The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

The things they carried novel is about soldiers facing the war in Vietnam. The story drawbacks to the things about and the feelings that the soldiers carry in their hearts while they are facing the war. The story that starts from the chapter dentist brings out the death of the soldier who did not have much attention and drags to the about receiving a letter.

“Rat Kiley stopped there, almost in midsentence, which drove Mitchell Sanders crazy. 'What next?' he said.

'Next?' 'The girl. What happened to her?' Rat made a small, tired motion with his shoulders. 'Hard to tell for sure.”

Conflict is always used to drawback the attention of the reader if it is lost moreover repetition is also used here. The conflict built between two people. This conflict here creates a tension to the reader to evoke the interesting side of the particular girl. The writer also uses exaggeration in the last sentence to represent the reality is worse.

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“I mean, in a way she was sleeping with all of them, more or less, except it wasn't sex or anything. They was just lying together, so to speak, Mary Anne and these six grungy weirded-out Green Berets.' 'Lying down?' Sanders said. 'You got it.' 'Lying down how?'

Repetition is used here to create a connection with the writer’s mind. Here this is about a girl who is sleeping with some boys. The writer repeats the word lying to emphasize that she is just lying with them and not having sex with them.

Writer also uses this technique to characterize the girl named Mary Anne but it is done in an indirect way.

“The way she looked, Mary Anne made you think about those girls back home, how clean and innocent they all are, how they'll never understand any of this, not in a billion years. Try to tell them about it, they'll just stare at you with those big round candy eyes. They won't understand zip. It's like trying to tell somebody what chocolate tastes like.”

Symbol is always used to make the reader feel that the story is becoming interesting. The chocolate, big round candy eyes are used to symbolize in a way how sexually the girls stare at men or it could be just a way to express that the girls were kind and sweet. The writer uses a lot of symbols in these chapters to bring out the characters into life.

“Not necessarily three kids, she'd say. Not necessarily a house on Lake Erie. 'Naturally we'll still get married,' she'd tell him, 'but it doesn't have to be right away. Maybe travel first. Maybe live together. Just test it out, you know?'

Imagery is always like day dreaming here in this paragraph it brings out the imagination about what the girl would do after getting married. They are thinking and imaging how many kids will have and also how they will build their house or where they will build their house. The word maybe surely emphasizes they are just dreaming about things and about travelling. They imagine their whole life here about getting married and also about living together.

The story that the writer builds up is highly realistic. This story brings out the true story of hardships that soldiers face during the wars the writer uses real words that are used in the war to even more emphasize the reader. The writer always uses a lot of symbolism and imagery to share the experiences of the soldiers that face the war.