The Things They Carried: Summary

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CITES: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/thingscarried/summary.html http://www.slader.com/humanities/tim-obrien-the-things-they-carried/chapter-by-chapter/ Title: The Things They Carried Author: Tim O’ Brien Date of publication: 1990 Genre: Fiction; war novel Historical background: The Things They Carried was written in 1990. This book is Biographic information about the author: Tim o’ Brien was born in Austin, Minnesota. His date of birth was on October 1, 1964. The most famous books he known for are The Things They Carried, If I Die in a Combat Zone, and Going After Cacciato. His genre are war stories and memories. He was drafted by the US Army and sent to Vietnam in 1969-1970. Characteristic of the genre: War…show more content…
He describe the story as a shame to for him to live by this story. In june of 1968, a month after graduate from Mascalester College, He was drafted to fight in Vietnam war, which he really hate. He think this war is wrong, he think there are no purpose of fighting in this war. He also think that he is too smart and too good for this war. He spent his summer at Worthington, Minnesota to working in specialize in pork products. His job was clean the blood with a water gun. He was think about moving to Canada, He just want to take off and run like crazy and never stop. But he also feared exile. He fear of losing respect to his parents, his friend and his family. He decide to take the risk and drive to Canada. He spent a night at Tip Top Lodge and live at Elroy Berdahl‘s house . They spent six days together, He never told Elroy the reason why he going to Canada border but he sensing that Elroy already knew. One night the two was concluding about the bill and Elroy insisted he own Tim more then $100. The next morning, Tim saw four $50 bills in a envelope sitting in front of his door. On the last day, Elroy took Tim to fishing On the rainy river, about 20 yards ahead of him, there is the Canada border and Tim suddenly cry. Finally, he conclude he will to the war. The next morning, he drives straight home and head to the…show more content…
First, he wrote about his friend name Bob Kiley. A week after Bob’s friend dead, Bob sits down and write a letter to the guy’s sister to explain hwo great her brother is and describe how much he love him. Bob waited for 2 months, but the sister never wrote back. Tim also said “ a true war story is never moral” which he trying to said never believe a story seem moral. Tim reveals the dead guy’s was name Curt Lemon. He died because he was goofing off with Rat Kiley. The game involved with smoke grenade, Lemmon stepped out of the sunlight and step on a booby trap. Tim said that some time the crazy stuff is truth and the normal stuff isn’t. Sometime you can’t even tell a true war story. He also bring up the story from Mitchell Sander and later on, Mitchell admit some part of the story was made up. He compare his part of Lemon’s death to Mitchell’s story. Tim also said in a true war story, nothing is absolutely true. A true war story can be find out by question afterward. He also brought up the story that we all know which is the story when one guy jump on the bomb to protect his three friend. But the truth is all four of them died. A women come up to him afterward and told him that she like the story. She said she like it because of the baby buffalo. Tim wanted to tell the lady that it wasn’t the war story but a love

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