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Emotional Burdens In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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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. Throughout the story Tim O’Brien uses characterization to bring out the theme of physical and emotional …show more content…

Characterization plays a big role capturing the theme due to the sacrifice from the soldiers. Symbolism shows how much of an emotional burden was the loss of fellow soldiers and the love the left back home. Tone expresses the buried feelings that have been kept within the soldier’s minds. When he uses these three elements he helped his readers see a deeper meaning. To see his reader not only look at a bigger picture but to really understand what the soldiers had to face day in and day out. When the author expresses the feelings within Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s troops we see their individual personalities. When the author used characterization, symbolism, and tone, they truly brought out the theme of physical and emotional burdens throughout “The Things They …show more content…

He accepted the blame of Ted Lavender’s death because he was more focused on Martha than he was about his troops. Wesley states that while Jimmy Cross accepts the blame he thinks this will make it all better by accepting heroic responsibility. This relieved the stress upon Cross and made him feel as if he was even more of a leader and not a coward. When Ted Lavender died they treated it as if it was nothing but a daily routine. They rolled him up in his poncho and took him to the patty and waited for the chopper to arrive and take Ted Lavender back to America. After the fact, they were constantly talking about how Ted fell to the ground. “Boom Down” is all they would say. Forcing the memory to repeat inside of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s

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