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Short Story comparison.

The boarding house by Joyce James aims at addressing the main character's life by taking her
through a series of actions aiming at revealing her true self-identities. It aims at showing her
societal behavior entirely until she reveals herself developing a real identity. This story's central
thesis is the theme of self-revelation takes place in the main character (Mahini et al., 1285). On
the other hand, we use The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien's short story to compare the
first short story to develop an understanding of the difference in terms of literary analysis. The
short description by Tim O'Brien focuses on Jimmy Cross as the main character, who is a
lieutenant of an army during the Vietnam War. The author uses this book to describe the actual
life of a soldier (Melander). Both stories focus on humans' real part since it reveals the
authentic life experience in psychological and physical terms.

The two stories are fascinating because it reveals the reaction on people's personality in society
and the perspective they get accounted for. For instance, the Boarding House short story dwells
in Mrs. Mooney, who lives an awkward life status that the society member can get questioned
since she is a single mother who marries her daughter to a well off man to get rid of parenting
responsibility. It is quite questionable since this act is nearly accepted in the society since a
mother should not make such decision for daughter. It can easily erupt rumors within the
society, but for Mrs. Mooney, she never cared about it (Mahini et al., 1287). On the other hand,
the short story by Tim O'Brien focus on the lives of a soldier how has dedicated his life in
protecting the state no matter the risks. The point of interest in this book is that the perception
soldiers receive in the society is quite different. It is because they viewed as warriors who leave
the community for war, but have no assurance of coming back home (Melander).

The story focuses on the things they carry which are both tangible and intangible. The tangible
parts that are part of the soldiers' load is the back pack full of personal equipment and
ammunition which determines their survival. On the other hand, the intangible things are the
people they love back at home. They carry their hearts everywhere in their mission process
(Melander).

Comparing the two short stories, there is a great difference in both the plot and the themes
since all are in opposite dimensions. The main reason for comparing the two stories is the
human personality and love expression in both books. In the short story by James Joyce, shows
how Mrs. Mooney doesn't care about society's impact on her actions and she acts on her true
grounds. On the other hand, Tim O'Brien's story dwells on how a soldier caries different things
which are weird but our point of focus is the soldier carrying his wife's pantyhose.
In the short stories, they both illuminate the theme of society ethics which on one end, it is on
the verge of caring for society ethics which is Tim O'Brien's story while Joyce's story focuses on
self-reflection forgetting the society ethics for the benefit of the main character's happiness and
endurance. The first story, reflects Mrs. Mooney's life where she is a "don't care" figure since
she doesn't get intruded by the society response on her actions. It is because she cares only
about her happiness and allows nobody destroy her happiness. She marries off her daughter for
the sake of freeing herself from parenting issues to enhance her happiness. It is unethical for a
mother to marry off her daughter for this reason according to the society but Mrs. Mooney did
not care at all (Mahini et al., 1284).

Tim O'Brien's story contradicts Joyce's story since it focuses on the soldiers' life and what they
go through in times of war. We considered one soldier who had his girlfriend's pantyhose with
him during the war to commemorate his lover. He always wishes to get back home to meet his
girlfriend who he had missed in the entire war period (Melander). In this book, the author
shows how the soldier views society in a different dimension which is ethical unlike Joyce's
story. The soldiers carry all these things to remember the society and especially their homes
since they stay away for a while. The author values the society showing how men out their still
love their society even though they are far away.

In the two short stories, they all address social factors whereas in Joyce's book, the main
character accesses society but does not care about it because of personal issues. In the other
book, the soldiers are away but value and miss society since they are not sure of their return.
Even though the two books have a different setting, and characters, it shows the difference in
soldiers' lifestyle and normal citizens. In my opinion, the soldiers' values the most when it
comes to embracing social norms while the ordinary citizens does care about it since they are
always available. On the part of ordinary citizens lies The Boarding House short story since the
main character does not care about the society.

In summary, the two short stories address society in different perspectives with different
character traits that contradict each other. A soldier is often seen as a loner even if they are
available in the society due to the behavior change based on work condition. When it comes to
Tim's book, it is the opposite of what we expect like wise to The Boarding House. We believe
that the Boarding House should eradicate society's proper norms better than Tim O'Brien's
book due to the character traits.

References.

Mahini, Ramtin Noor-Tehrani Noor, Erin Barth, and Jed Morrow. "Tim O'Brien's "Bad" Vietnam
War: The Things They Carried & Its Historical Perspective." Theory and Practice in Language
Studies 8.10 (2018): 1283-1293.
Melander, McKenna. "Parnell in" The Boarding House"." (2019).