The Things They Carried is famously
a “true” war story
drawn from O’Brien’s service in the Vietnam War, featuring events and people that the reader believes or wants to believe are true.
Is Jimmy Cross a real person?
Jimmy Cross never visited me at my house in Massachusetts, because of course Jimmy Cross does not exist in the world of objects, and never did.
He’s purely invented
, like Martha, and like Kiowa or Mitchell Sanders and all the others.
Did Tim O’Brien actually go to war?
From February 1969 to March 1970 he served as infantryman with the U.S. Army
in Vietnam
, after which he pursued graduate studies in government at Harvard University. He worked as a national affairs reporter for The Washington Post from 1973 to 1974.
Was Rat Kiley real?
Rat Kiley is the young medic in Tim O’Brien’s platoon in The Things They Carried. Rat is always telling stories that seem to be largely made up but insists they are true.
Is O Brien’s war story true?
O
‘Brien insists the story is absolutely true
, but then, after telling it, in a more general discussion of storytelling, insists that it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen.
Why did Tim Obrien not go to war?
He recounts his thoughts on receiving a draft notice, feeling that he was not suited for war
because his educational accomplishments and graduate school prospects were too great
. O’Brien tells his father that his plan for the summer is to wait and work.
How did Tim O’Brien feel about the war?
The day the draft notice is delivered, O’Brien
thinks that he is too good to fight the war
. Although his community pressures him to go, he resists making a decision about whether to go to war or flee. … He resents his hometown for making him feel compelled to fight a war that it doesn’t even know anything about.
Why does O’Brien 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 is the point of O Brien’s trip to Vietnam 20 years after the war?
What is the point of O’Brien’s trip to Vietnam 20 years after the war?
To show his daughter what he went through.
To make peace with Vietnam and cleanse himself of the war.
Why is The Things They Carried banned?
Unfortunately, the book was listed in the “Banned Books” for
its vulgar language, sexual content, and violence
that was considered “unacceptable for an educational setting” (according to school board members of George County in Mississippi,) despite the protests of teachers and parents.
Why did Jimmy Cross burn Martha’s letters?
After Ted Lavender is killed,
Cross feels deeply guilty that he was not able to protect him
, and burns Martha’s letters and photo as way of trying to apologize and make things right. … She died just a few months later, of cancer.
Does Martha love Jimmy?
The
love interest of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross
. They went on a single date in college. She sent him letters in the war and a pebble for good luck. … She never marries and spends her time during and after the war abroad, working as a nurse.
How did Mary Anne change in things they carried?
Mary Ann starts to
transform when she helps out with the injured, seeing horrible, gory things
. Then she starts going out on ambush in the middle of the night. She admits that it scares her but also makes her feel alive in a way that no one back home would understand.
Does Rat Kiley have PTSD?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
is very noticeable in all of the men of Alpha Company that Tim O’Brien wrote about in the novel but three men who were extremely affected by serving in Vietnam were Rat Kiley, Norman Bowker, and Ted Lavender.
What does Rat Kiley carry mentally?
In The Things They Carried, Rat Kiley emotionally carries
stories about the war
, the responsibility for the lives of the men in the platoon, and the burden of witnessing violence and death.
What things did Rat Kiley carry?
The medic, Rat Kiley, carries
morphine, malaria tablets
, and supplies for serious wounds.
