Tim O'Brien Writing Styles in The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien
This Study Guide consists of approximately 60 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Things They Carried.

Tim O'Brien Writing Styles in The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien
This Study Guide consists of approximately 60 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Things They Carried.
This section contains 391 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy The Things They Carried Study Guide

Point of View and Narration

The identity of the narrator in all the stories in The Things They Carried is of interest to critics and readers. In the title story, the narrator is unidentified, but in other stories he is a "fictional character named Tim O'Brien," explains the author, Tim O'Brien. The third person narrator in "The Things They Carried" is unnamed, but since the stories are interrelated, he may be the fictional Tim O'Brien. The narrator's job in this story is to describe the soldiers and the things that happen to them in the Quang Ngai province, particularly on and around the day that Ted Lavender dies. The narrator is technically omniscient, or all-knowing, since he is privy to the interior thoughts and feelings of the characters, especially Lt. Jimmy Cross. But O'Brien's narrator also behaves like a limited third-person narrator in that he only reveals partial, fragmented...

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This section contains 391 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy The Things They Carried Study Guide
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The Things They Carried from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.