: The Things They Carried - Research Paper Example

Tim O’Brien’s “The things they carried” novels begins with a graphic description of the physical, the mental and emotional situations that each character in the story went through in their military career. The characters in the story are described well, giving a vivid understanding of the emotional atrocities every soldier goes through. Tim describes the characters in the story using the physical tools, necessities and tools that they used to carry in their different War missions. For example, Dave Jensen studied field hygiene since he was passionate about it.

The author describes him as a person who used to carry hotel soap, toothbrush and floss anywhere he went (O’Brien 518). In addition, the soldiers are well described in the story with their different ranks and titles. Lt. Jimmy Cross is mentioned in the story as the leader who was answerable to the welfare of the soldiers and he culturally carried binoculars, maps and a strobe light (O’Brien 519). All the record for the physical items and weapons that the soldiers carried were well kept. In addition, the metaphysical things had immeasurable weight, which was noted.

For instance, when Ted Lavender died, Lt. Cross bore the luggage of distress since he felt answerable for the death. The soldiers also had emotional burdens that they carried like fear and thus they lived in restlessness. The technique in which the story was narrated is solely based on the author’s background. Since he was a reporter before, he greatly used his reporting acumen to deliver a third-person approach in the understanding of the cultures of war soldiers. He used a very informative approach in explaining the plight of the soldiers by applying an approach akin to “Fly on the wall” approach.

The author made an emphasis on Lt. Cross and his platoon to give a clear vision for the reader in understanding the story. Moreover, the author seemed to give graphic details of the army culture to captivate the reader’s attention in a bid to explain the soldier’s colloquialisms, philosophies and customs. Then author in the novel is describing the characters in a succinct way that is akin to a movie scene. The imagery that a person gets in the mind after reading the story is tantamount to a movie scene involving war soldiers.

In addition, the series of words connection in the story make a very good report story. A person can easily report the story and people will easily understand the meaning of the story. The author was emphatic on the use of the title as the beginning phrase in most paragraphs in the story. Predominantly, the author tries to engage the reader into the happenings of a battle in the battlefields. Tom O’Brien explained how the soldiers were affected by the battlefield mindset even when they are not at war.

The soldiers are depicted to be affected by the battles, and consequently carrying the mentality into the serene states of their minds. They fight with their spirits in the quietest moments and try to vanquish the enemy. In addition, the soldiers suffered the same syndrome with their integrity since they devised new ways of defeating the enemy even when they were not in the battlefields. The emphasis of this situation is succinctly explained in the book while speaking of the gun and Japan evacuation (O’Brien 528).

This condition was initially brushed off as group behavior but later it was discovered to be an individual condition. Each soldier suffered this condition in his or her peculiar