Furthermore, in environments that are highly conducive to trauma, such as war or a paramilitary educational institution that is predominantly filled with Caucasian males who are permitted to attack one another during a certain period in their caree Continue Reading...
At the same time, the style is expected to give the reader an idea of what is happening, and that too in a more refined version. In his language there are poetic references for the brutality and masculinity of war as feminine features. He has talked Continue Reading...
Krajek points out that what she took from O'Brien's lecture was the fact that a fiction author can help the reader connect with the story in reality, even if the story is not true. "His lecture's overarching message illustrated his belief that ficti Continue Reading...
True War Story," by Tim O'Brien. Specifically, it will discuss are there universal truths that apply to all people and societies; or do we live in a state of relativism, one in which perception dictates how we will respond to the tasks that we are g Continue Reading...
I can make myself feel again (O'Brien, p. 180). And, through story truth, what the story is able to do for O'Brien, it becomes able also to do for the reader. In "The Lives of the Dead," O'Brien further elaborates on his need for stories universal Continue Reading...
psychological consequences of war, of fighting in a war, of eating and sleeping in a "war zone," are not merely limited to the implications of witnessing and partaking in death; war deeply influences the mental attitudes of those involved because of Continue Reading...
The whole country. Vietnam, the place talks." The environment sinks under their skin, uncomfortable and yet unavoidable -- in short, hell. There is also a growing sense of insanity among the men that O'Brien describes in this story. There is the cr Continue Reading...
Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien presents the image of the typical mystery; however, as the story unfolds it quickly becomes apparent that it is a story of complex psychological underpinnings. Almost from the opening page it is easily apparent that Continue Reading...
While he pretended, she was "elusive on the matter of love" (1). While she might have signed her letters with love, Jimmy "knew better" (2) but the idea made him feel better so he allowed himself the luxury of living in the fantasy. Jimmy's guilt fo Continue Reading...
Later, however, Jimmy cannot forgive himself for Lavender's death, and his own day-dreamy negligence that he knows had caused it. By now Cross has ordered his men to burn the area where Lavender died, and they have moved elsewhere. But none of that Continue Reading...
It is very difficult to reach a conclusion regarding "The Things They Carried" and the purpose for which O'Brien wrote it. While a first look on the collection of books is probable to provide someone with the feeling that it is easy to read and doe Continue Reading...
Truth and Memory in the Things They Carried Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, is more than a novel because it allows the reader to experience the Vietnam War in a personal way and it allows O'Brien the opportunity to bring closure to the Continue Reading...
The audience has the feeling that O'Brian is presenting them with significant and personal stories from his life. This slowly but surely makes readers feel that they too are connected to the war and to the narrator. It sometimes seems that O'Brian Continue Reading...
He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye had a star shaped hole. I killed him." (O'Brien 180). Very similar observations can be made about Turner's poetry. Tu Continue Reading...
" (O'Brien, Chapter 15, pg. 143) Norman Bowker is a disillusioned person because he feels that his service in the war has been meaningless. The quote speaks a lot about what he feels about the people of his town. He has just returned from his tour o Continue Reading...
This foolishness becomes emblematic of the entire Vietnam experience -- situations are created to display violence and bravery that have tremendous significance to the soldiers, but serve no real purpose. Just as Rat mythologizes Kurt's willingness Continue Reading...
Kiowa's death also evokes the notion that for the U.S. Vietnam was a quagmire; his drowning functions almost emblematically to suggest America's deepening entanglement in Southeast Asia. 'This field,' O'Brien writes, 'had embodied all the waste that Continue Reading...
Tim O' Brien, Wilfred Owen & "Saving Private Ryan" The theme of disillusionment in war as reflected in the works of Tim O'Brien, Wilfred Owen, and the film "Saving Private Ryan" More than being a mirror of everyday life, literature has also bee Continue Reading...
Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien and the poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen are two wonderful pieces of literature that depict the horrors of war in a way that is both visceral and astute. The images, the relationships, the deaths, the b Continue Reading...
He is more interested in "things," than what those things will bring. "Nick went over to the pack and found, with his fingers, a long nail in a paper sack of nails, in the bottom of the pack. He drove it into the pine tree, holding it close and hitt Continue Reading...
American Literature War Writing War Themes in American Literature War is one of the toughest topics for writers to handle. They have to deal with extreme inner demons based on their traumatic experiences in the field, but have to do so without comp Continue Reading...
"In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it's safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true. Often in a true war story there is not even a point, or else the point doesn't hi Continue Reading...
Furthermore, the author has also eluded to the negative consequences in which there is a complete lack of ability to define what truth is. In this context, O'Brien ends his essay by stating that a true war story is actually "…about love and me Continue Reading...
1). The character in the novel/author 'Tim' never believed in the cause of the Vietnam War, and nearly fled to Canada to avoid serving. That decision to servie affected him in an unalterable fashion, and O'Brien's recounts the story of Vietnam to him Continue Reading...
In a discussion about life and death, other soldiers talk about the lieutenant's sensibility and wonder whether there was something wrong with them for not feeling as bad as Cross felt. The young lieutenant blames himself for Lavender's death as he Continue Reading...
War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead" (O'Brien 86-87). It is interesting that Briony includes a large section of World War II in her novel, tying these two works together in many ways. Briony is writing to assua Continue Reading...
Things They Carried In his thought-provoking novel about the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien redefines the traditional concept of war as an honorable pursuit. In doing so, he explodes the myth about war being even remotely romanti Continue Reading...
True War Story" and "Soldier's Home" by Tim O' Brien and Ernest Hemingway, respectively, are stories that tackles the issue of social, psychological, and emotional complications that a war veteran/soldier experiences during and after the war. The tw Continue Reading...
Thematic Use of Power and Responsibility in Three Short Stories How can anyone possibly imagine how difficult waging war is without experiencing firsthand the horrors of being on the battlefield? The classics of Western literature have invariably be Continue Reading...
Coming of Age Stories: Explorations of Components of the Narrative In literature, one of the most frequently dealt with theme is the story of one character's developing over time and reacting to the various experiences that he or she faces through t Continue Reading...
Real Hearts Going After Apocalypses Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was one of the first works of fiction to explore modernist notions of reality, and specifically, what makes an experience "real." "Apocalypse Now" can, in many ways, be thought o Continue Reading...
Political Science Annotated Bibliography The Purpose of a Political Court In the view of Henry J. Abraham (Abraham 1998, 55), "theoretically," just about any qualified law school graduate with ambitions for an important judicial appointment would Continue Reading...
This appearance does not improve as the book progresses. Because their first set of knives is taken away, the twins go to the butcher Faustino Santos twice to have knives sharpened for the murder. In piecing together the story later on, the narrato Continue Reading...
In the third chapter of Flight, Zits describes who is perhaps "the only real friend of [his] life" as a "pretty white boy" who "doesn't even like or respect Jesus -- or Allah or Buddha or LeBron James or any other God" (Alexie 24). In what is otherw Continue Reading...
It is a hotly contested idea that just one war-themed book can adequately discuss the topic of Vietnam, and this idea is properly portrayed in this book. Fellow authors like Renny Christopher have condemned Tim O'Brien's story for paying more Continue Reading...
69). For O'Brien there is no moral or rectitude in a war story because even what is good and beautiful in it comes from an obscene and evil motive. It is impossible, in a true war story, for a soldier to die declaring that he is glad to have died fo Continue Reading...
These sentences run counter to what most people say about war. War is often glamorized and most often glamorized by those who do not have to fight in war. Politicians often build up rhetoric for war to make men feel as though they are doing the coun Continue Reading...
Character Development: Novel Review Novel Review: Character Development The novels, The Red Badge of Courage' by Stephen Crane and 'The Things they Carried' by Tim Obrien, are among the best depictions of the role played by introspection in helping Continue Reading...
As he himself admits, "I have a very grim perspective. I do feel that it's a grim, painful, nightmarish meaningless existence, and the only way to be happy is if you tell yourself some lies. One must have some delusions to live" ("Cannes 2010: Woody Continue Reading...
com. In case of several companies, enhancing customer relationships is among the most capable features of e-commerce. However, whereas the Internet has presented the consent of a novel method to draw and communicate with the customer, hardly few ente Continue Reading...
