Category: The Things They Carried

Introduction

‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien repeatedly lists specific tangible objects that soldiers carried during the Vietnam War in the Than Khe locality. Additionally, the author documents the heaviness of the objects to underscore the physical items the soldiers carried. At the beginning, the narration seems to be simple regarding the objects a legion of soldiers carried during the war. The narration actually focuses on the demise of one of the legion members and the horrifying conditions in Than Khe.

Through repetitive documentation of the tangible objects carried by the soldiers, the author opens a leeway to allow him stress on the heaviness of the intangible items. This strategy allows the speaker to describe the battle experience. It also makes the speaker to deliberate on the very emotive issues.

The intangible is the mental impact of war. Besides, the intangible created burden in the minds and hearts of the soldiers. O’Brien’s story “The Things They Carried” demonstrates how the author utilizes conventional repetitive form of things carried to treat the unconventional story subject of the impact of war on soldiers.

Main Body

When O’Brien opens his story, he lays foundation for the story’s central themes of recollection, imagination and the opportunities for psychological escape offered by the powers arising from the effects of engaging in armed combat. For instance, as Lieutenant Cross goes through the demanding daily activities of war duty, he is mentally occupied by Martha.

Fundamentally, as he relives the moments with Martha, he not only remembers the memories but also imagines how a passionate camping expedition into the White Mountains would be like (O’Brien 1001). The author presents these desires by Cross as “pretending”. In this context, “pretending” emerges as a form of storytelling. He is actually narrating to himself. The author emphasizes on the significance of Cross’s actions by underscoring the items he had. These included Martha’s mails and picture.

Upon introducing the characters, the author gives miniature details of the items soldiers carried to foreshadow the physical and psychological baggage soldiers have to contend with in their line of duty.

However, it is imperative to note these items and extend specific attention to the details. The details foreshadow the central narratives that cover the novel. The technique O’Brien uses for listing the items the platoons carried simultaneously functions to generate completer fusions of the characters. By extension, the approach makes the characters appear to be very concrete to the audience.

O’Brien develops his story by discussing the objects carried by the platoons as everyday items that a soldier carries. These are the objects that made life in Vietnam more tolerable for each of the platoon members. The initial list of items included munching gum, roll-ups, Kool-Aid and cigarette lighters. Pound cake, canned peaches and extra hygiene supplies are also included (O’Brien 1002).

The letters Cross carried are also documented. Majority of these items are non-soldierly. They are effortlessly deliberated by the author deprived of any demanding emotional issues. Ted Lavender, the deceased soldier, is indicated briefly while listing the items. Lavender was terrified and hence carried sedatives. At this point, it is only mentioned that he was blasted in the skull in mid-April. This further prepares the audience for the emotional part of the story. In the list, this is scarcely mentioned.

The military items mentioned in the list are meant to demonstrate the baggage that the platoons carried. O’Brien gives the weight of each military item. He mentions strengthened helmets weighing 5. They also had facings and disguise cover. The boots they wore weighed 2.1 pounds. Fatigue jackets and trousers further added to the weight.

At the end of the list, Lavender’s demise is briefly mentioned again. This comes in terms of how his corpse enfolded in a rain poncho. Each of the men carried one. It is at this point that the narrator summons relative courage to narrate the Vietnam experience. At the beginning, the narrator appears to be working up bravely to talk about the experience. The narrator states that Lavender was blasted in the head, carried across a paddy, placed in a military craft and flown away (O’Brien 1003).

The psychological and physical weight experienced by soldiers is demonstrated in the third paragraph. The narrator appears to be regretting about speaking of issues concerning Lavender’s demise. He swiftly goes back to simpler things. Instead of giving details about the death of Lavender, the narrator speaks about the list of objects. The narrator starts by describing Cross’s obsession with Martha. Upon elucidating more of the imaginations possessing Cross, the storyteller goes back to list objects that are more soldierly.

The listing encompasses weaponry of diverse types and their respective weights. It is essentially a non-passionate list for most part. This is to signify that the narrator probably wanted to escape the reality of the experiences of war. The narrator was no longer burdened with physical baggage hence would comfortably talk about it. On the other hand, the psychological impact of the war was still in the mind of the narrator hence chose to talk about the physical baggage.

By talking about the non-emotive portion of the war, the storyteller’s emotive magnitude is reduced. He talks about guns, binoculars, code books, magazines and grenade launchers. The emotions of the narrator returns when he talks about the average weight that each soldier was expected to carry. When the narrator mentions about the weight carried by Lavender, he again mentions that Lavender was scared. He states that when Lavender went down, he was under exceptional weight.

The narrator appears to suggest that Lavender was not only overburdened with physical weight but also psychological baggage experienced by soldiers at war time. The narrator’s emotions are triggered. He narrates what happened after he was shot. Unexpectedly, the listing of items stops. He speaks of how soldiers feel about death. Among the most notable is the narration involving Cross.

That is, Cross’s thoughts and guilt about Lavender’s death reflect on the guilt fellow troop members have to contend with when one of them dies. Cross feels that Lavender’s death was as a result of his mental obsession with Martha (O’Brien 1005).

The narrator relists the items that seem to be focusing on him. The entire situation is more emotive while reflecting on the baggage they had to endure emotionally and psychologically. The weaponry is now termed as ‘a means of killing or staying alive.’ The listing is brief. The narrator hastily goes into discussing Cross’s preoccupation with Martha. The narrator sought to take his mind away from the battle. The next listing is about the items they had, depending on the kind of mission.

The situations and conditions of war are now given more details. This results in the narrator giving more details regarding Lavender’s death at length. He has gathered enough courage to the point that he can now narrate the entire incident without seeking emotional relief in listing the items. He details Cross’s fantasies at length.

The narration is disturbing when one learns that Cross was not psychologically present at a very critical time. Despite having stated that Cross was guilty of Lavender’s death, it is now clear to the reader why this was the case (O’Brien 1006).

So far, the storyteller has spoken about the difficult topic about the baggage soldiers have to contend with physically and emotionally. He starts one more list to ease up. The list is simple and devoid of details. Hastily, the listing turns out negative. The impact of the items they were carrying is sad, traumatic and extremely negative. There was tedious marching, execution of appalling missions without care and torching of entire villages. Other soldiers of the legion were now involved in pondering about Lavender’s demise.

The emotions are let loose to a point of no-return. Listing is no longer part of the remainder of the narration. The things that they carried are no longer actual items. Majority is contemplations, moods and insolences that individuals had in Vietnam. They carried all the psychological baggage of soldiers who may die in the war including sorrow, fear and love among others. He speaks freely regarding the inner and mental baggage the troops carried (O’Brien 1008).

Conclusion

The listing used by the author presents more than life of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The list assists the narrator to talk about a distressing narrative a little easier. He uses the list to shape his contemplations and enter into a traumatic subject. As the narrative develops, the physical listing decreases. However, the emotional content increases as he gathers more courage to speak about the horrific events that took place

Work Cited

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried, Back Bay, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990. Print.

The Things They Carried is a short story by Tim O’Brien from a collection of short stories with the same title (1990). It tells the story of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who is leading a soldier platoon in Vietnam, carrying reminders about Martha, a woman he loves unrequitedly and continuously distracts him from military objectives. However, after the death of a soldier in his squad, Jimmy reconsiders what is essential to him, and gets rid of all things that remind him of Martha to focus on his soldiers and its military mission. The central idea relates to not live through illusions and memories but instead focusing on the present. The key narrative strategy in the story is repetition, which is illustrated in the retelling of specific incidents that play detrimental roles in the main conflict. For instance, the death of Lavender is retold by the narrator several times because it is the catalyst for the main character’s development. With the help of repetition with the focus on the most important event, the narration of The Things They Carried emphasizes how important it was for the protagonist to revise his priorities and put the interests of others above his.

The first narrative strategy to be mentioned in regards to The Things They Carried is the point of view. The point of view belongs to the character of Tim, who is not the protagonist but the narrator. “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey” (O’Brien 366). In the quote, the point of view of the narrator presents the story’s central character as well as his relationship, which is detrimental to the story’s development. “Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake” (O’Brien 367). The point of view strategy is used to introduce another character and the attributes that make him stand out. There is a sense of community created by the narrator’s listing of what the soldiers were carrying.

The narrative strategy of repetition is imperative to the story’s development. “What they carried was partly a function of rank, part of field specialty” (O’Brien 369). “What they carried varied by mission” (O’Brien 372). These repetitions offer structure to the story while also making the characters more real and ‘human.’ The repeating sentence structures are important because they show that beyond physical things, the characters carried a weight of responsibility on their shoulders.

Characterization is another narrative strategy to be mentioned because there are many characters with unique peculiarities. “While Kiowa explained how Lavender died, Lieutenant Cross found himself trembling. […] He hated himself” (O’Brien 377). “The moral’s pretty obvious, Sanders said, and winked. Stay away from drugs. No joke, they’ll ruin your day every time” (O’Brien 380). The way in which the characters managed the death of their comrade says a lot about their qualities. While Sanders tried to make jokes to feel better after persistent sadness, Cross shut down, analyzing what he had done wrong, which led to an important decision for him. Repetition is a narrative strategy that is traced to the end of the story. “He hated her. Yes, he did. He hated her. Love, too, but it was a hard, hating kind of love” (O’Brien 383). “He loved her but he hated her” (O’Brien 383). In these quotes, Lieutenant Cross comes to terms with his feelings, which should not be placed above the interests of his team.

The story’s narration plays a key role in shaping the plot and its meaning as it allows to connect to the main characters and discover their fears and thoughts. The military battle setting adds to the complexity of the story because the characters are placed in extreme circumstances that pressure them into making certain decisions. Finally, the central idea stems from the other components and is not stated directly, which means that it is up to the readers’ interpretation.

Work Cited

O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, Vintage Books, 1994, pp. 366-384.

Introduction

“The Things They Carried” is a collection of stories by Tim O’Brien. Each short story reveals the experience of a military unit fighting in the Vietnam War and presents a combination of historical events and the author’s fiction. In one of the stories, titled the same as this collection, O’Brien showcases a Lieutenant who struggles to let go of his past. The recollections of love, despite it being unrequited, help Cross escape the brutal reality of being at war, however, eventually, he has to admit that his constant dwelling on the memories of Martha is dangerous.

The Things They Carried

At the beginning of the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross cannot let go of his past life, which does not allow him to focus entirely on the combat. According to O’Brien, “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha” (1). Cross recalls his love for Martha, which was unrequited, but still, he keeps her letters, and a peddle she gave him for good luck. As O’Brien describes it, Jim and Martha only had one date, and when Cross recalls the events while in Vietnam, he regrets not taking a risk. O’Brien describes Cross’ thoughts as ” he should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room” (3).

This element of the story is notable because, under challenging conditions such as war, where people encounter death daily, it is not surprising that Lieutenant thinks about all the things he regrets. It is possible that in the future, he will not have an opportunity to meet Martha again, or even go on a date with someone else. Therefore, the Lieutenant relives this experience in his imagination, unable to escape these thoughts as a way of dealing with the difficulties and emotional burden of the war.

The recollections of past life and the communication with Martha serves as an escape from reality for Lieutenant. Her letters never mention anything about the war, even though she is aware of where Cross is and what dangers he may be encountering. Martha prefers to quote poetry and remind Cross to take care of himself (O’Brien, 1). Perhaps, this is a way of showing that the emotional burden of war is affecting not only those in the combat field but also those staying in the United States.

All characters described in the “The Things They Carried” have something that helps them retain the connection with their past lives. This includes things that are necessities, something that helps them survive, with some differences ” depending upon a man’s habits or rate of metabolism” (O’Brien, 1). However, apart from these things, the soldiers carried some reminders of their families or something that would help them stay calm.

Again, this illustrates the emotional difficulties people face when having to go to war. O’Brien’s characters are depicted as humane, they are nervous and afraid, so they keep little pieces of such as tranquilizers, religious texts, things that belong to their loved ones and other pieces with them (O’Brien, 2). Therefore, Jim is not the only person who experiences difficulties at war and prefers to recall his life while staying at home instead of focusing on the combat.

As Jim’s character develops, he understands that his focus on Martha does not allow him to be present at the moment. This endangers both his squad and himself, as in one instance, a soldier he was supervising is killed. Lavender was a part of the unit and was shot while going to the bathroom, which is a traumatic experience for the entire unit (O’Brien, 2). All men cope with the colleague’s death differently, for example, Kiowa and Bowker discuss life and death in general. Arguably, Cross is the one who gets the most traumatized by this experience because he is a leader, someone who is responsible for the lives of his unit.

He reconsiders his constant need to think about Martha and the relationship they will probably never have. O’Brien describes this change in the following manner – “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead” (14). This is a turning point for Jim because he understands that he can no longer try to escape the fact that he is at war and ignore his present by focusing on his past love.

Apart from the physical things that help the Lieutenant and other soldiers cope with the difficult conditions, they also carry their memories. This includes those of their past life and the experiences they already had in Vietnam during the war. Due to the fact that O’Brien uses a combination of fiction and non-fiction, the experience of Jim as a soldier at war is portrayed vividly, providing an understanding of difficulties one may face in these conditions.

Conclusion

Overall, in the short story “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien blends the fiction and non-fiction, by describing the Vietnam War, the actual events and experiences of the soldiers, and combining it with some fiction. Arguably, the experience of being at war is challenging, and the main character of this story uses the memories of his love interest Martha to escape reality. As the plot develops, Jim’s character becomes more aware of the need to let go of his past and focus on the combat.

References

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Vintage Books, 1994.

The suggested statement indicates that The Things They Carried by O’Brien broadcasts the horrors of the Vietnam War to the reader and allows one to understand the psychological aspects of that impact. It is difficult to disagree with this, given the author’s foundation in creating the work. In particular, the narrative blurs any lines between fiction and an objective account of the facts and allows one to view O’Brien’s invented stories by placing them in the context of the war. In turn, this approach deepens the reader into the narrative, engaging and guiding to a greater extent. One concrete example of the reader’s heightened immersion into the horrors of war is a quote that O’Brien used to demonstrate the essence of warfare. Specifically, the writer told of an American who had been killed and whose comrades had removed all the ammunition and tobacco to use further, at which point the still-living soldiers were reflecting on their guilt. Lt. Cross blamed himself for Lavender’s death because “he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her” (O’Brien, 1994, p. 4). Hidden in this quote are two horrifying wartime characteristics at once, namely the applied inhumanity with which a soldier’s corpse is viewed as a storehouse of valuable materials and the compulsion to constantly choose between what the individual loves and duty to the homeland.

O’Brien also describes the technical problems associated with the constant transportation of combat equipment, including the 28-pounder, which puts pressure on the shoulders and back (p. 5). In other words, in addition to metaphysical stress, soldiers were regularly subjected to extreme physical strain affecting their condition. Particularly contrasting was the phrase about soldiers’ experiences during the war when O’Brien devoted one short sentence to a statement about their resilience as opposed to a lengthy description of the panic, anxiety, and despair with which soldiers were occasionally confronted (p. 10). For someone who has never been involved in a war, O’Brien’s account perfectly captures the atmosphere of severe mental and physical hardship and stress and conveys the idea that war is a total horror. For this reason, I agree with the above statement and find The Things They Carried a narrative that demonstrates the atrocities of war to an excellent degree.

Reference

O’Brien, T. (1994). The Things They Carried [PDF document].

The story starts innocently, informing the reader what the soldier got from Vietnam. Tim O’Brien’s narrative of his experience in Vietnam is a composite of many people’s stories. Death, life, joy, and harrowing situations are all part of his path. The Things They Carried is an extraordinarily comprehensive and graphic account of the Vietnam War that paints startlingly realistic imagery of the conflict. O’Brien describes each platoon member’s emblems, talismans, and totems for varied reasons. He also takes the audience through his friends’ numerous deep and diverse experiences and emotions. The Things They Carried title are literal and symbolic, implying that they carried physical goods and emotional luggage. Therefore, this paper aims to critically analyze Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried in a literary and figurative sense.

O’Brien describes some of the actual items they carried at the start of the book: This comprised anything from their girlfriend’s pantyhose to survival kit and weaponry like pistols and explosives. In their current circumstances, they utilize weapons to protect their physical bodies. Still, they also carried totems representing homes, such as comic books, the New Testament, and a rabbit’s foot, representing their past and hope for their future. Dysentery, malaria, rots, and molds were among the other factors linked to the location. Some troops packed supplies that might give them an advantage in war, while others carried comfort items such as wine and confectionery. The author mentions one soldier (Norman Bowker) who held a thumb but was “otherwise a gentle person.” This statement stood out because the author notes that he is gentle. The thumb appears to symbolize how many of the militaries have got estranged from their humanity.

The caption The Things They Carried was both literal and symbolic. Some troops brought items into Vietnam, while others gathered them. Kiowa, an indigenous soldier, brought “his grandmother’s suspicion of the white man” into the conflict. After being enlisted, O’Brien carries extreme anxiety into the fight. He describes his experience of running away before joining Vietnam. Still, he discovers himself via interactions with other individuals and concludes that serving is the right thing to do. All of the troops had a lot of emotional baggage and had been through a lot of suffering.

Besides, the fighters all had to perform awful things during the conflict and witness terrible things. The fighters had to witness their friends, the individuals they had grown to love and care about after going through this horrific experience with them, get shot and killed right in front of their eyes. The fighters had to bear the grief of losing their friends and the anxiety that they may be next: they had to carry their rage from being recruited into a war they did not want to fight in the first place, as well as profound homesickness. They had to bear the guilt of killing other people’s lives as well as the incapacity to grieve their grief adequately.

The scenes with the infant water buffalo and the dog are examples of this incapacity to absorb grief. The author presents two stories throughout the book, one of which is far more brutal and violent than the other. In the dog’s narrative, the dog got injured in a perverted effort at entertainment. This anecdote exemplified how troops grew to lose respect for life due to the frequency they witnessed death. One of the most upsetting stories was that of the infant water buffalo. It recounted the newborn buffalo’s prolonged, violent, and brutal demise, which not only displayed great sadness but also represented how their humanity was gradually getting eroded. The author expresses his view of death as beautiful, implying that the troops begin to lose value for life due to all of the killings they have witnessed and perpetrated.

In O’Brien’s narrative, war acts as a tremendous stabilizing agent. Cross and his soldiers are looking for Kiowa in the field, “The filth seemed to erase identities, transforming the men into identical copies of a single soldier, which was exactly how Jimmy Cross had been trained to treat them, as interchangeable units of command” (163). O’Brien describes the stories they brought as other anecdotes from home to keep them going and some tales they picked up along the route. They even made up stories to help them deal with and transport the dead, sometimes wholly fictitious. It was one of the methods the guys devised to help them process their sorrow and make sense of the tragedy all around them while also celebrating their camaraderie and forming a type of family. One unhealthy coping technique the guys discovered was modifying how they referred to the remains of their fallen unit mates. Instead of bodies, they get denoted as trash. It briefly alleviated the sorrow of knowing that the deceased corpse was only a few hours earlier battling by their side and a family member.

The author posited that males also had a subjective view of truth. According to the author, the truth of a war narrative is never as easy as someone stepping in and saving all of their colleagues; actual combat stories are considerably more nuanced. The author tells battle anecdotes from his point of view of what happened during his service in Vietnam. Rather than heroics, the stories focus on the compassion and honesty of the event. His point of view resulted in a less heroic image of war and a better awareness of the complexity that our military personnel face. Patrick A. Smith describes O’Brien’s arrival, “The air is soundless, the ghosts are missing, and the farmers who now tend the field go back to work after stealing a curious glance in his direction. The war is absent, except in O’Brien’s memory” (107). But, as O’Brien points out, memory trumps experience and haunts troops long after the gunfire has ceased.

Therefore, The Things They Carried is an extraordinarily comprehensive and graphic account of the Vietnam War that paints startlingly realistic imagery of the conflict. He pondered other options but finally chose to fight in Vietnam. The story is mainly about O’Brien’s experience during the war in Vietnam as he joined the war as a young man but left as a guilty older man. The Things They Carried included both tangible goods and complicated emotions. Death, wrath, sadness, sickness, grief, remorse, humiliation, fear, agony, and a slew of other emotions must be endearing to the man. They had to see the deaths of their friends and colleagues, and they even had to retrieve their remains to be taken home afterward. The author described the story from his point of view, telling the truth. Rather than praising their experiences, his approach humanized the reality of combat via both the literal and tangible items they carried.

Works Cited

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. 4th Estate, 2019.

Smith, Patrick A. Tim O’Brien: A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press, 2005.

Introduction

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is a collection of short stories about the experiences during the war in Vietnam. The book was first published in 1990. The structure of the book is somewhat disorganized, and there is no chronological order. However, the author manages to provide an excellent description of the tiniest details of the war realities. O’Brien shows the destroying impact of war practices through the use of symbolism. The characters in the book deal with many problems: they cope with the responsibility of killing, overcome the grief of losing friends, and learn to live without intimate relations and without seeing close people for a long time. Most of all, the book symbolizes the defenselessness of a person against the system, the absurdity of the war, and, at the same time, its inevitability. The first story in the collection has the same name as the book.

Introducing the Elements of Fiction Employed by the Author

O’Brien enumerates the possessions carried by each soldier in a way that allows the readers to penetrate their separate stories. Everyone has his reasons for carrying the things he does, and these reasons are dictated by various factors. Apart from symbolism, the author employs the leitmotif pattern throughout the story which puts a stronger emphasis on the ideas described. With the help of symbolic elements and the leitmotif, the author creates a vivid picture of the soldiers’ life.

The symbolism of the Story

In the story, the author portrays the inner nature of each of the characters via the symbolic features of the things carried by them. These things are physical as well as emotional, and the latter are at times much harder to carry than the former. The author depicts the characters’ perception of the world around them through symbolism.

Symbols of Physical Well-Being

The first group of things carried by the men is represented by physical things. These are the everyday weights that symbolize the opportunity to stay alive, to remain fed, warm and comfortable. Some of them carry things helping to cope with their problems, like Ted Lavender, who “carries tranquilizers” because he is frightened (O’Brien, p. 2). Others carry items that give them hope and encouragement, like Lieutenant Cross, who carries “letters from a girl named Martha” whom he is in love with (O’Brien, p. 1).

Emotional Burdens of the People

The second group of things that soldiers carry includes their emotional troubles. This group symbolizes the inside troubles of humankind, the internal problems which hinder people to live a full life. All of the soldiers “carry ghosts” (O’Brien, p. 9), they carry “all the emotional baggage of men who might die” (O’Brien, p. 20). Finally, the author emphasizes, they carry “their own lives” (O’Brien, p. 15). Lieutenant Jimmy Cross considers these things to be the heaviest – he says that “the things men” carry inside are “very sad” (O’Brien, p. 24).

Behavioral Symbols

The third symbolic meaning of soldiers’ carrying is the way of conduct. “For the most part” they carry themselves “with poise, a kind of dignity” (O’Brien, p. 18). Some carry themselves “with a sort of wistful resignation,” others – “with pride or stiff soldierly discipline of good humor or macho zeal” (O’Brien, p. 19). These examples symbolize the people’s determination to struggle for their rights and the equality of the world’s population.

Leitmotif as an Element of Plot Organization

The leitmotif features chosen by the author are aimed to unite many men’s various needs under some general notion. By the end of each pattern, however, O’Brien distinguishes peculiar features about each separate person. In the beginning, they carry things defined “by necessity” (O’Brien, p. 2) and “partly by the function of rank, partly a field specialty” (O’Brien, p. 5). Then, the author describes the items which the soldiers carry as “varied by the mission” (O’Brien, p. 8). The third time the leitmotif is applied, they carry the things “determined to some extent by superstition” (O’Brien, p. 12). Each of the times, the author begins by describing how different the things carried by the men are. However, then he moves to unite them all by some mutual mission, something common for everyone. Thus, the employment of leitmotif in the story helps the author to convey the idea that no matter how different people’s ranks or responsibilities of beliefs are, they still have something in common.

Conclusion

O’Brien’s story has an outstanding impression on the readers both on the side of soldiers and of those who have never gone to war. Although the author emphasizes that his book is fictional rather than documentary, the variety of symbolic elements drive the audience to perceive the pain and losses of the people who had to fight. The last time the word “carry” is mentioned in the story, it is connected neither with physical weight nor with psychological burdens. It is the suggestion to “Carry on” (O’Brien, p. 25). Lieutenant Cross decides that he will be more supportive of his men; he will forget his worries and will be a good leader for his fellow soldiers. The author’s perfect descriptive skills and his use of symbolism make it very easy for the readers to see the real picture of the war. O’Brien makes the audience sympathize with the soldiers’ everyday hardships, both mental and physical. The author leaves a question for the readers to answer: what things do they carry and why?

Work Cited

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Print.

Introduction

The Things They Carried is a fictional chef-d’oeuvre by Tim O’Brien, which catalogs among other things, the different things that soldiers carried to the Vietnam War. These soldiers carried emotional and physical burdens viz. guilt, fear, love, pocketknives, M-16 rifles among other things. O’Brien explores the theme of emotional burdens artistically and at some point, comically. Obrien notes, “They carried the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing-these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories…cowardice…they carried the soldier’s fear (20). Even though the things they carried were meant to help them fight the enemy, in the end, the intangible things (emotional burdens) turned out to fight the soldiers, killing them from within.

The things they carried

The emotional burdens as explored by O’Brien came in different forms and each soldier had a special burden that underscored his woes. The emotional burden of guilt surfaces immediately after the story starts. Jimmy Cross, a lieutenant enlisted to take care of the other soldiers is the victim of the guilt burden. Jimmy witnessed as a bullet broke open Lavender’s skull, an incident that plunged him into emotional turmoil. Given the fact that he was the one in charge of the other soldiers’ well-being, he felt he could have done something to prevent Lavender’s death. Unfortunately, he could do nothing at that point; Lavender was dead and gone for good. Jimmy became emotionally troubled because instead of concentrating on the security and well-being of fellow soldiers he could only think of Martha. Consequently, Lavender died due to his lack of concentration or so he thought. A person charged with the responsibility of taking care of his fellow soldiers should be focused to achieve his objective. Unfortunately, Jimmy could not live up to this duty and when Lavender died before his eyes, he realized how careless he had been in executing his duties. All these feelings culminated into guilt feelings, an emotional burden that he had to bear so long as the war continued. What a terrible emotional baggage for one to carry! To cover his guilt, Jimmy embarked on a journey to become the best lieutenant. However, for this to happen, he had to sacrifice some emotions like love for Martha, his college crush. The issue of Jimmy’s love for Martha ushers in the next emotional burden viz. love.

Cross sincerely loved Martha and no matter how hard he tried to subdue these feelings, they resurfaced with time. This emotional burden weighed so heavily on him that at times he lost focus on the war. O’Brien observes, “He loved her so much…though painful, he wondered who had been with her that afternoon” (8). Time and space stood between Jimmy and the love of her life. If only he could roll time back, he would spend some quality time by her side. Unfortunately, these were only fantasies and as the adage asserts, fantasy never mimics reality. The death of Lavender unveiled this truth to Jimmy and he had to shed this emotional baggage at whatever cost. Though painful, Jimmy decided to forget Martha completely, and focus on the war. As a way of tearing down this emotional baggage, he resolved to burn all love letters, photographs, and anything else that reminded him of Martha. Forgetting a lover is not an easy task, it takes more than a willing heart, it takes absolute resolve and this comes with its emotional upheavals. Emotionally, Cross was a torn person, full of sorrows and heavy laden with emotional burdens. To release his feelings, he could only cry throughout the night under the cover of the darkness. Just like any other person, soldiers have emotions; they crave for love, acceptance, and warmth. Regrettably, war robs them of these elemental things in a human’s life. O’Brien deliberately explores Jimmy’s case to show the emotional burdens that the soldiers brought along together with the things they carried (Kaplan 63). Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is not alone in this predicament, as aforementioned, every soldier had his fair share of emotional baggage, as shown by the few soldiers O’Brien chose to use in The Things They Carried.

Family ties are usually very strong and separating someone from his/her family amounts to emotional torture; something that the soldiers had to live with. For instance, Kiowa, “…carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father…” (O’Brien 3). Nothing could remind Kiowa of his dad like that treasured bible; every time he saw the bible, he would remember his beloved father. Apart from this, Kiowa carried the memories of his grandfather by preserving that ‘old hunting tomahawk.’ Even though physically burdened by things like the M-16 rifle, these treasured assortments carried memories of Kiowa’s family, memories of his almost lost family, something that burdened him emotionally. Henry Dobbins on his part carried a pair of pantyhose and he would poke his noses into the paper containing the panties from time to time. Not that Henry Dobbins loved his girlfriend’s panties; no, he missed her and this burdened him emotionally. Regrettably, the closest he would come to his girlfriend was through feeling the smell of her panties, a pathetic way to find warmth and love. Apart from emotions of love and loneliness, fear was part of these soldiers.

On the battlefield, anyone could die and this inevitable fact burdened the soldiers emotionally. Just like Lavender and others who died in the course of the war, anybody else would die at any time and this uncertainty amounted to emotional torture. O’Brien posits, “Imagination was a killer” (10), to emphasize the burden of fear that these soldiers carried around. The imagination of being the next victim to die emotionally burdened these soldiers. To cope with these torturing emotions, they had to dehumanize every human trait in them. Unfortunately, psychologically they became changed forever. O’Brien concludes, “you start clean and you get dirty and then afterward it is never the same” (114). Even to date, the majority of the surviving soldiers have exhibited some psychological disorders at one point in their lives. The psychological rip off that these soldiers underwent narrows down to emotional baggage; baggage, which they knew not, the day of its relief.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the soldiers that went to the Vietnam War carried burdens that were more than the physical burdens; they carried emotional burdens of memories of their families coupled with the fear of not knowing when death would strike. For sure, the intangible things that they carried had real weight, to some extent, heavier than the physical burdens. Jimmy Cross carried the guilt of letting Lavender die while engrossed in thoughts of his ever-elusive lover, Martha. Kiowa carried the emotional burden of his father and grandfather and the possibility of not seeing them once again weighed heavily on him. Collectively, these soldiers experienced different forms of emotional torture, which boiled down to emotional burdens as O’Brien explores in his fictional masterpiece, The Things They Carried.

Works Cited

Kaplan, Steven. Understanding Tim O’Brien. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. Print.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.

The Proposal

Specific area

This research work will focus on the effect of war on soldiers, as presented in Tim O’Brien’s book, ”The Things They Carried’. The book talks about what it takes to be a soldier and how the soldiers are affected when they go to war (O’Brien 56). In some of the cases, they may face their death trying to fight for the society. In this research, the focus will be to determine how being a soldier shapes one’s sense of self. According to Heberle (71), it takes a lot to be a successful soldier with the right mental strength when going to war. In order to be able to address this topic properly, the researcher will use a number of questions that would lead to the desired results.

Questions you will want to pursue

It is important to work with some specific questions that would help in the generation of the desired results. These questions would help in the process of gathering relevant data that will be used in collecting the relevant information. In this research, the following questions will be used.

What is the effect of war on the soldier?

How does being a soldier shape one’s sense of self?

Responding to the above two questions would help in finding answers to the research topic. They would help the researcher to determine the effect of war on soldiers as presented in the works of Tim O’Brien and other related literal works.

Challenges

When addressing this research paper, a number of challenges are expected that may affect the overall quality of the paper. It is important to understand these challenges in order to find a way of addressing then. A common challenge expected is the conflicting information presented by some of the scholars. It is common to find a situation where the information in one source contradicts information in another source. Knowing the truth in such circumstance may be a challenge. Sometimes finding all the relevant sources may also be a challenge. To address these problems, the researcher intends to make an effort to collect as much information from various sources as possible.

The Final Paper

Introduction

The book ”The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien is a memory of a soldier who participated in the Vietnam War. It is a reflection of what transpires in the life of a soldier as he or she engages the enemies in combat for the sake of his or her country. O’Brien recounts the events that took place while they were in the battlefields. He also recalls the feelings of the soldiers while they are in the field fighting for their nation. The book gives a true reflection of the effect of war on soldiers from the perspective of a soldier who directly participated in a war to defend his country.

How being a soldier shape one’s sense of self

According to O’Brien, being a soldier means a lot because, in its very own nature, one is not allowed to make an independent decision. He went to fight in Vietnam, but he never believed in the war itself. The problem with being a soldier is that one cannot make independent decisions and act upon them. Soldiers are trained to take orders, even when the order goes against one’s wish. In this manner, this profession shapes one’s sense of self from being an independent-minded person to being like a machine that is controlled by the commanders. They learn to take instructions without questioning and to act upon them as expected.

Patriotism

A soldier is expected to be patriotic to his or her country. This means that he or she should be ready to sacrifice self for the sake of the country. They should be willing to engage in wars- even if they do not believe in them- for the sake of protecting the interests of their country (O’Brien 83). O’Brien did not believe in the Vietnam War, but given that the military leaders of his country believed in the war, he had to participate in it. At one moment he even considered escaping to Canada, but his patriotism forced him to stay at war. This is the response that any soldier should not consider escaping from.

Political purpose

As a soldier, one is not allowed to express his or her political affiliation while at work. Soldiers are expected to serve their country irrespective of the political leadership in the country. Sometimes they may be forced to engage in wars that serve a political purpose. However, they must always follow the orders given by the country’s political leader who is their commander-in-chief. Heberle (56) emphasizes on the fact that sometimes a soldier may be forced to go to the battlefield to fight for a political course that they do not believe in. They are not expected to disregard any command as long as they are serving in the military.

Military structure

The military structure has a massive effect on the life of a soldier. According to O’Brien (74), in the military, there are ranks, and in each rank, there are responsibilities one is expected of. This means that at one moment, one would be forced to receive orders and issue them to junior officers or execute them as may be necessary. This makes it very difficult for an individual to lead normal lives. This is so because the military structure has instilled in them the art of working with orders. When they are not receiving orders, then they issue it to people, they consider inferior to them. This affects their normal life, including the way in which they handle their family affairs.

Violence

The normal life of a soldier, especially those who have gone to war in volatile regions such as the Vietnam region during the Vietnam War, is characterized by violence. They witness people killing others, or they participate in the killings. They see their friends die at war in violent attacks from the enemy. They would also organize and execute violent retaliatory attacks on the enemy camps that would lead to massive loss of lives of serious injuries. Sometimes the casualties would be the innocent civilians who were not participating in the war.

This would become so common to them that they would consider violence a common thing in society. Although most of the soldiers have successfully managed to restrain from engaging in violent acts when provoked outside the battlefields, some have committed violent offenses against their friends, family members, and other members of the society because of various reasons. According to Dollar (98), the violent acts that sometimes soldiers engage in would haunt them, making them very violent even when the violence is undesirable.

The physical conditions of being a soldier

The physical condition of being a soldier also makes one become unique from other members of society. Only a small fraction of the society members engage in physical exercise on a regular basis. However, soldiers engage in daily physical exercise that makes their physical body fit. What makes them unique from other normal gym-goers is that soldiers are sometimes forced to spend several days or even weeks in the bush, deserts, or other hostile locations all over the world. They have to endure such gruesome conditions, making them physically unique from other members of society. As a soldier, they have no option but to physically adapt to such condition for the sake of one’s country.

One’s relationship with the community one “defends” in war

The constant war that one has to fight for his or her country makes him, or she develop a unique relationship with the community he or she defends in the war. Unlike a civilian who would want to look at other members of the society in terms of their political affiliations, religious beliefs, ethnic origin or any other demographical factors, a soldier is always expected to view all the citizen of his or her country as important people worth protecting. The constant reminder that every member of the society is important and the fact that they spend long hours in the field fighting for their rights creates a close relationship between a soldier and his community. He or she develops a feeling that he has the responsibility to protect everyone.

Works Cited

Dollar, Kent. Soldiers of the Cross: Confederate Soldier-Christians and the Impact of War on Their Faith. Macon, Ga: Mercer Univ. Press, 2005. Print.

Heberle, Mark. A Trauma Artist: Tim O’brien and the Fiction of Vietnam. Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2001. Print.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.

O’Brien created one of the best novels about the Vietnam War. He was able to delight readers with his writing skills and his ability to draw from his experience. He was not an ordinary commentator. He was one of the soldiers sent into the fray, but due to his sense of duty, he managed to earn a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star during his stint in the said Vietnam War. He infused truth and authenticity in his work. However, no one will hire him to develop a movie or video game, because he will insist that film producers and video game creators should adhere to the same standard.

The Author’s Skill and Appeal to Readers

One of the best explanations of the impact and significance of O’Brien’s The Things They Carried was penned by a fellow writer who interviewed him in 1979. He said that O’Brien’s writing was a “high wire act synthesizing descriptive prose and dreamlike, surreal flights of fancy, images arising from the author’s fragmented recollection of Vietnam and the schizophrenic chaos of the battlefield, simultaneously raucous and impossibly isolated” (Smith 9). O’Brien had the ability to describe the Vietnam War in a different light.

O’Brien’s skill enabled him to draw his readers into a new world. The Vietnam War is a well examined subject matter. Nevertheless, O’Brien’s masterful treatment of the topic made readers appreciate the soldier’s point of view when it comes to the challenges they faced in the battlefield. O’Brien made his work accessible through astute storytelling. Most writers focus on the political or historical implications of the conflict. Others chose to discuss the blood and gore of the infamous war. O’Brien chose to talk about human emotions. Moreover, O’Brien did not take his readers for granted, and he wrote something for their mind and soul.

One of the most entertaining styles of writing is demonstrated in the author’s ability to blend the different elements of prose and poetry. Consider the following lines from the book “Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. But he was not there. He was buried with Martha under the white sand at the Jersey shore. They were pressed together, and the pebble in his mouth was her tongue” (O’Brien 11). Skill played a major part in his ability to write profound stories. However, it must be made clear that his experience in Vietnam gave him the material to write in a unique way. A soldier named McCaffery revealed that O’Brien spent one year in Vietnam, and in that short period of time, the author was awarded a Purple Heart when he took shrapnel from a grenade, and he also earned a Bronze Star after rescuing a pinned down soldier in a firefight (Smith 8).

O’Brien’s Opinion

O’Brien’s response to the task of creating a movie, video game, or work of literature depicting the Vietnam War is to develop the project along the lines of integrity and authenticity. In the case of creating a movie or TV show, the author will insist on authenticity in different levels of the media production. O’Brien remembered the details of the war. He did not describe the conflict using broad strokes and generalizations. He remembered minute details, even the exact weight of the items they carried. More importantly, he remembered what he was thinking and what his fellow soldiers felt when they marched through the malaria-infested valleys and booby-trapped rice fields.

He will insist on authenticity, and in the case of video games, he will design it with realism in mind. In OBrien’s video game, soldiers will drop like a log when a bullet hits them. The storylines and the dialogue will mimic the conversations soldiers had in his book. They will joke about their ordeal, but when pinned down under heavy enemy fire, they will cry out to God and their mothers. In other words, no one will probably finance a video game designed by O’Brien.

Truth versus Authentic

There is a certain value attached to a work of art or a commercial product if it carries the label of authenticity. Hollywood producers are mindful of this label. The same thing can be said of video game creators and novelists. However, authenticity carries a heavy price tag. It is not practical to shoot a movie wherein the main character wanders aimlessly through jungle trails without uttering a single word. In a real war, soldiers creep in silently under bushes and barbed wire. However, this is not a good idea. Works of art and commercial products, like films and video games require a return on investment.

Conclusion

O’Brien’s literary work was a major achievement in terms of popularity and quality of output. A significant contributor to his success was his ability to authenticate his work through the use of terms accessible only to real soldiers with real combat experience. Nevertheless, the standard he used to develop an authentic retelling of the Vietnam War is not a practical strategy to emulate in the context of Hollywood films and best-selling video games. Works of fiction, films, and video games require theatrics, cinematic effects, and plenty of exaggeration to increase its market value. Thus, no one from Hollywood or the video game industry will find it prudent to hire O’Brien if he will insist on being authentic on all levels of the production process.

Works Cited

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Publishing, 1990. Print.

Smith, Patrick. Conversations with Tim O’Brien. MI: The University Press of Mississippi, 2013. Print.

Tim O’Brien’s collection of short stories “The Things They Carried” is often being referred to as such that contains a strong anti-war message. However, we can only agree with such point of view to a certain extent, because author does not describe the concept of war as being wicked in its essence, but rather as something that helps people affected by it to realize their true selves. During the time of war, the artificial notions of Christian morality that are being instilled into soldiers, when they were growing up, loose their value, within a matter of an instant.

This appears to be the main motif of O’Brien’s book and it is readers’ existential mode that prompts them to look at “The Things They Carried” as literary piece that promotes an anti-war sentiment or as something, which actually glorifies violence, as an essential component of manhood. In his book, O’Briens does describe the horrors of war, but it cannot escape our attention that he only discuses these horrors within a context of how civilian population is being affected by hostilities.

The sight of soldiers executing their duties at the frontline does not appear as utterly unnatural to the author. For example, when Ted Lavender gets shot in the head, while being high as a kite from smoking marijuana, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross refers to this incident as being beneficial to Lavender, because it did rid him of his drug addiction once and for all. This shows that, despite the fact that “The Things They Carried” cannot be discussed as truly autobiographical account of one’s war experiences, author does know how it feels dealing with the prospect of being shot on daily basis. At the frontline, the value of individual’s life is being adjusted to its actual worth.

The classical anti-war novels and movies portray soldier’s death in terms of universal tragedy, because the pacifism, as ideology, has its roots in Liberalism, which sanctifies one’s life as something that has value in itself. O’Brien’s book, on the other had, does not promote such philosophy.

While reading “The Things They Carried”, we get to look at soldier’s death in the line of duty as something quite natural. It is only when we get to read about civilians being tortured and killed, which strikes us as something truly horrible. This is because, during the time of war, civilians become war’s objects, whereas soldiers remain war’s subjects – they give and accept death as part of their work. O’Brien seems to be well aware of this fact, which is why “The Things They Carried” can be referred to as anything but pacifist in its essence.

As it is being revealed in the book, the only reason why O’Brien decided not to escape to Canada, in order to avoid draft, is that he realized that, had he acted otherwise, he would have to be dealing with the feeling of guilt for the rest of his life. Apparently, author was perfectly aware that there could be no justification for man’s cowardly behavior, regardless of circumstances.

Even though he thought of Vietnam War as such that did not make any sense, O’Brien did not consider it being a good excuse for acting like a lowly coward. Even though that author does not say it openly in his book, it appears that he considers his time in Vietnam as the most meaningful part of his life, because it was in Vietnam, where he learnt how to appreciate life’s precious moments. It is only while walking on the thin edge between life and death that one gets to experience the full spectrum of existential emotions.

According to O’Brien’s book, those soldiers that were afraid of loosing their lives more then others were the ones to be killed first. Such observation does correspond to the objective reality. It also entitles military valor with rational properties. This is the reason why we cannot talk about “The Things They Carried” as book that promotes cowardice, which is the most important feature of what we refer to as anti-war literature.

O’Brien describes war as ugly business, but he is far from suggesting that one’s willingness to avoid serving its country at any cost represents a highly moral deed, unlike those Liberals who consider themselves being fully qualified of discussing “war horrors”, despite the fact that they have never been at the frontline in the first place. Thus, we cannot say that “The Things They Carried” as the classical example of anti-war literature, because it clearly lacks pacifist pathos.

Bibliography

O’Brien, Tim “The Things They Carried”. New York: Broadway Publishing, 1998.