... beliefs and to keep in mind what they"re fighting for. For Kiowa, the bible served an important purpose. It was a constant reminder of his beliefs, of his family, and of his religion. This bible kept him going and was able to keep him strong to fight in the war. In "The Things They Carried" by Tim O"Brien, the soldiers carried many things but each had a valuable item that gave ... them intangible comfort that helped them get through the war. Without ... these objects, the soldiers might not have been as strong as ... ...

• Word Count: 580
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

An Analysis of "The Things They Carried" In Tim O"Brien's short story "The Things They Carried" he describes a group of American soldiers marching through Vietnam. The soldiers carried items that were basic "necessities" for survival during this terrible time in their lives. The men tried to take comfort in these personal objects and memories while they were away from home. The love struck narrator takes the reader along during the conflict to see the importance of these ... load of tangible objects. He missed his chance to better himself as a soldier. The soldiers in "The Things They Carried...

• Word Count: 461
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of Gump and he received the Medal of Honor for that. A short story written by Tim O'Brien called "The Things They Carried" was about things the soldiers carried. For example one soldier carried dope, another carried comic books, and another carried condoms. The short story tells about physical things that the soldiers carried during their service. But it actually symbolizes the emotional baggage carried by the soldiers when they were at war. They carry all the things that mean a great deal to ... them in life. The soldiers also carried emotions. "Song of Napalm" written by ... ...

• Word Count: 983
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... in this dangerous environment. The things they carried out of necessity might seem minor to a civilian. But, to soldiers in war, they are the difference between making it out alive and not making it out at all. Another reason for the things they carry came from the individual jobs the soldiers had. For example, the platoon leader, Jimmy Cross was the one in charge of the group of men. He carried special equipment to help ... O"Brien clearly demonstrates why he chose the title. The characters had to carry so many different things thought their missions. Some of the things they carried de...

• Word Count: 651
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Tim O"Brien's The Things They Carried is a tale that deals not only with the risk of war, but also with the emotional effects it has on the young soldiers. Lt. Jimmy Cross is the designated leader. All of the men in the troop carried various items with them, both physically and emotionally. After the death of one of his soldiers, Cross is forced to reexamine his actions and realize the mistakes he has made ... became clear to me that Lt. Jimmy Cross will not be able to forget about Martha, and that he is not an effective military leader. The things that Lt. Cross carries are different than th...

• Word Count: 440
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

"The Things They Carried" In the short story "The Things They Carried" Tim O"Brien faces Jimmy Cross with the problem of surviving while fighting in Vietnam. While trying to maintain his sanity, Jimmy struggles between his old self and the person he has to become. Jimmy has to make some difficult decisions while in his tour, and most of them come to his attention after his friend Ted Lavender ... to overcome another great hurdle in his strive for complete leadership. Individualities against Conformity. Everyone in the story had their own things they carried, some carried lucky pebbles like Jim...

• Word Count: 841
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In Tim O"brien's short story, "The Things They Carried," he describes a certain platoon humping through the jungle of Vietnam. He portrays the setting and characters by describing the varies items each man would carry. The things each soldier would carry were both tangible and intangible items. Each soldier carried their own burdens. They all carried the basic essentials for survival of war and the things that would make living possible by carrying the bare minimum of what ... by Martha which represented is his love for her- an emotional burden he could not rid himself of. The soldiers in "Th...

• Word Count: 922
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... girlfriend's pantyhose around his neck. (O"Brien 855). These items were carried for courage and luck, for they were in a dangerous situation all the time. The soldiers carried everything that could improve their quality of life in the situation they were in. The circumstances they were surrounded by magnified "The Things They Carried." The physical demands were great, and if you add the emotional weight of fear, dying, grief, and loneliness, this put an additional burden ... for the men to carry around. The soldiers had to carry around something ... ...

• Word Count: 644
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... across to see if the enemy was hiding in them. All these actions, and descriptions of feeling together give the reader a matter-of-fact reality of the story. The point of view of the story comes from a narrator telling the story. The narrator knows all and sees all, and lets the reader know everything. The fact that the story is a narrative is another reason why "The Things They Carried" is a story. "The Things They Carried" shows a change in ... some characters after they interact with other characters and deal with their ... ...

• Word Count: 904
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the short story "The Things They Carried" Tim O"Brien faces Jimmy Cross with the problem of surviving while fighting in Vietnam. While trying to maintain his sanity, Jimmy struggles between his old self and the person he has to become. Jimmy has to make some difficult decisions while in his tour, and most of them come to his attention after his friend Ted Lavender is ... needed to overcome another great hurdle in his strive for complete leadership. Individuality against Conformity. Everyone in the story had there own things they carried, some carried lucky pebbles like Jimmy and others ca...

• Word Count: 897
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The Things They Carried In, The Things They Carried, Tim O"Brien drifts away from the trendy war novel in which the author describes actions in an attempt to place the reader in the war. Instead, he focuses on the thoughts of the soldiers, the inner feelings, and small personal nuances in an attempt to place the reader in the men. In addition, he employs the stylistic technique of specific, conscious detail selection and utilizes ... of ideas in so few pages, which he displays through and ensemble of motifs. One such motif, the "heart of darkness," shows how the smoke from the war, both figur...

• Word Count: 847
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... . "O"Brien gives only straight forward descriptions in these segments and the writing is void of any feeling or sentiment. When describing the intangible things, however, the writing is a lot more in tune with the emotions of the characters"(Jason Voegele, Thoughts on the Things they Carried). This is a very intelligent way to describe the items because it shows what kind of person each soldier is ... and soul from his tragic Vietnam War experience into "The Things They Carried". "For O"Brien, the lingering hurts of the war are intimately linked to his stories""(Tina Chen, Contemporary L...

• Word Count: 1155
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Symbolism in stories is dependent on how the author writes, the title, and the characters. Titles in literature are very important to the symbolism of a story an example of this is Tim O"Brien's "The Things They Carried". As the story goes on it shows not only the literal meaning of what they carried but also symbolically the burdens that they had mentally. In the literal sense O"Brien talks about what different members of a platoon in Vietnam ... Jensen carrying his night-sight vitamins. All of "The Things They Carried" helped to add to the stress of the war and also help to quell it, they c...

• Word Count: 1163
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... of a foot soldier. This is a story not so much about the things the men of Alpha Company carried, but rather the burdens that they could not put down. O"Brien subtly explains how the men carry their thoughts, memories and "unweighed fear". Throughout the story, O"Brien gives long, tedious, monotonous and utterly boring lists of the things the men carried. "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity", but each man's necessities were different. All of ... the men carried very heavy loads to begin with, and added to these loads things that ... ...

• Word Count: 1054
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Tim O"Brien's "The Things They Carried" the soldiers carry guns, ammunition, and body armor to keep them as safe and as protected as possible. Each one carries things important to them as well as the standard issued items. They carry pictures and letters helping them remember girls they have left behind and who they want to see. Depending on the type of person such things as tranquilizers or marijuana are carried. But each ... soldier carries these items for fear of getting shot and killed. They have to take their mind off of the war and the fighting if just for ... a couple of minutes...

• Word Count: 1179
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... use of repetitions throughout the story is structured in a manner to keep the reader's interest without giving away to many details until the end of the story. The repetitions in the story are constant descriptions of the things each solider carries, Lt. Cross" fascination with Martha and Ted Lavender's death. O"Brien's repetitious structure in "The Things They Carried" is by far the main factor that adds ... suspense in this story. O"Brien implants what each soldier is carrying firmly in the reader's mind by listing things the ... how Lavender was killed. Tim O"Brien has a wonderfully ...

• Word Count: 857
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In the short story, "The Things They Carried," Tim O"Brien writes about the soldiers of Vietnam and the self versus war or nature that all of them had to carry with them. In this story, O"Brien writes about the intangible things that the soldiers carry with them such as memories and fears and also the actual material things that they carried. However, the weight of these intangible things had a much heavier load than the real material things. The intangible things are ... the men carried showed what kind of person that they were. The things that they carried defined what kind of person that ...

• Word Count: 459
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

"The Things They Carried," by Tim O"Brien is a story about a group of soldiers marching through Vietnam during the war. It describes the men and the things that each of them carries. These soldiers carry both tangible and intangible items, which depends on each soldier individually. They carry the basic "necessities" for survival and the bare minimum to make life as livable as possible. They also carry fear, memories, and the weight of emotions. The main ... of nature and emotion such as: "They carried diseases, among them malaria and dysentery. They carried lice and ringworm and leeches and ...

• Word Count: 806
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... of a foot soldier. This is a story not so much about the things the men of Alpha Company carried, but rather the burdens that they could not put down. O"Brien subtly explains how the men carry their thoughts, memories and "unweighed fear". Throughout the story, O"Brien gives long, tedious, monotonous and utterly boring lists of the things the men carried. "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity", but each man's necessities were different. All of ... the men carried very heavy loads to begin with, and added to these loads things that ... ...

• Word Count: 1047
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... things, the simple but beautiful order of nature. She emphasizes this simplicity by the playful and guileless rhythm of the poem. After the character gives the bird a crumb, the rhythm breaks and slows down, and the reader can almost feel the smoothness of the bird gliding through the air. There are no punctuation signs at the ends of the two sentences which lets them "hang in the air." The sentence carried over to the next stanza and the ... focuses her vision on a small area with the bird and the beetle, which allows her to describe them in greater detail and to celebrate every little...

• Word Count: 404
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... " change in character is just the beginning of The Things They Carried. As the book continues to document what happened to the men O"Brien fought alongside, the reader continues to notice the peculiar way men change when faced with extremes. O"Brien's The Things They Carried probes deeply into the human conscience and presents it in such a way that it stirs the reader. In one chapter O"Brien ... remembers a man he killed. The only man he killed in Vietnam. The book goes on to vividly describe the ... and planes that have forever molded him into something completely different than what he...

• Word Count: 982
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Tough Love in "The Things They Carried," by Tim O"Brien In Tim O"Briens "The Things They Carried," O"Brien describes the blind obsession of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross for a young girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. Burdened by the physical and psychological aspects of the Vietnam War, Cross often finds himself daydreaming and distracted by thoughts about her. Out one day on another one of their ... seemingly meaningless missions, Cross and his men are investigating tunnels near the ... a better soldier; it helps him prioritize what his duties are, to keep himself...

• Word Count: 582
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... , the soil They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity." The setting clarifies the central idea by showing the challenge and responsibilities imposed upon the troops. The story has several elements of language throughout it. The most prevalent of them are pattern and imagery. Pattern is exemplified with repeated references to the things carried by the soldiers and also the repeated emphasis on the weight of the things they ... carry. "They ... ...

• Word Count: 1022
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... would cause people to take their own lives to relieve the pain. Tim O"Brien's book, The Things They Carried delivers these horrors to the reader in a group of perfectly orchestrated, realistic stories. Apocalypse Now is a vivid account of Vietnam, and the damaging effects of the war. The film takes the view down the Mekong River into Cambodia, where the darkness is discovered and civilized war ends. A separation ... on the brink of insanity, which can be successful in leading missions of such brutality. The journey into the jungle takes the viewer into the heart of the darkness, providin...

• Word Count: 1176
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... shot, "just boom, then down- (283). O'Brien placed much emphasis on the dead weight issue by mentioning it several times. In The Things They Carried, the men also dealt with numerous different emotions brought on by war. They carried these emotions just as they carried their supplies; however, they could not put down the emotions of the war as they could the supplies. "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing ... "these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity ... ...

• Word Count: 992
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School