PRESENTATION OUTLINE
The Things They Carried
By: Tim O'Brien
Hero: Vietnam Soldiers
THE STRUGGLES
- They have to overcome the guilt of a fallen comrade
- The struggles of the war
- Grieving over a girl that can never be his
Anti hero- they all have many weaknesses and are all rebellious
Epic hero, they are all courageous and are main characters
The templates chosen are similar because both types of heroes have weaknesses and are leaders but with the anti hero, they are more questionable and dark than an epic hero who has one weakness.
The setting in the book is physically Vietnam, but that is more of a background thing. The real setting is in the soldiers mind with the things going on around him as white static which is why he feels so guilty about letting his comrade die.
The soldiers main trials are coping with his feelings for a girl back home, dealing with the horrific images of the war, and of course the enemy they are fighting.
“I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.”
“It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do. ”
“you're never more alive than when you're almost dead.”
“I survived, but it's not a happy ending.”
“I was a coward. I went to the war.”
I drank some chocolate milk and then lay down on the sofa in the living room, not really sad, just floating, trying to imagine what it was like to be dead. Nothing came to me. This is important because it captures the tone of the book and how we are all just little kids in a big scary world.
