The Things They Carried

The things they carried were largely determined by their schoolwork. Among the necessities were pencils, pens of various different colors, textbooks, notebooks, wristwatches, Student ID cards, laptops and water bottles. Together they weighed 10 to 15 kilograms. David, who was the executive student council member, carried with him student bodys expectation. Before he fainted, Park who was often referred to by his peers as a nerd carried extra pencils, pens, erasers, and an extra bottle just for energy drinks. By necessity, and because it was unavoidable, they carried with them the never ending stress, and the feeling of exhaustion where your eyes seem to flutter and your body feel unusually heavy. They were called the seniors.David carried his phone and the thousand of text messages from a girl named Leah, a sophomore at a high school downtown. They were not love messages, but David liked to think other wise. During especially boring classes, David would often take out his phone, hold it under the desk, and spend the rest of the class reading and hoping. Sometime David could even see her mouth smiling and speaking out to him. But it was never romantic, just casual complaining about school or her friends. However, David clung to those moments. He was in technicality present in classes, and listening to lectures, but he wasnt really there. He was with Leah in downtown coffee shop chatting away, listening to her problems. As the class bell rang, slowly, not really paying attention, he would get up and move among his friends, never fully returning to reality.Until he fainted, Park carried extra workbooks from his academies weighing about 4 kilograms, which for him was a necessity. He carried with him the fragility of his body, which meant that he had to carry with him inhalers, and Tylenol pills for his headaches. However, for Park, above all the things he had to carry the heaviest, the most unbearable burden was his parents expectation of him to be perfect. Every passing day, Park felt like the burden was getting more unmanageable to carry. Every question that he did not know how to solve, every mark taken away from any of his seemingly infinitely many tests and assignments, and every comment about the importance of grades from his parent over a dinner table was another encumbrance and obligations he had to bear.In a sense they carried each other. They carried what the other could no longer bear. They were in this together and yet in a sense they were each in their own different realm. To escape their realms they found jokes to tell. They used hard vocabulary and profanity to help satisfy the need to feel in control. They would curse their classes, their assignments and tests. It wasnt brutality, just stage presence. They were actors. Before he fainted, Park played a role of a perfectionist or as other people called him, a nerd. To others, he would pretend he loved what he was doing. He would pretend how doing homework and school assignment was what he really enjoyed doing. David, whose parents worked two jobs to pay for his tuition, pretended he was a diligent student. Every time someone asked what his grades were he would tell them his desired score. As they acted in front of each other they would actually feel some of the load vanish. Nevertheless, when they lied down on their beds to sleep and reflect on their day. They would feel their burdens crushing down upon them doubling in weight. But for that briefest moment of relief, they kept acting.What they carried varied by schoolwork. In the first week of February, before Park fainted, it was time for seniors mock exams. They carried all they could, their notes, extra textbooks, extra pens, pencils, erasers and extra batteries for their calculators, partly for being prepared, partly for the illusion of being prepared. In some way, it was worse not taking the test. When they were taking the test they knew what was required of them and what they had to do. When they were waiting they did not know what to do. Some would listen to music in silent, some would chat and some would feel sympathy for those taking the test. David, who was waiting for Park, was studying for his next test. But without willing it he was thinking of Leah. How he wished he could be somewhere, anywhere else with her. He just wanted to be with her.Few daydreams later, Park and the rest of the math higher-level students walked out of the gym. David went to greet his friends and ask about their test, but his heart wasnt in it. He should have noticed how unusually pale Parks face looked, and how there were dark bags under his eyes. But he didnt. At that moment when David was asking, How was it? was when Park fainted and fell forwards on to the ground with a thud. Oh shit someone said. Is he fucking dead? Someone else asked. No I think he just fainted. Others answered.The night after Park fainted, David lay on his bed. His phone was powered on, and was on the usual chat page. But he wasnt reading the messages as usual. He was just looking, staring, than he started erasing all the messages from Leah. He was determined now. He was a student after all, a senior at that. He did not have time to hope and follow after a girl. He would get his shit together. No more reading messages in class, no more day dreaming and most of all no more acting. He would be what he is supposed to be, a model student. A student and a person who his parents and his friend needed him to be, that is what he will become. From now on he wont be just passing by, he will march forward with purpose and dignity until the end, until graduation.

RationaleFor this written task, I have chosen to explore Tim OBriens The Things They Carried. Following the same structure of OBriens story, I am attempting to write a story about school the same way he writes about war. I attempt to show my target audience, any adults of age, what its like to be a senior in high school studying IB. The purpose of this written task is to emulate Tim OBriens style of story telling and apply it to my story about being a senior in high school studying IB. This story will show these adults the physical and emotion burdens the seniors have to carry. This is achieved by imitating the confusing, but somewhat direct and grandiose writing style used in The Things They Carried. I will achieve this by using the similar pattern of listing various things the seniors had to carry, the awkward phrasing of sentences, and some profanity to narrate my story much like The Things They Carried. Adopting the writing style in The Things They Carried into my written task demonstrates my knowledge and understanding of how Tim OBrien uses his writing style to convey various themes. My written task intends to explore the course by showing, through the use of Tim OBriens writing style, I am able to effectively communicate my theme of the physical and emotional burden seniors have to carry and the inability to communicate to your classmates..