THE THINGS THEY CARRIED CODE

The story morality states that everyone is responsible for his own actions, and it is useless to blame everything on the people around you. When one person's actions begin to affect another person, we have moved from personal ethics to social ethics and often have to place some limits on human behavior (Bowen, Weigl, 1997). The main idea of the text is that wartime has a great impact on feelings and views of people. It was really difficult to him to change his worldview but he was strong enough to cope with emotional burden, and re-sort his “things”. His negligence of duties costs life one of his soldiers, and after this terrible event, he puts an end to his false dreams, and rethink most of his values and views. Jim suffers greatly and can do nothing but dreaming about close relations with this girl. The main character of the book is Lieutenant Jim Cross, a man who falls in love with a girl who does not return his feelings. Order custom essay Tim O’Brien “The Things They Carried”, and His Writing StyleĪs Kaplan characterizes war stories: “Almost all of the literature on the war, both fictional and nonfictional, makes clear that the only certain thing during the Vietnam War was that nothing was certain” (Kaplan, 1993, p. It is important that “a set of things” has been changed, and at the end of the story the heroes carry a completely different “things” with them. These things are so important for them as ammunition during wartime, because they help the main heroes to overcome depression and difficulties they face with.

This story vividly depicts inner state of the characters during wartime and their living essentials such as fear, kindness, love, and uncertainty. Under “things” O’Brien means weapons and ammunition as well as terror, love, personal values and beliefs, but “almost everyone humped photographs” (p. Soldiers carry different “things” with them.

It describes the events of Vietnam War and analyzes deep personal feelings of the main heroes, and things they were faced with during wartime. The short story “The Things They Carried” was published in 1990. O’Brien uses a simple language, but symbolism and stylistic devices helps him to unfold the message of the story.

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED CODE

His negligence, passion for a girl and narrow-mindedness causes a death of one of the soldiers, and this event forces his to revise his values and ethical code of a soldier. The evolution of emotional perception of the world and values is depicted through the character of Lieutenant Jim Cross. He gives a detailed list of everything soldiers take. Psychological pressure is caused by war, but O’Brien portrays it symbolically through material and emotional things the soldiers carry.

In his story “The Things They Carried” O’Brien depicts casualties of Vietnam war through evolution of characters’ emotional and psychological state.

The things they carried