Symbolism in The Things They Carried Essay - 1104 Words

A. Park The Things They Carried The symbols in Tim O’Brien’s â€Å"The Things They Carried† are essential to understanding the soldiers and their lives during the Vietnam War. At the opening of the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross would dig into his foxhole and read the letters while imagining romance with Martha; however, at the end of the story after the death of Ted Lavender, he â€Å"crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters† (402). The inner feelings of Cross would be mistakenly ignored without the help of symbols throughout his travel through Vietnam. O’Brien uses the emotional and physical weight carried by the soldiers as a representation of their personalities and how they prefer to cope with the war. The†¦show more content†¦He had touched these items day by day, wondering who had been beside her while she had retrieved the pebble from the beach, or who placed the shadow in the photo of her. His mind would race day and night, making i t difficult for him to provide adequate attention on the war. Cross â€Å"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† (396). Cross would hope for nothing more than to be carrying nothing. These physical objects weighed him down terribly after the death of Ted Lavender. He had loved Martha much more than his men, and due to his overpowering love he had lost one of them. The pebble was not only a symbol of importance to Cross as he dealt with the trauma of war, but as the physical weight he carried due to the death of his man. These physical symbols helped to identify a shift in the story when Cross decides to open up and make a change to the way he is coping with the war after Lavender’s death. This â€Å"wouldn’t help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an office r† (403). Another symbol O’Brien used in the story was the superstitious items carried by the soldiers which helped them to cope with the trauma of the war. Dave Jensen carried a rabbit’s foot for good luck to protect him from theShow MoreRelatedSymbolism In The Things They Carried1368 Words   |  6 Pages The Things They Carried Lorraine Fonger South University Composition III/Literature ENG1300 Colette Morrow October 29, 2017 The Things They Carried How many â€Å"things† do you carry with you every day? Everybody carries things that symbolize who they are or where they are from. Those things may be heavy, light, or even things that you cannot see. In the short story â€Å"The Things They Carried† by Tim O’Brien, he introduces a lot of symbolism in every object mentioned, many of them you can seeRead MoreEssay about The Things they Carried Symbolism772 Words   |  4 Pages The Things They Carried: Essay Prompt Two Tim O’Brien writes about both the physical objects they carry as well as their emotional burdens. The objects that these soldiers carry serve as a symbolism for what they are carrying in their hearts and minds. The soldiers carry items varying from pantyhose, medicine, tanning oil, and pictures. Jimmy Cross is an inexperienced sophomore in college, he signs up for the Reserve Officers Training Camp because his friends are doing the course. Jimmy Cross doesn’tRead MoreSymbolism In Tim OBriens The Things They Carried1969 Words   |  8 Pagesstory â€Å"The Things They Carried† (pg. 433), the story follows Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his command during the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Cross constantly spends most of his time fantasizing about a girl named Martha, who he has an unrequited crush on. However after witnessing the death of one of his soldiers, while he was preoccupied thinking about Martha, Cross feels guilty and realizes that he needs to focus on leading his command. I believe that O’Brien’s â€Å"The Things They Carried† use imageryRead MoreSymbolism in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried Essays978 Words   |  4 Pagesexperience in Vietnam, â€Å"The Things They Carried† is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in â€Å"The Things They Carried† guides the reader throughRead MoreSymbolism in Tim O Briens quot;The Things They Carriedquot;605 Words   |  3 PagesSymbolism In The Things They Carried In Tim OBriens story The Things They Carried we see how OBrien uses symbolism in order to indirectly give us a message and help us to connect to what the soldiers are thinking and feeling. During a war soldiers tend to take with them items from home kind of as a security blanket. The items they normally take with them tend to reveal certain characteristics of their personality. Henry Dobbins is the guy who loves to eat so he made sure he took someRead MoreHeroism In Tim OBriens The Things They Carried1684 Words   |  7 Pageswar. A more realistic rendition of war is seen in Tim O’Brien’s short story, The Things They Carried. Throughout the story, O’Brien uses metafictional characters to portray the physical and emotional burdens carried by American soldiers who were forced to conform to societal expectations upon being drafted for the Vietnam War. The literary elements O’Brien uses throughout the story to convey this theme are symbolism, imagery, tone, and inner conflict of the protagonist. The Vietnam War, which lastedRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien865 Words   |  4 Pageswho enter here.† Dante Alighieri. Hope is an anodyne. In times of war many soldiers require a buffer to alleviate the pain of witnessing the horrors of the war zone reality. This may manifest as emotional baggage, a reoccurring theme in â€Å"The Things They Carried† by Tim O’Brien. Emotional baggage transcends the physical weight it manifests that was in the soldier’s packs. Emotional baggage can manifest as something intangible, like an obsession, or take on physical weight and mass, like something thatRead MoreEssay about Literary Techniques in The Things They Carried1276 Words   |  6 PagesIn The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses many such techniques to provide more depth to his book. Four literary techniques used by Tim O’Brien are symbolism, pathetic fallacy, irony, and juxtaposition. One literary technique prominent in The Things They Carried, particularly in the story by the same name, is symbolism. Throughout this story, O’Brien mentions all the things that the soldiers carry with them, both physical and emotional. However, the physical items that the men carried is moreRead MoreThe Things They Carried by Tim OBrien1154 Words   |  5 PagesThe novel The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien begins by Mr. OBrien describing his dramatical events that happened during the middle of his Vietnam experience while he was fighting in the war. Mr. OBrien received his draft notice in the month of June in the year of 1968. When he received this notice Mr. OBrien had feelings of confusion, and that drove him to go north to the Canadian border, and it had him contemplating if he wanted to cross it or not because he does not want to be forced toRead MoreSymbolism In The Tell Tale Heart And The Tell Tale Heart987 Words   |  4 Pages How does the symbolism affect the meaning of a written piece, does it make it more or less important? Symbolism is used to represent ideas; that may imply deeper, hidden meaning than what the text directly states. Symbolism can be used in different ways throughout different books; for example, â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart†, by Edgar Allen Poe and â€Å"Once upon a Time†, by Nadine Gordimer, contain a variety of symbolism that have the possibility of having two or more meanings. The problem with this is identifying