Identify three different times that Tim O'Brien uses the "particular" to illustrate the "universal" in TTTC, or, in other words, three times or ways that he uses inductive reasoning to imply a thesis. Then explain your three examples to us.
Tim O’Brian uses inductive reasoning to imply a thesis in his story many different times. In these moments he uses singular events and gives us a universal theme through them. One example of when he uses inductive reasoning by describing the death of Kiowa through the eyes of Jimmy Cross. He describes how he felt that it was his fault Kiowa died because he gave up pulling him out of the mud because of the smell. This shows how Jimmy Cross still has emotions about Kiowa’s death after it happens and after the entire war is over. This story shows how soldiers, even after the war, still carry their emotional scars with them. Another way Tim O’Brian uses particular to show a universal thesis is in the chapter “Speaking of Courage”. In this chapter it describes Norman Bowker driving around a lake in his hometown with nowhere to go. He keeps on driving in circles and has nothing to do. From this you can see that Tim O’Brian is trying to show that when soldiers come home, they are lost in modern society. They no longer have someone telling them what to do everyday and will just roam aimlessly. Without an order for soldiers to do, when soldiers return they have nothing to do and cannot fit in to society and have a hard time going home mentally. The final way that Tim O’Brian uses a particular to reach a universal truth is when he uses the chapter “Love” which describes when Jimmy Cross visits Tim O’Brian. He shows that Jimmy Cross and he get together after the war and still are very close. From this you can gather as a universal truth that after wars, soldiers have formed a bond with their platoon mates that can never be broken. Throughout the book, Tim O’Brian’s narrative he has many different universal theses and they all are not just outright said but needed to be assumed from a particular event that happened to him.
One time when Tim O'Brien uses particular to illustrate universal is in the chapter, "How to Tell a True War Story". I think the universal example in this story is when he says, "In a true war story, it is difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen". I think this because he is talking about an idea and then uses an example (the particular) to illustrate his point. The particular to this example is when O'Brien describes when Curt Lemon died and how the images he saw got jumbled in his head and how surreal everything seemed at the time. A second example is when O'Brien talks about his friend Norman Bowker and how greatly his life was effected after the war. This is a universal problem for most soldiers because they often come home (if they come home) suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). The war can really take a dramatic effect on a soldier and their families. The particular to this example is that he is talking about his particular friend Norman and how the war affected him. A last example is when O'Brien talks about the man he killed in the chapter, "The Man I Killed". The particular part to this is O'Brien's own experience, the first time he killed someone. The universal part to this example is that every soldier, or most soldiers, killed someone during their stay in Vietnam. Each time they would kill someone, they would get more and more used to it; therefore, making the experience less traumatic each time. I chose these three examples because they were the most apparent to me and made the most sense with the concept.
In The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien uses particular truths to show universal truths. I chose one of the same examples as Ryan. In the chapter "Love" JImmy Cross visits O'Brien. They talk about things that they don't talk about with anyone. This particular example is used to symbolize the fact that soldiers stick together. Once a soldier always a soldier: There is always a connection between soldiers. In the chapter "Speaking of Courage" Norman Bowker talks about the shit field. He gives us a particular example. However, O'Brien works into the chapter that "the difference between courage and cowardice was something small and stupid." O'Brien uses a specific example to show something that I think is universally accepted. In the chapter "Ghost Soldier" we learn that O'Brien got shot 2 times. The first time he got shot Rat Kiley, the medic, was there to take care of him. However, the second time O'Brien was shot, Rat Kiley wasn't there but Bobby Jorgenson. Jorgenson was a scared, young medic with no field training. I think O'Brien uses these specific examples to say that it does matter who is around you when you get hurt. You need someone you can depend on and someone you know will help you which I believe to be a universal truth.
Tim O'Brien uses the "particular" to illustrate the "universal" in TTTC throughout the whole book. There are many examples of O'Brien using the "particular" to show the "universal", but here are three examples. Chapter 14's main idea is how Norman Baker, one of O'Brien's fellow soldiers, adjusts to being home. The point of the chapter was to make the point that once you go to war, you will never truly come home. This concept, obviously, is not unique to Norman Baker. Not feeling at home after a soldier comes home is a universal feeling felt to some extent by almost every soldier. Another example is Lieutenant Cross' feelings for Martha, a women back in the United States who he had only a couple dates with. The lieutenant probably does not really have this strong of feelings for a women he spent two dates with. He is just holding on to those feelings as a connection back to America. This is a universal concept because when every soldier leaves for war, they hold on to someone or something from home to keep them motivated to keep fighting. The last example is when Kiowa is killed and all the soldiers feel so guilty and make sure he is put to rest in peace by finding his body and giving him a proper burial. Although this event may be a specific situation in the book, it probably happens extremely frequently in the universal concept of war. After being with your fellow soldiers everyday and all day, everyone probably has some sort of attachment, even though at any day there is a risk of death. After one of the soldiers dies, there must be some sort of mourning, just like they all went through when Kiowa died. Although the mourning period may get smaller each death (the soldiers get used to the feeling), hopefully it will never disappear. Using a "particular" event to describe "universal" concept is a very intelligent way of writing by explaining a particular event in a way regular people can relate to.
Throughout The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien uses many specific examples to illustrate universal concepts, but I will highlight three. 1. When the new medic, Bobby Jorgenson, fails to treat O"Brien for shock, Tim finds it impossible to forgive him because of all the pain he went through. He ends up plotting a revenge with Azar that ends up going to far, but the universal concept illustrated here is that humans have a tough time forgiving people. He is mad a Jorgenson for not being able to treat shock, when it wasn't his fault that he was new to the war and couldn't handle the pressure. It didn't matter to Tim, he just wanted revenge for the pain he went through. 2. Norman Bowker spends all of "Speaking of Courage" trying to tell the story of the death of Kiowa, but he can not because there is no one there to listen. I think this actually implies two things. One is that most of the time humans can only buck up the courage to say something important is when no one is around because we don't want to embarass ourselves. Relatedely, the second one is that you need to find a way to say the important thing you have to say (something that is eating away at your insides) through some medium because otherwise there can be drastic consquences, which for Norman resulted in his suicide. 3. Lastly, Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriends stockings around his neck even after she broke up with him because he thought they still had their good luck. This obviosly goes deeper than good luck. I think Tim O'Brien is implying that we always need to have a hold onto the past through an object, like a photo, that is associated with very powerful memories that allow you to relize that time of bliss. Also, I think it is also implied that sometimes it is just too hard to let go of something known, especially if you are in a land of unknowns. The specific to universal, inductive, model of writing that Tim O"Brien uses is a very powerful way of drawing connections between the reader and the book. No one in our classes has ever been to war, but we can connect to the human condition through these specific examples. All of a sudden, the setting of the book goes from Vietnam, to right where you are because each character is relatable with their own flaws and traits.
I think that all the chapters in The things They Carried Start as particular and end up universal things. For example, in the chapter 'The Dentist' Tim O'Brien uses the example of Kurt Lemon being afraid of the dentist to show the universal concept that everyone has something they are afraid of, no matter how strong they seem to be. It also shows how Kurt is able to overcome his ears, which is also universal. Another example is the chapter, 'Speaking of Courage'. It highlights Norman Baker's struggles when he returns from war. It is a specific story but it is just used as an example of the universal inner-conflict in soldiers coming home. Lastly, in the first chapter, 'The Things They Carried' O'Brien uses the specific things each man carries to show the weight of war and conflict as a universal concept.
Tim O'Brien uses the particular to imply the universal. One example of this is how the author uses the stories about how Lieutenant Cross felt about Martha to introduce the universal truth that all soldiers try to have a connection to home. Another example is when Curt Lemon goes to the dentist and faints, but he goes back the next day and has a tooth pulled just to prove that he wasn't afraid. O'Brien uses this story to illustrate the universal feeling of pride and having that pride wounded. He also uses the story of Henry Dobbins and how he used his girlfriend's pantyhose as a good luck charm to show how people use objects to comfort themselves when they are afraid, which is a universal truth.
1. Tim O'Brien uses the story of Mary Ann to imply that the war really changes people a lot. In the specific example, he tells us when Mary Ann first arrives, she wears lots of nice clothing, pink, has painted nails, make up, and sparkling eyes. However by the end of the story, he describes Mary Ann as not caring so much about her appearance, no painted nails, no make up, and her eyes not sparkling. He even says that for jewelry, Mary Ann uses a necklace made of tongues and doesn't even hang out with her boyfriend at all. O'Brien then makes the story broader by explaining how everyone had loved her and how she used to be the image of "home" for all the men there. He then goes on to explain that "they" all missed her, or "home" because all of them have changed so greatly after going to war.
2. Tim O'Brien also gives his own story of taking his daughter Kathleen back to the Vietnam field where Kiowa died. Kathleen notices he seems distracted while in the field by wading through the mud and staring into the field. She thinks this trip is just normal whereas for O'Brien this trip has a really big impact for him because it reminds him of the war and all the memories about the war. This is one of the examples of inductive O'Brien uses to give the "universal" thesis that after war, people have changed a lot and really do not ever really "return home", or at least return home the same as when they had left.
3. The third specific example that O'Brien uses to deploy inductive reasoning on the thesis that people aren't the same after war is the story of Norman Bowker. Bowker is first introduced as driving around in his car lazily as if he has nothing to do. Coming back from the war seemed to have really changed him because Bowker has nothing to do. Furthermore, Bowker drastically changed after experiencing war when O'Brien tells us that he actually asked O'Brien to make a chapter about the war for him. Before the war, Bowker saw the war as only a place to go to win medals for his dad to be happy. Now, it's like the war has become an essential part of his life. Furthermore, it's even revealed that Bowker had committed suicide a few years later. Thus, through the many particular and specific stories, it's implied that O'Brien is telling us that war can really, and very drastically, change a person's entire life.
Tim O'Brien uses Rat Kiley's story about Mary Anne to show the universal idea that war changes people. Rat's story is a specific example of how someone, in this case a girl, comes into the war and slowly starts to change mentally and physically. For example, Rat tells us how Mary Anne became less friendly; she talked less and she only laughed at stuff that she thought was genuinely funny. In addition, she stopped wearing makeup and dressing in the clothes she brought from home. This an example of inductive reasoning, using a specific story to show a more general idea; war changes people. Secondly, Tim O'Brien tells the story of the soldiers visiting the pagoda. He mentions the hospitality and respect shown by the Vietnamese monks to the soldiers even though they are in the war with Vietnam. This is a specific example of kindness that shows no matter where you are in the world, there are always genuinely kind people. Lastly, Tim O'Brien tells the story of Kiowa's death. He shows us how upset Jimmy Cross is after the death of Kiowa because Jimmy feels that it is his fault because of the location he set up camp that night. He was told by Mitchell Sanders to move higher up ground because the river was flooding, but he didn't listen. And when they were attacked, they were trapped by the river, and it sucked up Kiowa when a mortar was shot into it. This is a specific example of human flaw. Everyone has flaws and makes mistakes, but he uses this example of Jimmy Cross' mistake to show no one is perfect.
Tim O'Brien often uses stories within his book to show universal theses. Usually per chapter, he takes a individual’s story and turns it into something that all people can relate to. For example, throughout the book, Tim is talking about war. He illustrates that war isn’t the sort of memory that soldiers can just forget, and even if they do make it home, there is still part of them that can’t come home. Another example is when we read about how Jimmy Cross and the other soldiers carried pictures of people or items that belonged to family members. It shows how soldiers always have some sort of thing keeping them connected to their loved ones back home. A third example would be in the scene where Norman is driving around town thinking about Kiowa’s death. It shows us that the death of someone we knew can be traumatizing, and we could never really forget it even if we wanted to.
One place in The Things He Carried that Tim O'Brien uses inductive reasoning to imply a universal thesis is when Norman Bowker commits suicide. In his situation, he finds he can't do anything with his life, and thus decides that there is no point in living. This is similar to many Vietnam veterans' situations. Unlike after World War II, Vietnam veterans were not welcomed home as heroes; they were seen as scum and were despised. Many could not get a job and became impoverished. Many couldn't find anything to pay the bills and essentially hit rock bottom. In Norman Bowker's case, this resulted in suicide, but in other cases, this didn't always happen, though it wasn't unheard of. The thesis Tim O'Brien is trying to get at is that the Vietnam veterans were shunned from society and discriminated against, resulting in poverty and loss of purpose in life. Another instance in which Tim O'Brien uses the particular to illustrate a universal thesis is when at the beginning, he talks about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross' love for Martha. He loves her, but she does not love him back. Many other people were in the same situation. Traditionally, although maybe not as true now that women are fortunately more valued in society, in war, the men go out and fight and when the war is over they could come home to see their wife or girlfriend and it would be very romantic. In fact, the Greek soldiers always had a gift from their partner on them as a good luck charm. Lots of men in the Vietnam war were young and didn't have girlfriends or wives, but there was usually someone they loved that either didn't know the man loved them or didn't love the man back. Having the picture of these girls for those men helped them to have the hope that when they got back, there would (<---italics) be a woman waiting for them and that they would be heroes to their friends and family. A third and final example of the use of particular to illustrate the universal in The Things They Carried is when the author talks about Kiowa's death, specifically the choice by the Lieutenant to follow his instructions to camp in the crap field. Jimmy Cross is young and inexperienced, so the best he knows is to just follow the instructions given to him as they are given and use no field surveillance to disobey, in order to be in a more strategic position. In Vietnam, 11,465 men under the age of twenty were killed in action and the average age of those killed was about 23. So many of these soldiers were inexperienced, only fighting because they were drafted. This led to a lot of bad decisions in the field and a lot of men killed who would have lived if the experience level of them, their lieutenants, and their superiors was higher.
Tim O'Brien's book, The Things They Carried, is itself an example of particular experiences being used to relate to universal ones. While the book is about specific characters and events that are unique to Tim O'Brian's experiences, many of the details, like his descriptions of the environment and everyday life, are universal truths that can be related to by anyone who has experienced the war. Second, his story about Mary Anne is a particular story which concludes with a universal truth: how drastically war changes people. Mary Anne reminded all the soldiers of home in many ways, but eventually being in Vietnam during the war changed her into an unrecognizable person, completely different from how she once was. This illustrates the universal concept that war changes everyone involved in it. Finally, the story about Norman involves him driving in his hometown, years after the war, unable to get rid of the leftover memories and emotions from his time in Vietnam. This relates to the universal idea of the permanent effects of war on a person, and how even once someone leaves the war, the war never really leaves them.
Inductive reasoning is very evident throughout TTTC because Tim O'Brien has had many first hand experiences with war and he uses them to express a greater more universal feeling. One example is when Mary Anne arrives in Vietnam. Rat Kiley says that they were all in love with her because she was a connection to home. Being away from home so long, they assumed that she was exactly what their home was like. They took her as a specific example and made her a symbol of home. Another clear example TIm O'Brien illustrates is when he talks about the man he killed. Though he creates a specific incident of a man he killed, he uses that to imply all the nameless, faceless men whom he and his fellow soldiers had killed. He implies the thesis that when a man is killed, he feels like he has killed them, whether he was directly related or not. Using this he goes from the one particular man with his jaw in his neck to the countless anonymous soldiers who were killed by the US Army. Thirdly, Tim O'Brien uses the example of Norman Bowker to demonstrate some people who never really return home from war. Bowker seems to lose his direction in life and he doesn't know how to let go of the war or move on. He cries out to O'Brien asking him to write down what exactly happened at Kiowa's death, feeling that maybe once it was written down for the world to see, maybe it would stop haunting him. However, O'Brien did not do an accurate job, and even if he had it would not have helped much. Sadly, Bowker suffered from severe PTD and committed suicide. O'Brien compares this to how many if not all soldiers carry pars of the war with them everyday. For example though he doesn't talk about the war much, he relives it constantly through his writing. Overall, Universal vs. Particular seems to be a very strong theme in this book with its various different stories, and in war in general.
Tim O’Brian uses inductive thinking on many occasions. For example, when Rat Kiley loses his friend, Curt Lemon, to the war, he becomes very pained and changes emotionally. He even shots a buffalo all over its body, killing it. War can steal a person’s best friend and innocence. Rat was a very happy young boy before the war started. After seeing so many injuries as the medic, and losing his best friend, he is changed forever. War is a very traumatizing event. This is true for everyone. It is a general fact that war creates many different conflicting emotions. Another of these instances is when Tim O’Brian tells of exaggeration. He tells us that the exaggerations that Rat makes are huge. That you would find yourself trying to sum up what the truth was. In general this is true because exaggerations are made so commonly. This is also false because when they are told so frequently, they are accepted as the truth. It has come to be that exaggerations can be believed as the truth because the listener was not in the story the speaker is telling. A third example of this is showing what each man carried for personal reasons, such as Kiowa with his Bible and Ted Lavender with his tranquillizers. It also tells of the emotional baggage that they all carry. It tells us that the wait we carry is not all tangible. It shows that the effects of a single event can affect one person more than the other. Tim O’Brian uses inductive reasoning to explain the difficulties of war to us as best as he can from personal experiences.
Inductive reasoning: using the specific individual to demonstrate a universal truth or thesis. The Things they Carried perhaps gives O'Brien the perfect chance to use this method of reasoning. From the first chapter of the novel, he sets up the story of each individual character; each chapter tells the story of a new character and demonstrates a new universal truth about war. For example, in one chapter Rat Kiley tells the story of a man named Mark Fossie who flies his girlfriend Mary to Vietnam. At first she is innocent and pure, but she soon has to toughen up as she experiences the war first-hand. She soon becomes crazy and part of the green berets. Rat Kiley tells this story to demonstrate that Mary is just like all of them when they first came to Vietnam; that no one can escape un-changed. When his audience doesn’t believe him, he says “if you don’t believe me, you don’t know ‘Nam.” O’Brien writes this story for the same reason in that he wants the audience to see how the Vietnam war can even change an innocent high school girl into a war monster. O’Brien also uses the story of Ted Lavender to demonstrate a universal truth about war. Ted Lavender is a scared soldier who uses tranquilizers to calm himself in the field, an example of what many other soldiers did also. He is shot while returning from going to the bathroom early on in the novel. Ted Lavender’s short appearance in the book and sudden death demonstrate the sad expendability of Vietnam soldiers and how easy it was for them to die. O’Brien also uses the stories of Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen. After they have a long disagreement, the two make a pact to kill the other quickly if they are ever severely injured. When Strunk is badly injured, Jensen is tight until he learns that Strunk has died. Jensen is relieved he doesn’t have to make good on his pact. This story demonstrates the universal bond soldiers feel for each other, even ones they have fought with in the past, and how some would much rather be dead than injured forever.
Tim O'Brien uses his novel as a chance to use inductive reasoning to display quite a few universal truths about war. First, O'Brien tells the story of Mary Anne, Mark Fossie's girlfriend. She comes to Vietnam to see her boyfriend, and starts out as a bubbly, put together young woman who wears nice clothes and is in love with Fossie. Towards the end of the chapter, she becomes immersed in her love of war and fighting, and is mesmerized by the green berets. She then joins them and breaks up with Mark Fossie, only to escape to the mountains of Vietnam. This story demonstrates the universal truth about how war changes people. Someone might come to the war a completely different person than they are when they leave. Secondly, O'Brien tells the story of Norman Bowker and what happens when he returns home. As soon as Norman is home, he doesn't know what to do with himself or where to go. Even though he has left Vietnam, he isn't really home. The war will never completely leave him. This shows the universal truth that soldiers have a tough time upon their homecoming. Some suffer PTSD and some are home, yet always at war. The struggle is everlasting. Lastly, Tim O'Brien uses inductive reasoning in the telling of Kiowa's death. Jimmy Cross feels responsible for Kiowa's death because he chose to set up camp in a certain location. He feels as if the blame should be thrown on him even though it wasn't his fault. By focusing on what he could have done differently to save Kiowa's life, he doesn't have to deal with the fact that one of his own men and one of his friends is dead. This shows the fact that in a war, even if you don't directly cause something, everyone feels guilt. This is why so many sodiers have a tough time coping with the deaths of their friends and men they knew in a war.
Tim O'Brien uses inductive reasoning with the story about Mary Anne. The story starts off with the particular: Mary Anne has just arrived in Vietnam to visit her boyfriend. Most of the story is details about her specific character change. Towards the end of the chapter, when Mary Anne ends it with Mark and goes to live in the mountains, O'Brien arrives to the universal: war changes people. Another time he uses inductive reasoning is with the story of Rat Kiley writing a letter to Curt Lemon's sister. When Curt dies, Rat writes a letter telling his sister saying what a wonderful soldier and just all around good guy Curt was. Rat waits several months, but she never writes back. This is a specific story that relates to the general feeling of soldiers who do not receive mail. Tim O'Brien mentions several times throughout the book how we vote to send people to war and then get mad when they come back different from the experience. But if we don't even write them, how do we except them to remember home and feel appreciated? Some, however, did keep a connection to home. And this is the third example: Henry Dobbins. He wore his girlfriends pantyhose around his neck as a good luck charm. Needing that comfort from home or just a good luck charm was a universal want.
1.) Tim O’Brien uses Mary Anne’s character to show that war has the power to make anyone crazy, and that everyone should be feeling like they are a part of this war because it could happen to. Mary Anne was a woman that many of the men would have considered a symbol of home. When she came to Vietnam, she got progressively more and more unstable and more like the soldiers themselves. She became emotionally detached and gained a better understanding of violence and war. Through taking a character that represented home and normalness and turning her into a soldier-like women, O’Brien is stating something about how anyone would be dramatically changed after going to war. 2.) He also used the idea of particular to universal when talking about Norman Bowker and how Norman kept driving around in circles. This is a metaphor for how he was lost after war and not able to move on. The universal truth to this is that war is something that you never really escape. Also, everyone can relate to the feeling of being lost. 3.) Norman Bowker and Tim O’Brien both talked about how war made them feel guilty. Norman Bowker blamed himself for not saving Kiowa’s life, and Tim O’Brien talked about how he may have never actually killed a man, but he still felt guilty when he looked at the dead, and he felt like he killed them all. O’Brien’s theme through this is that war makes people carry around guilt for the rest of their lives that can be hard for soldiers to cope with, even long after the war. Even people that didn’t go to war can relate to carrying around an agonizing feeling of guilt.
1) Tim O'Brien depicts the particular using the universal by using an entire chapter to tell the story of Norman Bowker. He shows what the general sentiments were for soldiers after the war by telling us specifically what Bowker did. He talks about how he drove around in circles struggling with finding himself but he could never leave Vietnam mentally. Later in the chapter Tim O'Brien talks about how Bowker finally hung himself because he was still so upset from the war. All of the soldiers felt what Bowker felt but O'Brien told us this using a particular story. 2) Tim O'Brien uses Henry Dobbins' situation to show how all the soldiers felt and missed home. Henry Dobbins would wrap his girlfriends panty hoes around his neck as a good luck charm. Even after she broke up with him he did this because it was all he had to remind him of home. This again is a particular situation which Tim O'Brien uses this situation and how Dobbins felt to describe the feeling of the soldiers, missing home and superstitious. Whatever kept them alive was important to them. This individual situation is a great picture of how the soldiers felt and acted after being in Vietnam for a while. 3) Tim O'Brien uses Mary Anne to show how all of the soldiers thought of home. She was their example of home and when she came over all of the soldiers used her to relate to home. She was a particular example of home that gave all of the soldiers spirit and hope. O'Brien used Mary Anne as a depiction of the soldiers sentiments in relation to home, what their image was and what they missed most. This was a common feeling amongst soldiers and Tim O'Brien uses Mary Anne to show us this.
In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien often uses inductive reasoning to imply a thesis, basically to prove a point. The first instance that O'Brien uses inductive reasoning is when we hear the story of Mary Anne Bell and Mark Fossie. Here, Mary Ann comes to Vietnam as a peppy normal teenager. However, Vietnam really changes her personality, and she becomes harsher, and loses some of her innocence. In the end, Mary Anne ends up leaving the camp and is never seen again. The speaker Rat Kiley starts this story out individually, but it has a universal meaning. The overall meaning is that war, especially the Vietnam War, really changes people forever. Some, like Mary Ann, have complete personality changes. A second example of going from individual to universal is the story of Norman Bowker, a Vietnam veteran who spends his days back home circling a lake with his car. Bowker has trouble keeping Vietnam out of his mind, and he later commits suicide. This story too starts out universally, but ends particularly. Here we can infer that many soldiers, like Bowker suffer from PTSD. Finally, we see another example of universal to particular through the incident between Bobby Jorgenson and Tim O'Brien. Jorgenson fails to treat O'Brien properly and as a result he is injured for much time. O'Brien develops a strong hate of Jorgenson and hopes to get revenge. Eventually, O'Brien and Jorgenson reconcile, showing that even pure hatred between two people can go away. Thus, inductive reasoning is a large component of the style in which The Things They Carried was written.
Tim O'Brian uses "particular" to emphasize the "universal" in his book. As I read "TTTC," I found three instances that explain our topic. One, O'Brian tells us in "On the Rainy River," his story which "makes [him] squirm." In the universal aspect, most veterans of war would agree that it is truly hard to retell an experience like O'Brian's. Another example is the way Mitchell Sanders explains how most “war” stories are filled with “half-baked commentaries.” They are crammed with unneeded and sometimes unwanted details. “Particularly,” every soldier has their own way of telling stories like Nossie Bawker, who wrote a book, “Speaking of Courage.” However, Bowker hung himself which showed that he had the courage to write the book, but he was still shaken with his war history. Many soldiers send mail and receive mail. Nonetheless, some send it and never get an answer. Tim O’Brian uses Rat Kiley’s story. When Curt Lemon died, Kiley took it upon himself to write Curt’s sister. He told her that he died and what a great brother he was to their troop. “Universally,” a soldier would get a response sooner or later. Although, in this case. Kiley did not get a letter in return.
Tim O’Brian uses inductive reasoning to imply a thesis in his story many different times. In these moments he uses singular events and gives us a universal theme through them. One example of when he uses inductive reasoning by describing the death of Kiowa through the eyes of Jimmy Cross. He describes how he felt that it was his fault Kiowa died because he gave up pulling him out of the mud because of the smell. This shows how Jimmy Cross still has emotions about Kiowa’s death after it happens and after the entire war is over. This story shows how soldiers, even after the war, still carry their emotional scars with them. Another way Tim O’Brian uses particular to show a universal thesis is in the chapter “Speaking of Courage”. In this chapter it describes Norman Bowker driving around a lake in his hometown with nowhere to go. He keeps on driving in circles and has nothing to do. From this you can see that Tim O’Brian is trying to show that when soldiers come home, they are lost in modern society. They no longer have someone telling them what to do everyday and will just roam aimlessly. Without an order for soldiers to do, when soldiers return they have nothing to do and cannot fit in to society and have a hard time going home mentally. The final way that Tim O’Brian uses a particular to reach a universal truth is when he uses the chapter “Love” which describes when Jimmy Cross visits Tim O’Brian. He shows that Jimmy Cross and he get together after the war and still are very close. From this you can gather as a universal truth that after wars, soldiers have formed a bond with their platoon mates that can never be broken. Throughout the book, Tim O’Brian’s narrative he has many different universal theses and they all are not just outright said but needed to be assumed from a particular event that happened to him.
ReplyDeleteOne time when Tim O'Brien uses particular to illustrate universal is in the chapter, "How to Tell a True War Story". I think the universal example in this story is when he says, "In a true war story, it is difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen". I think this because he is talking about an idea and then uses an example (the particular) to illustrate his point. The particular to this example is when O'Brien describes when Curt Lemon died and how the images he saw got jumbled in his head and how surreal everything seemed at the time. A second example is when O'Brien talks about his friend Norman Bowker and how greatly his life was effected after the war. This is a universal problem for most soldiers because they often come home (if they come home) suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). The war can really take a dramatic effect on a soldier and their families. The particular to this example is that he is talking about his particular friend Norman and how the war affected him. A last example is when O'Brien talks about the man he killed in the chapter, "The Man I Killed". The particular part to this is O'Brien's own experience, the first time he killed someone. The universal part to this example is that every soldier, or most soldiers, killed someone during their stay in Vietnam. Each time they would kill someone, they would get more and more used to it; therefore, making the experience less traumatic each time. I chose these three examples because they were the most apparent to me and made the most sense with the concept.
ReplyDeleteIn The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien uses particular truths to show universal truths. I chose one of the same examples as Ryan. In the chapter "Love" JImmy Cross visits O'Brien. They talk about things that they don't talk about with anyone. This particular example is used to symbolize the fact that soldiers stick together. Once a soldier always a soldier: There is always a connection between soldiers. In the chapter "Speaking of Courage" Norman Bowker talks about the shit field. He gives us a particular example. However, O'Brien works into the chapter that "the difference between courage and cowardice was something small and stupid." O'Brien uses a specific example to show something that I think is universally accepted. In the chapter "Ghost Soldier" we learn that O'Brien got shot 2 times. The first time he got shot Rat Kiley, the medic, was there to take care of him. However, the second time O'Brien was shot, Rat Kiley wasn't there but Bobby Jorgenson. Jorgenson was a scared, young medic with no field training. I think O'Brien uses these specific examples to say that it does matter who is around you when you get hurt. You need someone you can depend on and someone you know will help you which I believe to be a universal truth.
ReplyDeleteTim O'Brien uses the "particular" to illustrate the "universal" in TTTC throughout the whole book. There are many examples of O'Brien using the "particular" to show the "universal", but here are three examples. Chapter 14's main idea is how Norman Baker, one of O'Brien's fellow soldiers, adjusts to being home. The point of the chapter was to make the point that once you go to war, you will never truly come home. This concept, obviously, is not unique to Norman Baker. Not feeling at home after a soldier comes home is a universal feeling felt to some extent by almost every soldier. Another example is Lieutenant Cross' feelings for Martha, a women back in the United States who he had only a couple dates with. The lieutenant probably does not really have this strong of feelings for a women he spent two dates with. He is just holding on to those feelings as a connection back to America. This is a universal concept because when every soldier leaves for war, they hold on to someone or something from home to keep them motivated to keep fighting. The last example is when Kiowa is killed and all the soldiers feel so guilty and make sure he is put to rest in peace by finding his body and giving him a proper burial. Although this event may be a specific situation in the book, it probably happens extremely frequently in the universal concept of war. After being with your fellow soldiers everyday and all day, everyone probably has some sort of attachment, even though at any day there is a risk of death. After one of the soldiers dies, there must be some sort of mourning, just like they all went through when Kiowa died. Although the mourning period may get smaller each death (the soldiers get used to the feeling), hopefully it will never disappear. Using a "particular" event to describe "universal" concept is a very intelligent way of writing by explaining a particular event in a way regular people can relate to.
ReplyDeleteThroughout The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien uses many specific examples to illustrate universal concepts, but I will highlight three. 1. When the new medic, Bobby Jorgenson, fails to treat O"Brien for shock, Tim finds it impossible to forgive him because of all the pain he went through. He ends up plotting a revenge with Azar that ends up going to far, but the universal concept illustrated here is that humans have a tough time forgiving people. He is mad a Jorgenson for not being able to treat shock, when it wasn't his fault that he was new to the war and couldn't handle the pressure. It didn't matter to Tim, he just wanted revenge for the pain he went through. 2. Norman Bowker spends all of "Speaking of Courage" trying to tell the story of the death of Kiowa, but he can not because there is no one there to listen. I think this actually implies two things. One is that most of the time humans can only buck up the courage to say something important is when no one is around because we don't want to embarass ourselves. Relatedely, the second one is that you need to find a way to say the important thing you have to say (something that is eating away at your insides) through some medium because otherwise there can be drastic consquences, which for Norman resulted in his suicide. 3. Lastly, Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriends stockings around his neck even after she broke up with him because he thought they still had their good luck. This obviosly goes deeper than good luck. I think Tim O'Brien is implying that we always need to have a hold onto the past through an object, like a photo, that is associated with very powerful memories that allow you to relize that time of bliss. Also, I think it is also implied that sometimes it is just too hard to let go of something known, especially if you are in a land of unknowns. The specific to universal, inductive, model of writing that Tim O"Brien uses is a very powerful way of drawing connections between the reader and the book. No one in our classes has ever been to war, but we can connect to the human condition through these specific examples. All of a sudden, the setting of the book goes from Vietnam, to right where you are because each character is relatable with their own flaws and traits.
ReplyDeleteI think that all the chapters in The things They Carried Start as particular and end up universal things. For example, in the chapter 'The Dentist' Tim O'Brien uses the example of Kurt Lemon being afraid of the dentist to show the universal concept that everyone has something they are afraid of, no matter how strong they seem to be. It also shows how Kurt is able to overcome his ears, which is also universal. Another example is the chapter, 'Speaking of Courage'. It highlights Norman Baker's struggles when he returns from war. It is a specific story but it is just used as an example of the universal inner-conflict in soldiers coming home. Lastly, in the first chapter, 'The Things They Carried' O'Brien uses the specific things each man carries to show the weight of war and conflict as a universal concept.
ReplyDeleteTim O'Brien uses the particular to imply the universal. One example of this is how the author uses the stories about how Lieutenant Cross felt about Martha to introduce the universal truth that all soldiers try to have a connection to home. Another example is when Curt Lemon goes to the dentist and faints, but he goes back the next day and has a tooth pulled just to prove that he wasn't afraid. O'Brien uses this story to illustrate the universal feeling of pride and having that pride wounded. He also uses the story of Henry Dobbins and how he used his girlfriend's pantyhose as a good luck charm to show how people use objects to comfort themselves when they are afraid, which is a universal truth.
ReplyDelete1. Tim O'Brien uses the story of Mary Ann to imply that the war really changes people a lot. In the specific example, he tells us when Mary Ann first arrives, she wears lots of nice clothing, pink, has painted nails, make up, and sparkling eyes. However by the end of the story, he describes Mary Ann as not caring so much about her appearance, no painted nails, no make up, and her eyes not sparkling. He even says that for jewelry, Mary Ann uses a necklace made of tongues and doesn't even hang out with her boyfriend at all. O'Brien then makes the story broader by explaining how everyone had loved her and how she used to be the image of "home" for all the men there. He then goes on to explain that "they" all missed her, or "home" because all of them have changed so greatly after going to war.
ReplyDelete2. Tim O'Brien also gives his own story of taking his daughter Kathleen back to the Vietnam field where Kiowa died. Kathleen notices he seems distracted while in the field by wading through the mud and staring into the field. She thinks this trip is just normal whereas for O'Brien this trip has a really big impact for him because it reminds him of the war and all the memories about the war. This is one of the examples of inductive O'Brien uses to give the "universal" thesis that after war, people have changed a lot and really do not ever really "return home", or at least return home the same as when they had left.
3. The third specific example that O'Brien uses to deploy inductive reasoning on the thesis that people aren't the same after war is the story of Norman Bowker. Bowker is first introduced as driving around in his car lazily as if he has nothing to do. Coming back from the war seemed to have really changed him because Bowker has nothing to do. Furthermore, Bowker drastically changed after experiencing war when O'Brien tells us that he actually asked O'Brien to make a chapter about the war for him. Before the war, Bowker saw the war as only a place to go to win medals for his dad to be happy. Now, it's like the war has become an essential part of his life. Furthermore, it's even revealed that Bowker had committed suicide a few years later. Thus, through the many particular and specific stories, it's implied that O'Brien is telling us that war can really, and very drastically, change a person's entire life.
Tim O'Brien uses Rat Kiley's story about Mary Anne to show the universal idea that war changes people. Rat's story is a specific example of how someone, in this case a girl, comes into the war and slowly starts to change mentally and physically. For example, Rat tells us how Mary Anne became less friendly; she talked less and she only laughed at stuff that she thought was genuinely funny. In addition, she stopped wearing makeup and dressing in the clothes she brought from home. This an example of inductive reasoning, using a specific story to show a more general idea; war changes people. Secondly, Tim O'Brien tells the story of the soldiers visiting the pagoda. He mentions the hospitality and respect shown by the Vietnamese monks to the soldiers even though they are in the war with Vietnam. This is a specific example of kindness that shows no matter where you are in the world, there are always genuinely kind people. Lastly, Tim O'Brien tells the story of Kiowa's death. He shows us how upset Jimmy Cross is after the death of Kiowa because Jimmy feels that it is his fault because of the location he set up camp that night. He was told by Mitchell Sanders to move higher up ground because the river was flooding, but he didn't listen. And when they were attacked, they were trapped by the river, and it sucked up Kiowa when a mortar was shot into it. This is a specific example of human flaw. Everyone has flaws and makes mistakes, but he uses this example of Jimmy Cross' mistake to show no one is perfect.
ReplyDeleteTim O'Brien often uses stories within his book to show universal theses. Usually per chapter, he takes a individual’s story and turns it into something that all people can relate to. For example, throughout the book, Tim is talking about war. He illustrates that war isn’t the sort of memory that soldiers can just forget, and even if they do make it home, there is still part of them that can’t come home. Another example is when we read about how Jimmy Cross and the other soldiers carried pictures of people or items that belonged to family members. It shows how soldiers always have some sort of thing keeping them connected to their loved ones back home. A third example would be in the scene where Norman is driving around town thinking about Kiowa’s death. It shows us that the death of someone we knew can be traumatizing, and we could never really forget it even if we wanted to.
ReplyDeleteOne place in The Things He Carried that Tim O'Brien uses inductive reasoning to imply a universal thesis is when Norman Bowker commits suicide. In his situation, he finds he can't do anything with his life, and thus decides that there is no point in living. This is similar to many Vietnam veterans' situations. Unlike after World War II, Vietnam veterans were not welcomed home as heroes; they were seen as scum and were despised. Many could not get a job and became impoverished. Many couldn't find anything to pay the bills and essentially hit rock bottom. In Norman Bowker's case, this resulted in suicide, but in other cases, this didn't always happen, though it wasn't unheard of. The thesis Tim O'Brien is trying to get at is that the Vietnam veterans were shunned from society and discriminated against, resulting in poverty and loss of purpose in life.
ReplyDeleteAnother instance in which Tim O'Brien uses the particular to illustrate a universal thesis is when at the beginning, he talks about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross' love for Martha. He loves her, but she does not love him back. Many other people were in the same situation. Traditionally, although maybe not as true now that women are fortunately more valued in society, in war, the men go out and fight and when the war is over they could come home to see their wife or girlfriend and it would be very romantic. In fact, the Greek soldiers always had a gift from their partner on them as a good luck charm. Lots of men in the Vietnam war were young and didn't have girlfriends or wives, but there was usually someone they loved that either didn't know the man loved them or didn't love the man back. Having the picture of these girls for those men helped them to have the hope that when they got back, there would (<---italics) be a woman waiting for them and that they would be heroes to their friends and family.
A third and final example of the use of particular to illustrate the universal in The Things They Carried is when the author talks about Kiowa's death, specifically the choice by the Lieutenant to follow his instructions to camp in the crap field. Jimmy Cross is young and inexperienced, so the best he knows is to just follow the instructions given to him as they are given and use no field surveillance to disobey, in order to be in a more strategic position. In Vietnam, 11,465 men under the age of twenty were killed in action and the average age of those killed was about 23. So many of these soldiers were inexperienced, only fighting because they were drafted. This led to a lot of bad decisions in the field and a lot of men killed who would have lived if the experience level of them, their lieutenants, and their superiors was higher.
Tim O'Brien's book, The Things They Carried, is itself an example of particular experiences being used to relate to universal ones. While the book is about specific characters and events that are unique to Tim O'Brian's experiences, many of the details, like his descriptions of the environment and everyday life, are universal truths that can be related to by anyone who has experienced the war. Second, his story about Mary Anne is a particular story which concludes with a universal truth: how drastically war changes people. Mary Anne reminded all the soldiers of home in many ways, but eventually being in Vietnam during the war changed her into an unrecognizable person, completely different from how she once was. This illustrates the universal concept that war changes everyone involved in it. Finally, the story about Norman involves him driving in his hometown, years after the war, unable to get rid of the leftover memories and emotions from his time in Vietnam. This relates to the universal idea of the permanent effects of war on a person, and how even once someone leaves the war, the war never really leaves them.
ReplyDeleteInductive reasoning is very evident throughout TTTC because Tim O'Brien has had many first hand experiences with war and he uses them to express a greater more universal feeling. One example is when Mary Anne arrives in Vietnam. Rat Kiley says that they were all in love with her because she was a connection to home. Being away from home so long, they assumed that she was exactly what their home was like. They took her as a specific example and made her a symbol of home. Another clear example TIm O'Brien illustrates is when he talks about the man he killed. Though he creates a specific incident of a man he killed, he uses that to imply all the nameless, faceless men whom he and his fellow soldiers had killed. He implies the thesis that when a man is killed, he feels like he has killed them, whether he was directly related or not. Using this he goes from the one particular man with his jaw in his neck to the countless anonymous soldiers who were killed by the US Army. Thirdly, Tim O'Brien uses the example of Norman Bowker to demonstrate some people who never really return home from war. Bowker seems to lose his direction in life and he doesn't know how to let go of the war or move on. He cries out to O'Brien asking him to write down what exactly happened at Kiowa's death, feeling that maybe once it was written down for the world to see, maybe it would stop haunting him. However, O'Brien did not do an accurate job, and even if he had it would not have helped much. Sadly, Bowker suffered from severe PTD and committed suicide. O'Brien compares this to how many if not all soldiers carry pars of the war with them everyday. For example though he doesn't talk about the war much, he relives it constantly through his writing. Overall, Universal vs. Particular seems to be a very strong theme in this book with its various different stories, and in war in general.
ReplyDeleteTim O’Brian uses inductive thinking on many occasions. For example, when Rat Kiley loses his friend, Curt Lemon, to the war, he becomes very pained and changes emotionally. He even shots a buffalo all over its body, killing it. War can steal a person’s best friend and innocence. Rat was a very happy young boy before the war started. After seeing so many injuries as the medic, and losing his best friend, he is changed forever. War is a very traumatizing event. This is true for everyone. It is a general fact that war creates many different conflicting emotions. Another of these instances is when Tim O’Brian tells of exaggeration. He tells us that the exaggerations that Rat makes are huge. That you would find yourself trying to sum up what the truth was. In general this is true because exaggerations are made so commonly. This is also false because when they are told so frequently, they are accepted as the truth. It has come to be that exaggerations can be believed as the truth because the listener was not in the story the speaker is telling. A third example of this is showing what each man carried for personal reasons, such as Kiowa with his Bible and Ted Lavender with his tranquillizers. It also tells of the emotional baggage that they all carry. It tells us that the wait we carry is not all tangible. It shows that the effects of a single event can affect one person more than the other. Tim O’Brian uses inductive reasoning to explain the difficulties of war to us as best as he can from personal experiences.
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ReplyDeleteInductive reasoning: using the specific individual to demonstrate a universal truth or thesis. The Things they Carried perhaps gives O'Brien the perfect chance to use this method of reasoning. From the first chapter of the novel, he sets up the story of each individual character; each chapter tells the story of a new character and demonstrates a new universal truth about war.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in one chapter Rat Kiley tells the story of a man named Mark Fossie who flies his girlfriend Mary to Vietnam. At first she is innocent and pure, but she soon has to toughen up as she experiences the war first-hand. She soon becomes crazy and part of the green berets. Rat Kiley tells this story to demonstrate that Mary is just like all of them when they first came to Vietnam; that no one can escape un-changed. When his audience doesn’t believe him, he says “if you don’t believe me, you don’t know ‘Nam.” O’Brien writes this story for the same reason in that he wants the audience to see how the Vietnam war can even change an innocent high school girl into a war monster.
O’Brien also uses the story of Ted Lavender to demonstrate a universal truth about war. Ted Lavender is a scared soldier who uses tranquilizers to calm himself in the field, an example of what many other soldiers did also. He is shot while returning from going to the bathroom early on in the novel. Ted Lavender’s short appearance in the book and sudden death demonstrate the sad expendability of Vietnam soldiers and how easy it was for them to die.
O’Brien also uses the stories of Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen. After they have a long disagreement, the two make a pact to kill the other quickly if they are ever severely injured. When Strunk is badly injured, Jensen is tight until he learns that Strunk has died. Jensen is relieved he doesn’t have to make good on his pact. This story demonstrates the universal bond soldiers feel for each other, even ones they have fought with in the past, and how some would much rather be dead than injured forever.
Tim O'Brien uses his novel as a chance to use inductive reasoning to display quite a few universal truths about war.
ReplyDeleteFirst, O'Brien tells the story of Mary Anne, Mark Fossie's girlfriend. She comes to Vietnam to see her boyfriend, and starts out as a bubbly, put together young woman who wears nice clothes and is in love with Fossie. Towards the end of the chapter, she becomes immersed in her love of war and fighting, and is mesmerized by the green berets. She then joins them and breaks up with Mark Fossie, only to escape to the mountains of Vietnam. This story demonstrates the universal truth about how war changes people. Someone might come to the war a completely different person than they are when they leave.
Secondly, O'Brien tells the story of Norman Bowker and what happens when he returns home. As soon as Norman is home, he doesn't know what to do with himself or where to go. Even though he has left Vietnam, he isn't really home. The war will never completely leave him. This shows the universal truth that soldiers have a tough time upon their homecoming. Some suffer PTSD and some are home, yet always at war. The struggle is everlasting.
Lastly, Tim O'Brien uses inductive reasoning in the telling of Kiowa's death. Jimmy Cross feels responsible for Kiowa's death because he chose to set up camp in a certain location. He feels as if the blame should be thrown on him even though it wasn't his fault. By focusing on what he could have done differently to save Kiowa's life, he doesn't have to deal with the fact that one of his own men and one of his friends is dead. This shows the fact that in a war, even if you don't directly cause something, everyone feels guilt. This is why so many sodiers have a tough time coping with the deaths of their friends and men they knew in a war.
Tim O'Brien uses inductive reasoning with the story about Mary Anne. The story starts off with the particular: Mary Anne has just arrived in Vietnam to visit her boyfriend. Most of the story is details about her specific character change. Towards the end of the chapter, when Mary Anne ends it with Mark and goes to live in the mountains, O'Brien arrives to the universal: war changes people. Another time he uses inductive reasoning is with the story of Rat Kiley writing a letter to Curt Lemon's sister. When Curt dies, Rat writes a letter telling his sister saying what a wonderful soldier and just all around good guy Curt was. Rat waits several months, but she never writes back. This is a specific story that relates to the general feeling of soldiers who do not receive mail. Tim O'Brien mentions several times throughout the book how we vote to send people to war and then get mad when they come back different from the experience. But if we don't even write them, how do we except them to remember home and feel appreciated? Some, however, did keep a connection to home. And this is the third example: Henry Dobbins. He wore his girlfriends pantyhose around his neck as a good luck charm. Needing that comfort from home or just a good luck charm was a universal want.
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ReplyDelete1.) Tim O’Brien uses Mary Anne’s character to show that war has the power to make anyone crazy, and that everyone should be feeling like they are a part of this war because it could happen to. Mary Anne was a woman that many of the men would have considered a symbol of home. When she came to Vietnam, she got progressively more and more unstable and more like the soldiers themselves. She became emotionally detached and gained a better understanding of violence and war. Through taking a character that represented home and normalness and turning her into a soldier-like women, O’Brien is stating something about how anyone would be dramatically changed after going to war.
ReplyDelete2.) He also used the idea of particular to universal when talking about Norman Bowker and how Norman kept driving around in circles. This is a metaphor for how he was lost after war and not able to move on. The universal truth to this is that war is something that you never really escape. Also, everyone can relate to the feeling of being lost.
3.) Norman Bowker and Tim O’Brien both talked about how war made them feel guilty. Norman Bowker blamed himself for not saving Kiowa’s life, and Tim O’Brien talked about how he may have never actually killed a man, but he still felt guilty when he looked at the dead, and he felt like he killed them all. O’Brien’s theme through this is that war makes people carry around guilt for the rest of their lives that can be hard for soldiers to cope with, even long after the war. Even people that didn’t go to war can relate to carrying around an agonizing feeling of guilt.
1) Tim O'Brien depicts the particular using the universal by using an entire chapter to tell the story of Norman Bowker. He shows what the general sentiments were for soldiers after the war by telling us specifically what Bowker did. He talks about how he drove around in circles struggling with finding himself but he could never leave Vietnam mentally. Later in the chapter Tim O'Brien talks about how Bowker finally hung himself because he was still so upset from the war. All of the soldiers felt what Bowker felt but O'Brien told us this using a particular story.
ReplyDelete2) Tim O'Brien uses Henry Dobbins' situation to show how all the soldiers felt and missed home. Henry Dobbins would wrap his girlfriends panty hoes around his neck as a good luck charm. Even after she broke up with him he did this because it was all he had to remind him of home. This again is a particular situation which Tim O'Brien uses this situation and how Dobbins felt to describe the feeling of the soldiers, missing home and superstitious. Whatever kept them alive was important to them. This individual situation is a great picture of how the soldiers felt and acted after being in Vietnam for a while.
3) Tim O'Brien uses Mary Anne to show how all of the soldiers thought of home. She was their example of home and when she came over all of the soldiers used her to relate to home. She was a particular example of home that gave all of the soldiers spirit and hope. O'Brien used Mary Anne as a depiction of the soldiers sentiments in relation to home, what their image was and what they missed most. This was a common feeling amongst soldiers and Tim O'Brien uses Mary Anne to show us this.
In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien often uses inductive reasoning to imply a thesis, basically to prove a point. The first instance that O'Brien uses inductive reasoning is when we hear the story of Mary Anne Bell and Mark Fossie. Here, Mary Ann comes to Vietnam as a peppy normal teenager. However, Vietnam really changes her personality, and she becomes harsher, and loses some of her innocence. In the end, Mary Anne ends up leaving the camp and is never seen again. The speaker Rat Kiley starts this story out individually, but it has a universal meaning. The overall meaning is that war, especially the Vietnam War, really changes people forever. Some, like Mary Ann, have complete personality changes. A second example of going from individual to universal is the story of Norman Bowker, a Vietnam veteran who spends his days back home circling a lake with his car. Bowker has trouble keeping Vietnam out of his mind, and he later commits suicide. This story too starts out universally, but ends particularly. Here we can infer that many soldiers, like Bowker suffer from PTSD. Finally, we see another example of universal to particular through the incident between Bobby Jorgenson and Tim O'Brien. Jorgenson fails to treat O'Brien properly and as a result he is injured for much time. O'Brien develops a strong hate of Jorgenson and hopes to get revenge. Eventually, O'Brien and Jorgenson reconcile, showing that even pure hatred between two people can go away. Thus, inductive reasoning is a large component of the style in which The Things They Carried was written.
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ReplyDeleteTim O'Brian uses "particular" to emphasize the "universal" in his book.
ReplyDeleteAs I read "TTTC," I found three instances that explain our topic. One, O'Brian tells us in "On the Rainy River," his story which "makes [him] squirm." In the universal aspect, most veterans of war would agree that it is truly hard to retell an experience like O'Brian's.
Another example is the way Mitchell Sanders explains how most “war” stories are filled with “half-baked commentaries.” They are crammed with unneeded and sometimes unwanted details. “Particularly,” every soldier has their own way of telling stories like Nossie Bawker, who wrote a book, “Speaking of Courage.” However, Bowker hung himself which showed that he had the courage to write the book, but he was still shaken with his war history.
Many soldiers send mail and receive mail. Nonetheless, some send it and never get an answer. Tim O’Brian uses Rat Kiley’s story. When Curt Lemon died, Kiley took it upon himself to write Curt’s sister. He told her that he died and what a great brother he was to their troop. “Universally,” a soldier would get a response sooner or later. Although, in this case. Kiley did not get a letter in return.