Excerpt from Composition:
Weight of War in “The Things They Carried”
Point-of-view, imagery and characterization turn into useful equipment that enhance the reader’s knowledge in Harry O’Brien’s story, The Things That they Carried. O’Brien captures intricacies of specific scenes during his amount of time in Viet Nam in such a way regarding deliver clentching commentary about war. By watching a fellow soldier die to seeing a sweet young lady transform correct be connaissance his incredibly eyes, O’Brien shows all of us the unbearable side of war. Through point-of-view, symbolism and characterization leaves no question in our minds about what battle does for the individual.
The narrative target in The Items They Transported is compelling and it can help O’Brien tone his opinion about the warfare in general. Through his tales, a pattern of the psychological toll with the war emerges. Many conflict stories elaborate on the physical ruin battle brings but O’Brien’s emphasis is more on the mental wreck that occurs for the military. This style allows O’Brien to incorporate many characters, settings, and detailed aspects into the new while making the mental connection with someone. With the narrator’s point-of-view, O’Brien demonstrates that Viet Nam is not just a place on the map – this can be a collection of thoughts that do not go away for almost any soldier that ever battled there. Inside the story, “The Things They will Carried, ” each soldier bears the weight of the “land alone – Vietnam, the place” (O’Brien 15) and this “emotional baggage” (O’Brien 21) contains:
Grief, terror, love, hoping – these were intangibles, however the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity… They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained… They will carried the soldiers greatest fear, that was the fear of blushing. Men killed… since they were embarrassed not to. It was not valor, exactly; the item was not valor. Rather, these people were too terrified to be cowards” (21, 22).
Here we see how O’Brien establishes his point-of-view by simply expounding after the excess weight of the warfare.
O’Brien likewise uses images as a literary tool inside the novel. In the earlier description, we see the intangible weight nevertheless O’Brien as well shows all of us the tangible weight as well. This photo helps visitors balance the enormity of what the soldiers carried. We read a number of the men bring “P-38 may openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, watches, fog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, sweets, cigarettes, salt tables, bouts of Kool-Aid, lighters, fits, sewing packages, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water” (O’Brien 2). Here we actually discover what they taken.
