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Summary In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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The Things They Carried is an ugly book. The themes and topics throughout the book are gruesome and horrific, but Tim O’Brien writes about them in such a way that portrays the Vietnam War as almost beautiful. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the chapter, “The Man I Killed” is an example of a terrific piece of writing because it utilizes thoughtful symbolism, graphic imagery, and conflict to portray the Vietnam War in an accurate way. “The Man I Killed” uses symbols, imagery, and conflict to tell an accurate war story. First, O’Brien uses symbolism throughout the book, but specifically in “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien writes about the symbol of a butterfly. For instance, After Tim killed the Vietnamese man, he noticed that, “the butterfly was making its way along the young man’s forehead” …show more content…

This is just one instance of the symbol of a butterfly throughout The Things They Carried. In this case, the butterfly symbolizes the start of a new life; for the Vietnamese soldier, it is a life without the war, and for Tim, it is a new life where he has killed someone. This proves the book’s excellency because the symbols make the reader think deeper about the book and its symbols, so the book cannot just be read at surface level. Next, O’Brien uses graphic imagery in many parts of the novel, but in “The Man I Killed,” he used it obtain a visual response from the reader. For example, O’Brien writes about how the man’s, “skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips...his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny” (O’Brien 118). O’Brien uses the visual imagery to show his horrified response to his actions, as well as gain a response from the reader. O’Brien describes the dead man in so much detail that the readers are able to visualize him and feel the pain that O’Brien felt, which invokes an emotional response and helps prove the novel as very admirable. Finally, O’Brien utilizes conflict in

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