Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Things They Carried Place In The World - 1,822 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien: Adult in Adolescence For the young men that fought in the Vietnam War, seeing the death and chaos of intense jungle warfare was more than they could handle. Coming to grips with the actions they had to carryout during this war was physiologically challenging for all of them. Even after the war was long done with, the veterans of the Vietnam war were still suffering, but on another level. Many war veterans had chosen to forget their days of war and move on with their lives but others wanted to express themselves through the writing of stories of the Vietnam War. People like war veteran Tim OBrien choose to write stories about the war in honor of the men and women who fought and died over seas. The violence and stress of the Vietnam War caused these veterans a sense of loss so deep it was almost impossible to communicate.

Obrien's story was his own personal way of dealing with the sense of loss, of carrying, as the title suggests, a great emotional burden. Only by fictionalizing his memories OBrien is able to deal with some of the more complicated emotions caused by war. Before OBrien became a famous writer for todays literature, he lived a normal life. Tim OBrien was born in 1946 in Austin, Minnesota. He attended Macalester College in 1968. After graduation Tim found himself with a bachelor of arts in political science and a daft notice from the United States military.

Although OBrien was against the war in Vietnam, he reported to service like a patriotic American. He was assigned to the 3 rd Platoon, 46 th Infantry. This assignment was considered unlucky due to the death rate of incoming Army foot soldiers to that area of the fighting. After a year of fighting, OBrien finished his tour and headed back to the states where he continued his schooling. He began graduate work at Harvard once he was back, became a news reporter and then started publishing his stories shortly after. In 1973 he published If I die in a Combat Zone, and Box Me Up and Ship Me Home.

Both of these shorter stories had to do with fictional mixtures of his memories and hardships form his wartime experience. (Kaplan 2 - 7) The story The Things the Carried was one of the most successful writings that Tim OBrien had ever created. Although he wrote many books and short stories on the events of the Vietnam War, this story touched many veterans and simple readers. This story dealing with soldiers and what they carried during wartime, whether it was emotional or physical showed the true horror and hardships that were endured by so many young men. The soldiers in this story carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28 -pound mine detectors, machine guns, dope, illustrated bibles, and each other.

If they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. (Calloway 251 - 253) Emotional struggles come to human beings in infinite quantities, especially when one is young. In the case of the character Tim OBrien, an emotional struggle begins when he first receives a letter of the draft notice. From that moment, his life is completely changed, and he begins to grope for some explanation of his fate: A million things all at once I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything.

It couldnt happen. I was above it. A mistake, maybe foul-up in the paperwork. I was no soldier (OBrien 41). While he stays in a lodge by himself near the border of Canada hesitating to decide whether or not to go to war, he was wired and jittery. [His] skin felt too tight. After supper one evening [he] vomited and went back to [his] cabin and lay down for a few moments and then vomited again; another time, in the middle of the afternoon, [he] began sweating and couldnt shut it off. [He] went through whole days feeling dizzy with sorrow. [He] couldnt sleep; [he] couldnt lie still (OBrien 50).

One can infer how deeply he suffers emotionally from the fear of both going to war and of being ridiculed by not going to war. After all, he is just a normal kid who loves baseball and cherry Coke and has ordinary dreams and ambitions like many other young kids. He just wants to live the normal life mainstream life (OBrien 51) but there are not many things he can do to change his fate. Young people, like the character OBrien, search for their place in the world, relentlessly questioning the rules governing their lives. When they find themselves in a situation, which is far beyond their control, they fall into moral confusion, and their minds sometimes completely freeze. Other soldiers in Vietnam also experience emotional struggle during the war.

Most of them are young, inexperienced, and naive. To cope with constant fear, many of them carry photographs of their loved ones; others carry girlfriends stockings, the New Testament, condoms, comic books, etc. , along with ordinary war supplies. These items comfort them, as they are the only things that they can feel, touch, and smell in the otherwise ambiguous war experience. In short, those are the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry (OBrien 16). This desire to hold on to something reflects the need to maintain oneself throughout adolescence. Young people also tend to be dazed in melodramatic love dream.

The young lieutenant, Jimmy Cross, constantly struggles to pull himself back to the reality from delusion of his lover, Martha. During operations, he keeps thinking about her without willing it and loses sight of reality: On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing (OBrien 9); When one of his men had dies by accident, he feels enormous guilt and tells himself that virginity was no longer an issue. I hated her. Yes, I did. I hated her. Love, too, but it was a hard, hating kind of love (OBrien 24).

From these, one can see how Jimmy Cross constantly struggles within him carrying both innocent aspect of young man and heavy responsibility as a lieutenant. For adolescents, especially those who are seriously absorbed in love, the fault line between reality and illusion becomes blurred. Young people are also easily impassioned by fire. They tend to act without thinking about the consequences or the danger involved when they get excited, afraid, or angry. The young soldiers in the Vietnam are no exception. Rat Kiley, after losing his best friend, shots and kills a baby buffalo, supposedly out of sorrow, guilt, and anger of his friends death.

Later on he cries and tries to say something but then cradles his rifle and goes off by himself (OBrien 79). The character, OBrien, also recklessly kills a young man and afterward describes his state of mind: It was automatic. I did not hate the young man; I did not see him as the enemy; I did not ponder issues of morality or politics or military duty. I was terrified.

There were no thoughts about killing (OBrien 132 - 133). Both Kiley and OBrien do these things almost unconsciously. After it happens, they realize they went too far. This is typical for young kids. Victims of car accidents are almost always young people because they are easily driven by adrenaline; because they are easily touched by fire.

It is beyond their control. The character, OBrien, describes his feeling when he is driving away from his home to escape from the reality: I was riding on adrenaline. A giddy feeling, in a way, except there was the dreamy edge of impossibility to inline running a dead-end marino way out couldnt come to a happy conclusion and yet I was doing it anyway because it was all I could think of to do. It was pure flight, fast and mindless. I had no plan (OBrien 47). In short, when impassioned by fire, the young people do not see whether it is right or wrong, whether it is real or illusory; the brake mechanism in their mind completely halts.

The soldiers in Vietnam are in a sense caught in dilemma between innocent young men and mature adults who fight for their country. They carry both the innocent aspect of young men and the mature aspect of soldiers who carry weapons and responsibility. They are naive, but in a war situation they cannot show it, or they are not allowed to show it. They have to behave as an adult; they are treated as an adult. Once they carry guns and rifles, they are no longer considered kids.

Their carelessness and mistakes that in a normal life may be forgiven in the name of innocence are not tolerated in a war. The arms and weapons make them responsible for their tasks. In short, they carry double-burden of duties. Through constant struggle within themselves, they try to seek their place in the world, their truest self, and the meaning of their lives. Self-query, self-fumbling, and self-struggle during adolescence are passage into adulthood. (Harris 8) Almost every human being go through such naive, innocent period in his life and experience more or less emotional conflicts in the process of becoming adulthood from adolescence. Indeed, I assume, many of us have similar kind of experiences as these young soldiers.

When facing extreme fear or under constant pressure, we cannot think rationally and lose self-control. We tend to avert our attentions from the reality and look for an easy way out even if we know there is no such thing. That is the way we humans are. When one is young, the fear and pressure become especially enormous. With these applicable and universal human natures, The Things They Carried is more than just a war story, but of story about human experience in adolescence. Since it was published, The Things They Carried has become an incomparable Vietnam tribute and a classic work of American Literature.

Its an insightful story of men at war that clarifies the limits and the capability of the human soul and heart. Even as more stories of Vietnam are written today, most short stories at least will not come close to The Things They Carried. Works Cited: Calloway, Catherine. How to Tell a True War Story: Metafiction in The Things They Carried. Critique 36, Summer, 1995 Harris, Robert R. Too Embarrassed Not to Kill: A review of The Things They Carried, ' in New York Times Book Review, March 11, 1990 Kaplan, Steven.

Understanding Tim OBrien. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995 O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Penguin, 1991.


Free research essays on topics related to: jimmy cross, things they carried, place in the world, tim obrien, vietnam war

Research essay sample on Things They Carried Place In The World

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com