Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried" is a short story that explores the experiences of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The story depicts the physical and emotional weight that soldiers carry with them during the war, highlighting the challenges that soldiers face both on and off the battlefield. Through the items that the soldiers carry with them, the story reveals the emotional and physical burdens of war and the masking of emotions because of masculine identity. The story begins with a list of items that the soldiers carry with them, ranging from physical items such as guns and ammunition to intangible items such as fear and guilt. The list serves to highlight the weight that soldiers carry with them, both physically and emotionally, …show more content…
Masculine Identity is seen as a way men should act. How men should be seen as these emotionless machines, that are supposed to be strong in every situation. The soldiers in the story are all men, and the culture of the military places a significant emphasis on masculinity and toughness. The items that the soldiers carry with them become symbolic of their masculine identity, and the weight that they carry becomes a measure of their strength and resilience. For example, Lt. Cross carries letters from a girl back home, He holds them tight, and as the author states, “imagine romantic camping trips in the White Mountains in New Hampshire” (O’Brien 1157). The letter symbolizes his longing for love and connection during the war. Ted Lavender carries tranquilizers to deal with his anxiety, revealing the soldiers' fear and psychological trauma. Ted seemed to be scared due to the author stating” Ted Lavender, who was scared” (O’Brien 1157). The needles helped deal with his anxiety as well as others. Norman Bowker carries a thumb he cut off a dead Viet Cong (O’Brien 1163), which symbolizes his desire for validation and recognition in the eyes of his fellow soldiers. By carrying the thumb, Norman Bowker wants to show this emotionless persona that everyone else is trying to show as well. The soldiers' items show that even in the most extreme and violent circumstances, men are still human beings with complex emotional lives …show more content…
The hat is a symbol of Kiowa’s desire to survive and make it home alive. The fact that Kiowa carries the hat with him always suggests that he is struggling to hold onto his sense of identity and purpose in the face of the chaos and uncertainty of war. The hat becomes a symbol of the soldiers’ desire to survive and make it back home, and the toll that war takes on their sense of self. The character of Kiowa is also portrayed as a kind and sensitive man who is deeply affected by the horrors of war. However, he feels pressure to conform to the masculine norms of his peers, and ultimately, he is killed while trying to retrieve his Bible from a muddy river. This scene highlights the conflict between vulnerability and strength that underlies the soldiers'
“But Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than 20 pounds of ammunition. . . and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus the unweighed fear” highlights the necessities men could’ve used to ease their fear of dying (12-13). Lavender carried tranquillizers to help calm himself, and extra ammunition to comfort him when he got too scared at times. Although Lavender is just one man, each soldier carried different items to help them cope with the fear. That fear drove men not only fight because it was their duty, but to also keep themselves alive.
Emotions are a part of human nature, no matter what position you hold, however the situation in which soldiers are placed into is vastly different. Although it is expected that they put on a toughened facade, naturally fear will still attempt to creep and take over. O’Brien uses the physical items to symbolize the intangible emotional baggage that is carried with the men at war. For example, Lavender, who has fear instilled in him and does no job in hiding it, carries tranquilizers and extra protection. Other soldiers, like Cross, have items which bring them comfort in knowing that war will not last forever.
The story “The things they carried” is a touching story that depicts the emotional and physical baggage they carried. Each Man carried something according to their size and rank, but all carried the feeling of fear of what is to come as well as love. In the story “The things they carried” by Tim O’Brien, it illustrates the experiences of soldiers at war in Vietnam. Tim first describes the feelings and movements of Lt Jimmy Cross and his thoughts about a lady named Martha, whether she is a virgin or not.
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried explores the experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam War, along with their thoughts and memories. Though the events that take place could be exaggerated or completely made up, the thoughts and feelings of the characters still shine through and feel very real. The stories use a grim and uncontrollable atmosphere juxtaposed with the normality of human action that works to suggest war is above common morality yet defends the humanity of the soldiers who fight it. O'Brien begins his novel by listing the various items soldiers would carry to emphasize the literal weight on their shoulders, helping the reader see the humanity in these fighters. He uses the numerical poundage, which gives an understanding of how
In the novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, the author describes a platoon marching through Vietnam at the time of the Vietnamese War. He does so by describing in detail the items that each of the men carry with them during their march. The things that the soldiers carry with them are not only tangible but intangible items as well, and what these things are depend fully upon each individual soldier. They carry Military Payment Certificates, the basic "necessities" for survival along with the bare minimum to make life as livable as possible during the time of war. The men decided on the items they wished to carry with them depending completely on their habits and rate of metabolism.
Lavender is used as a symbol for the fears and anxieties that the Vietnam soldiers went through and the sacrifices that they made for their sanity. Unfortunately, Lavender's coping strategy which is revealed to become an addiction ultimately fails him because he is shot to death. His passing serves as a warning that coping techniques will not be able to keep you from the thing you are trying to avoid. Norman Bowker battles with the trauma of his Vietnam War experiences. When Bowker returns home, the memories of his friend Kiowa's passing plague him, making him feel cut off from everyday life.
O’Brien lists the items the soldiers are carrying, such as "matches, C-rations, malaria tablets, and two or three grenades. " These descriptions create a sense of realism and specificity, as well as emphasize the weight and burden of the soldiers' physical possessions. The soldiers are described as carrying their emotions with them at all times, even when they are not actively participating in the conflict. Yet, the emphasis on these tangible goods also helps to underline the weight of the soldiers' emotional baggage, which is intangible but no less substantial. For example, the line "They were afraid of dying
Some may let their grief, trauma and anger show clearly on their face. Others let it fester in their heads. In the “things they carried” the men turn to violence as a reaction to the traumatic events taking place. During the war, the soldiers are surrounded by violence and it becomes a part of their daily lives. Thus, allowing violent acts to seem like an ordinary reaction to shock and stress.
Things They Carried Analysis draft In the short story “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’brien uses the literary element of symbolism to portray how people carry different items to represent certain things, and to represent the harsh realities of war and life. He also uses symbolism to show how people become attached to items, and how they take on deeper meanings in times of stress. The story takes place during the Vietnam war, and O’Brien talks about an army detail, and the different things that they carried. This story is a great example of the use of symbolism to represent many different things at once.
Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person, marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of repetition, symbolism, and metaphors to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers during war. Though the literary device of repetition, O'Brien portrays the physical and psychological hardships of a soldier.
In Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried”, in which he speaks of a man referred to as “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross”, who is struggling in balancing his obsession with a woman named Martha back in New Jersey and handling his duties within his platoon in Vietnam. His love for her intrudes on the love he has for his men, after he is daydreaming about Martha he loses his awareness of his surroundings and one of his men, who is named Lavender, gets killed. In coping with this death it is explained that the reason soldiers deal with these “intangibles” such as death, love, and fear is all due the idea that, “they were too frightened to be cowards.” (O’Brien, 1990, p. 24). For it is not by courage that these men are being pushed but, by the sheer fact that they do not want to be seen as cowardice amongst the men they stand by.
O’brien writes about the things these soldiers carried from intangible items/memories to tangible items or people. They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing - these were intangible, but the intangible haf their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories.
Of the roughly 1.5 million soldiers who experienced combat in Vietnam, 810,000 returned from the war with PTSD, never to be the same. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a fictional story of a platoon’s journey in Vietnam. The story is centered around the physical burdens they must carry as part of their duty, but also the emotional weight of traumatic events they must shoulder. The story takes place at an unspecified time in Vietnam. It travels between Lieutenant Cross’s infatuation with a girl at home, the death of Ted Lavender, and lists of what the men carried at war; they include weapons, war supplies, provisions, and emotional burdens.
“It was very sad, he thought… The things men did or felt they had to do” (O’Brien 480). In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien (a Vietnam War veteran) details the experience of soldiers during the Vietnam War. As implied in the title, the story describes the many things soldiers carried physically. In addition, O’Brien shares the many thoughts and burdens the soldiers carried mentally during their time on the battlefield in Vietnam.
The author was writing the story “The Things They Carried” expressed so many thoughts and feelings about what the soldiers had faced, they showed their feelings and duties, life or death, and overall fear and dedication. This story shows the theme of the physical and emotional burdens that everyone is going through in the war. By showing his readers what the soldier’s daily thoughts are and how they handle what is going on around them. Tim O’Brien expresses this theme by using characterization, symbolism, and tone continuously. In the story, physical and emotional burdens plagued several characters as they all had baggage weighing them down.