Literary Essay on the Development of Plot of The Things They Carried

Introduction: Exploring the Development of Plot in The Things They Carried

Plot is used in different ways according to the novel. This essay exemplifies the development of plot right from the point the soldiers of Alpha got deployed to the Quinn Ngai region during the Vietnam War. Tim O Brien reflects the actions and the stories that came by during that time. He is the main character and the main narrator. The paper is intended to show how plot have been applied in the whole episode.

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The Narration and Catalogs: Revealing the Lives of the Soldiers

The narration was revealing the daily lives of the soldiers by exposing their catalogs. There were details of the soldiers thoughts and emotions as well. Some of the armies issued items included flak jacket, helmet, and C rations. These men also carried weapons which included pistols, machine guns, and grenade launchers. The personal items included passports, letters, pocket knives and a bible as well. The soldiers revealed as individual characters by the catalog. Physical and emotional issues lead to the writer's contemplation on the weight the soldiers were to carry.

Stories of War: Interpersonal Conflicts, Deaths, and Vietnam's Effect on Soldiers

The young soldier was using marijuana to cope with the situation and at the same time fight his fears. A sniper killed the young boy Ted and in the same process, the commander who was 24 years old hindered from experiencing fantasies with Martha. Martha was a college girl that Jimmy thought he loved and this is the time Jimmy blamed himself for Ted's death. Jimmy guilt pushed on that even after twenty years the feeling was still fresh in his mind. The incident acted as a wake-up call to Jimmy where he decides to protect the rest of the soldiers diligently and discipline his thoughts.

The narrators proceed to say that all the war occurrences in the story are tragic. The war is tinged with violence and death. It is on the Rainy River that the narrator had to explain how he became to be a Vietnam. He had two choices in mind but decided not to disappoint his parents and answer to the call of duty. The decision is painful as Elroy Berdahl accompanies it. The man was elderly, and at the same time, a patient in the hotel and the owner in the same place the narrator had been accommodated.

The narrator proceeds on by narrating how the combat stress affects the soldiers, especially in friends and enemies. After that, the story that follows next is the situation of Dave Jensen overcoming the interpersonal conflict together with Lee Strunk. Curt Lemons at that incidence recounts the ways to tell a war story and the dentist as well. He recalls the stories and how they met their death. Curts death story and the reactions of Rat Killer shows an example of an actual story. The story comes out as violent and hard to believe but at the same time full of love. Mitchell Sanders story also concerns the soldiers who hear some abnormal sounds in the mountains which may not be right but shows the powerful effect the Vietnams land had on the soldiers from the United States.

What follows next is the in the sweetheart of the song where Rat Kiley narrates the story of Anne Bell who was a soldier girlfriend and one time visited the base. The girlfriend had got a problem by falling on mountain spell and finally become the jungle feral. Further on we find the church and stockings were other reactions related to the actions of Vietnam are encountered. Henry Dobbin is the person relying on the pantyhose believing that he is protected from harm while Norman and Kiowa reliance on Platoon makes them fee; at peace. Rhe Ambush and the man I killed directs to two perspectives in the mind of the narrator especially to a young Vietnamese soldier who was killed using a grenade.

The two explore the relationship with the dead man. Here the feeling of guilt comes again. The role of Kiowa is looked into carefully to help in coping with the event. The stories put together with the church were to narrate well about the death of Kiowa. The story of style goes further and develops the issue of sympathy especially for the Vietnamese caught in the war. Henry Dobbins takes the girl who was dancing after the village destroyed for mockery case.

The Power of Stories: Sympathy, Guilt, and the Lives of the Dead

There is a trio of stories that speak of courage, field, and notes. The stories are behind the death of Kiowa. He is said to die in the field where the platoons camps shelled during the thunderstorm. Norman Bowker is the first person to tell the story to the readers as he is driving to his Lowa town after the end of the war feeling guilty and agonizing. Kiowa died in a latrine field, and Norman had the thought that he could have saved Kiowa but the mud overcame him. The entire thing the soldiers had carried ends with the lives of the dead people. The narrator explains that the stories of the dead give them a chance to live again.

The Power of Stories: Sympathy, Guilt, and the Lives of the Dead

At the final end, there is a clear picture of what is taking place. He does this by revisiting the stories of Curt Lemons, Kiowa and Linda were in the fourth-grade graduate due to cancer. By this, he learns the power of stories and the memories of the dead people alive. The use of plot has been demonstrated in different ways where the narrator is trying to demonstrate the activities taking place in the story.