Things They Carried

Things They Carried

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  • Date Submitted: 02/24/2009 7:55 PM
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Alex Featherston
English IV (7)
Ms. Lopez
October 3, 2008
Literary Essay

The Things We Carried by Tim O’Brien is a novel covering the Vietnam War. He tells us of his Vietnam War experiences through short stories by Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his platoon.
The majority of O’Brien’s novel is told to us by using stories about Cross.
One of the war stories O’Brien had,” never been told before. Not to anyone.” (O’Brien 39). This shows us how O’Brien tells of his war stories by using Cross. We also interpret how the war actually was through a human’s eyes. In this novel there are man tales of,” the lives of the men in Lt. Cross’s platoon.” (Akers 326). Here we see how the war affected many people and, we learn many of their experiences.
The Vietnam War was a very physical war. Many things seen were gruesome like,” The left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips.” (O’Brien 128). Soldiers saw sights like these every day leaving physical sights in their mind. O’Brien said,” words didn’t seem to adequate the experience.” (Bloom 2). Some of the understandings of this war were so horrible in to see through eyes that it could not be expressed in words showing how physical this war actually was.
The Vietnam War was not only a physical war, but a very mental war leaving soldiers with hardships that could be hard to overcome. Many things happened in the war leaving soldiers,” shame and responsibility.” (Akers 326). Many soldiers came home from the war with having to deal with things no one should have to deal with. After the Vietnam War there were many people with post-traumatic war syndrome because of some of the things they had to carry mentally. O’Brien left the war with,” drowning and gore and blood and terror.” (Bloom 2). Having to deal with sights like these can leave someone mentally unstable for the rest of their life. The short stories told in this novel show us of some of the things had soldiers had to deal with.
In conclusion we see many of the...

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