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Summary Of The Thing They Carry By Tim O Brien

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In the novel The Thing They Carry the book it depicts the many issues a person faces going to the war and problems they face during the war. At the beginning of the book we are introduced to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and a girl named Martha back home whom writes to him. These letters and one-sided love blinded the Lieutenant which resulted in the death of one of his men. He had the responsibility of keeping his men safe and making sure they were gonna get out of the war alive. However, his feeling towards Martha got the best of him which got Ted Lavender killed. As the men carried the decrepit corpse of Lavender to a secure area waiting for extraction, the narrator stated, “Lieutenant Cross felt the pain. He blamed himself.” (O’Brien, 6) Lieutenant …show more content…

For instances, when O’Brien had worked in the slaughter house over the summer, it had foreshadowed the things he’d see abroad, the blood, guts, and gore. As depicted by Tim O’Brien, “It was not pleasant work. Goggles were a necessity, and a rubber apron, but even so it was like standing for eight hours a day under lukewarm blood shower.” (O’Brien, 43) In the perspective of war, one would say it was a necessity to carry a rifle for protection and wear a helmet to keep themselves safe, and a blood shower. As said by George S. Patton, “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” War is never pleasant, but becomes necessary if the freedom and independence of the country is in danger. In the final chapter, The Lives of the Dead, we learn about death and how the platoon of men handled it when someone had died. The men welcomed death and toasted to those that have left us, and kept the dead alive those stories. When Ted Lavender had died O’Brien stated, “When Ted Lavender was shot in the head, the men talked about how they’d never seen him so mellow, how tranquil he was, how it wasn’t the bullet but tranquilizers that blew his mind.”(O’Brien, 239) The same can be said about Linda, the girl whom died at a young age due to an illness. Although dead in reality through

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