Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.

English 100 / John Terrill

ESSAY 5: EXPLAINING A CONCEPT Assignment:

Write a 5-7 page essay explaining a concept in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Articulate the concept as you see it operating in the novel, judiciously quoting from the text in order to support your explanation. If you wish, you may also allude to general knowledge about your concept; that is, you might consider carefully what your reader may already know about your concept and how your essay (and O’Brien’s text) might add to what the reader knows or provide a different perspective on the concept for the reader. You need not necessarily propose a strong thesis, as your objective is explanation, not argument. Think of the assignment as writing a sort of chapter in a textbook whose subject is a concept that you think operates in an interesting way in O’Brien’s text.

Your concept should not be too broad, given the length of this assignment. In other words, death is too broad a category, as death arguably haunts every page of the book. You might, for instance, narrow your concept to coping strategies when a comrade dies. You could even narrow this topic further: coping strategies upon the death of Kiowa.

If you wish, you may also elaborate your concept in terms of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. In addition, you are welcome to draw on other resources (books, films, dictionary definitions, etc.). Remember, though, that your primary text should remain The Things They Carried. If your only sources are TTTC or AN, then you need not supply a Works Cited page; however, if you employ other resources, you must include them in a properly-constructed bibliography in MLA format.

Your citations should be parenthetical. TTTC citations must be in the proper format, but I do not care as much about the proper citing of video media, which are more tedious to cite. In lieu of quoting from Apocalypse Now, for example, you may wish to paraphrase scenes in order to make your point, as quoting would require that you either find a copy of the screenplay or make a careful transcription of dialogue in the film. Below are a few examples of the sort of citational practice that I expect you to follow in this paper.

Elroy is described as “skinny and shrunken and mostly bald” (O’Brien 48). As he dies, Marlon Brando’s character echoes Conrad’s famous words, “the horror, the horror!” (Coppola).

You may choose a concept from the below list of those that we generated in class. You may also revise one of these concepts; that is, you may take one of these general concepts and find your own more specific “spin” on it. Alternatively, you are welcome to generate your own concept. However, if you do not choose from this list, please email me or talk to me about your prospective concept before you begin writing so that I may help ensure that your idea will fulfill my expectations of this paper.

Above all, choose a concept that interests you!

Possible Concepts:

You may choose a concept from the list below. Remember that the italicized headers (e.g. Courage) are too broad. If you choose from this list, you should select one of the subheadings. You may, of course, create your own subheading for one of the broader categories listed below. As you will note, I have added a few more items to this list and I have recombined a few cateogries in order to give you a wider range of selection (or of inspiration!). Courage

- competing definitions thereof - its relation to truth

Aftermath of War

- strategies of social reintegration - forms of repression

Guilt

- coping strategies - forgiveness of oneself and/or another

Friendship

- how it is formed and/or falls apart - its value as a mechanism for coping with death

Gender roles

- definitions of masculinity - role of the woman in a homosocial space - fluidity of gender roles

Truth

- definitions thereof - relation to exaggeration - reliability of memory

Family/Fraternity

- changing relations of soldiers to their biological families - the platoon as surrogate family

Death - fear thereof - coping strategies when a comrade dies - effects on the soldier of killing others

Race(ism)

- representations of the enemy - locating race among the Americans

Storytelling

- different strategies thereof - reasons for doing so - relationship with truth

Humanity

- maintenance of a sense of control over one’s environment and fate

- survival strategies - relationship to nature