Subjects:
only learn about it from second hand sources. In Tim O'brien's The
Things They Carried, it becomes very apparent that the Vietnam
conflict has proved to be one that many of the participants have not
been able move away from, while getting on with their lives. O²brien
shows that the conflict takes on a parasitic form that eats away on
its victims for the rest of their lives.
A parasite is defined as an organism that grows, feeds, and is
sheltered on or in a different organism while harming its host. The
war in this case takes the place of the organism, and the host becomes
the soldiers. There are several examples of the parasitic nature of
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new spin on his life.
In the chapter ³Speaking of Courage², O'Brien introduces a character
by the name of Norman Bowker.
There are countless themes in this book, but one of the major ones is
the after effects the war had and still has on the men that were
there. Even though he is back in his home
town, things do not seem the same to him.
There is another section in the book where a man named Jimmy Cross
comes to visit O'Brien after the war. Most of the story he spends driving in circles
while thinking about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The two of them travel all over
the country, but before their departure, he returns to the field where
he feels he lost everything. O'Brien shows how the memories of the war take on a parasitic
form, and uses himself as an example. The reader then
finds out that Bowker commits suicide because the parasitic affect of
his memories became to much for him to handle.
The war becomes his whole life, and he feels as though he is to far
distant from the town people for them to understand. In the story Norman finds him self home
after serving his time in Vietnam. There are still secrets, and they still
weigh heavy on his mind even during his his every day civilian life. In using these people he
attempts to show what the war has done to the population of soldiers
that participated in the conflict.
Essay's Topics
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