Search results
The Things They Carried. Full Book Summary. The protagonist, who is named Tim O’Brien, begins by describing an event that occurred in the middle of his Vietnam experience. “The Things They Carried” catalogs the variety of things his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company brought on their missions.
- On The Rainy River
Summary. O’Brien says he has not told this story to his...
- Foreshadowing
Tim O’Brien uses foreshadowing in The Things They Carried as...
- Important Quotes Explained
O’Brien contends that barely restrained cowardice is a...
- How to Tell a True War Story
The day after he tells this story, Mitchell approaches...
- The Man I Killed
Summary. “The Man I Killed” begins with a list of physical...
- The Lives of The Dead
A summary of “The Lives of the Dead” in Tim O'Brien's...
- Character List
Tim O’Brien. The narrator and protagonist of the collection...
- Speaking of Courage
A summary of “Speaking of Courage” in Tim O'Brien's The...
- On The Rainy River
- Plot
- Quotes
- Story
- Synopsis
- Analysis
- Premise
\"On the Rainy River:\" Before going to Vietnam, Tim O'Brien decides to dodge the draft, and he drives north to Canada but stops near the border at The Tip Top Lodge, owned by an old man named Elroy Berdahl. O'Brien credits Berdahl with being \"the hero of his life.\" O'Brien spends six days at the Lodge, trying to decide whether or not to flee. Be...
\"How to Tell a True War Story:\" O'Brien writes that war stories have no moral, they are often not true (at least completely), and if a story is true you can tell by the kinds of questions a story gets after it's told. O'Brien tells the story of Rat Kiley's reaction to Curt Lemon's death as an example, as well as Mitchell Sanders' story about a pl...
\"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong:\" O'Brien tells a story that Rat Kiley told him from when he was stationed in an isolated area. There was so little action there that one soldier, Mark Fossie, snuck his girlfriend Mary Anne Bell in by helicopter. Things don't go as Fossie planned, though, because Bell becomes infatuated with the war, leaves Fossi...
\"The Man I Killed:\" The story goes back and forth between O'Brien's memories of the corpse of the young, armed man he threw a grenade at on a path outside of My Khe and the invented history O'Brien has created of the dead man as a mathematician, scholar, and terrified soldier. Kiowa keeps insisting that O'Brien quit staring at the body and talk t...
\"Notes:\" A post-script for the story \"Speaking of Courage.\" O'Brien tells the background of how \"Speaking of Courage,\" came to be when Norman Bowker sent him a seventeen page letter, ultimately asking him to write a story about a man like him who feels he died after the war. O'Brien feels guilty and compelled to oblige, and writes a version o...
\"The Lives of the Dead:\" O'Brien compares his Vietnam wartime experiences with the death of his childhood sweetheart, Linda, who died of a brain tumor when she was nine. Hers was the first dead body O'Brien ever saw. He says that stories keep their subjects alive, and in this way Linda can live forever.
May 26, 2021 · By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 26, 2021. In the short story cycle The Things They Carried (1990), Tim O’Brien cemented his reputation as one of the most powerful chroniclers of the Vietnam War, joining the conversation alongside Philip Caputo (A Rumor of War), Michael Herr (Dispatches), David Halberstam (The Best and the Brightest), and the poet ...
In The Things They Carried, protagonist "Tim O'Brien," a writer and Vietnam War veteran, works through his memories of his war service to find meaning in them. Interrelated short stories present themes such as the allure of war, the loss of innocence, and the relationship between fact and fiction.
What point does O’Brien make about stories and truth? Why does O’Brien become angry at Bobby Jorgenson and eventually want to get revenge on him? Where does O’Brien take his daughter, Kathleen, in Vietnam? What happens to Rat Kiley?
Mar 6, 2024 · The story follows a platoon of American soldiers grappling with the physical and emotional challenges of war. Through evocative descriptions of the soldiers’ gear and internal struggles, O’Brien crafts a haunting and introspective narrative that delves into the complexities of human nature under duress.
People also ask
Who was Tim O'Brien?
What does O'Brien say about the things they carried?
Why does Tim O'Brien want to write stories?
Does Dobbins agree with the story 'the man I Killed'?
What is the story of the man I killed about?
Is O'Brien a true story?
Summary. “The Man I Killed” begins with a list of physical attributes and possible characteristics of the man whom O’Brien killed with a grenade in My Khe. O’Brien describes the wounds that he inflicted. The man’s jaw was in his throat, he says, and his upper lip and teeth were missing.
