Tim Obrien Essays (Examples)

Tim Obrien's "The Things They Carried" Short story College English (Literature) class. MLA Format.

Carried Away

There are several instances of repetition in Tim O'Brien's short story "The Things They Carried," which is actually the first chapter in a book he published with the same title. Rhetorically, the author uses both alliteration and anaphora (which is, respectively, the repetition of syllables and the repetition of words or phrases) to punctuate many of his paragraphs. However, O'Brien's usage of repetition actually plays a fairly integral role in his structuring of this particular tale, and even in providing a moral for this story centered around events that took place during the Vietnam ar. The author utilizes repetition to emphasize various themes associated with this tale, such as the overwhelming burden of the physical and emotional strain of enduring this armed conflict. O'Brien's constant reliance upon repetition underscores the substantial burden of coping…

In short, it takes a little bravery to think about things in a serious manner and this includes our thoughts regarding courage. O'Brien writes, "Proper courage is wise courage (133) and it is also acting "wisely when fear would have a man act otherwise. It is the endurance of the soul in spite of fear -- wisely" (133). Courage is not something that can be conjured up on a whim, in O'Brien's estimation. It comes from coherent thinking and he writes, "Men must know what they do is courageous" (137), adding that they "must know it is right, and that kind of knowledge is wisdom and nothing else" (137). In O'Brien's opinion, bravery is not related to how one acts in the field. Bravery is described powerfully when O'Brien states, "Either they are stupid and do not know what is right . . . Or they know what is right…

True War Story," by Tim O'Brien. Specifically, it will discuss are there universal truths that apply to all people and societies; or do we live in a state of relativism, one in which perception dictates how we will respond to the tasks that we are given, or to the world around us? What happened to Rat Kiley and Curt Lemon? What part of Rat Kiley's story do you think is true - if any? Why does O'Brien write the book the way he does? Why does he tell the story the way he does, and what is it that he wants you to understand?

THE TRUTH OF WAR true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things they have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it" (O'Brien). The…

Thematic Use of Power and Responsibility in Three Short Stories

How can anyone possibly imagine how difficult waging war is without experiencing firsthand the horrors of being on the battlefield? The classics of estern literature have invariably been inspired by tales of soldiers sacrificing their lives valiantly, and today the harrowing stories told by soldiers returning from war are recreated, filmed and captured for posterity. One central concept, shared by all genuine representations of human combat, is that the reality of war inevitably involves balancing the struggle for power against the responsibility necessary to wield such authority. The act of reading a well-crafted war story can lead to a journey of self-reflection for soldiers and civilians alike. Penned during distinctly disparate eras in American military history, Carolyn Forche's simple yet searing poem The Colonel, George Orwell's mundane description of an execution in A Hanging, and Tim O'Brien's haunting elegy for…

Four little girls had been killed. In her prayers, Moody let her frustration come out; "You know something else, God? Nonviolence is out," Moody stated. "And if I ever find out you are white, then I'm through with you," she went on, "from now on, I'm my own God."

As time went on, President Kennedy was killed, and her faith in humanity was now in serious jeopardy. Her disillusionment wasn't so much that Kennedy didn't do enough to quell the white-perpetrated violence against blacks, but that now someone had shot Kennedy himself. And upon graduation, when families gathered to honor their children who had finished college, not a single member of her family attended the ceremony; "here I am...alone, all alone as I have been for a long time" (342) she wrote. Still, Moody is coming to terms with her own maturity, and with her place in the world. She…

American Literature War Writing

War Themes in American Literature

War is one of the toughest topics for writers to handle. They have to deal with extreme inner demons based on their traumatic experiences in the field, but have to do so without completely isolating their characters from their readers, many of whom have never even been to war. Overall, there is a clear trend that has developed in American war writing. As writers humanize the experience of war, they also have shown how absolutely destructive, terrifying, and seemingly pointless it is.

Writers discussing war face a number of difficult hardships. Essentially, they have to try to make sense of their experiences during the war that have scarred them. They face the daunting task of trying to express their unique pain and grief to an unsuspecting public, many of their readers have not been to war. Thus, writers discussing war have…

ith AOL's resource backing, online mass communication would benefit substantially from the heightened capabilities of a distinctly community-oriented news site.

In fact, it may be argued that the merger only further legitimized an orientation toward news that is both commercialized and populist in its intent. To the point, from Huffington's own perspective, the merger has imposed a demand for effective balance between the types of stories and headlines that drive traffic and those that are necessitated by their importance. According to Bercovici (2012), since its merger with AOL, Huffington Post has worked hard to remain firmly entrenched in both the worlds of news and entertainment. In interview, Huffington would tell Bercovici that "e're selecting the stories because we think they're important but we found a very engaged readership for them. e've seen enormous page views around some of our best feature work." (Bercovici, p. 1)

This unabashed prioritization of traffic-generation…

war and reading the quotes from several thinkers in "On War," make your own statement on the subject

War: The illegitimacy of warfare

According to the philosopher Voltaire on the subject of warfare: "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." Novels such as Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms suggest that war is fundamentally anathema to the human character. Simply because there are trumpets and an endorsement of the murder of the 'enemy' the leaders of the land, suggests Voltaire, does not make war any less scarring to human nature and dignity. Although the wars chronicled in the novels may be presented as glorious enterprises at first, the characters are initially repelled by the experience of war, and only after growing coarsened does the experience become more bearable.…

Poe and the Imp of the Perverse

The Imp of the Perverse

Edgar Allan Poe is known for exploring the psychological constructs of horror and terror through his short stories. In Poe's "Imp of the Perverse," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Black Cat," the respective narrators of these stories attempt to give a logical explanation for the manner in which they conducted themselves. Through these stories, Poe explores the impact a mental illness has on the narrator's and how each of the narrators attempts to justify their behavior.

In "The Imp of the Perverse," Poe introduces the concept of phrenology, a science that seeks to establish and define the relationship between an individual's character and the skull's morphology and how phrenology has failed to explain impulsive behavior ("The History of Morphology"). It was important for Poe to define the imp of the perverse in the essay part of the short…

Martin Luther King Jr. was a black revolution leader who fought for the equal rights of blacks in USA.

A priest by profession.

A philosopher and hero of the blacks.

Headed the Southern Christian Leadership and held peaceful protests.

He was arrested for a similar protest in Birmingham.

White priests sent him a letter in jail, asking him to end the demonstration and approach the court with his problem.

He wrote this in reply to their letter on 1st April 1963.

He followed Jesus' doctrine of peace and believed that with peaceful protests the cruel and unjust can be made to realize their mistake.

The letter from the white priests of Alabama was published in the newspaper Post Herald.

In the letter the clergymen said

Luther was an outsider he should stop demonstrating and negotiate with the government.

his protests were ill timed or untimely the protestors broke the law…

It is a hotly contested idea that just one war-themed book can adequately discuss the topic of Vietnam, and this idea is properly portrayed in this book. Fellow authors like Renny Christopher have condemned Tim O'Brien's story for paying more attention to the misery of the American soldiers and less interest in the Vietnamese. However, the core of "The Things They Carried," O'Brien's work is distinct. Another author, Heberle, who wrote "A Trauma Artist," based his work on how aggression has impacted on American politics, society and culture. Similarly, O'Brien's work also focuses on the distressing experiences endured by the American soldiers. "The Things They Carried" is popularly seen as one of the best written books on American life after the sufferings of the war (M. Heberle). However, what exactly makes the Vietnam War distinct compared to other wars which America fought in? What brought about an American victory in…

Humanities

Importance of the humanities in the professions:

A comparison of "Paul's Case," Muriel's Wedding and Andy Warhol's rendition of Marilyn Monroe

The modern concept of 'celebrity' is that anyone can be famous, provided that he or she embodies an ideal of glamour, using material trappings like clothing and possessions to show his or her 'specialness.' This is a common method of 'selling' a particular product in business.

The idea is paradoxical -- on one hand, celebrities are special, on the other hand the media suggests everyone can be a celebrity and 'famous for 15 minutes' if they buy the right item.

This can be seen in "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather, about a boy who feels as if he is above his classmates.

Paul desires to have a celebrity-like status, based upon his perceptions of himself as having innately refined tastes.

But this costs money, and Paul is unwilling…