The protagonist, whois named Tim O'Brien, begins by describing an event that occurredin the middle of his Vietnam experience. 'The Things They Carried'catalogs the variety of things his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Companybrought on their missions. Several of these things are intangible,including guilt and fear, while others are specific physical objects,including matches, morphine, M-16 rifles, andM&M's candy.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Plot summary. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee. Although it was written in 1960 it is set in the mid-1930s in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Complete summary of C. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. ENotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Throughout the collection, the same characters reappearin various stories. The first member of the Alpha Company to dieis Ted Lavender, a 'grunt,' or low-ranking soldier, who deals withhis anxiety about the war by taking tranquilizers and smoking marijuana.Lavender is shot in the head on his way back from going to the bathroom,and his superior, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, blames himself for thetragedy. When Lavender is shot, Cross is distracting himself withthoughts of Martha, a college crush. It is revealed in 'Love' thatCross's feelings for Martha, whom he dated once before leaving forVietnam, were never reciprocated, and that even twenty years afterthe war, his guilt over Lavender's death remains.
In 'On the Rainy River,' the narrator, O'Brien, explainsthe series of events that led him to Vietnam in the first place.He receives his draft notice in June of 1968,and his feelings of confusion drive him north to the Canadian border,which he contemplates crossing so that he will not be forced tofight in a war in which he doesn't believe. Sitting in a rowboatwith the proprietor of the Tip Top Lodge, where he stays, O'Briendecides that his guilt about avoiding the war and fear of disappointinghis family are more important than his political convictions. Hesoon leaves, going first back home to Worthington, Minnesota andlater to Vietnam.
In addition to Ted Lavender, a few other members of theAlpha Company are killed during their mission overseas, includingCurt Lemon, who is killed when he steps on a rigged mortar round. Though O'Brien is not close to Lemon, in 'The Dentist,'he tells a story of how Lemon, who faints before a routine checkupwith an army-issued dentist, tries to save face by insisting thata perfectly good tooth be pulled. Lee Strunk, another member ofthe company, dies from injuries he sustains by stepping on a landmine.In 'Friends,' O'Brien remembers that before Strunk was fatally hurt,Strunk and Dave Jensen had made a pact that if either man were irreparablyharmed, the other man would see that he was quickly killed. However,when Strunk is actually hurt, he begs Jensen to spare him, and Jensencomplies. T slot frees. Instead of being upset by the news of his friend's swiftdeath en route to treatment, Jensen is relieved.
The death that receives the most attention in TheThings They Carried is that of Kiowa, a much-loved memberof the Alpha Company and one of O'Brien's closest friends. In 'Speakingof Courage,' the story of Kiowa's death is relayed in retrospectthrough the memory of Norman Bowker, years after the war. As Bowkerdrives around a lake in his Iowa hometown, he thinks that he failedto save Kiowa, who was killed when a mortar round hit and causedhim to sink headfirst into a marshy field. O'Brien realizes thathe has dealt with his guilt over Kiowa's death differently thanNorman Bowker in 'Notes.' Just before the end of the war, O'Brienreceives a long letter from Bowker that says he hasn't found a wayto make life meaningful after the war. O'Brien resolves to tellBowker's story, and the story of Kiowa's death, in order to negotiatehis own feelings of guilt and hollowness.
Like 'Love' and 'Notes,' several of O'Brien's storiesare told from a perspective twenty years after the Vietnam War,when he is a forty-three-year-old writer living in Massachusetts.Exposure to the guilt of old friends like Jimmy Cross and NormanBowker prompts him to write stories in order to understand whatthey were going through. But two stories, 'The Man I Killed' and'Ambush,' are written so that O'Brien can confront his own guiltover killing a man with a grenade outside the village of My Khe.In 'The Man I Killed,' O'Brien imagines the life of his victim,from his childhood to the way things would have turned out for himhad O'Brien not spotted him on a path and thrown a grenade at hisfeet. In 'Ambush,' O'Brien imagines how he might relay the storyof the man he killed to his nine-year-old daughter, Kathleen. Inthis second story, O'Brien provides more details of the actual killing—including thesound of the grenade and his own feelings—and explains that evenwell after the fact, he hasn't finished sorting out the experience.
Definition Of Plot Synopsis
Plot Development Secrets. Ask yourself two questions: Is your story idea weighty enough to warrant 75,000 to 100,000 words, and Is it powerful enough to hold the reader to the end? Discovering novelist Dean Koontz's Classic Story Structure (in his How to Write Best-Selling Fiction) was the best thing that ever happened to my career.
What Is A Plot Summary
In 'On the Rainy River,' the narrator, O'Brien, explainsthe series of events that led him to Vietnam in the first place.He receives his draft notice in June of 1968,and his feelings of confusion drive him north to the Canadian border,which he contemplates crossing so that he will not be forced tofight in a war in which he doesn't believe. Sitting in a rowboatwith the proprietor of the Tip Top Lodge, where he stays, O'Briendecides that his guilt about avoiding the war and fear of disappointinghis family are more important than his political convictions. Hesoon leaves, going first back home to Worthington, Minnesota andlater to Vietnam.
In addition to Ted Lavender, a few other members of theAlpha Company are killed during their mission overseas, includingCurt Lemon, who is killed when he steps on a rigged mortar round. Though O'Brien is not close to Lemon, in 'The Dentist,'he tells a story of how Lemon, who faints before a routine checkupwith an army-issued dentist, tries to save face by insisting thata perfectly good tooth be pulled. Lee Strunk, another member ofthe company, dies from injuries he sustains by stepping on a landmine.In 'Friends,' O'Brien remembers that before Strunk was fatally hurt,Strunk and Dave Jensen had made a pact that if either man were irreparablyharmed, the other man would see that he was quickly killed. However,when Strunk is actually hurt, he begs Jensen to spare him, and Jensencomplies. T slot frees. Instead of being upset by the news of his friend's swiftdeath en route to treatment, Jensen is relieved.
The death that receives the most attention in TheThings They Carried is that of Kiowa, a much-loved memberof the Alpha Company and one of O'Brien's closest friends. In 'Speakingof Courage,' the story of Kiowa's death is relayed in retrospectthrough the memory of Norman Bowker, years after the war. As Bowkerdrives around a lake in his Iowa hometown, he thinks that he failedto save Kiowa, who was killed when a mortar round hit and causedhim to sink headfirst into a marshy field. O'Brien realizes thathe has dealt with his guilt over Kiowa's death differently thanNorman Bowker in 'Notes.' Just before the end of the war, O'Brienreceives a long letter from Bowker that says he hasn't found a wayto make life meaningful after the war. O'Brien resolves to tellBowker's story, and the story of Kiowa's death, in order to negotiatehis own feelings of guilt and hollowness.
Like 'Love' and 'Notes,' several of O'Brien's storiesare told from a perspective twenty years after the Vietnam War,when he is a forty-three-year-old writer living in Massachusetts.Exposure to the guilt of old friends like Jimmy Cross and NormanBowker prompts him to write stories in order to understand whatthey were going through. But two stories, 'The Man I Killed' and'Ambush,' are written so that O'Brien can confront his own guiltover killing a man with a grenade outside the village of My Khe.In 'The Man I Killed,' O'Brien imagines the life of his victim,from his childhood to the way things would have turned out for himhad O'Brien not spotted him on a path and thrown a grenade at hisfeet. In 'Ambush,' O'Brien imagines how he might relay the storyof the man he killed to his nine-year-old daughter, Kathleen. Inthis second story, O'Brien provides more details of the actual killing—including thesound of the grenade and his own feelings—and explains that evenwell after the fact, he hasn't finished sorting out the experience.
Definition Of Plot Synopsis
Plot Development Secrets. Ask yourself two questions: Is your story idea weighty enough to warrant 75,000 to 100,000 words, and Is it powerful enough to hold the reader to the end? Discovering novelist Dean Koontz's Classic Story Structure (in his How to Write Best-Selling Fiction) was the best thing that ever happened to my career.
What Is A Plot Summary
A Plot Summary
In the last story, 'The Lives of the Dead,' O'Brien givesanother twist to his contention that stories have the power to savepeople. In the stories of Curt Lemon and Kiowa, O'Brien explainsthat his imagination allowed him to grapple successfully with hisguilt and confusion over the death of his fourth-grade first love,Linda.
