Greta Haskell, The Things They Carried, Q2 Benchmark

Analytical Essay:

Like many of the characters in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Tim has a special and very different view on coping. Everyone has their own way of coping and Tim’s is unique, he writes and sometimes has a bad approach and “copes” with anger instead. As the world around them changes, individuals find their own way to cope with what it going on around them.

In the beginning of the book Tim shares a story he has never told anyone else before, making it an intimate experience for the reader. This in itself is a way to cope for him but much later than he should have. He tells the readers about how when he found out that he was being drafted for the war he got so upset about it he ran away to Canada and couldn't decide if he should say and be happy or go to war and be a “hero”. Later in an interview Tim reveals the whole story was a lie saying, “I never went to the Rainy River to decide whether or not to go to Viet-nam. It's a lie...To get at a higher, nobler truth, I tell a big lie.” He told the story so that he could get people to feel how he felt with a “noble” lie. It was a way of coping for Tim so that when he came back from the war he could use his imagination to take him away from the sad reality and put himself in a place where he felt heroic and brave, instead of feeling guilt from lying he felt the pleasure of knowing he did something right.

The events that could have harmed Tim were clearly hard to go through. Tim wants his readers to be in the same mindset as him and feel that same feelings he went through to know how he really felt at that time and place in the war. He describes the experience saying,  “...you're not human anymore. You're a shadow. You slip out of your own skin, like molting, shedding your own history and your own future, leaving behind everything you ever were or wanted to believed in. You know you're about to die. And it's not a movie and you aren't a hero and all you can do is whimper and wait.” Tim does not always have a positive approach to coping. He sometimes deals with the war by convincing himself and acknowledging that he has no feelings anymore and he just has to go through with it. This could damage him more in the long run if he is constantly thinking this way, that is why it is good that he has writing as an outlet.

Near the end of the book Tim tells the readers about his logic when writing. He has a very dreamlike state of mind when writing and telling stories and it helps him to deal with the events which might be traumatic. He concludes, “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness.” p. 230 To cope with his changed, traumatic, environment, Tim tells stories which give him a small amount of happiness when he is depressed and scared from the war. When he tells a story he can sort of leave his body and not have to deal with the bad parts of the war for a moment.

Everyone has a different way of coping, some simple, some more extreme. In Tim O’Brien’s case he takes it to the extreme, showing how people can have different approaches. When people notice the world changing around them they stress and find different ways to cope and change themselves to better themselves in the changing world.

Works Cited for Analytical Essay:

1. O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York, NY: Broadway, 1990. Print.

2. Bourne, Daniel, and Shostak, Debra. "A Conversation with Tim O'Brien." The College of Wooster. October 2, 1991. Web. October 20, 2009.

Narrative Essay:

When I was little I was always off in my own little imaginary world. I had imaginary friends, I would build fairy houses and I always sang, I still do. One thing my parents always told me was that when I was little I would always sing to myself especially when I was excited or nervous about something. I would just make up little melodies and hum or sing. They thought it was just something cute but now that I’m older and I am constantly singing I looked back on it a little and realized that it is my coping mechanism.

My sister is born on Halloween so my other sister and I spent Halloween with my grandma that year. I was always excited because I loved to dress up all the time as a little kid but now I was in a new neighborhood and I didn't know what I was in for. That night we walked over to my aunts house and we were getting ready to go trick or treating. My sister and I were walking a bit ahead and my grandma noticed that I was singing a little song. I was just too excited that I couldn't hold it in. I was dressed as a dinosaur and I would go up to houses and roar! Then I would get my candy and carry on singing. They always make fun of me for it now.

Now that I’m older I listen to music constantly especially in the car. I can’t stand quiet car rides. Whenever there is music I am singing. Everyone in my family knows that my secret talent is remembering song lyrics, I can listen to a song once or twice and the next time I hear it I’m belting along. I made the connection as I was writing this. When I was little I would cope with things that were different or out of my comfort zone by singing and now I still do. Whenever I do homework I listen to music because it calms me down and when I am driving I listen and sing along. My mom thinks I shouldn’t because it will distract me but honestly, it helps me concentrate.