What is a motif in the things they carried?
The themes of the novel include vapor and haze, which settle over the landscape and represent the feelings of haunting and fear the men experience as they move through the jungle, and the related theme of ghosts, which represent the horrors of war that the men carry with them through the jungle.
What does Jimmy Cross carry in the things they carried?
Jimmy Cross – 1st lieutenant and platoon leader, age 24, he carries a pebble, pictures, and letters from Martha. He appears in “The Things They Carried,” “Love,” “Spin,” “Church,” “Style,” “Speaking of Courage,” “In the Field,” “The Ghost Soldiers,” “Night Life,” and “The Lives of the Dead.”
What does Jimmy cross symbolize?
Jimmy Cross’s character represents the profound effects responsibility has on those who are too immature to handle it. As a sophomore in college, he signs up for the Reserve Officers Training Corps because it is worth a few credits and because his friends are doing it.
What is the significance of the pebble that Martha sends Jimmy in The Things They Carried?
The pebble in The Things They Carried symbolizes Martha, a woman who would never love Lt. Cross the same way he loved her, a complex relationship, and an undying symbol of love and affection that can never be destroyed. The pebble has a powerful significance in the life of Lt. Jimmy Cross.
What does Martha symbolize in The Things They Carried?
In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, Martha to Cross represents an idealized version of the life he has left behind at home. Fantasizing about her allows him to at least partially shut out the horrible realities of war that are all around him.
What could Jimmy Cross never forgive himself for?
What could Jimmy Cross never forgive himself for? Jimmy Cross never forgave himself for the death of Ted Lavender. Years after the war, Jimmy Cross went to visit Tim O’Brien and after seeing a snapshot of Ted, Jimmy said that “[Lavender’s death] was something that would never go away” (O’Brien 26).
What does Jimmy ask O’Brien to do when he writes his story?
What does Jimmy ask Tim to do when he writes his story? He urges O’Brien to paint him as a brave and good leader. 4. What does it tell us about Tim O’Brien, the narrator, that he reveals character traits of Cross’s that Cross would prefer to have remain unknown?
Why did the narrator call himself a coward?
The narrator of The Things They Carried considers himself a coward because he went to Vietnam. He fought in the war.
What happened to Norman’s friend Max?
What happened to Norman’s friend Max? He drowned in a lake.
What is ironic about Kiowa’s death?
What is ironic about Kiowa’s death in The Things They Carried is that he got “wasted in the waste.” He died “biting the dirt” as he drowned in a pool of sewage. Azar tries to deal with Kiowa’s death by pointing out its ironic qualities and saying that Kiowa himself would’ve appreciated the irony of his death.
Why can’t Norman relate to anyone at home?
Norman unable to relate to anyone at home as they didn’t go through the same tragedies he did in the war. In addition, he wants to tell his “loved ones” about the medals and awards he won, specifically the Silver Star award, instead of telling any other person.
Did Norman Bowker have PTSD?
Inability to cope with a traumatizing event: Norman Bowker has a hard time adjusting back to life as a civilian after the time he served in the war and witnessed Kiowa’s death. He is traumatized and ends up committing suicide.
Why did Norman Bowker kill himself?
Bowker then suggested that O’Brien write a story about someone who feels that Vietnam robbed him of his will to live—he said he would write it himself but he couldn’t find the words. Eight months later Bowker hanged himself.
What does Norman Bowker carry emotionally?
He believes, according to O’Brien, that what marks men as courageous are medals and service awards. Because of and in spite of this belief, Bowker has an active emotional life, an intensity of feeling about the atrocities he experienced in Vietnam, especially Kiowa’s death.
Is Norman Bowker a real person?
Norman Bowker was not a real man. He exists solely through The Things They Carried as a fictional character.
Why did Norman Bowker carry a diary?
Norman Bowker carried a diary to log all that happened everyday after they went out.
What does Rat Kiley symbolize?
In the first chapter, O’Brien describes the various objects that the members of Alpha Company carry along with them as a way of showing the burdens (physical, mental, and emotional) that each soldier carries. Rat Kiley, for example, carries malaria tablets, morphine to ease the wounded’s pain, and supplies to treat …
Why is the things they carried not in chronological order?
O’Brien’s non chronological style follows his own memory path. He does this to keep the reader fully engaged and interactive with the novel. By writing non chronological the reader gains more context to previous stories. This forces the reader to reflect on earlier events in the novel.
What point of view is the things they carried?
The Things They Carried is written from two points of view. The title story and several others are written in first person, from the perspective of the character of Tim. Tim narrates all the stories but is not the main character in of all of them.
What is the structure of the things they carried?
The structure of the text includes the opening, development of ideas and ending. It can also include devices such as important events, turning points, foreshadowing, juxtaposition, flashbacks, motifs and repetition. O’Brien structures his narrative around two key aspects: 1.
Who all dies in the things they carried?
The collection is haunted by the deaths of O’Brien’s comrades—Ted Lavender, Curt Lemon, and Kiowa.
How did Mary Anne change in things they carried?
Her transformation from a pretty girl wearing culottes to an animal-like hunter who wears a necklace of tongues parallels and exaggerates the change all young men went through in Vietnam, such as “O’Brien” who went from a boy who liked school to the man who plotted a sadistic revenge against Jorgenson.
What does Rat Kiley carry emotionally?
As the medic in Alpha Company in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Bob “Rat” Kiley carries not only the “things that a medic must carry,” like morphine, plasma, surgical tape, and “M&M’s for especially bad wounds,” but also the responsibility for the lives of all the men in the platoon and the emotional weight of …
Why did Azar kill the puppy?
In The Things They Carried, Azar kills the puppy as a prank. He straps it to a Claymore antipersonnel and squeezes the firing device. Azar is a very immature young man who’s forever joking around. This is just another example of his general attitude.
What does Azar do to the puppy?
Unable to cope with stress, Azar brutally kills Ted Lavender’s adopted puppy and uses his immaturity and youth as an excuse for his actions. O’Brien’s decision not to explain or elaborate on this event conveys the message that sometimes the facts in a true war story need no further commentary.
Why does Tim hate Bobby Jorgenson?
Tim hates Bobby Jorgenson for many reasons. He almost lost his life because of him. Tim describes Bobby as green and incompetent, “When I got shot the second time, in the butt, along the Song Tra Bong, it took at son of a b*tch almost ten minutes to crawl over to me”. He was humiliated which made him hate Bobby more.
Why is O’Brien angry at Jorgenson Why is Azar angry at O Brien?
O’Brien feels betrayed and becomes angry. Jorgenson apologizes, explaining that he didn’t help O’Brien because he was paralyzed by fear. O’Brien does not fully accept the apology and decides to take revenge. After being rejected by Sanders, he partners with Azar to pull a prank on Jorgenson to scare him.
What does Tim say you shouldn’t have to feel about being wounded?
What does Tim say you shouldn’t have to feel about being wounded? He didn’t hate Jorgensen and feel that rage anymore.
What was hard for the narrator to admit to himself?
What was hard for the narrator to admit to himself? He was evil.
How did Rat Kiley die?
During a tense period, when the platoon is moving only at nights, Rat loses it. First he goes quiet, then he won’t shut up about bugs, then he admits that he’s scared, then he starts talking about body parts and bugs and the war, and then he shoots himself in the toe and is sent to Japan, away from the war.