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Survival of the Extraordinary

 

            An extraordinary circumstance is a notably unusual or exceptional event. In Tim O"Brien's novel The Things They Carried and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel Crime and Punishment the main characters find themselves in extraordinary circumstances time and time again. O"Brien and Dostoyevsky both use stylistic devices to entrap their main characters in these extraordinary circumstances. Tim (O"Brien's main character) and Raskolnikov's (Dostoyevsky's main character) struggles and strategies to survive these extraordinary circumstances are what make their experiences most compelling to me.
             War is the extraordinary circumstance that is forced upon Tim in The Things They Carried. When Tim gets his draft notice he is very distraught. He feels ashamed for not wanting to go to the war, but he also doesn't feel like he has enough courage to be able to survive in the Vietnam War. Throughout the novel we see many instances where Tim feels that he is not brave enough to be able to successfully serve his country in the war. Another major factor in Tim's extraordinary circumstance is death. Tim is greatly affected by watching the people around him die, especially the ones that he knows and loves. He is also deeply affected by the fact that he has to harm others, and that at any point in time he may be harmed. Tim carries a lot of things during the war, tangible and intangible, these things help to convey his extraordinary circumstance. Some of the tangible things that Tim carries are heavy weapons and supplies to keep him alive, but these are not the things that burden him. What burdens Tim the most, though, is the intangible things, all of the emotions that he humps around. The Vietnam War causes Tim great emotional, physical, and mental fatigue, which shows that he is in an extraordinary circumstance. .
             Raskolnikov finds himself in many extraordinary circumstances. The town of St. Petersberg, where Raskolnikov lives, is filled with people living in poverty, including himself.


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