The Things They Carried
By: Tim O' Brian
Characters
Tim O' Brian
The protagonist of the story. He is also the author of this book. The book is mainly about stories that he is reminiscing about, during his time at the war.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross
The Lieutenant of the squad that Tim O' Brian is in. There are 17 people in the squad. He basically runs the squad, the leader. Dynamic round character. He changes the way he feels about Martha
Martha
An old friend of Lt. Jimmy Cross. They both had a little affair going on until he joined the war. Now she is just a distraction to the Lieutenant, because she is all he thinks about during the war. When he should be focusing on his squad.
Ted Lavendar
The first man in the squad to die. He brings the number of people in
the squad from 17, to 16. With so much weight on him, he died
instantly.
Conflicts
Person vs Self
Jimmy Cross believes he is the one responsible for the death of Ted Lavendar. With Martha always in his mind, He believes he led the squad in teh wrong direction because he was thinking to much of Martha
Person vs Person
Jimmy Cross wants to be with Martha, but she does not love him back. He t states in one of the chapters "The letters weighed 10 ounces. They were signed Love, Martha, but Lieutenant Cross understood that love was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant." (O' Brian 2)
Person vs Person
Jenson and Strunk, two men within the squad that hated each other but then learned to get along. They made a secret pact for the person who is near death, the other will shoot him to take him out of his misery. Strunk steps on a land mine and gets his legs blown off. Strunk begs Jenson not to kill him. He does't but Strunk dies later bringing the number of people in the squad from 16, to 15. Lee Strunk was extremely scared when he saw Jenson. ""Oh, Jesus" he said and moaned and tried to slide away and said, "Jesus man don't kill me"" (O' Brian 66)
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These are some of the men and "The things they carried"
Person vs Self
In one of the chapters, Tim reminisces about the day he gets his draft notice in the mail. He is shocked and believes that he is above the war and someone as smart as he is shouldn't be called into the war to fight. He thinks about two options, Dodge the war, and be considered a coward, or go fight, and be considered a hero. He makes the right decision and enters the war.
Setting
The story takes place in Vietnam in the late 1960's and in Massachusetts in the late 1980's. The time and place is based on when Tim's work was written. The setting of the story is extremely important to understand, because it is set in the middle of the war, and the book is about the war.
At night, The soldiers would do many things, such as play checkers, write letters, or even play a guitar.
Point of View
3rd Person Omniscient
Although most of the stories are told in 1st person, throughout the book, You are seeing into every ones mind. Tim O' Brian is explaining stories. He is writing about his experiences in the war. He is reliving his memories, and remembering the stories. He is trying to come to terms with everything that happened in the war. He gives a good picture to what the characters reactions are towards the war.
Plot Line
Exposition
The exposition starts out with Lieutenant Jimmy Cross showing that he is a young man entering a war and totally unprepared. He is leading a platoon of 17 soldiers. It talks about the things the soldiers carried. Basic things such as M&M's, there guns, pistols, packets of Kool-Aid, smoke and regular grenades, and insect repellent, because they were always in the forests. A new shipment of supplies would come about every day, so they would throw off grenades on purpose to lighten the load.
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The Things They Carried
By: Tim O' Brian
Rising Action
The rising action begins with Tim O' Brian receiving his draft notice in the mail. And him deciding whether or not to join the war, or run away.
Climax
During their line of Duty, the young men must accept that one of their men died, and the guilt that comes from killing people. And watching others die.
Falling Action
Tim O' Brian come back from the war, and he reminisces about the war , and relives his stories, and talks about Vietnam.
Resolution
He finnaly realizes that the war he was in had many stories, memories to tell. He realizes that if he were to be a coward, and run away when he got his draft notice, he would never hear of, or live the strories he experienced in Vietnam.
Vietnam Soldiers
Themes
- War changes everyone
- War keeps people from love
Recommendations
The Things They Carried, is an amazing novel that I would recommend to anybody who knows someone who fought in war, or is interested in learning about the experiences and long days that soldiers face in combat should definitely read this book. The message you receive from this book, is important and eye opening. This book is the second best thing in learning of what happened during Vietnam, other than talking to a real veteran.
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Tim O' Brian
Though the book The Things They Carried was fiction, Tim O' Brian really did fight in the Vietnam war, and in the book was telling actual real stories from the war. O'Brien started writing at a young age, and soon after became interested
in politics. Both, were supported by his family. O'Brien
admired John F. Kennedy, and
disliked the political ignorance of his hometown. He also admired his
father, who read obsessively and had a great respect for knowledge.
However, his father was an alcoholic, which affected their relationship
at times, and made Tim insecure and lonely. O' Brian went to college later, where he learned to love literature and, for the first time, tried seriously to be a writer. He protested against the Vietnam war, and disliked the idea of it all. Its ironic, because he hated the idea of the war, and two weeks after he graduated, he received his draft notice in the mail to go fight in the war. Lots of emotions were going through his mind that day. He believed that day he became a real writer. Writing about all his feelings and dislikes, and likes. After the war, Jimmy Cross visits O' Brian at his house and they have a good time. He approaches Cross by asking him to write a story about all the events. "I told him that i would like to write a story about some of this. Jimmy thought it over and then gave me a little smile. "Why not?" he said" (O Brian 29)Hoping that Martha would read the book, he later tells O Brian to make him look like the good guy.
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