'The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis\r'

'The Things They Carried Prompt: How do the attri only ifes, vision, and anecdotes in The Things They Carried second to contrisolelye to the gist of the textbook? The Things They Carried, write by Tim O’Brien, recounts the horrible inhabits of soldiers at strugglefare in Vietnam. Through by the fable, the indite non totally tells war stories, tho tales nigh(predicate) his own life, often referencing and dwelling ho intake on those who flip made an extend to on his life. He stresses the enormousness of these peck and stories, often referring to them as â€Å"war stories” although some(prenominal) an(prenominal) of these ar non true.They serve as an outlet for O’Brien, allowing him to let go of these horrible memories but also let him keep the importance that they had on his life. These stories and messages are emphasized through the symbols displayed in the overbold, the imagery use throughout, and the anecdotes that recount his memories. The symbols in The Things They Carried attend to to make the text more meaningful and further communicate the theme the novel displays. One of the symbols, the dead Vietnamese soldier, represents the evils of war and what soldiers stupefy to run into on the battlefield.Although it was neer completely clarified whether O’Brien did or did not kill the man, the guilt he relays through the text shows that he does not want to be in war, but it is expected of him to kill others since he is elusive. He does so to prevent scorn from familiarity upon his return. The occasion copes with the closing of the Vietnamese soldier as he does with others throughout the novel; he fantasizes about what kind of somebody the soldier was, what he did before the war, and what he will do after.He creates the soldier’s life in his mind, saying that â€Å" aft(prenominal) his years at the university, the man I killed returned with his new wife to the village of My Khe, where he enlist ed as a common rifleman with the forty-eighth Vietcong Battalion” (O’Brien, 130). The man is a symbol of who the author hoped to be instead of who he was at war. The author himself was about to go to college, but was unable to do so in his life, so manu eventure the soldier’s past to live out his dreams in a different manner.Even though he did not know the man, he still feels and remembers the detri handst like the soldier had a signifi squeeze outt impact on his life. O’Brien keeps those that have passed on live(a) in his memory, and this is one of the many invariable themes of the novel. The uses of imagery throughout the novel dish out to playact more meaning and importance to the theme the novel holds. In many of the important events in the novel, imagery is apply to stress the significance of the event. When Kiowa dies in the novel, the use of imagery shows the importance of Kiowa to the entire troop, and how his death happened.When describing his dead body, O’Brien includes the details that â€Å"A piece of his shoulder was missing; the coat of arms and chest and face were cut up with shrapnel. He was covered with a down(p) green mud” (O’Brien, 175). This description of Kiowa’s dead and decomposing body suffices to bring the reviewer into the war itself, and what the author was feeling at this point in his life. Not only does this imagery convey to the endorser the specialize of the body, but it also communicates the reality of war and the effect it has on the population involved.However, the author keeps Kiowa both subsisting through the text and in his memory, stating that a true war story is never completely true. This shows that although roughly of the novel is most likely fabricated and completely false, it still relates the general experience of the war and these experiences keep the war alive in the author’s memory. many a(prenominal) of the stories inwardly The Things T hey Carried are short anecdotes, and they have examples of the war stories that O’Brien has both experience and heard. These tales essentially make up the book, and therefrom are very important to the meaning of the novel.The author often recounts his experiences with those who have passed on even though these stories seem to have no relevance to the text itself. For instance, he remembers his first experience with have it away and loss on meeting Linda when he was in elementary school. â€Å"When I write about her now, three decades later, it’s tempting to give the bounce it as a crush, an infatuation of the childhood, but I know for a fact that what for each other was as cryptical and rich as love can ever get”(O’Brien, 228). This love he felt for Linda was true, and even similar to the love he felt for many of the men in his troop.Even though O’Brien has not seen Linda or heard of her for three decades, she is immortalized within his memor y, and as a result, he thinks about her often, as he does with other deceased soulfulness characters in the book, such as Kurt corn and Kiowa. This memory of Linda shows that the book was not scripted only to recount his experience in the war, but to also remember those who have passed on through the text, and this shows that even when battalion die, they are never truly forgotten. The symbols, imagery, and anecdotes used throughout the text help to try that no one single person is every truly gone from individual’s memory, and every memory has an mpact on one’s life. O’Brien uses symbolisation to refer to the war at many points, and his memory of the man showed who he wished he was rather than what he really became. The symbolism used when describing Kiowa’s death shows the horror and reality of war, and well as the immortalization of people in the author’s memory. O’Brien’s anecdote involving Linda and his first experience wit h love shows this remembrance of the dead as well. This anecdote, along with others, brings more meaning to the story. These messages involved in the book help to bring more meaning and importance to the text, and help to leave an impact on the reader’s life.\r\n'