Aaisha Al Jabri

Block A

Narrative Elements in The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien crafts a unique novel in The Things They Carried from his

experience of being at war. He was able to narrate his experience in a story,

that takes the reader on a peculiar journey that explores the different sides

of war. His account of the war is unlike any other as he sheds light on both

the emotional and rationale sides to war and its effect on the characters in

his story. He beautifully stitches together a number of narrative elements

that make it possible for the readers to appreciate these different sides to

war in his story. Narrative elements like the setting, literacy devices and

characterization all contribute to a storyline in important ways. It is

important for any author to effectively equip these narrative elements to be

able to build a strong structure for the story. Tim OBrien skillfully uses

narrative elements like the setting, literacy devices and characterization to

build up a strong storyline in his book.

Characterization is the most important narrative element in any

storyline. In the book The Things They Carried Tim OBrien pays a lot of

attention on building and developing his characters. Throughout the whole

story, the author keeps introducing the reader to different characters who

each have different characteristics and personalities, that make them very

distinct from one another. We can see this variation in the characteristics and

personalities of the characters in the way the story has different types of
characters. The first type of character that we see is the round character, of

whom Tim OBrien can be a good example. We encountered him in the book

with three different sides; Tim the kid, Tim the soldier and Tim the writer. Tim

the soldier is in Vietnam, trying to deal with his first combat victim and the

images of the bodies of his comrades. Tim the author tries to show the

author the ties between his true sides and his made-up sides in this story. We

see him in The Good Form confessing to his daughter, who in real life he

doesnt actually have, that every single other part of the bookevery

character, every event, and even facts about Tim the Writer's own life are

invented: "Daddy, tell the truth," Kathleen can say, "did you ever kill

anybody?" And I can say, honestly, "Of course not." Or I can say, honestly,

"Yes." (172). We also see Timmy the kid who is desperately dreaming up

stories to bring his dead girlfriend, Linda, back to life. In this story, we also

see other types of characters like Azar, who has a flat character. We have

seen only two sides to him; the tough part and the one time he felt guilty for

cracking jokes about Kiowa's body. Tim OBrien also focuses on showing the

way the characters react differently to things and how the war has affected

them. Tim OBrien describes how the war has severely affected Rat Kiley,

who was starting to see strange things like bugs following him and his own

body organs, I start seeing my own body. Chunks of myself. My own heart,

my own kidneys (211).

The setting is another significant narrative element that Tim OBrien

used in his book to build up the structure of the story. His story takes place in
two settings; the jungles of Vietnam and back home in America. The story

starts with the soldiers being in war in the jungles of Vietnam against the

Viet Cong forces. The author had many real-life experiences with being in

war, which is what we see in the detailed way he described the place. The

author paid a lot of attention to describing the setting because it has the role

of shaping the mood and tone were boob traps everywhere, and the jungle

seemed very hostile even to the presence of the Americans. This leads to an

intense feeling of paranoia among the troops that O'Brien describes in the

stories set in these jungles. The troops are constantly aware that death is

near; they're constantly witnessing their friends getting killed and constantly

fighting or killing enemies. We can see how the setting of the Vietnamese

jungle gives a dark and scary atmosphere to the story when the author says,

The countryside itself seemed spooky shadows and tunnels and incense

burning in the dark. The land was haunted (202). The author furthermore

describes the darkness of the setting by saying, The darkness squeezes you

insides yourself, you get cut off from outside world (204). Without the

setting we wouldnt have understood why the characters were feeling in a

certain way. It is important for the author to build up the setting of the story

in order to paint a full picture for the reader of what is going on in the story.

The author uses different literacy devices like imagery and tone to

give readers a better understanding of the story and the atmosphere of the

story. O'Brien has two dominating tone in the story; his tone regarding the

war and his tone in regards to storytelling. His tone in regards to the war
jumps around from emotional to clinical to manipulative to epic, his tone in

regards to storytelling and the truth is constant: He is absolutely familiar and

close to his subject. He tells his stories with the complete confidence that he

is right, that he understands his subject inside and out. Even when he shifts

reality from under our feetor uses oblique phrases like a town "blinking and

shrugging" coupled with casual language like "How'd you like to hear about

the war?"he makes the reader never doubt that he knows what he's doing,

and that his manipulations and language choices serve a purpose. The

author also uses imagery as a literacy device in his story to make sure that

what he says stays vivid, memorable, and meaningful. Tim OBrien uses

color imagery a lot in his story. In The Things They Carried, sunlight (or

sunset) is often used to depict scenes that are beautiful despite the ugliness

of a war-torn context. It reminds the author of both the death and the beauty

of the girl whom he loves.

Tim OBrien successfully equips different narrative elements to build

the beautiful story in the The Things They Carried. He uses the characters to

build up the events in the story, the setting to create the atmosphere of the

story and the literacy devices to make the story more interesting. Tim

OBriens story will stay an example of the good use of narrative elements in
 Works cited:

Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Things They Carried Truth Quotes Page 2."

Shmoop. Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.