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Deaths Of War In All The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Deaths of War

No one ever thinks about what a soldier goes through when they lose someone from their platoon during a war. The emotional and physical burden a death brings, as shown in All the Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, can bring out the guilt and fear in a young man, who was thrown into a war.
The first death witnessed in Tim O’Briens platoon was Ted Lavender. This was when the war started to feel real for everyone, including Lt. Cross: “Lieutenant Cross found himself trembling. He tried not to cry….. He felt shame. He hated himself” (O’Brien 16). Lieutenant Cross was never properly trained, resulting in an inadequate leader. Lavender's death didn’t result in only pain and suffering, it was also inspiring: “He was now determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence… He would be careful to end flank security…. He would accept the blame for what happened to Ted Lavender” (O’Brien 24). As painful as Lavender's death …show more content…

Lavender's death may have been the realization everyone needed, but Kiowa’s death had the most effect on everyone: “Kiowa was gone. He was under the mud and water, folded in with the war, and their only thought was to find him and dig him out, then move on to somewhere warm and dry” (O’Brien 109). Kiowa meant so much to his platoon that they stopped fighting the war temporarily to find their friend, and give him the proper burial he deserved, after they overcame the guilt and responsibility for Kiowa’s death. The toll of Kiowa’s death affected everyone, but affected O’Brien most. “In a way, maybe, I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d mostly worked my way out (O’Brien 178). Kiowa was O’Brien’s closest friend in Vietnam, making his death extremely difficult, and guilt ridden; 20 years later, O’Brien finally forgives himself and accepts the ending. Death is never serene, and it will never get any easier, but grief can, and

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In this chapter, Lieutenant Cross shows deep grief over what happened to Ted Lavender. Cross was distracted that day, wondering whether Martha was a virgin or not. As the soldiers waited for the helicopter to carry Lavender's body away, they smoked his marijuana and told jokes, and because he carried tranquilizers they said he was probably too high to feel pain when he was shot. The methods of dealing with their grief were substance abuse, and joking around just to make it all seem like it was not real. Cross doesn’t participate in any of this, as he feels too guilty to mourn in this way.

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This is made clearer when Jimmy Cross blames himself for Ted Lavender's death, as O’Brien explains, “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (16). Jimmy’s decision to place the tragedy upon himself shows how quick soldiers try to resolve traumatic experiences, subconsciously setting themselves up to rot with the emotional burdens they create. Moreover, O’Briens simile instantiates the emotional vulnerability of soldiers which distinctly outweighs the horrors of war by creating endless stress and

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Even after two decades O’Brian still suffers and explains, “I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d finally worked my way out (O’Brien 125). He means what when Kiowa died he “went under” with him. It felt comparable as if he died and drowned along with Kiowa and was merely revived when he went back to the field, then the burden was finally lifted. He then didn’t feel the guilt of it being his fault. Just as O’Brian suffered, many others did.

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Throughout the text, Cross “could not stop thinking about [Martha]” (p. 116), unable to concentrate on the war or the men he is charged with leading. Consequently, Cross’ distraction and inadequate leadership result in Lavender’s death. Cross finds himself accountable because “he loved [Martha] more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her” (p.

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When faced with a choice between his own life and Kiowa's, he chose to save himself. It is his lack of courage that leads to Kiowa's death; yet, even though he watches his friend sink into the "cesspool," he tries to save him - but the end is inevitable. War seems to force responsibility and guilt for the deaths of friends and enemies alike. Soldiers returning home from the war carry this guilt with them, making them feel like outsiders in their past lives. After being cut off from the outside world, Bowker "drove along a seven-mile stretch of tarmac around the lake, and then he started over, driving slowly" (O'Brien).

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Death is an inevitable part of the life cycle. To bring those who are gone back to life, people must recreate their memories with the deceased through storytelling. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien shows that when someone experiences a loss, by telling stories of the lost one it will keep them alive through the mind and help one cope with them being gone. In the first chapter, The Things They Carried, O’Brien demonstrates the theme of telling stories to cope with death by how the platoon members talk about Ted Lavender’s death, “Like cement, Kiowa whispered in the dark.

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Lavender “went to heavy on tranquilizers” (O'Brien 31) to help him deal with the fear and uncertainty of combat. He is described as being "scared" and "nervous" throughout the book, and his drug use is a way for him to escape the reality of the war (O'Brien 31). However, Lavender's coping mechanism ultimately fails him, as he is killed while under the influence of drugs. His death serves as a reminder of a reminder that sometimes your coping mechanisms will not save you from the thing you are running

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The quote “He was alone” (O’Brien 143) emphasizes the isolation and loneliness that Norman Bowker felt after reminiscing about Kiowa’s death. The sense of loneliness that Norman Bowker feels is even more upsetting when taking his age into account. The reason his age plays such a big role is because he is still very young he should be trying to move on and start a new life after the war but because it has left him with so much trauma he is not able to, this time in his life is supposed to be one that is about developing one’s sense of self and relationships with others, but he is not able to move on due to the guilt that he feels towards Kiowa’s death. This guilt leads him to take his own life because he does not know how to cope with the loss of his friend and fellow soldier. Some may argue that the age of the soldiers played no role in affecting their mental health and how they handled the war because everyone experiences the same thing.

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He had to stay focused and not allow any further deaths in his platoon. Soldier Lavender’s death was the wake-up call that Cross needed in order to command his troops. Unfortunately, for the soldiers in the platoon they - “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing—these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” (O’Brien 14)

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