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Emotional Burdens In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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“The Things They Carried”
"The Things They Carried" is a short story collection which was written by Tim O’Brien. The story is about American soldiers who were fighting in the Vietnam War and the experiences they encountered on the battlefield. The novel carries main themes such as struggle, sacrifice, self pity, and also interpersonal battles that not only affected, but also tested the patience of the soldiers at war. Tim O'Brien has brought up these events in his style of writing in a language that is so descriptive, it makes the reader feel as though he or she was there. The active theme of physical and emotional burdens is a main idea that resonates throughout the story. This story gives the reader an idea of the kinds of things soldiers …show more content…

It is also seen that Martha was a volleyball player through the photographs and that they had only gone on one date where they had a chance to watch a movie "Bonnie and Clyde." Through the scene we see Cross touch Martha's knee at the movie, in response, Martha looks at Jimmy, and instead of embracing the hand, she pulls it back and refuses him to touch her. The burden continues when we realize Jimmy wishing while in Vietnam, that he had carried Martha up the stairs, put her on the bed and at the same time get a chance to touch her knee throughout the night (p.2). However, he feels scared to imagine that the feeling and affection might never be realized …show more content…

The main concerns of Bates include the fact that the author misinterprets the meaning of courage and therefore the attempt to achieve its results in the attainment of frivolous objectives. Tim O'Brien presents an instance of a shooting where Lavender makes Cross issue an order and leads the team back to Than Khe, where they burned everything and also shot the chicken and dogs. Meanwhile, as the team meditates the shooting of their colleague, the author introduces a dialogue between Kiowa and Norman discussing the gap between life and death and how easy it is to die. Kiowa meditates how easy Lavender died since he fell so quickly and, in a few minutes, before he was zipping his pants as was coming from the bathroom. The next morning after the death of Lavender, the audience is introduced to Cross who regrets his actions that led to his colleague’s death. The author expresses mild courage in the American soldiers who ought to be stronger and

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“The things they carried were largely determined by necessity” (O’Brien 102). The weight of war is a theme strongly represented in Tim O’Brien’s story, The Things They Carried. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross starts off with no desire to be in a leadership position, because of his immaturity, his love for Martha, and inability to handle the responsibilities of lieutenant many of his men die. “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” (O’Brien 107). The soldiers carried many burdens, they carried: diseases, good luck charms, pencils, intangibles, memories, fear, responsibility, and on top of all this they carried

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This shows that they did not care for the death of that man. Also, everyone had mixed feelings about the death of one of their own, Ted Lavender. Kiowa really did not know what to feel when he discovered about Lavender’s death. For example, the story mentions, “He wished he could find some great sadness, or even anger, but the emotion wasn’t there and he couldn’t make it happen” (O’Brien 306).

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Jimmy is living in a fantasy world he has created in his mind where Martha is in love with him while she is in the real world at college preoccupied with her studies. Jimmy Cross burns Martha’s letters to reach closure and burn away his past self. In paragraphs 82 -84 O’Brien writes, “On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha's letters. Then he burned the two photographs. There was a steady rain falling, which made it difficult, but he used heat tabs and Sterno to build a small fire, screening it with his body, holding the photographs over the tight blue flame

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Cross blames himself, knowing “He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead…” (p. 121). First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is distracted by his infatuation for Martha, which ultimately results in Ted Lavender’s death, forcing Cross to realize his fantasies for Martha are wrong and that he is not fulfilling his duties as a lieutenant. Lieutenant Cross is inattentive to the war and his responsibilities because he is unable and unwilling to stop thinking about his adoration for Martha.

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The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

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Ambiguity Lingers On Edith Wharton, who is an American author, states “The novelist must rely on what maybe called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation” (Wharton). Tim O’Brien uses illuminating moments to show how war makes guilt ambiguous. By examining three specific moments, the reader discovers how difficult it is to deal with the ambiguities of guilt. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross suffers from the ambiguity of guilt about Ted Lavender’s death.

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Ted Lavender was a soldier who smoked and used tranquilizers because of his fear of dying. Lieutenant Cross was crying not because of the death of Ted Lavender, but for himself. Cross noticed that when a soldier is distracted by intangible things such as emotions it would

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. The Things They Carried is about Tim O’Brien, the author, and all of his stories while in the Vietnam War. Most of his stories do not have any truth to them but show the paradox war has to offer. These stories bring love, guilt, beauty, gruesomeness, and ambiguity which all tie together what the Vietnam War was and how it affected O’Brien and his fellow soldiers. Although most of the stories O’Brien tell are not true, they still contain love, guilt, and the ambiguity a true war story needs in order to have an effect on the people he’s telling them to.

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Teenagers now have arguably experienced more than any other generation. Teens today are walking, unwritten books. Each teen writing their own stores filled with there memories and the thing they are burdened with everyday. In the book “The Things they Carried” by Tim O'Brien a recurring theme were the items they carried. Tim went into explicit detail about what the soldiers carried from both physical equipment to the memories they held on to.

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The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

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he asked, and Martha said, "The things men do” (28). This combination of closing her eyes, crossing her arms and rocking slightly all suggest some kind of trauma that Cross is completely oblivious to. He creates this idea and need for her, and this is unsettling for Martha. When she finds out what he wanted to do after they saw Bonnie and Clyde, she is extremely uncomfortable, and rightfully so. She is also confused about why he would think of doing such

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