The Things They Carried Essay

Essay by nicwarrenHigh School, 10th gradeB+, October 2014

download word file, 5 pages 0.0

The Things They Carried Essay

The past would be unknown if it weren't for stories. Cave art, drawings in the ground, and fossils, all told stories that allowed us to figure out what the past was like. Eventually, humans evolved, creating legitimate languages allowing for a more mature form of story telling: writing. When a story is read or told, the characters in the story are brought to life in our head; and the speaker or reader delivers emotions. Some stories allow the reader to put together how the he or she ended up then and there. In The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, these aspects of story telling are brought to life in the author's attempt to show us what he went through during the Vietnam War. Through experiences such as, seeing friends lose friends in battle, and looking back on times when he was younger, O'Brien shows the emotional truth, keeps the deceased alive, and figures out how he ended up where he is today, as a writer, all by sharing his experiences of the Vietnam War.

When a story is told about someone losing another who is close to them, of course the listener is going to feel bad for them. However, how can he ever really feel what the storyteller is going through? One of the many goals of Tim O'Brien in writing The Things They Carried was to get the reader to actually feel what the protagonist of the story felt. O'Brien states " If a story seems moral, do not believe it."(68). Here, while telling a story about how Rat Kiley, one of his comrades, has his best friend blown up by a hidden land mine. In reading this story, one would feel badly for Rat, but could never understand what he...