Analysis The Things They Carried

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Themes in The Things They Carried Chapter 1-”The Things They Carried” In the first chapter of The Things They Carried, O’Brien creates a feeling of each characters emotional weights and burdens through the use of the physical objects they carried through the war. Chapter 2-”Love” O’Brien uses the various connotations of love as the title to show Cross’s mixed feeling toward Martha, and his expectations of how she would act when he returned, compared to reality. Chapter 3-”Spin” By sharing these various anecdotes from the war of different characters, O’Brien comments on how the war time experience is very disconnected, and how one moment one can be laughing with their comrades and the next be being shot at, without even realizing what’s happening. Chapter 4-”On The Rainy River” Through sharing his struggles upon the subject of weather or not to join the war, O’Brien shows us how the decision to go fight for one’s country can cause great emotional wear. Chapter 5-”Enemies” In this chapter, O’Brien shows that men can often get far too worked up about small things being lost, and the grudges are often kept for quite a long time. Chapter 6-”Friends” O’Brien shows that though the soldiers may have made an agreement to kill each other if they were seriously wounded, that promise is often not kept once the day comes when they actually are in a near death situation. Chapter 7-”How to Tell a True War Story” This chapter shows that the perception of war people often get from the stories they hear from war veterans is typically very far from how it truly is, for they often make different endings or choices to make it seem far more moral than it often is. Chapter 8-”The Dentist” O’Brien shows how men often feel a need to show excess bravery in war, and Lemon does this in a strange way, by being excessively dramatic about his fear of dentists, then
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