Literature Analysis #2

 Literature Analysis #2

"The Things They Carried"

Tim O'Brien

Book Edition: First Mariner Books Edition

"They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried."
-The Things They Carried (Pg 7) 

 



1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

 

"The Things They Carried", by Tim O'Brien isn't written in a nice chronological fashion, rather the 22 chapters that it does have provide snapshots of soldier's experiences during the controversial Vietnam War and beyond which actually makes the book a collection of short stories. An interesting point of this book is that though it is fiction, Tim O'Brien actually wrote himself in as the protagonist. The short stories, or chapters, range on everything from events of the war to events decades later. In doing so O'Brien blurs the lines of his story. Events are out order, and some are quick flashbacks due to the book being a collection of short stories. Yet in doing so O'Brien does something incredibly unique with "The Things They Carried", he allows readers to see the events as his characters did; sudden, quick and often unexpected.

 

O'Brien's book isn't just a novel about the Vietnam War, it was written as an up close and personal experience into the lives of soldiers during all wars.

 2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

 

The universal emotions and burdens which all humans share and carry. O'Brien's series of short stories is a testament to the emotions and burdens we all carry. Yes, the soldiers carried the necessities for battle and for war, but they also carried with them pieces of home. "To carry something was to hump it, as when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps" (pg 3)

 3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

O'Brien is straightforward in his writing. He doesn't shave off details in the attempt to alleviate the harsh reality of the Vietnam War but neither does he beg for sympathy from his readers.

 4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

 

Symbolism: War, and telling the stories of war. "A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done" (Pg 68)

 

Juxtaposition: The monks and the church. "One afternoon, somewhere west of the Batangan Peninsula, we came across an abandoned pagoda. Or almost abandoned, because a pair of monks lived there..." (Pg 119)

 

Setting: “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.”  

 

Allusion: The whole novel itself is an allusion to the Vietnam War, and how it really created a second "Lost Generation". A war time draft occurred and young men in the prime of their college years were forced to march, kill, and die in the jungles and swamps of Vietnam, for a purpose that seemed to allude them. That's the allusion this book is hinting at.

 

Flashback: “When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame the war, You could blame the idiots who made the war. You could blame Kiowa for going to it. You could blame the rain. You could blame the river. You could blame the field, the mud, the climate. You could blame the enemy. You could blame the mortar rounds. You could blame people who were too lazy to read a newspaper, who were bored by the daily body counts, who switched channels at the mention of politics. You could blame whole nations. You could blame God. You could blame the munitions makers or Karl Marx or a trick of fate of an old man in Omaha who forgot to vote.”  

 

Foreshadowing: “I survived, but it's not a happy ending.”   This book is strange when it comes to foreshadowing. Since most of the book is out of sequential order, and jumps from past to present, we often hear about the outcome of important events long before they happen, such as the death of Kiowa, and other characters.

 

Imagery: You don't know. When I'm out there at night I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and fingernails, everything, it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark - I'm on fire almost - I'm burning away into nothing - but it doesn't matter because I know exactly who I am.”  

 

 

CHARACTERIZATION

1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

For the Protagonist Tim O'Brien, much of the characterization is indirect.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

I didn't feel as much changed in the points of syntax or diction when O'Brien switched his focus from character to narration. If anything his focus on character lessened some of the syntax and diction that he used, almost as if he was inviting the reader to make assumptions about character.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.
I actually struggle picking out a protagonist for this novel. The soldier Tim O'Brian is a representation of the author himself, who in the novel is writing about his experience in the war. Basically Tim O'Brien made a fictionalized version of himself, writing about things he experienced in the Vietnam War, both he and his fictionalized version of him self. But as a protagonist Tim O'Brien, who is modeled after the author is a very dynamic character as he shows multiple sides of his personality and reasons for his actions.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction. 

I didn't feel that I had necessarily met a new person, by the end of this book, rather I had met a deep and partially troubled character. There are so many emotions and experiences that in the case of "The Things They Carried" which were never fully resolved or dealt with. And although I do understand that this series of short stories wasn't written as a memoir, it feels that Tim O'Brien was attempting to make sense of his struggles in Vietnam through the character O'Brien. And while doing that actually makes his character more believable, it also makes him hard to fully accept as a character or as a person.

I'm not going to lie, but I dropped the ball a little on this literature analysis.