... of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick." This quote was extracted from the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, and exemplifies the power that the war had in exploiting one's innocence. The Vietnam war drastically altered the soldier's American Dreams due to the great abundance of evil which was celebrated throughout the war. The novel The Things they Carried, the movie "Platoon," as well as an actual story from a Vietnam Veteran each, in ... their own ways, allude to the powerful ability that the Vietnam war possessed to change a soldier's thoughts ... ...

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... " 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

... of what lies ahead of her now that she is "free". At the beginning of the story, we are told that Louise Mallard has a heart condition. This is the first sign that something might happen and is great foreshadowing of things ahead to come. Since this is a short story it gets right to the climax. Richards, who is a friend of Brently Mallard, walks through to ... foreshadowing: Louise breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. After reading that I began to wonder what might happen. After her prayer, she opened the door for Josephine and together they began to walk down the stairs. Lo...

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• Grade Level: High School

... where she lived and her surroundings bothered her, whereas other people where fine with what they had in life, and appreciated the simpler things. Her husband enjoyed the simpler things. When making dinner and sitting at the table, the author points out that the cloth is three days old, and the husband is happy with the home cooked meal that Mathilde makes. However, Mathilde envisions, "delicate repasts," and ... entire lifestyles to pay off the replacement necklace. "She learned the rough work of the household, the odious labors of the kitchen. She washed the dishes, wearing out her pi...

• Word Count: 1085
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The Things They Carried The Things They Carried was full of war stories, each one telling a telling a different kind of truth. The author Tim O"Brien refers to two different kinds of truth. The first he calls the story-truth. He says "I want you to know why the story-truth is truer sometimes than the happening-truth." (Pg.179) Telling the happening-truth sometimes doesn't get the point across. The story-truth puts different images into ... exactly what that person was going through. Telling the happening-truth is just going through the motions and most of the time just telling the actual stor...

• Word Count: 854
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• Grade Level: High School

... , Doodle was a strong determined little boy. He began his life with a fight to stay alive. There was not much hope for poor little Doodle at the beginning. His father even ordered a casket built for him because they did not expect him to live. With his unblaten determination, he won his first battle to live. Not long after that, he began to fight ... touch it. He went out of his way to take care of the bird. He even sang, "Shall we gather at the river", as he slowly carried the scarlet ibis to the flower garden where he buried him. He family oddly watched him do this because they did not...

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• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The Things They Carried " I"ll never die. I"m skimming across the surface of my own history, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim is trying to save Timmy's life with a story."(pg.246). In the final chapter "The Lives of the Dead," O"Brien uses his memories of Linda as a means of finding closure to the novel ... is because stories can save and change an individual and this particular story has had the most influence on Tim's life. Linda and the stories, dreams, and imaginations have brought together the stori...

• Word Count: 948
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... of orange and violet" (O"Brien 1106). She found it on the New Jersey shore- "where the land touched water at high tide, where things came together but also separated" (1106). Despite the pebbles" small stature, I believe it to be the central idea of this story. The majority of the story centers on all the things carried by soldiers during everyday combat; the stone itself isn't emphasized as much. O"Brien did not ... place as much of an importance on the role of the pebble as it should have been ... her tiny gift. There were three that seemed to stick out while I read the rest of the s...

• Word Count: 668
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Roy describes their standing at funaral; "Though Ammu, Estha and Rahel were allowd to attend the funeral, they were mase to stand separately, not with the rest of the family. Nobody would look at them." As a discrimination of a women right another character can also be seen to be her mother mammachi. The God of Small Things is not a novel about mass struggle. Rather, it is about ... the ways which individuals, particularly women, find to resist the conditions imposed upon them by society. The character of Ammu, who is to commit the ultimate transgression by loving the low-caste Velutha,...

• Word Count: 422
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• Grade Level: High School

... Sal." Cherokee Sal can be described as very coarse, feared and sinful woman, the only found in Roaring Camp. She was lying in sore extremity needing the ministration of her own sex. She was suffering, the primal curse had come to her. She was having a child Things were as a resident of the camp said, "rough on Sal." Deaths weren't anything new in Roaring Camp, however ... a birth was. Stumpy was sent in to help, as he had experience in this, he had been the putative head of two families. While the surgeon and midwife closed the door behind them the rest of the camp sat smoking its pipe,...

• Word Count: 748
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... wasn't capable of accomplishing anything that I tried to do. It is not so much what she did to make me feel this way. It was the things she said. On several occasions she told me that I was stupid, ignorant and that I would never amount to anything in life. I remember her ... the positive things that would help me grow and succeed in life. I want my family and friends to learn and understand that nobody should have the power to bring their spirits down by making them feel like they are worthless, like my half-sister did to me. One of the biggest qualities I have always carried ... is be...

• Word Count: 1209
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... the "civilian" population of the island (small kids, Piggy, Simon, etc.) and control the island itself. That decision was Ralph's worst decision throughout the whole book. On a more psychological level, Ralph is an ineffective leader because he is too young to make decisions that will be respected by the older kids. If he were an adult then maybe things ... would have been better, but as it stands in the book Ralph, being a kid, did not have the mental of physical capability of commanding all of these kids and ... stage in his life. Now, if Ralph had not been elected leader than who wou...

• Word Count: 1171
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... the "civilian" population of the island (small kids, Piggy, Simon, etc.) and control the island itself. That decision was Ralph's worst decision throughout the whole book. On a more psychological level, Ralph is an ineffective leader because he is too young to make decisions that will be respected by the older kids. If he were an adult then maybe things ... would have been better, but as it stands in the book Ralph, being a kid, did not have the mental of physical capability of commanding all of these kids and ... stage in his life. Now, if Ralph had not been elected leader than who wou...

• Word Count: 1114
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... A- on this paper Kiowa's Burden In the short story, "The Things They Carried" by Tim O"Brien, the author uses belongings to reflect his character's personalities and thoughts. The soldiers had the task of fighting two Vietnam wars, an internal war and an external war. Each soldier carried various weapons with which to fight both wars. Externally, Kiowa was fighting against the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. Internally, Kiowa was fighting ... that forced him to grow up. Kiowa's strong heritage and strong sense of duty to God helped him remain intact throughout the war. Kiowa carries...

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• Grade Level: High School

... be on her own. Not only does she have to begin making her own decisions but she will also have to learn how to not live under the control of her father. After such a traumatic event, one may undergo some personality changes and/or go though some type of phase. "After her ... with the expectations from the people who live in the town, Emily has been under someone else's control for most of her life. "She carried her head high enough-even when we believed that she was fallen" (35). The death of her father was the start of Emily having to learn to take control of the things in ... her life....

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• Grade Level: High School

... cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies" (Faulkner, 459). The way the house was described gave Emily a sense of warmth in the house, yet she was an asset to the town. People noticed when she did things, so to escape from that, her house was the perfect place. At the time of her father's death, Emily carried on as if he was still ... glad that Emily's father was gone because the towners felt that Emily was free to be with anyone she desired and not have to deal with her father. She soon met Homer, a black construction worker. She actually...

• Word Count: 323
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... used their games as a friendly reminder of what home is. The Things They Carried displayed how the soldiers look to each other to get through the traumatic events they experience together. When Lavender was killed, the soldiers make jokes about his death. As Tim O'Brien narrates, he talks about the change he saw in the men once they saw Lavender's body; "They found jokes to tell...used a hard vocabulary to contain ... and trauma of this, but he used his memories to assure himself that everything would be alright. After Action Report, The Things They Carried, and God Bless America all sh...

• Word Count: 786
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... God in each of my prayers that this letter will find you or end up in the Irish Sea rather than fall in the wrong hands. I am shuddering as I scribble this letter. Regarding Patrick's death, the reason why they have not found Patrick's murderer yet is because I am the one who killed him. I know it's very shocking, but I hope you will read this letter till ... , emitting his manly glow that illuminates my mundane boring life as a housewife. I love him by the way he sits coolly in his favorite couch, I love his pensive quiet eyes, I love the way he walks in slowly with long strides. I love...

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• Grade Level: High School

... about yourself, your values, and your morals, that remain largely unchanging. I've spent a lot of my life doing self-contemplation, and I feel comfortable sharing some things I've learned about myself, who really am. -I am an emotional person. No, I don't mean that I'm a drama queen (er king) and that everything ... I sometimes enjoy embracing that emotion and being alone with my daydreams. I sometimes end up walking alone in a park at night, just staring up at the stars and enjoying the quiet calm and thinking of being with a special someone. I like to give flowers. I try to treat wome...

• Word Count: 740
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• Grade Level: High School

... the beginning, though of how little faith he has in himself. We learn that through watching the movie and reading the story and creating the interpretation. The movie and the story are standardized in that they express that he holds little faith, but in the film, there is the ... dispute that shows that he is very dependent on his mother and others. In the ... know, because I've tried. And tried. And tried." This expresses that he has come to terms in the fact that he can only change things for himself. He cannot escape. He is in a very dingy apartment, has just lost his job, and does ...

• Word Count: 813
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• Grade Level: High School

... does not take his mother's words to heart. Does he blame himself for Sonny's situation, and does he feel if he were there things would be different. This encounter makes Baldwin think and search his inner self for answers. -As Baldwin continues with Sonny's story, he talks ... I saw my mother's face again, and felt for the first time, how the stones of the road she had walked on must have bruised her feet. I saw the moon-lit road where my father's brother died. And it brought something else back to me, and carried me past it. I was my little girl again ... see his brother's struggle and a...

• Word Count: 1177
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and more, which would put a heavy burden on his mind. He carried around the burden of not knowing who the killer was and not being able to help the people of Thebes out of their horrible plague brought on by the gods. He had to live with the guilt of knowing he caused all this to happen. His life may or ... he ends up taking out his eyes because he does not want to see all the havoc he has created. It may be honorable to be the King and ruler of a city, but is one fully aware of the job they signed up for? We all know Oedipus as being prideful, proud, and even a little full of himself. ...

• Word Count: 573
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• Grade Level: High School

... and violently. My skin ripped and tore and my blood spilled down onto my shirt and the floor. This time I couldn't hurt myself enough to let it all out I even hit myself and slammed my head into things, but the pain wouldn't subside like normal. I couldn't take it and all I could think about ... was that I wanted it to stop and I would do anything to stop hurting, so I did. I took the knife I had used to cut myself and jammed it ... echoing in my head: "Why Ian? Why did you do this?" Then the paramedics came and put me on the stretcher and carried me away to the hospital, but I only r...

• Word Count: 840
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Three symbols that are prevalent in The Things They Carried were the pictures and letters the men had, the Song Tra Bong, and Linda. He uses these symbols to have objects and people represent abstract ideas. The pictures and letters symbolized their past and what they left behind them when they went to the war. In the jungle, life is hard. These items help them cope with the troubles there and remind them of ... what life was like back at home. Jimmy Cross carried pictures and letters from Martha. He remembers the time he spent with her and ... he often wonders about her. He eventually burne...

• Word Count: 375
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Ted Lavender from The Things They Carried and Ralph Ellison from Battle Royal have many similarities, but few differences. They are both young men in situations that they do not specifically want to be in. Both young men have a future to look to, but they get put in places that jeopardize their future. For Ted Lavender he did not sign up for the army, but was drafted in. He ... is faithful to his country, but was forced to go fight for it. Ralph Ellison went to the gentlemens" club, but the white men forced him to be in the boxing match. Ralph Ellison did not put up a fight with the white men...

• Word Count: 476
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School