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Alexa Saldana

Ms.O’keefe, Ms.Robinson

English IV

13 December 2019

War Deception

Tim O’Brien, an American Novelist, wrote many stories that were inspired about his experiences in the

Vietnam War and one of the main books was “The Things They Carried”. “The Things They Carried” is a novel

based on stories with the use of Characterization, Imagery and Symbolism to build up themes such as lost, purity

and innocence.

Throughout the book Tim O'Brien introduces us to many different people that he's met within the time that

he had been in the war. Characters such as Curt Lemon, Bob Kelly a.k.a Rat, Mitchell Sanders, and Dave Jensen

we're all introduced with more details within the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story”. Characterization took a

huge role in what made the narrative structure and also the themes within each chapter of the book, but in specifics

chapter 7 carried a lot of worth. O'Brien starts off the chapter by talking about one of the closest friends he had

which was Rat. He begins with a story about how Rat wanted to write a letter to the sister of his best friend that had

just died. He writes the letter but the sister of Curt (one who passed) never responded. O'Brien stated in the chapter

“ rat pours out his heart” (68) which provides more insight on how he built up the character of Rat. In the beginning

of the chapter the narrator used words that showed how tough Rat was but also how much he really cared about a

certain person. By using characterization in Rat the narrator builds up the theme of how lost can change who you

are. In the continuation of this chapter Rat becomes tougher and feels as though no one cares which changes from

the person that he used to be where he cared a lot. Although lost is a very large theme this chapter has more to tell.

Imagery was also a literary device that the narrator used to build up how the chapter “ How to tell a War

Story” was going to tell the truth. In the chapter O'Brien talks a lot about stories but when he was talking about how

Curt Lemon died in the beginning he uses imagery to show that the death wasn't so harsh. He states “tiny white

blossoms, but no sunlight at all” (70), the color white is usually used as a way to show innocence and purity. He

uses this sentence when he was telling the reader how Curt died but after that he said no sunlight at all. Although he

used imagery he also foreshadowed the death that was upon Curt. Curt and Rat had a relationship that was the purest
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and the way that Curt passed away was because he was having fun living his life the way he wanted to. The theme

of this part of the chapter is about the purity of a friendship. Death can be the scariest thing but the way that O'Brien

described it made it seem like the nicest way to leave. Symbolism is also presented within the chapter.

In addition to the use of characterization and imagery, symbolism is also used to create the narrative

structure to show theme. When Tim O'Brien is almost done with telling the story he mentions a buffalo that was

brutally killed by Rat. As I was saying earlier, Rat didn't care as much anymore after the death of his best friend,

which is why he took out his anger on a buffalo. O'Brien states “ it was still alive, though just barely, just in the

eyes” (79) and that's exactly how Rat felt when Curt died because he was the closest person he had. A buffalo is

symbolic because the animal means strength and innocence. In the beginning of the chapter Rat was described as a

strong person but all he meant was to be pure. The theme within the end of the chapter is innocence because Rat

never wanted to hurt anybody but in the process of that he hurt himself the most.

Clearly Tim O'Brien wanted the readers to notice the use of literary devices to help come up with what the

theme was. He uses the tactic of using characterization, foreshadowing, imagery and symbolism to build the

narrative structure of his own self. Themes are presented throughout the whole book and it's always different no

matter what he's talking about. Lost, Purity and Innocence were the top themes that he created when writing about

his own stories which in the end we're mostly made up. Deception had been made by him.