-lonely.
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is one of the first books that I’ve been assigned recently that I actually enjoyed reading. I think what made me like it so much is that it feels as if O’Brien himself is sitting across from you telling stories about the war. The book does a great job of helping the reader understand the complexity of the characters and how their lives are impacted by the war. The reader really connects with the characters and wants to see them succeed. Most of all, it being a war story, there is a constant feeling of suspense that makes you want to keep reading.
2. Truth is a prominent theme that has tended to snake its way through every chapter of this novel thus far. In the story, “How to tell a true war story,” it reared its head in a way that I have never seen/read before. This particular story implicates multiple events that had actually happened and events that have been made up. This chapter asks the reader a simple question of how do you decide what’s real and what is fake. Even if you see a gory or violent event with your own eyes how can you tell if it’s real and not just your subconscious shielding you away from the brutal reality and making you remember a lie to you. “How to Tell a True War Story,” answers that question later. It tells you not to believe a thing about a war story that leaves with hope in humanity and makes you feel triumph in what that person achieves because, then you know you were not told the true story. It tells you that you, the reader, needs to believe only the stories that leave wondering if what just came out of that person’s mouth was actually the truth. A story that does not require a question of whether the story was true, because a story that needs the same question may also have the same false fate. The truth that is given at the end of this story is that everyone that has gone to war interprets and rationalizes the same gruesome things in different ways, so there is never a fully true war story. The story tells us that when you think a war story is horrific and that it must have been terrible for that person in reality that person may not see it as simple as that. As a way to cope they may have even reduced or glorified the story to something that has a far bigger meaning than one of horror, but one of beauty. A story that has so much dread must have a broader meaning, there must be something in the bigger picture or even a smaller picture. Like that terrible story led to more security against presidents who want to rush to war. Or a smaller picture like that terrible thing had to have happen because if it did not the rest of the group would not have been able to truly appreciate the colors of the changing sky as the sun came floating down or that the same terrible day was washed away with the ripples in nearby glowing river. All of those things Tim O’Brien described led to what it means to him on how tell a true war story.
3. Loneliness and isolation are perfectly caputure in this novel by Tim O’Brien. O’Brien never conceals the fact than millions of American Veteran feel those exact emotions despite being surrounded by others that felt the same way in Vietnam. Fighting in a war has a way of dividing those who are in the same fight and making it hard for them to try to connect because they are under such tremendous pressures of their country. Many soldiers tried their best to keep to themselves in the war in an effort guard themselves from the terrifying fact that anyone of them could die at any second. Many of the soldiers that fought in the Vietnam War did not believe in it, but they had a civic duty to their country to fight. I believe this is one of the reasons that soldiers don’t feel a connection to each other because many didn’t believe in the same things. I also believe that war is one of the most lonely experiences that one can go through. Soldiers on a day to day basis are forced to commit terrible acts that go against not only their beliefs but also their morals. In this way I believe that many soldiers don’t want to connect with their comrades because if they do, they have to face the reality that they and their friends had done individually terrible things like having to kill another human being and not as a whole like how they attempted to help America save South Vietnam from communism.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien really broadened my expectation of what life was like for the soldiers during the Vietnam War. I really enjoyed the way this novel was written and how O’Brien not only included stories about the war, but also shared his side of the story of what it took for him to join the war. I liked how he pointed out the contradictories he had to face about the war. Like how he didn’t believe in it and how it was a truly ugly, struggle for him to succumb to his pride and fight in a war he didn’t believe in. Each story the author told flowed in harmony and made me want to learn more about what happened to each character. I also enjoyed how the author went back and forth in time periods because it showed how his life now to contrasted to how it was when he was younger.
1. After reading a good chunk of The Things They Carried, it becomes evident that the title is not only referring to the gear in their backpacks (which is what I originally thought it to be), but also emotions, good luck charms, and calming items. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, of the Alpha Company, carries various reminders of his love for Martha, a girl from his college in New Jersey who has given no indication of returning his love. Cross carries her letters in his backpack and her good-luck pebble in his mouth. Other men carry things of their own. Tim O’Brian carries his girlfriend’s pantyhose due to his suspiciousness, Ted Lavender carries marijuana and tranquilizers to calm himself down, and Kiowa, a religious man, carries a bible gifted to him by his father. During and after the war, their emotional backpacks grow bigger. Whether it’s Jimmy Cross feeling responsible for Lavender’s death, Tim O’Brian’s feeling when he shot someone for the fist time or seeing someone die in front of their eyes, whether it be someone they are friends with or don’t know at all, these events are traumatizing and can really affect a man. And these aren’t things that just disappear after the war ends. No, these are things that you take with you, in your emotional backpack, to your grave.
2. Before O’Brian tells “How to Tell a True War Story”, he tells the reader that it’s all true. O’Brien says sometimes a true war story cannot be believed because some of the most unbearable parts are true, while some of the normal parts are not. He also explains that some war stories are just impossible to tell. There is not much truth in the war. These boys are drafted and thrown in almost blindly. O’Brian continues to talk about his problem of finding no truth in the was by making a generalization. He says that though the war is hell, it is also many other contradictory things. He then goes on to say that no true war story is absolutely, 100% true.
The Things They Carried is a very interesting story. In class, we learn about the wars, the battles, the economics, even how the people on the homefront feel, but never about the people in the war itself. I like that we are able o get a look into what the soldiers are going through, so we can further our understanding of what is going on and what people are fighting for. Also, we learned that not everyone who was drafted wanted to go, but I found it especially interesting that people were willing to shoot themselves to get out of it. In general, I enjoy the book and like the “live look in” aspect.
1. The things they carried shows both mental and physical things they carry during their time in service. This gives the reader of the book a very clear and detailed description of not only obviously the things the soldiers carried but this also tells the reader about their personalities based on what they carry. Some physical things like Henry Dobbins girlfriends pantyhose that he wears around his neck to keep him mentally comfortable in battle. While other things can be mental and not as good as something like Henry Dobbins things he carries. For instance Lt. Cross carries around guilt, pain, and sorrow for thinking he was the cause of the loss of a fellow soldier he knew. Both of these things you could also argue to be both mental and physical things because even though some of the things are physically there, they serve a mental purpose and when some things are mental, they can physically be with the person in many forms and can also inform the reader of the characters characteristics and past based on just some simple physical, mental, or both, objects.
2. As most of the novel is about truth and is truthful itself, it also can be considered contradictory. Although, this could be the real message which is telling readers that that’s what a war story is really like; unclear. This is because most of the story talks about real time experiences (with maybe a little of exaggeration but mostly true) but some stories are left without some explanations explained or truly finished, which could be leading readers to get the real message from the author that a war time story is supposed to be like this which is unclear and you don’t exactly know for sure what is going on around you.
The novel The Things They Carried really showed me a real perspective of what went on in the minds of soldiers during this time or even in general. It is described with very in depth details of every little thought that goes around in their head during their service. Also the fogginess of the story really shows you that a majority of the soldiers can become very confused about whats going on around them and that usually most of them have some sort of mental or physical item they keep with them throughout the war the participate in.
1. The soldiers in Vietnam, as described in the book, carried many things. The soldiers didn’t only carry hundreds of pounds of gear and supplies, but also carries memories and thoughts of the war in their hearts and minds. Some of the men carry items that are special to them. Dobbins carries his girlfriends pantyhose while Lieutenant Cross caries Letters and a pebble that a girl gifted him. These men also carried memories of the war and all its horror. O’Brien describes the terrifying memory of his first kill. He explains how it weights him down and made him feel terrible inside. These are the kinds of thing that weigh down the soldiers, not the pounds of gear, but the horrifying memory of killing another human being, seeing your friends die right beside you, or burning down villages with the people in them for no apparent reason.
2. In the book, Tim O’Brien talks a lot about truth. He says that sometimes the truest things are the hardest to believe. He makes this especially clear in one of his stories titled “How to Tell a True War Story”. In this story he shares a time where he had to write home about the death of a Curt Lemon. He explains how Rat Kiley wrote the sister of the fallen solider but after 3 months she still never replied. O’Brien tells us how Lemon really died, playing with a smoke grenade and then stepping on a rigged mortar. O’Brien explains how this was true, but didn’t feel true, so they wrote that he was killed in action while crossing a river. This is O’Brien going against his own word to tell the truth. He makes a more realistic, believable story to write home with. This shows the real truth in war. The real truth is not even the truth always in war, sometimes it is a false story or a edited letter home to the loved one of a fallen soldier, because in war sometimes the truth is harder to believe than the lie.
Book assessment. I really enjoyed reading the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. I liked how the stories came from a first person view of the war, and we raw and true. The war was not Glamorized, it was shared how it was, long, dark, and horrifying. I feel, unlike other war novels I have read, O’Brien does a great job of truly connecting with the reader by being brutally honest and telling the stories in a first person situation. This makes it feel like the reader is right next to O’Brien when he is telling his stories. I feel the biggest aspect of this book is the constant feeling of needing to flip the page and continue reading, making it a very interesting and suspenseful book.
1. The title, The Things They Carried, relates not only to the physical items the soldiers carried, but also emotional burdens. O’Brien explains how the soldiers trudge through the Vietnam jungles with back-breaking packs on. The soldiers carry mostly war gear, but each person has a special item that can comfort them in times of tragedy. Lt. Cross carries a girl’s photo, Tim Lavender carries extra weaponry and marijuana, and Henry Dobbins carries his girlfriends pantyhose. These items help the soldiers cope with the terrible horrors in war. Whereas the physical items the soldiers carried lasted only during war, the emotional stress last for a lifetime. O’Brien explains that war has a demoralizing factor even before it happens. When he figured out that he was drafted, O’Brien drove to Canada to try and escape the war. He met an old man who seemed to know O’Brien’s situation without talking to him. When the man was taking O’Brien to escape to Canada on his boat, O’Brien looked at the coast, and became torn on whether he would escape or go to war. He had illusions of his family and friends shaming him for not going to war, and eventually the emotional stress was too much for him, so he reluctantly went to war. Another emotional tragedy that O’Brien went through was killing a man. After he had killed the man he imagines how the man’s life would be if he wasn’t dead. He creates a whole story in his head about the man, and stares at him for hours. He also speculates the wounds inflicted on the man, and he contrasts them to the flowers next to the man. No matter what his comrades tell him, O’Brien is transfixed on the man, and he will always carry the emotional burden of that moment.
2. O’Brien explains that during the chaos of the war, the truth can be hard to comprehend. He also says that if a story has a positive ending, or is moral, then it’s not a true war story. Mitchell Sanders tells O’Brien a story of men who had a mission to go up into the mountains and listen for sounds. If they heard Viet Cong troops, they were to send an air strike. The men went into the mountains, and although there were actually no sounds, the men went crazy and thought they were hearing sounds. They ordered an air strike, and burned uninhabited land. Sanders explains that he made a few things up in the story, and that the moral was the quietness. When Curt Lemon unexpectedly dies, O’Brien seems unclear about how he died. When O’Brien tells his war stories he explains that the most unbearable parts seem like fiction, but they are the parts that are true.
The Things They Carried was a very interesting book because it told war stories from the perspective of a person in the war. O’Brien relates the items the soldiers carried to the events they endured during the war. He also explains the emotional stress placed on all the soldiers. O’Brien intrigues his readers by writing stories about different people and connecting them to their habits and lives during the war. He also goes into depth about why people join the war, and how intense the war can be. Overall, it’s a very interesting book because of the details O’Brien uses to make the reader feel like they are in his position.
1: Soldiers carried items they needed such as weapons, can openers, water, and pocketknives, but they also carried feelings and things for emotional value. Sometimes the things they carried for emotional value were more important to them than anything else they carried. For example, Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck to comfort him. Dobbins thought that the pantyhose kept him safe, and even after his girlfriend broke up with him he continued to wear it. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl he was in love with named Martha. He would fantasize about spending time with Martha and it would take his mind off the war, for better or worse. After the war was over the soldiers carried tremendous amounts of guilt and pain with them. For example, lieutenant Jimmy Cross felt responsible for the death of his soldier Ted Lavender because he was thinking more about Martha than he was of his men. Cross would carry that guilt with him even after the war was over and done with.
4: The idea of shame drives Tim and other soldiers more than any other factor in the stories. There are many reasons that Tim lists for not wanting to go to Vietnam, such as not believing in the war, but the reason that finally motivates him to go to fight is shame and embarrassment. Tim doesn’t want to be looked down upon by the people in his town and he also doesn’t want his family to be looked down upon. Tim thinks that he would be looked at as a coward if he were to flee to Canada to dodge the war. Another example of how shame motivates soldiers can be seen in the story “The Dentist.” A soldier named Curt Lemon has always had a fear of dentists, so he faints when an army dentist tries to treat him. Lemon feels immense shame over this and he feels the need to prove himself to the other soldiers, so he goes to the dentist’s tent and demands that his perfectly good tooth get pulled. Curt Lemon didn’t want the other soldiers to think he was weak or not masculine and he felt shame over passing out. That shame motivated him to get his tooth pulled, even though it was completely unnecessary.
Book Assessment: I really enjoyed reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. I thought that it was really interesting to see the human-aspect of war and how the soldiers dealt with things like guilt and shame. It’s tough to really grasp the whole magnitude of a war when hearing about it in a classroom, but after reading this book I feel like I have a better understanding of it. It was also interesting reading about things like soldiers playing catch with a grenade. Examples like this one definitely showed me that these soldiers were still just kids, even though they were fighting a war. Another thing I found interesting was how so many of the soldiers disagreed with the war and didn’t want to be fighting at all. O’Brien himself was very close to fleeing to Canada to get out of the war. O’Brien did a great job with this book, and I definitely feel like I have a better understanding of the Vietnam war and the issues that surrounded it after reading it.
1. In the book The Thing They Carried there is a deeper meaning behind the title. The soldiers carry both emotional baggage from home to emotional baggage from the war. The soldiers also carry other “good luck” charms with them as the hump through the jungle of Vietnam. Lieutenant Cross carries a picture of the woman that he loves and the letters she sends to him. He also cannot stop thinking about her. When one of the members in the group gets killed (Ted Lavender) he blames himself for his death. He burns her letters and her picture. Cross thinks that because he was thinking about Martha and only thinking about her he was not paying attention to the group and Lavender got killed because of it. This mentally messed him up for a long time. Rat Riley is another person that carries big emotional baggage. When Curt Lemons was killed (who became Riley’s best friend) Riley kind of lost it. He shot up a baby buffalo because of Lemon’s death. Lemon’s death is also a big reason why O’Brien gets flash backs to the war. But they all carry real objects like guns, snacks, or a lucky charm. Henry Dobbins carries his girlfriend’s underwear around his neck every day. And when the group is in any kind of trouble he puts it over his face. Even when she breaks up with him his still wears it. Even when the war is over the emotional baggage will always follow the members of the Alpha Company.
2. Truth is what makes a war story. In the part “How to Tell a True War Story” O’Brien writes about what makes a war story true. He says that the really strange parts and the parts that seem like total lies make it true. That just saying “war is hell” is not completely true because it is more than hell. O’Brien says that he could tell a war story a thousand times and still might not get exactly what happened but a person should get what happened. The stuff that would get edited out is what makes the story true. The stuff that not normally what a person would say makes the story true. The stories may seem out there and made up but that is how that person saw it. And that is in some cases how it happened. No matter how a story is told things are unclear by that is how it is kind of supposed to be.
I think that The Things They Carried is a really marvelous book. I feel like I am truly getting to see what happened to Alpha Company as they served their time in Vietnam. I get to understand their emotions and how they reacted to the war. It is the uncensored version. The story that kind of actually happened. I have learned more about what went on in the war. And I get to see what it was like to be there. To mentally be in Vietnam humping through the jungle. I find this story intriguing and I would recommend this book to anyone. It is well-written and I feel like it captures what the group went through in Vietnam really well.
Book Assessment: In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien many interesting stories of war come about that I thoroughly enjoyed. Although we have not yet finished the book, through the portents we have read I have been very interested. Some stories show the sadness and pain of war, but some show the good and fun times of war. The book really puts into perspective how horrid yet enlightening the war was for the U.S soldiers and the experiences they went through. O’Brien uses a very laid back and almost “teenage” vocabulary throughout the book which is very fascinating and helps me relate. His simplicity in stories makes it so the reader can easily understand what is going on through the most complicated events. The book helps me connect with what we are learning in class and helps me understand better how America was involved in war along with other things. When O’Brien goes into the more violent and horrifying scenes he doesn’t hold back. He is brutally honest and really gives you the full perspective.
3.) I feel that soldiers feel lonely and isolated n many cases during war even though they are surrounded by many other people because they do not want to make strong connections with their soldiers. If one of their friends were t die during battle that feeling would be much worse then just having another one of the soldiers die next to you that you do not feel a connection too. In many cases during the story friends of O’Brien die in battle and that pain and sorrow would have not been there if Tim were to make no friends in the first place. I do agree that the fact that many of the soldiers are drafted has to do with the loneliness as well. It is very hard to feel a passion for something that you are against. For many of the troops in Vietnam it must have felt very lonely and isolated because they feel that they don’t want to be there while people all around them are excited to be fighting for their country. Lastly I feel that the fact that you go out their everyday in a do or die situation makes the soldiers feel isolated. It was very hard for people to have that idea everyday that they probably will die the next day or one of their comrades would.
4.) The feeling of shame or letting someone down has a lot to do Tim and other soldiers motivation in many of the stories. One example of this is when O’Brien is heavily considering jumping off of an old man’s boat and going to Canada to be free of war because he opposes it. Out of the sheer feeling that he will let many people down and he will be at shame if he doesn’t go to war e decides against it and goes into war after he is drafted. The quote given shows how many of the soldiers fought in the war with the fearing of disappointing their fellow Americans and would rather die knowing they didn’t disappoint people that live disappointing people. It was very difficult for men to not join the war in many places in the US. If almost every man in your town joins up ad you don’t it makes you look like a coward, this drove many Anti-war Americans to join the war. In one of the stories it talks about how people would intentionally injure themselves just s they could go home and to the hospitals where it was much better than the battlefield. Not many soldiers did this because it made yowl like a coward in front of your fellow troops who are also risking their lives every day.
1. Just like in the title of the book, the people within the book carried many things on their journey throughout Vietnam, and even after. Some of the men physically carried many items with them. These items ranged from basic necessities such as survival gear, to marijuana. Some bring items that they have emotional connections to such as Cross, and Martha’s letters, or Dobbins’ girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck. Some of these emotional connections are what keep these men mentally put together for their journey. After the war these men contracted something they didn’t bring to the war, its horrifying and guilt filled memories. Some Men carry the guilt of killing innocent civilians, some men have the terrifying memories of watching their friends, and brothers at war, die next to them bringing a dark pain that they will have to carry in their “backpack” forever.
2. Truth is used many times throughout the book, but most prominently in “How to Tell a True War Story”. The author makes sure that you know that what he is about to say is true by telling you in the beginning of the chapter. He makes sure you know it’s true because although the chapter could have extremely horrible, terrible, and cruel moments, the author wants you to know that in this war environment all these events are possible. The real truth is that, in this environment, these men’s heads have been changed forever, possibly changing the view on what happened, the only ones who know the real truth, are the people who experienced it at that very moment.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien really opened your eyes to what life in the war was like. Not only did e show you what it looked and felt like, he also gave you an idea of the entire experience. He showed you how people in the war thought, talked, what they brought, how they acted towards each other, their connections. Another gem within this book is that it is so bluntly realistic that it describes not only the good, but also the bad, with, death, insanity, more death, and more insanity. It gave you a good perspective on what it is like to be in the war. Overall it is a wonderful book, and one of my top choices on war based novels
1. The title of the book The Things They Carried not only refers to the physical objects that the soldiers carried, but also emotional thoughts. Many of the physical items carried were used as comforters. However, many of the mental thoughts were not for comfort, they could have been burdens. Many of these mental thoughts that were carried remained with the soldiers, even after the war. In the first story of the book many of these physical and emotional items were explained. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, most of the soldiers also carried photographs.
3. Isolation within the soldiers stationed in Vietnam was captured by the author because of the author’s explanation of past experiences. O’Brien emphasizes the lack of connection of the soldiers though the soldier’s past experiences and ambitions. I think the reason that the soldiers are not making connections is because they are too preoccupied thinking about other things that appear to be more important to them. Most of the soldiers were drafted for the war, so their mind is not put towards fighting. Instead, many of the soldiers would often be thinking about what they left behind at home. The soldiers were lonely because their top priorities were not about making friends with the other soldiers, they were instead worrying about what they had left behind.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is one of the few books about war that I have read. O’Brien did a good job at truthfully expanding my knowledge of soldier’s experiences during the Vietnam War. The authors past experiences during the war helped him achieve an extreme amount of detail in his writing. I have never previously thought about the feelings of the soldiers that were drafted for the war. I enjoyed reading this book a lot, much more than some other books that I have read for school.
1. Throughout the book, you can start to truly see that the title, The Things They Carried, had a strong meaning to it. The Things They Carried refers to the physical items they have in their packs, and also the emotional instability and burden that the have. Each individual had an item that they liked to carry along with them; Lieutenant Cross carried letters and a small pebble that a girl gave him, Henry Dobbins carried with him his girlfriend’s pantyhose, Ted Lavender carried dope to calm his mind. These items helped the soldiers feel better and more at home. Everyone carried pounds and pounds of gear. Some of it made them feel better, but most of it weighed them down. For example, when they talk about all of the pointless military gear they may or may not use. However, the emotional baggage that they carried is far heavier. As Tim O’Brien describes his feelings after he killed somebody for the first time, it’s visible to the reader how scaring and terrifying that moment was, though the reader can never truly comprehend his traumatic experiences. All of the men had “baggage” like this, sometimes from killing a person, sometimes from watching their best friend die, or sometimes from the guilt that game after burning down and killing an entire village. Unlike the physical things they carried, the emotional burden can never be taken off.
3. O’Brien makes it clearly known that the war was incredibly lonely. Although he might have been surrounded by a bunch of other soldiers that are close in age and enjoy similar things, there was still a feeling of loneliness throughout the soldiers. I think that this is due to the soldiers being too caught up or busy with other war time things to try and make friends. Most of the soldiers were terrified and were always thinking about their own death, whether it is from an unseen landmine or a hidden Viet Cong fighter. If they soldiers aren’t thinking about this, they are most likely thinking about the loved ones they miss that they had to leave behind for this war. And while all of this is happening, they’re wondering what they are even doing fighting in a war that they didn’t want. The soldiers were too preoccupied to try and make friendships during the harsh Vietnam War.
Personally, I really enjoyed this book. This is due to the fact the O’Brien maintains his own voice throughout the entire book. It feels as if he, himself, if telling the story and we are listening to a first hand account. I also like this book because I am personally a fan of war books. For example, last year when we read “If I Die In a Combat Zone”, I really enjoyed reading that book too.
1. The things the soldiers carried, both mental and physical (like Lt. Cross’ pebble from his girlfriend and Dobbins’ girlfriend’s pantyhose), were reminders of the things that made them happy in their pre-war lives. Those things gave the soldiers a boost in morale because they believed them to be good-luck charms and life savers. In addition, the physical aspects of the things they carried were reminders of what they could look forward to if they came home alive and well. The mental aspects of the things they carried were almost every emotion such as grief, happiness, sorrow, pain, anger, and stress. Many of the emotional aspects of the men are negative as a result of the stresses of the daily life of a Vietnam-era soldier such as marching, combat, searching villages, taking on casualties, and the loss of close friends. That is why many of the men in the platoon are overcome with guilt and pain after the war because the scariest, deadliest, and saddest parts of war are what stick with them the most and stick with them the longest, because the only people they feel they can talk to are those who were there to witness what happened since they saw what happened and understand the circumstances of that situation.
3. Though the soldiers are surrounded by their comrades in arms, many of them feel lonely not just because of fear of dying on the battlefield, but also because they feel they cannot relate to their fellow soldiers. Each man has his own story and background, and despite the fact he may share some things in common with one or two of his comrades, he may never know that because he and his fellow soldiers do not talk about their pre-war lives. In addition, each soldier believes he cannot be friends with a fellow comrade because one of them (or both, which may be better) may end up dead or wounded and survive but lose a limb or some other body part in the process, the soldier who survived will grieve his friend’s new condition and force himself to believe he could have done something to save his friend, which could lead to, in one way or another, stress or PTSD. This is what we have seen in many cases with veterans who come back from Vietnam and in the Middle East.
The Things They Carried is a fantastic book. Anyone can read about the daily routine of the average American soldier in Vietnam, but to understand it is an entirely different subject. O`Brien’s writing style allows readers to really get a sense of what each character was going through in many different situations and understand why they feel that way by describing what the characters were thinking in a manner that is easy to understand and grasp.. His description of the norms of combat in Vietnam help the reader understand the reasons for why soldiers did things like shoot animals, blow up puppies with claymores (the best part, BTW) and injure themselves. Many people will never understand what service in Vietnam was like, but The Things They Carried is most likely the closest one can get.
1. The title The Things They Carried does not only refer to the physical belongings that the soldiers carried but it also refers to the mental and emotional things that they carry with them as well. All soldiers carry physical belongings with them such as photographs of their families, letters from their families, their girlfriend’s pantyhose and all their weapons and necessities for the war. They don’t only carry these things though. They carry memories they have had whether they are good or bad. Although the physical things that the soldiers carry are very heavy, some soldiers mental and emotional things that they carry are even heavier. Some soldiers have good memories like fun times with their family and this gets them through the war and some soldiers have bad memories like a death in the family and they struggle in the war because it is so hard for them. These soldiers carry many things and they are not just physical.
3. I feel that it is hard for soldiers to make friendships and connect with people during the war and therefore they are lonely. The soldiers have so much on their mind whether it is from before the war or during the war. They are so preoccupied with whats happening in front of them that they are not able to make friendships with the soldiers around them. They are worried more about dying than making friendships. These soldiers are worried about getting shot and killed and never see their family and friends again. It is also hard to make friendships when you are doing something that you don’t want to be doing and you don’t know why you are doing it. There is just so much on their minds that they can’t make strong friendships.
I really enjoyed The Things They Carried because it was so suspenseful and well written. This was one of the first books that have been assigned to me that I have actually liked. I loved the stories that were told and I thought that they were so interesting. I didn’t know what being in a war was like and what the soldiers had to go through but now I know what it was like. It gave so much detail about what happened in the soldiers life and showed me what these men are doing to save this country. This book helped me understand the life of the soldiers in the war much better and I would love to finish reading it some time and read some more of the stories. I would definitely recommend this book.
1. The soldiers carried much more than just what they had been given by the military. They had been given more than a few explosives and guns; they were given a war. And they were given all that comes with war. Tim himself was given the guilt of having brutally killed a man during that man’s first day in the war. Rat Kiley was given loneliness and anger when Curt Lemon was killed by a mine. And he took it out on a baby water buffalo by shooting non-fatally until it bled out. He also was given more anger and pain when he slaved over a note explaining his relationship to Curt’s sister and she didn’t respond to him. Henry Dobbins carried the grief of losing his girlfriend because he wasn’t around her enough. Jimmy Cross carried the guilt of one of his men, Ted Lavender, being shot due to his relaxedness. And they all carried the stress of living in the middle of the Vietnam War, living as people with real emotions and lives, but were seen as things that the government use to win a war without the support of the American people.
2. Truth, as we all know, is constantly bent and broken. During war, truth acts as space does; it can be shaped and molded around something without truly changing what’s happening. Despite the falsehoods of war stories, they focus on something bigger than war. They all focus on people’s relations to each other as a whole. And the reason the truth is so exaggerated as true in the novel is to tell you just the opposite; it’s trying to tell you that the feelings of war are true, not the stories. That’s why real war stories don’t have a theme. They don’t focus on feeling, but on fact. And truthfully, it was feelings, not facts, that the soldiers carried.
The Things They Carried is a book that is relatable not because it so desperately tries to be relatable, but because it appeals to emotion through actions rather than just plain emotion. For example, in English right now I am reading a novel called Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. The novel focuses so heavily on teenage angst and depression and etc. etc. that it makes the book dull and uninteresting. However, The Things They Carried is written in a way that purely and simply explains war and what was happening, without caring about its relatability, which is what real life is like, therefore allowing the novel to be much more relatable than Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Overall, I think that The Things They Carried is a very excellent novel, and my only regret is I don’t have enough time to finish it.
3. The novel captures the loneliness that many of the soldiers feel during their time in the jungle. In my opinion, even though there are many soldiers in one group, they feel no connection to each other because they don’t want to get attached. They don’t want to lose someone they are attached to because then it makes the loss much harder for them. They feel like they are obliged to his death even though they have no attachment to that person. I also think that they aren’t connected to each other because they don’t all share the same fighting spirit. There are 9 nine types of intimacies and one of them is common-cause. All the soldiers that are there have different backgrounds and are in Vietnam for different reasons. During the war I feel like the soldiers didn’t want to think about their pasts lives before the war, causing them to form their own little bubble around themselves. They didn’t like the reminder that they had to leave something or someone important behind. An example of that would be Lt. Cross. He thought that the reason Ted Lavender died was because of him not paying attention to the issue at hand, and not the sniper that was hiding. And after that Lt. Cross decided not to think about his past life.
4.The shame of the idea of letting another person down motivates Tim and the other soldiers in the story to shield themselves, become paranoid, and pushes them to do everything right and carefully. Taking Lt. Cross as an example of this, he didn’t pay attention and didn’t do exactly what he was supposed to do. By doing so, he let Lavender down and allowed Lavender to be shot. This caused him to forget about the thing that motivated him to stay alive and focus on beating the Viet Congs. He became obsessed with repaying Ted somehow even though he was dead, because none of them wanted to let down their brothers in arm. Which I kind of find funny because none of them want a connection with each other yet they don’t want to let each other down.
The Things They Carried was a very inspirational and emotional book. I feel like even people who don’t like history would enjoy this book. Because you never know what will happen next and because you know this book was written to accurately portray the people in war. The mental and emotional turmoils that they all had to go through is deeper and probably something we will never experience, but the author allows you to look into their mind and see what they see and feel. It’s easy to understand and there are deeper meanings to everything in this book. O’Brien shows the way the soldiers dealt with the hardships and mental turmoils during the war. It had such a real sense to it that I don’t think why anybody would dislike it.
1. The Things They Carried depicts images of both physical and mental things that the soldiers carry whilst away at war in Vietnam. The descriptions in this novel give the reader a very clear view into the mind of a soldier on the front line. What also develops their personalities are the actual things they carry. An example of a physical thing is Henry Dobbin’s girlfriend’s pantyhose. He carries this along with him because it comforts him during battle. It reminds him of love and home which gets him through the struggles of war. It gives him mental reassurance that he will return home. A mental thing that is carried is grief. Especially for Lt. Cross, grief is a huge influence. Cross believes that he was the cause of death for another soldier which brings him pain, grief and mental instability. One could argue that both of these carried things are mental because even if an item is physically there, it can serve a mental purpose. Also, some mental scars can come from a physical thing, like a gash, wound or a life changing experience.
3. Tim O’Brien makes it crystal clear that was is horribly lonely. Even though a soldier is surrounded by tons of other soldiers that could possibly just like himself, there is not a deep connection between the men. I believe this is caused by the fact that they cannot create a deep connection because their minds are focused on survival and the fighting. They have to worry constantly if they are going to die. They are completely scared. If they do make a connection with someone they could possibly lose it because of death. When they aren’t worrying about living or dying, they have to think about their families and what they left back at home. Soldiers worry about the life they left behind because that is also changing as well. They also wonder why they are even there when they don’t want to be. Loneliness was inevitable because of their constant worrying would not leave them enough time to bond and not feel lonely.
4. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien showed me a real perspective of soldiers during war in Vietnam. It is described in great detail which is really important to the story and understanding Vietnam as a whole. Reading this book was very enjoyable and was one of the few school books I have read that I actually enjoyed a lot. The style of the book makes you feel like the story is right there in front of you and that you are apart of it. The book develops the characters and their lives outside of the battle. The book constantly gives you a feeling of suspense and makes you want to keep reading till the end. I would definitely recommend this book to friends who want to understand Vietnam or just who want an interesting read.
1. Throughout the story, there is a big emphasis on the things that the soldiers carry. These things may be physical objects such as guns, ammo, explosives, jackets and food that they carry, or as they say, hump, through the juggles of Vietnam. These physical things weigh a lot , but there are other things that the soldiers had to carry. The soldiers had to carry mental and emotional things into war with them as well. For example, the soldiers would have to carry the grief and guilt of watching someone die in front of you. This is shown in the when Ted Lavender is shot and the guilt that Lieutenant Cross feels about his death and how Rat Kiley writes a letter explaining the loss of his friend Curt Lemon. The soldiers also have to carry love with them. They carry the love of people at home who they know that they might not see them again. This is shown through Lt. Crosses love of Martha. The soldiers also carry with them good luck charms to make them feel better about surviving. Lt. Cross has a pebble from Martha, Dave Jensen had a rabbits foot and Henry Dobbins had his girlfriend’s pantyhose. The soldiers in Vietnam would also carry a fake fearlessness to find their real fear they carried. They would do this by appearing more manly, funny or prideful. They wouldn’t just carry these mental and physical things, they would carry disease and other illnesses from Vietnam. The mental and emotional things that they carried often had more weight on the soldier than the physical things. Some of the mental things they carried would be carried the rest of their lives as well.
2. Truth in a time of war can be very unclear. In the war, the truth was what actually happened to that person and what they believe actually took place, even if it didn’t actually happen. Also in war, the truth can often be unbelievable. The truth in the war is what seems to have happened, not what actually happened. This can cause the truth to become very unclear, as there are things that actually happened that didn’t seem to happen. The truth can be very hard to tell if it actually happened. Like the war itself for the soldiers, the truth can be unclear and confusing.
The book, “The Things they Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a very good book. Despite the book being fictional, it still seems very true to what a soldier does and thinks about. The book gives a different perspective on the war, not just about death tolls and missions, but a personal level and not facts and figures. I liked this book because it gives a true description of inside the war. It is told using the simple truth of what a soldier thinks about things in the war, not using an outside perspective. The unique perspective of a soldier in Vietnam through the difficult times and the good times is what makes this a good story.
1. A soldier assigned to Vietnam has to carry a lot of equipment, such as several firearms, grenades, ammunition, food, medical supplies, etc. All of this can be quite heavy, but the soldiers carry far more than that. The title of the book also represents their past experiences in the war. Many of these are sad and upsetting, like the death of a comrade or the vivid description of a gory first kill. Some, however, can be exciting or even relaxing, like in “Church” when the soldiers came across the kind and generous monks. These past experiences don’t necessarily have to be bad (although they usually are, given the circumstances), and no matter how it is, they still shape each soldier’s view of the war and even life itself.
3. Tens of thousands of US troops were sent into Vietnam to fight the North and the VC, and yet the soldiers still manage to be lonely.It may seem very confusing at first, but after reading a bit of the book, it makes sense. Upon being drafted, these men left behind everything at home-their wives, their parents, their friends, and their home. No one can be absolutely sure that they will ever live to see them again, let alone go home in perfect shape. Part of the reason why home is so tantalizing is because home is safe. There is no war back home in the US, and you don’t have to worry about your son stepping on a landmine while at the playground or your brother dying in a mortar strike while he’s at work. But in Vietnam, it seems like a waste of time to make friends-after all, why would you spend hours getting to know someone well if they could easily be killed in action or transferred the next day? If anything, it seems like it would just add to your emotional burden.
Summary: The Things They Carry is a very strange book for me. The overwhelming majority of books I’ve read about war have usually been either documentaries or diaries-they focus on a single, streamlined story. In TTTC, the book is split up into short stories that are separated by time and don’t take long to read. To me, this shows how nuanced life can be. There isn’t a point in writing long and poetic stories about a battle because the exact same thing will happen tomorrow and the day after that. Not only that, but there usually aren’t magnificent battlefields and large fights like in a conventional war. A lot of counterinsurgency in Vietnam is limited to marching around in circles trying to find the VC, going home after looking for four hours, and then losing three men to a landmine on the way back. The book’s writing style shows how desperate the US was and what little progress we were making.
In the book the soldiers carried a lot of baggage with them, figuratively and literally. They carried their packs, which contained their guns, ammo, food, shelter and home all in one. The pack was said to be about 12-18 pounds. Their boots weighed about 2 pounds, their helmets about 5 pounds and their nylon-flak jacket about 6.7 and their ponchos about 2 pounds also. They each also carried their individual items that were personal to them. Some, carried extra weapons like, an M-60, which weighed about 38 pounds total. Others, carried personal items like, photographs and pantyhose, which reminded them of their families and significant others back home. They also carried the baggage of all of the lives they were taking.
Many people in America didn’t want to fight the war so it was hard to fight in the war when the citizens of your country didn’t believe in you. When the soldiers would return home people would call them “baby killers” and other derogatory terms. I believe that the soldiers were lonely and felt isolated because there were so many mixed feelings towards the war. There were soldiers who felt the war was uncalled for, some were indifferent, some were all for the war. Unlike WWll were there was a common goal to defeat the Axis powers due to the Pearl Harbor bombing. The Vietnam was quite different because many people didn’t know why we were fighting the war. I also believe the soldiers felt alone because they were in a war. When it came to war you didn’t know if you were coming back alive. Many people who came back suffered from PTSD. Others who came back, came home with missing limb leaving them disabled.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I felt like the book gave you the uncut version of the Vietnam War. The book showed you the many challenges and experiences the soldiers. They encountered many emotional and physical tribulations that affected them for life.
1. The book begins with displaying what the men serving in Vietnam carry, and the physical and emotional meaning behind these items, (hence the title, The Things They Carried). The soldiers fighting in Vietnam obviously carry pounds of war gear in their backpacks, but they also carry items that hold a clearly strong emotional meaning to them. Each soldier carries items that help them get through this tough time, whether it be something that reminds them of the people they love or something to keep them calm and maintained. However, O’Brien does a great job of portraying how truly terrifying and intense it really is to be in a warlike setting. For example, Ted Lavender carries marijuana with him to keep himself calm, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries a pebble given to him by the woman he loves, and the letters she has sent to him, although he knows deep down that she does not feel the same way back, it provides him with the hope that every man desperately clings onto during these extremely rough times. The tragic events you must endure the reader just cannot fully understand, although O’Brien does an amazing job trying to put you in their shoes, so you can understand the constant grief and pain these soldiers endure during their time in Vietnam. You may think that the title is only referring to the war gear they carry around, it makes sense to assume so, however O’Brien shows that the soldiers not only have to carry around gear to keep them alive, but experiences that cause them sadness and grief that they will never, ever forget.
3. I believe that being a soldier in a war can be one of the most loneliest experiences any person ever has to experience. You are constantly fighting for your life, and the lives of others, despite the action possibly going against your faith, or your morals. Clearly displayed, some of these men would rather be anywhere else in the world than fighting in this war. I believe that for most men, it is easier to not make connections with other men just for the simple fact that if you make a friend there, there is a very high likelihood that he will lose his life, and that is just more pain and grief that you in the end, will have to endure. Lots of the men fighting in the war are also there just because if they had not went, they would’ve been embarrassed. Most of these men did not want to even be in this war, and I believe that that in itself is another reason that these men feel so isolated and lonely.
This novel, The Things They Carried, has really expanded my knowledge of what the true experience of the Vietnam War was. When I learn things in class, sometimes it is hard for me to believe that there were real people fighting in this war, and every single person there has a family back home, people they love, things they love, and each person fighting in that war is there for a sole purpose: to win, and to make it home. I truly enjoy this book, I continuously want to keep reading. O’Brien gives the readers a real experience while reading this book, it feels like you are right there with the characters in the story as he tells them one by one. The way he recalls the stories with the extremely clear details provides me, and any reader, with a perfect image of what it is like to be thrown into a war you don’t want to be in.a
1. When people talk about the things they carry, they talk about the physical things. People don’t think about the mental things that comes along with going to war. Soldiers carry personal items with them as well, again both mental and physical. Ted Lavender, a solider who was killed an action, carried around dope to numb what he was dealing. Lt. Cross carried around with him a picture of a girl he met and fell in love with but he struggled with fact that she might not love him back. Soldiers carry the mental weights of the people they kill. Jim talked about a man he killed and how he stayed and studied the body for a long time. Lt. Cross told him to walk away and stop thinking about it but he struggled with doing that. They carry pounds and pounds of heavy artillery and supplies but soldiers also carry pounds and pounds of mental baggage. When they leave the battle field all that physical weight goes away but in the book it tells about how the mental stuff never really does. Jim talks about how he never told his family about a lot of the things that happened in while he was in Vietnam. This shows that a lot of the mental things never really leave anyone who has been in combat.
3. War is a lonely thing that soldiers have to face. As explained in the book, they spend every day almost the same doing about the same thing. Although they have people there to talk to, everyone is left to their thoughts which can make anywhere seem lonely. In the book, O’Brian describes how in many cases they have to be silent to hear what is happening while they are waiting for something. Many people are not worried about making friends with the other people in their patrol and more worried about keeping safe. O’Brian tells us stories about people who become friends in the battle field and how when something happens it’s hard to move on. Sometimes with that it’s better to stay unattached.
I think this is a very good book. Sure, it’s sad and holds some depressing things but overall it’s well written and factual. I am a book person and I read one or two books every week. I haven’t read a book about the Vietnam War, let alone a book with personal experience of it. I enjoy to read things like this and learn about wars like Vietnam through personal experiences. Reading about what O’Brian went through in deciding whether or not he was going to run away or stay to fight in Vietnam was something that I didn’t think people did. I know that it was a bad war and that people weren’t really with it. Since we didn’t read any primary sources from the soldiers, it was nice to hear about what the soldiers thought about all of this.
2. War is different for everyone. The soldiers that undergo a war experience will tell you that it is indescribable. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story”, O’Brien starts out by saying “this is true.” O’Brien says this because what happens in a war is unimaginable to people that have not experienced a war. Soldiers all have different takes on war, but each story is shocking in its own way. O’Brien also says that a true war story is never moral. War does not teach lessons or make you a better person, and if you hear a war story that seems moral or causes you to feel uplifted, then it is false. O’Brien explains that war is evil or hell, and that war is embarrassing, demoralizing, and unclear.
3. O’Brien does a great job capturing the loneliness and helplessness of a war. Although the soldiers have each other, and are fighting for our country, many soldiers don’t feel a connection. One reason for this is that many soldiers got drafted. They didn’t want to be in the war and they don’t feel proud fighting for our country. Another reason is that many soldiers feel uneasy about what they are doing. Many soldiers are going against their morals or religion, which causes a feeling of disarray. War is the loneliest experience a man can have. There is always the fear of knowing you or any of your comrades could die at any moment, and many soldiers aren’t even sure who they are fighting.
In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien does a great job giving the reader a sense of what war is really like. I personally enjoyed the book because it came from a perspective of someone in the war. O’Brien allowed me to picture the war in my head, and he does a good job explaining the mental strain that goes on. This book is very different from most books that I have read, but the detail and perspective of the book makes it a fantastic book.
2. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien eloquently describes the virtue of truth and how the situations and conditions soldiers are in during a war, namely Vietnam, can alter how one defines truth. One of the most prominent soldiers in O’Brien’s book was Rat Kiley, a man who stretches the truth noticeably every time he tells the story. His purpose in doing this is to make the story more personal, to transfer the emotions and feelings he experienced to the listener. While some people may interpret this as lying, it heightens the suspense of the story and opens a door to the listener that would otherwise be shut forever. Kiley may be showing how to tell a true war story. If he just stuck to the facts every time he told his stories, there would be no one else that would hear it or feel it and such high stakes. Another way to interpret Kiley’s impossible detail is to say that Kiley may not remember the event clearly. While at war, everything is heightened: stakes, feelings, thoughts. A soldier experiencing a life or death situation may remember the story more extreme than it truly was when looking back on it. Either way, by expanding the details and stretching the truth, Kiley gives a new insight on war and its complexities to anyone listening.
3. The American soldiers in the jungles of Vietnam are lonely and isolated from the outside world. They don’t form close ideal relationships with one another, probably because they were forced to live together. They didn’t choose each other, their similar misfortune put them together. War is also a lonely and depressing experience. If the soldiers form close relationships, there is a good chance one may die, and they don’t want that type of let-down in an already sad environment. I think there are many things that contribute to the lack of friendship among the soldiers, but those are the largest two.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Things They Carried. It was one of the first required readings in years that I have willingingly read. I think it is very interesting and the writing style is intriguing. The information is balanced perfectly with the entertainment which makes for the perfect blend and a great book.
1. I realized that there were many thing the soldiers carried in Vietnam, which was the main idea of the story, and among those things were physical equipment, personal belongings catered to the individual, and emotions. The soldiers of Alpha Company carried equipment such as can openers, Kool-Aid, various guns, smoke bombs, pocketknives, and food rations. Usually the equipment depends on the mission they are on. These items give them strength and allow them to fight in the war effectively. They carry personal belongings, such as Jimmy Cross’ picture of Martha, Henry Dobbins’ girlfriend’s panty hose, Kiowa’s bible, and other good luck charms. These things act as a blanket of protection during the hard times of the war and keep the men going throughout the war. The soldiers ‘hump’, or carry emotions such as grief, regret, and fright from all the experiences they have endured, such as watching a man get killed or burning down an entire village. This story shows us that the war is horrific in many ways through the emotions of normal soldiers.
2. The novel, The Things They Carried, talks about truth a lot and how much of the Vietnam War is ‘real’. During the chaos the war, determining what is true and what is false is unclear. He says that if the ending of the story is happy, it’s not a true war story. O’Brien is very unclear about his opinion on war stories and what true/false. The men’s heads have been changed forever and their view about what happened has changed over the years. Real war stories don’t have a theme, and the only thing the men carried was feelings, not facts about their experiences.
Summary: The Things They Carried was an amazing novel. It explained a lot of the little details, and while they may not be all true, it created a mental image of what the war was like. The novel was put in a way that it simply explained the sad and happy parts about the war. The mental and emotional pressure the men went through is just tremendous and I have a lot of respect for them. The style of the book was a little confusing; as you didn’t know what time of the war it was/what was happening in the chapter until you read it a little. I would recommend this book to people because it captured the war very well and was interesting.
1) Throughout “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, we learn the true meaning of the title. Many of United States soldiers not only are carrying over 70 pounds of equipments, but also a deep emotional cloak of loneliness, pressure, stress, fear, and sadness. Every morning these soldiers know it may be their last day on Earth, and they would have to spend this day fighting a war they did not volunteer for, surrounded by men they don’t know. These soldiers have to commit acts on a daily basis that could scar them for the rest of their lives. Besides just emotional luggage, these men also vary small items of comfort. Henry Dobbs wore his girlfriends pantyhose around his neck to remind him of hom , Lieutenant Cross carried small pebbles, as well as letters to make him feel safe and comforted, and Ted Lavender carried weed to take the edge off. Throughout the book we truly see what war does emotionally to people, and what emotional weight hangs on these men’s shoulders.
4) Throughout the book we see how Tim O’Brien and his comrades use shame as motivation to keep going. These men refuse to dishonor themselves, their fellow soldiers, and their country; and they would kill or die to prevent doing so. Many of these men would love to be back home, safe and sound, but still arrived in Vietnam on the call of duty to prevent shame or dishonor. These men thrive off of being tough, doing what needs to be done, and never backing down. An example of this is when Tim himself is called to action. Tim, who is a strong believer against war, could move to Canada to dodge the draft or try to refuse his duty, however he did not want to be looked down upon, or feel shame and embarrassment, so he accepted his call to war. Tim and his men would do things they never thought necessary, just to prove their worth to their fellow soldiers.
The book “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, truly showed me what the life of a American soldier in the Vietnam war was like. It shows the courage these men must have, and the bonds they must share with one another, just to stay alive and stable. The book also helped me understand why Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and veteran suicide is such a large problem in the United States and why these men deserve the support of their nation. All in all, the book taught me of the misery these men had to face, and helped me develop an even greater respect for these rave people.
The book The Things they Carried, by Tim O’Brien, seemed to carry a red herring throughout most of the story, and definitely the first couple of chapters. That being that the things the soldiers carried was quite literal in the sense, and was only pointing out objects the solders carried throughout the war. This was definitely evident in the fact that the main focus of one of the first chapters was what the soldiers brought with them onto the battle field, and how much they weighed (such as an m16, which was about 8 pounds). However, as I kept reading, the reasons behind the objects came into focus. It wasn’t just physical objects that they carried, it was mental things. It was the weight of seeing your friend die, and blaming yourself. It was the weight of the loved ones at home, expecting you to return. This amalgamation of mental turmoil definitely had a far greater effect than the actual physical items they carried, and stuck with them for a far greater time.
A big ideology during war is to not grow any attachments to anybody. This is because you never know weather someone was going to survive the day, so it’s better to not grow any emotional connections to them so the effect won’t bring you down. However, that is not the only reason the solders seemed emotionally disconnected from one another. With literally thousands of solders being sent to Vietnam, it would seem like being told not to bond with each other would be pretty hard. Although that played a factor, in the end it was the things they carried that prevented any social activity at all. The soldiers had left everything behind to go to war: there families, their loved ones, there homes, possessions, careers, and everything else. They had so much things already preoccupying their thoughts that talking with other people was the very least of the solders worries.
The book definitely seemed like more than just a book; it seemed like it was an actual story. It seemed like something someone would say to you in a story, and it felt real. It spoke in such a way that it felt as far as possible from fiction, and it would pull the reader through it. It showed that war was much more and much less than what it is in a movie; it showed the true mental distraught the solders went through, but at the same time, there were no big battlefields, nothing really spectacular that you’d expect. It definitely put a new definition to what a ‘war’ really is.
1. Through out the story, you realize that the title of the book, “The Things they Carried” had a definite and literal meaning. It is mentioned throughout the book what each character carried with them during their time in war, whether it be emotional or physical. For example, Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriends pantyhose, while Lieutenant Cross had carried letters, as well as a tiny stone that had been given to him by a girl. Along with the personal objects the characters carried, they also had to carry with them the military equipment that was required. Not only were they carrying physical objects, but they had to carry around the extra weight of their own mental/emotional issues. For example, Tim O’Brien explains the story of how he had killed someone during war and the emotions that came along with it. We realize that the weight of the physical objects the men had carried with them during war were sometimes lighter than the mental objects that they carried within themselves.
3. In this book, the theme of isolation and loneliness is quite prevalent. Although the fighters are legitimately surrounded by other fighters, they all lack a sense of connection. This may be due to the fact that they are more focused on their own survival than anything else. Not only do they have to take persuasion of their own lives, but they are also reminded of everything they left behind at home, like friends and family members. Because each person was having to deal with their own issues, taking the time to get to know each other just wasn’t a main priority for them. Also, it wasn’t such a good idea to get very close with another person, knowing that anyone could be blown up or shot at any second of any day. It was just easier not to have a relationship with many people because if those people died, it would just be another painful memory to carry around with them.
Personally, I feel that “The Things They Carried” was a very inspirational book. It was eye-opening to read a first hand experience from someone who actually fought in the Vietnam war. This book went into extreme detail about the war and I was able to feel like I was experiencing the war first hand as well. I don’t usually enjoy school books, but this was an exception. I looked forward to reading this book and was excited to see how it ended. I would for sure recommend this book not only to kids learning about the Vietnam war, but to anyone who is interested in it.
2) If you ask a person what they think truth is in a war time, their response will be different than the person next to them. But the only true answer is from the veterans who have lived through war. As said in the chapter, “How to Tell a True War Story”, a war story is not some glorification of war. It is desolate with no sense of morale or reason to it and is unbelievable. This is contradictory with the truth because a war story seems to be anything but that. Tim O’Brian talks to the reader about the perils of war and how no one is the same after. It is that realistic, brutal truth that makes war so devastating. That we may lose thousands abroad but that we also lose those who come back. This is what creates the truth in a true war story, the loss of a man’s soul and mind. When the truth is told there is nothing to believe or understand, it’s just the truth. O’Brian explains his truth with the deaths of a few of his fellow comrades while in Vietnam. In one story, O’Brian explains when a man named Lemon stepped onto a booby-trap. Lemon was immediately blown up into the tree above him. O’Brian then says that his comrade and himself had to climb the tree and pick up the remains of Lemon. O’Brian explains that the questions to stories like his will provide the answer to if the story is true or not. Truth is a thing that is defined differently and hard to find by most. O’Brian shares the uncanny truth of war, that it is unclear and confusing.
3) Most of the soldiers that fought in the Vietnam war did not feel a connection with each other because they were thrown into an environment where they did not know who they were. They had to leave their entire lives at home to serve in a war that some didn’t believe in. Many soldiers lost the sense of who they were during the time that they served during the war. This, therefore, made it very difficult for them to connect with other soldiers. The main mentality was to survive not to socialize. There is no forgiveness in war, it is cold and ever-changing. Most soldiers were wondering if they would live to see the light. Also, many felt that they could not make a connection with other soldiers out of fear that they would die the next day. For them, it was easier to keep their head down and power through than try to deal with the emotional loss of a friend.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian helped me to understand the perils of war. Though I have not been directly affected by someone with experience in war, I now feel that I have a better knowledge of what they went through. I will never fully know what they went through or understand it, no one will, but I can have a better appreciation of what they did to serve our country. Tim O’Brian wrote in an emotional unforgiving style that had my heart breaking for him and his comrades. This novel has opened my eyes to the reality of war and the effects that it has on people. This novel had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. I enjoyed the way O’Brian approached topics and explained them. I would like to read more of this novel in the future and others by Tim O’Brian to further my knowledge.
1: In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien describes the many objects that the American soldiers carried with them in Vietnam. For example, Dave Jensen carried three pairs of socks and foot powder. Ted Lavender carried dope and Norman Bowker carried a diary. Many soldiers carried photographs. Many of these items were with the soldiers out of precaution or necessity, like their equipment or Jensen’s socks. Other items represented emotional weight. Norman Bowker used his diary to express his feelings and most soldiers carried photographs to represent the ones they loved. Other emotions they didn’t have an object to represent. Some emotions could only be carried in the mind. Many of the soldiers carried around grief and sadness for themselves. Others felt constantly guilty for the children they harmed and the villages they ruined. When the soldiers returned to America from Vietnam they stopped carrying the physical items, like socks and equipment. But all of them had no way to rid themselves of the emotional baggage accompanied with going to war. It was hard for the author to differentiate between his life now and his life then. The emotional weight of war never leaves.
3: The American soldiers in Vietnam often felt lonely or isolated. I think they wanted to distance themselves from each other because they knew that there was a large chance of them dying. They didn’t want to make friends that they were just going to lose. I think a lot of the soldiers were naturally separated because of their differences. Because of the draft, anyone could be selected to go to war, so the soldiers were from a variety of backgrounds and a variety of interests. I think that maybe many soldiers couldn’t relate to each other or didn’t want to. Many soldiers didn’t want to be in Vietnam and didn’t associate anything good with it. Maybe it was hard for them to associate good people with a war they disliked so much.
1. In the book “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, one of the main ideas are the things the soldiers carry. As the novel starts, we only read about material things, like the pictures carried by Lieutenant Cross of his girlfriend, reminding him of her and his past life. Every soldier is described carrying an object of their past or something that comforted them. The soldiers carry pounds and pounds of material, that mostly brings them down and makes their journey harder, but in every ones bag there is an object “lifting them up”. As the reader we can look at the other side of the argument and say that some of their “reassuring” objects actually bring the soldiers down. Ted Lavender carries dope around, as a way to relax and loosen up. This “helpful” object ends up getting him killed during the war. As the book goes on, we see the men carrying emotional things. Lieutenant Cross carries the blame of death of Lavender, and his love for a girl. Throughout the war Cross thinks too much about his girlfriend and when Lavender dies he can only blame it on himself. This feeling is carried by him throughout the novel and also after the war is over, as we read in the chapter “love”, when Tim O’Brien and the lieutenant pause their conversation on the war as they talk about Ted Lavender. The book shows both material and abstract things being carried by the soldiers. The remaining question is which one impacts the soldier’s life the most. The material things weight the soldiers down during the war, and also cause the death of a soldier, affecting greatly their life. But, on the other hand, for the soldiers that survived, their feelings and memories are an aspect of their life that will always stay with them, and as Tim says in the book: the only way to make them lighten up is to write about them.
3. The soldiers in the book “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, feel lonely even though they aren’t. I feel like the soldiers are too focused on the fact that they are on the edge of death and that they have to stay focused all the time, limiting their chances of socializing and having fun. The book illustrates how bad fooling around and not focusing on dying is by showing the death of a soldier as he and a friend are fooling around. This expresses how the author and soldiers feel about the war and how concerned they are about death. The soldiers also reflect a lot on their past lives and seem as they aren’t ready to commit to a new one. By being closed and trapped in their previous life, the soldiers can’t seem to create positive relationships between them and prefer being with the things they carry that reminds them of who they used to be. Finally, I feel like most of the soldiers, and especially Tim O’Brien, didn’t want to go to war, making it quite impossible to get out of their miserable state and get to meet to new people. The soldiers put themselves in states that aren’t well received by others, which prevents any chances from creating good relationships. Don’t get me wrong, some good ones happened, as we see with Tim and Cross, but I feel like more could happen in a different situation.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s one of the few nonfiction books I have ever enjoyed reading. I really liked how the book was told from the point of view of an actual soldier in the war and not from some reporter that would tweak the story overwhelmingly. Throughout the book, new people appear which keeps the book interesting and adds excitement to it by never having to repeat itself. Tim O’Brien tells the story in a way that shows how the war was devastating. I enjoyed how he talks about how he felt before going to war, getting in depth and showing the ways out of it. I also enjoyed how he describes the soldiers. People, including myself, see soldiers in kind of a divine way. The book makes them realize how soldiers are just regular people or even worse, doing illegal and immoral things. This book was probably one of my favorite, making a sad and tough topic to talk about being understood and enjoyable to read.
1. In the book “The things they carried” by Tim O’Brien it is described as the mental and emotional things they must carry upon arrival at home. Many soldiers coming home were called “Baby Killers” and other gruesome names. This is true to a certain extent due to the fact that the My Lai incident had occurred, many soldiers were forced to execute whole villages because they are believed to have a connection with the Viet Kong. In the story many men also physically carried their lives in a backpack weighing up to 18 pounds. In the book Tim goes into detail about what and why many of his buddies carry those items, this is shown when he is describing Nervous Ted saying that he carried marijuana and tranquilizers to calm himself down. Every soldier contained one item to comfort them throughout the treacherous journey.
2. O’Brien describes later in the book that he killed a man, I believe this effected him even once the war is over. It seems that he describes the incident as a nightmare in some respects, this is because he is describing the dead body. O’Brien is almost trying to take a mental photo and then comprehend what he just did to this man. He talks about the body having a family, maybe not wanting to serve in the war but forced to which costed his life, and he took it.
3. Earlier in the book O’Brien describes his sweetheart named Martha. He describes the time he has spent with her. Cross describes what she is doing now saying that Martha is attempting to become a minister. Cross tells O’Brien that she hasn’t married yet and she doesn’t know why. He said that he still loves Martha but they don’t touch on this any more after this one meeting.
1. In the Book The Things They Carried, the author Tim O’Brien focuses on what people in the army actually carried, not only physically but as we find out later on, the things they carried mentally. Most soldiers in the Vietnam War were drafted, which meant that they were not ready to leave home behind and fight the war, but they had no choice. As a result, many of the soldiers ‘humped’ along comfort items as well as their necessities. Comfort items could have ranged from Tim Lavender’s dope to Lieutenant Cross’s love letters. The soldiers also had to humped around necessities that weighed them down. Henry Dobbins, a big man was expected to carry around the M-60, 23lbs not including the 10-15lbs of ammunition. Rat Kiler a medic, had to hump along extra medical supplies; morphine, plasma, malaria tabs, comic books, and M&M’s. But along with the physical thing they carried, they also humped around their emotions and memories. The war brought many deaths, and with many deaths brought emotional baggage. Lieutenant Cross for example not only carried Martha’s love letters, but humped along his guilt for the death of Tim Lavender. Cross was the leader of the group and felt responsible for every man in his group. So when Lavender had been shot while taking a quick pee, Cross blamed himself and was not the same ever since. The things they carried affected them greatly, physically and mentally.
3. Tim O’Brien shows us that war can be a very lonely for a soldier. Surrounded by many people, it was still hard for the soldiers to relate with each other. Because most of the men did not have a choice to go to war, they found it really hard to relate over the subject of war. Tim O’Brien also mentions that the soldiers did not want to create emotional bonds that could get cut off the next minute by being shot in the head. He gave us an example of when a soldier was killed but the other soldiers using jokes and avoidance to get over his death. The war was just too hard to bond over and relationships were too fragile to keep. That is why the soldiers felt lonely.
The Things They Carried the first book I have read that gives me a first person view of war. It is interesting and very real. Tim O’Brien brings us along the journey he took during the Vietnam War. From his almost flee of the country to the things he carried. The book also focused on other soldiers in his group and their unconventional ways, like carrying around a panty hose and dope. Unlike other books, I feel like TTTC gives it to us the real from a real perspective.
1. In the book, The Things They Carried, the soldiers in the Vietnam war carried physical and mental things during and after the war. After the war, many soldiers took home the baggage of the war. They had to deal with the reality of war, and the stuff they saw. Many veterans fight their own little war inside their head. During in the war, many soldiers will carried around items of their loved ones with them. Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend’s pantyhose ’s around his neck. These eventually became a good luck charm even after his girlfriend broke up with him. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried around a picture of the girl he loved. It became a safety blanket; something he relied on. Aside from the pounds and pounds of gear and food the troops carried, they carried something far more heavier than their gear. The burden of being drafted, and trying to protect your country. Soldiers carried around guilt and pain which was more than the bags on their back.
2. The telling of a true war story includes many parts. Some of the parts seems unbelievable. This seems contradictory because if it was a true story why would it be unbelievable. It is something that you have to experience to really understand the meaning. Many people may not understand the true meaning, and only listen to the general story. In How to Tell a True War Story, “And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight. It’s about the special mat that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow. It’s about listers who never write back and people who never listen,”(O’Brien 91).A war story is more about what was learned than what happened. Many stories are unclear to the regular until you have truly experienced the story. A war story will go up and down and take many turns, but in the end they’re is a bigger lessons than what the soldiers survived. A true war story will be unbelievable and seem untrue.
I enjoyed this book. It was very interesting to read about the Vietnam war while learning about the politics of the war. I like reading short stories that connect to each other, and this is what this book was. I thought it was very interesting how other soldiers dealt with the war in their own way, and what the war actually was. I never thought about what it would be like to be in a war, and this book gave me an idea on what happens. This book is very interesting in the way it portrayed the true events of war.
1. I thought that the things the soldiers carried although mostly physical and symbolic, but much of it was also mental and emotional. Many of what the author talked about was certain situations and memories that he still remembered, that he carried even after the war maybe even more so than when he was at war. Many of the physical things they carried were more mental than magical or lucky. For example, Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend’s stockings which to me is a reminder of the simplicity and happiness that came with being at home and at peace. Another example could be Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carrying his girlfriend Martha’s letters which gave him imagination of what life was like at home and even some normalcy with the simple act of having a letter from a girl that he loved.
2. With the story, “How to Tell a True War Story” much of what they say is contradictory supporting the statement that much of the truth at war is unclear. In Vietnam much of the plan for victory and success was unclear to the soldiers since all they saw was the death of their peers as well as the death of many innocent Vietnamese civilians who were claimed as the enemy. The real end to the war seemed far away and the things that were once important seemed far away as well. The truth of the rest of the soldier’s lives whether they would live to tell these war stories to their families or not was unclear, the truth of their morals and values was unclear with all of the killing and destruction that they were required to do.
Assessment: In my opinion, although the topic was depressing, the novel was more interesting and informative than dreary. The way that it discussed what the soldiers carried and the stories and experiences of the soldiers especially the personal experience of the author when he was first drafted it made you understand how Vietnam really was and why it was so difficult for the veterans when they came home. It made you feel like you personally knew the people in the war and why Vietnam was so horrible for our country.
1. As the title of the book suggests, the soldiers of Vietnam were weighed down by the many things they had to carry with them into battle. They shouldered pounds of armor, ammo, weapons, rations, and personal possessions. The last thing perhaps brought more of an emotional burden than a physical one. In addition to all their supplies, the soldiers carried with them all their guilt, sorrow, fear, and anger and, although they could take off all of their physical paraphernalia, the emotional baggage stayed with them, sometimes even long after the war was already over. Their emotions weighed them down in a different way, but just as much if not more than their gear. Much like the Soldiers took things with them to Vietnam as a reminder of their past, they also brought things back home with them from Vietnam, not necessarily physical things, but memories and feelings. For example, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried with him a stone that the girl he loved, Martha, had given to him as a good luck charm. It reminds him of his life outside of Vietnam, and takes him away from the fighting. When he returns from Vietnam, he brings with him all the memories, all the guilt, and all the fear from the war. Just as Martha’s stone transported him away from the war, all his memories are dragging him back.
2. My favorite short story in this book was “How To Tell a True War Story”. The story felt more realistic and honest because it didn’t always have a clear moral or make sense some of the time, it was brutally honest, and sometimes the truth was unclear. It didn’t feel like I was reading a published edited novel, it felt like I was reading directly from someone’s memory. The way the story was portrayed and written is true to what the author believes war is: messy, confusing, and nonsensical.
I came into this book not expecting to like it at all, but I thought it was amazing. The writing style somehow manages to be raw and poetic at the same time, and it didn’t sugar coat any war experiences. What made it so impactful was the fact that it was so honest. The author didn’t try to put in a message or moral to take away necessarily, and not everything that happens or that the characters do makes sense. For example, in the story “How to Tell a True War Story”, a soldier named Rat is mourning the death of his friend, and in his anger, kills a baby buffalo. This doesn’t make any rational sense, and the author describes this event in very gory detail; he tells the event like it actually would have happened.
The soldiers in the Vietnam war carried both physical and emotional things. The soldiers had to trudge several pounds of gear including different weapons, guns, ammunition, knives, and more. Each soldier had a different object that they carried on top of the standard gear that helped them in some way. Henry Dobbins for example, carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck to comfort him. Lieutenant Cross carried letters and a pebble which he received from Martha. So, it’s easy to see how heavy their backpacks must have been getting, but the only thing heavier than what they physically carried, cause what they mentally did. They had to carry their regrets, worries, men they killed, guilt, and fear all at once. That weighed them down a lot more than any backpack could.
While these men are out fighting for a cause that they don’t necessarily support, they don’t have time to make connections with one another. When they are on the battlefield, it’s isolationist and do or die type strategies. These men have so much to worry about including the weight of their emotions, whether or not they’ll die today, how their families and loved ones back home are, and so much more. All of this combined made it hard for guys like Tim O’Brien who actually were of similar age and personality types, to connect with one another.
I would highly recommend the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien to anyone trying to broaden their understanding of the war in Vietnam. I understood more about the mentality of a soldier at the time and the book opened my eyes to a concept I hadn’t considered before. I always thought of soldiers as the men who fight for us and I think that it’s easy to forget the individuality of a soldier as a person. All- in- all this was a great read and it was eye opening to some of the tolls a war can have on a soldier.
I really liked reading Tim O’Brian’s The Things They Carried because it gives us a perspective of war that we have never seen before. We learn about the wars and how they affect America, but obviously none of us have ever experienced them first hand. Through the vivid details and raw emotions, the book manages to create a near first hand experience. It makes you feel like you were there as a part of the war and that makes it a book not like any other I had ever read. As well as being very informative, it is also very interesting.
1) The things that they carry are very much more emotional than physical. For example, Lieutenant Cross carries the picture of Martha, a girl from back home. While this is physical, with it comes his love towards Martha. He hopes that when he returns home they can be in a relationship, he also wonders often wonders if Martha is still a virgin, so while the picture is a physical object, his thoughts and feelings towards Martha are emotional. Another emotional thing that Lieutenant Cross carries is guilt. He feels guilty after a man in his squad, Ted Lavender, is shot. He feels that he focused too much on his love of Martha and did not protect his squad as he should’ve. Even after this event he can’t stop carrying his love for Martha, but now he also carries his guilt for Ted Lavender.
3) Many of the people do not feel a connection to each other on the battlefield. It is said that after deaths they would often make jokes because it helped to ease the pain. I think that it is partially because many of the men do not want to be there. For example, one of the characters could have gone to Harvard, but was stuck in the war. So while I do think that it has to do with not wanting to be there, it has more to do with do or die. The men talk about how it becomes easier to accept the deaths when they are thinking, at least it’s not me.
1. Something that makes Tim O’Brien’s book really interesting to read is that it may or may not be true. It can also make it more shocking, appalling, or surprising than another book might be, because of the unsure reality of it. The vagueness makes a person wonder, and try and speculate whether each story is true. This is even addressed in the story How to tell a True War Story. Even with the semi-realness, O’Brien says one thing; the story remains the same for every war story. Whether it is true or not, a war story illustrates the strain put on a person during war.
3. I think that the soldiers in Vietnam struggle to connect with each other because the war has them mentally disconnected. As O’Brien talks about in his book, it was sort of like a game to them. It was surreal, so since they struggled to connect themselves they couldn’t connect to their comrades. According to O’Brien’s book, their sense of reality is sort of off from this terrible war that they drag themselves through, day by day. Also factoring into this is the fact that they don’t want to be in the war. This war was before the War Powers Act, which eliminated the draft, so the soldiers in the Alpha Company had no choice but to be there. Their reluctance holds them back, and they are not passionate for the cause or their company.
The overlying theme of The Things They Carried is the emotional burden on the shoulders of the Alpha Company. Although only the first story discusses the physical weight, the theme of emotional baggage carries throughout the entire book. I really enjoyed reading this book because it was interesting to learn about a war that I had never knew about, and the raw honesty of emotions that soldiers felt in Vietnam.
The novel The Things They Carried, by Tim O’ Brien, is a book that portrays what and how the U.S. soldiers dealt with during the Vietnam war. It follows a group of soldiers who all deal with the situation that they are presented with in Vietnam. They are all very unique to their own nature, and are very deep characters, who you can sympathize for. They are trapped in this situation, where they have to kill other men, and fight for their lives.
1. In the novel, all of the men in the group that the story revolves around has to deal with their time in war their own way. It is a huge mental toll on everybody, and they all carry something with them to make sure that they can remember when they were in the United States. Once all of the troops came back to the United States, they were changed because of all of the horrible things that they saw, and could not get those harsh images out of their heads. Some even committed suicide because the toll on their mental health was so strong.
2. In the United States, our country used to send out war propaganda during World War II. In Vietnam, people in our county started to protest against the war, and hated our country and that we were in the war. But what is the real story going on behind the battle lines? Yes, there is a lot of disgusting and unethical things that the soldiers do during the wars, but people are terrible in war, and war is violence. Even though we see the U.S. military as heroes, there is a lot we don’t know that goes on while our military is fighting. Many soldiers, including both sides of the line, do things that effect their lives and mental health when they get back from war. The novel gives an example of cutting of the fingers of the soldiers that they had killed as a trophy more that anything else.
1. In “The Things they carried” by Tim O’ Brian, he talks about the things soldiers carry into, and out of battle. They carry both physical and emotional things. For example, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried around a picture of his lover, he took it everywhere he went and when was homesick and sad, he looked at her. Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend’s pantyhose ’s around his neck into battle. This soon became a habit and he had to take it with him all the time in the field. These two characters not only carried items remembering their lovers, they also carried the thought on what would happen to them if they died. All the soldiers carried pounds on pounds of gear, they also carry the fact that they may die and will not be able to support their families anymore. They carry the mental things of their lovers at home, and the soldiers think of them while in the field. They also carry the fact that they are fighting and representing the country, and if they do bad, it will make the entire nation look bad. So they are having a lot of pressure on their soldiers.
3. The soldiers fighting in Vietnam are constantly surrounded by other soldiers, but are lonely inside. They are lonely inside because most of them were drafted, and when you are drafted you just have to leave your family behind. So in the battle fields, most of all of them are thinking about their family members rather than making connections. Also since they were drafted, they were rushed into the war rather quickly and didn’t get much time to build these relationships, also a lot of people die in the war, therefore any connections they do have, will be ended.
This has been a very interesting book to read. I liked how it talked about all these different war stories while focusing on one group of people. I felt I can feel some of these struggles the soldiers go through while in the war. In this book, you got to see the “normal” people from America being forced to fight a war that most people didn’t agree with.
The Things They Carried was a memoir and fictional book that described the Vietnam War during the 1960s and 1970s. The narrator of the book was writer and Vietnam War veteran, Tim O Brian. This book mainly focused on the soldiers of the war. The book described each of the men’s life and experience during the war. The things they carried were one of the main concepts of the book. Tim explained each and every piece of equipment that the men carried with them. Each soldier of the pack had a different task, resulting in each man carrying different things. Tim describes the different men in his crew and their job as a soldier. Tim also explains the emotional things that they carried with them. The Vietnam War was extremely tough on the men seeing many brutal and inhumane things. Tim describes throughout the memoir the personal stories of his time in the war and the main themes he encountered such as deaths, successes, love, hate, etc.
1) Throughout the first couple chapters Tim describes everything that the soldiers carry and why they carry them. A lot of the things that they carried were very personal, such as the picture of Martha and Cross’s girlfriend’s pantyhose on his neck. These were simply there for the soldier’s comfort during combat. The Vietnam War was a very hard and depressing war for the Soldiers and America in general. The reason for these personal items were to help the soldiers feel more comfortable and at home in the hot foreign country. When they get home, the Soldiers feel guilt and pain from the war for a number of reasons. First, the soldiers saw a lot of terrible things from the war. They had to burn down many villages to distinguish the Viet Cong and had to shoot women and children as well. They saw many depressing sights and experiences, which causes pain, like every war. The second reason for their pain and guilt was that the US lost the war, their first loss in a war, and the soldiers felt guilty for being the first set of combat to lose an American war.
2) I feel that the Soldiers felt very lonely on the battlefield because war is the loneliest experience. War is considered one of the worst things in the world. If you think about the scenario, of course they’re going to be lonely. They have to leave their own family, their friends, their girlfriends, their homes, their country, and go into a foreign, hot, country with a terrible war and have to fight with people they just met for years and years. It’s overall an extremely terrible and lonely experience, and that’s why they feel lonely in the Vietnam War.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. I really loved how true the stories were to the real Vietnam War. The stories didn’t leave out any real or personal thoughts, which really gave the reader a true experience and understanding on what the Vietnam War was like. The stories that Tim O Brian described were very interesting and were just extremely real. It was interesting reading about each and every person in the crew and everything that went into their crew. The book was overall fantastic and I definitely recommend it to any person interested in history.
*UPDATED*
1) The title “The Things They Carried” is a lot more meaningful than what it reads. Firstly, Tim O’Brien illustrates that most the troops in the platoon carry something materialistic like knives and guns for safety, can openers to open cans, and canteens to quench their thirst. Not only did the young soldiers carry the necessities, they also carried things that were not needed but were enjoyed by them for uses not important in their mission; for example, Lt. Cross carried several letters and a special pebble from his lover, Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend’s panties around his neck like a necklace for comfort during battle and it reminds him of what is waiting at home, and Dave Jensen carried a rabbits foot for luck. “The Things They Carried” is a lot more meaningful than what it reads because the soldiers carry materialistic things along with emotional baggage. The soldiers carried guilt and grief like when Lt. Cross was stunned to find out that his friend Ted Lavender was shot and killed under his watch. Additionally, the soldiers carried shameful memories and the fear of blushing which is that the soldiers killed and died because they were embarrassed not too. Overall, the soldiers carried many things both emotionally and physically but, the emotional baggage was heavier than the physical.
2) Truth in “The Things They Carried” isn’t always truthful. To the soldiers truth means what the soldiers thought happened, not what actually happened. Sometimes the truth is exaggerated the truth might seem contradictory, but the main point of not telling the truth is that truth is not what fact it is mostly feelings. All the soldiers encounter experiences differently. What actually makes the story that is being told true is that the soldiers believe which makes almost unclear usually unbelievable. There are many drastic changes in a war story some good some bad, but there is always an overall lesson. To understand the stories told in the Vietnam War you had to be there to account for first-hand experiences.
Book Assessment – I think “The Things They Carried” is a great book because it is a easy read and there are very remarkable stories under the cover. Also I like the book because it gave the perspective of different people, it gave the different emotions everyone was letting off, and in general it is just a different book. This book is actually very relatable to me and most likely everyone who has relatives in the war, my grandpa was in the war and it gives me a totally different insight on what times were like in Vietnam because he doesn’t talk much. Also I love the way that this book incorporates short stories to make up the total story, it really gives some new background information. Another thing I liked is that this story is written by a first-hand source, Tim O’Brien was a Vietnam Soldier, so it doesn’t mess up the story.
1. When reading The Things They Carried, it discussed things they physically and emotionally carried. As it did talk about the gear, weapons, and equipment, it focused a lot on the sentimental and emotionally things that they had carried. Lots/all the characters had something. In the beginning of the book it had explained Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carrying letters a girl, Martha, had given him. Other characters like Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck, Ted Lavender carried marijuana to calm himself , the list could go on. It also talked about how most carried photographs. Like Lieutenant Cross carried photographs of Martha as well. Throughout the story each soldier’s guilt and pain are carried by them as they experience more traumatizing events, like deaths. The thing with physical things you carry, is that they can leave and don’t always have that certain mental effect on you. The mental and emotions in things however, are the things that kind of just doesn’t leave you when the war’s over. Like Lieutenant Cross has to deal with the death of a fellow soldier, which gives him more guilt throughout the story and will always have that memory.
3. This story definitely shows that the soldiers experience lots of loneliness during the war. Several of the soldiers do recognize and know stuff about each other, but mostly keep to themselves or emotional ways. I think it is mostly because the war can be a do or die situation, and they are focused on it and themselves. Like if you were on the battlefield, would you be chatting to everyone? Or would you focus on everything going on around you and making sure you survive? There is a slight possibility that it is also because they don’t want to be there. Like I’m pretty sure Lieutenant Cross would rather be with Martha than fighting with a bunch of strangers.
I personally enjoyed the book, though lost at times, and believed Tim O’Brien did a great job. I honestly couldn’t believe it was only fiction at first because it gets really in detail and makes you feel like you are there yourself. I thought it was interesting how it did discuss the war, but also a lot of personal information of the characters and their thoughts. I personally questioned before reading this what people think in the war sometimes, and how it must feel being in their situation. I think the book really showed more than just the battle part of war, and that made it, in my opinion, more interesting as it was more realistic that way.
The soldiers carried a lot not just physically like all the equipment, but also emotional baggage, and that was portrayed in the book when it is mentioned that hey carried little things with them everywhere to serve as an escape or as something to remember at home. Lieutenant Cross carried the letters and a pebble from a girl that he loved, Ted Lavender carried dope, and Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose. The men carried a lot of baggage both physically and emotionally, the physical baggage was so heavy that they had to limp or hump it around it everywhere they went, and depending on their job some carried even more. Their emotional baggage was a lot and like the physical baggage some carried more than others, cross was so caught up and in love with this girl that he got stuck in his thoughts and would wander, and when lavender died he blamed himself, and that he kept after the war.
The soldiers are very lonely in the story and this is for a few reasons one is that these are young men, boys basically and they are drafted and forced to go fighting for this war, it doesn’t matter what they have going on or what their stance on the war is. Lieutenant Cross was in college and had to leave and he felt that he had no choice and even tried to escape to Canada. The other reason people were lonely was to avoid pain and sadness later, because people would die and if they weren’t close with a victim that would affect the soldiers and just bum them out. So to avoid that pain they kept to themselves to avoid being close with a dead man.
I am really enjoying the book because it is allowing me to get information and learn about the war from the point of view of a soldier who was out there doing all the fighting, and it opens my eyes because at least I sometimes tend to think that these soldiers are robots and I forget that they are people who also feel emotion and now I get to see the things that they go through and I think that Tim O’Brian does a good job of showing that and that is mostly due to the fact that he was in the war
3. Before the USA heavy involvement in the war, the morale of the country and troops was high and confident. But when the Tet Offensive, Watergate and all the other White House scandals happened, the morale of everyone went down. The American people no longer felt we were winning, and we always win, so that really made people lose trust in the government, even the soldiers. The loss of morale in the soldiers added on to the effect War has on a person. A lot of people who came out of Vietnam had PTSD and experienced things that they could not be relieved of. The low morale helped to make soldiers understand more clearly that most of them no longer had any reason to be fighting in the war. Even though all the American soldiers are fighting side by side, there are individual battles to be had emotionally for everyone. Only escalating loneliness.
4. Tim, the author, had battles of his own when going to war. He explained how he aspired to go to Harvard and move forward in his life. When he got his draft letter, he thought it was some kind of mistake. Many people like Tim got letters, and many of them thought the same thing, ‘I’m too good for War’. That is not a direct quote, but that sums up what he explained he felt. He wanted to do great things with his life, and to be cut off of the path you made yourself, and be pushed into war, was something Tim never expected. He ran off to a lodge by the border of Canada and the United States. He stayed there for a while before deciding to not embarrass his family, and go to war. He knew it would have been so easy to just cross the border, but he didn’t. Also, in the story about two guys getting in fight, ending in one guy breaking the other guys nose, the man who did the breaking grew so anxious and guilty that he went and broke his own nose in fear of the other man coming for him. Other men risked their lives, and were courageous only to not embarrass their families and not to seem weak in a time when they had to be strong.
Assessment; The Things They Carried is one of the best novels I have ever read. It was confusing, and I could barely make connections or relate any of it to my own life. But the great thing was how it brought a feeling of truth and lie. Sometimes I could not tell if he was lying about a story or telling the truth, but that’s what makes a good war story, tell it how it was, not how you imagine it went. But he explained that is also part of the truth, some events happened that didn’t seem real, and sometimes, it’s all how you tell a true war story to make it true.
1.) The book The Things They Carried, the men carry physical and emotional things. Depending on the guy, you might carry an illustrated New Testament, your girls friend’s pant hose, a pebbel and letter and pictures, or marijuana and tranquillized. But those were only physical. The men in Vietnam carried emotional baggage with them along with the physical things, and often times the emotional baggage was heavier and stayed with them their entire lives. For O’Brian, he didn’t support the way. He never had and yet he was still drafted. He had to carry that emotional baggage with him. He gained more baggage along the way too, which is evident in one of the last stories of the book when he imagined a life for the man he killed.
2.) Truth is a theme in this book, specifically in in How to Tell a True War Story. Although the story is a bit contradictory to the theme of truth, it does falls in line with the theme. The story explains that the story itself is not what matters, but what you take from it. The truth is in the message not the story, so by accentuating the story or making it more entertaining, you won’t take away from the truth of it if the message they take is the same. A lot of times the completely true story will not give the message that it is meant to because you had to experience it. Bu embellishing the story, it allows for the message to be heard clearer and therefore more truthful.
I really liked this book. When I heard we had to read this book I wasn’t particularly thrilled since it wasn’t the type of book I would normally read, considering I read mostly teen fiction. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the book and it’s writing style. I liked the symbolism in the story where O’Brian takes about how he ran away to Minnesota for a week. Specifically the part of the river where he was decideing weather to jump into the water or not and the people were standing in the edge of the river cheering for him. I also liked how the stories were a bit jumbled up/not in chronological order because I felt like it added to the story.
1.As you get farther into the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien you can actually start to visualize the title, The Things They Carried had a very important meaning to its name. The book not only talks about the items for survival in the jungle that hung on the back of the soldiers it refers to the emotional and metal things the soldiers carried throughout the war. Each soldier or at least most soldiers carried certain sentimental things with them throughout the jungle. For example Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose, Ted Lavender carried dope with him to keep his mind calm. Every single one of the soldiers carried pounds of gear with them but these little items that had special meaning to the soldiers seemed to keep soldiers sane. Some of the sentimental items made them feel better but it mostly weighed most soldiers down. Although, the emotional weight the soldiers carried was far more heavier. Soldiers not always carried solid objects, some like Lt. Cross carried throughout the war emotional anchors that held him down like, guilt and sorrow after believing he was the reason to why a soldier he knew died. All of the soldiers had different things holding them down.
3.O’Brien clearly showed how lonely the war could be for the soldiers. Even though there were plenty of soldiers most individuals still felt alone. The men left everything back at home(their wives, homes, families, parents, communities) and that was what most of them thought of about. they also most likely though about the fact that they might never be able to see those things back at home again. One of the reasons to why the soldiers didn’t really make it a priority to making friends was because back at home their families didn’t have to worry about stepping on a land mine or getting shot by a hiding enemy soldier. It was the concept of, why would you need to get to know someone when they can be easily killed at any second? It would just end up adding more to your emotional anxiety.
The book was fairly good. It was a very big eye opener for me which made me understand more as to why so many soldiers come back so scarred and so broken or shaken.It gave me a more personal point of view of people who lived during through the Vietnam war. It was just overall very eye opening and it expanded my knowledge to a larger extent about the Vietnam War.
1. Soldiers carried emotional and physical weight when coming into the Vietnam War. Many soldiers use the emotional and physical ties as a way to keep ties to their loved ones and home. There are letters written to them or things they brought from home that they carry with them. It symbolizes that even though the people they love are not with them, they are emotionally connected; which also gives them a motivation as to why they need to stay alive and come back home. To avoid losing memory of what was once familiar to them, they use simple tokens as an emotional source from home. For example Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried a rock in his mouth that seems ordinary, but it is more due to the fact that the person who gave it to home happens to be the love of his life (she does not return the affection). Other soldiers carry necessities to make sure they have what they need so they return back to their family. Others do not carry sentimental items, but more or less things that take edge of fright off of war. A soldier named Ted Lavender was scared by war, so he often kept a supply of marijuana and tranquilizers in his bag to relieve any anxiety that war imposed on him.
2. Truth was used in multiple ways within the context; some showing there is no real truth that stands for all in a war and others showing a looser way of bending it to avoid more destruction. There is never a valid story when you are involved with war, because nothing is credible. There is no moral or take away from a war story, except what you find right and wrong. The stories that are the most troublesome to conceive in the mind, are the ones are true, while the ones that are more believable are the ones that are the furthest from the truth. But all fabrications could seem as lively to a person never experiencing war, compared to a soldier who lived it. The point of war stories is not to be able to describe the goriest detail from war, but to convey to Americans who were not on the battlefield all possibilities and realities that could have or did occur. Apart that I found to be prominent along the text is the ability for all to be truthful about realities that could occur in war, but not how soldiers emotionally reacted to the situations. In the first story “Things They Carried”, it was mentioned that soldiers kept to them selves how strongly battle troubled them, even those others shared the same insecurities. So truth will be used in free will only to ascertain degree that will show the main effects that war caused.
I found this book to be an eye opener, to the phenomenon of how others behavior changes as their surroundings change. I never heard detailed war stories, and within the book the author described how most war stories could change based on circumstances. This lead me to be able to understand in a deeper manor all that soldiers endure when they leave all they once knew and rebuild knew knowledge to stay alive.
1.In the book “The Things They Carried”, the title has a strong meaning to the story, The title not only stands for the physical objects they carried, it also stands for the heavy and multiple emotions that they carried. Some physical objects that were carried were objects such as a pebble a little girl gave to Lieutenant Cross, Henry Dobbins was very weird and carried around his girlfriends pantyhose, also somebody carried dope to calm his mind down in times of emotional distress. The Soldiers brought these items for many reasons but probably the biggest reason was because to remind them of their homes and families. The things they brought from home were the only things that they didn’t think were useless in their very heavy bags. But, this didn’t bother them as much as some of the emotional burdens that weigh them down. Such as burning down villages, or having o kill another person, those things stick with you, knowing people that fought in Vietnam, that stuff doesn’t leave your mind, so i can relate to how these troops were feeling. I feel the emotional burdens weigh more than the physical ones because they stick with you wherever you go.
3. I think that the soldiers feel lonely is because they are scared to make sacrifices to make friends, the problem isn’t that they aren’t surrounded by tons of people, it’s the fact they are scared to make a close friend and then see them die in the war and be emotionally damaged by it. I also feel that the draft plays a major role in the loneliness of the soldiers, i feel this because if you are being forced to do something, you won’t be excited to do it if you don’t want to do it. So I think soldiers didn’t want to give a full effort because they didn’t want to be there, which caused them loneliness. Also, the fact that they could die at any moment probably made them feel lonely and scared.
“The Things They Carried” was a very good war book, I don’t read that many war books. Usually if you know people that were apart of these wars, they don’t like to talk about their experiences because they are bad memories. This book gave a great 1st person point of view by O’Brien about his experiences of the war and gave readers such as me a better idea of the rough things that went on over the Pacific Ocean. But I really enjoyed this book because of the very descriptive images O’brien gave us to better understand what happened in the war, This was a great book and I recommend it to all people over the age of 13.