Book Review of The Things they Carried Essay -- essays research pape

Tim OBriens, The Things they Carried is a riveting tale of struggle and sacrifice, self indulgence and self pity, and the intrapersonal battles that reeked butchery on even the most battle tested soldiers. OBrien is able to express these ideas through eloquent writing and descriptive language that makes the reader obtain as if he were there. The struggle to avoid cowardice is a prevailing idea in all of OBriens stories.In On the rainy River, OBrien writes of intrapersonal struggle in its most profound form. The gripping torture of indecision seemed to paralyze Lt. Jimmy Cross in every move he made. Fear is what kept him away from the war, and fear is what made him join his countrymen in battle. A pacifist who did not support the war, the narrator Jimmy Cross was squeeze to make the difficult decision of what was more important to him. In the end, it was Crosss reluctancy to deal with the consequences of pacifism which made his decision to go to war. That indecision seems to conf ront with Cross throughout the book and causes him much hardship in many of the short stories.The struggle to avoid cowardice is very important to the narrator. In his magazine near the Canadian border, he has much time for self reflection. That self reflection seemed to be something very necessary for Lt. Jimmy Cross. While there, he notice that devotion to his family, his hometown, and his country was stronger than devotion to his own mora...