Seeking Spiritual Salvation: An Archetypal Interpretation Of The Things They Carried By Tim O'brien

The Things they Carried, published in 1990, is a post-modern novel about Vietnam War with specific writing style written by famous American Vietnam writer Tim O'Brien. As the most famous novel by O'Brien, the book received lots of attention from critics since it was published. However, most concern is concentrated on his post-modern writing techniques. So far, there is little deep and comprehensive study on it.This paper will attempt to analyze the archetypes in the novel with the help of myth-archetypal criticism so as to explore the theme of seeking spiritual salvation reflected in the novel. The thesis can be divided into three parts:introduction, body and conclusion.The introduction part includes the introduction of Tim O'Brien and his work The Things They Carried and recent literary review at abroad and at home.The body involves chapter 2 to chapter 6. Chapter 2 summarizes the theoretical basis of the paper:myth-archetypal criticism. Chapter 3 analyzes the archetypal characters presented in the novel. Norman Bowker and Tim O'Brien is the displacement of scapegoat. Jimmy Cross is the embodiment of Jesus Christ. Chapter 4 is a comparative study of the apocalyptic and the demonic setting in the novel. Chapter 5 explains two images-water and fog. Two basic motifs:quest and salvation are elaborated in chapter 6.The conclusion part summarizes the points of the thesis and emphasizes that the theme of seeking spiritual salvation is intensified by applying these archetypes.