Escape In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Suddenly, the spoon broke and Zach’s heart sunk, his only chance of escape was now shattered into pieces. Zach had been in jail for 5 years now, and his secret escape plan of digging a hole in the back of the jail courtyard had come to a halting stop. A bead of sweat fell down his forehead, and his head was spinning in circles trying to think of what to do next. A prisoner, like Zach, for example, physically wants to escape jail and gain his freedom again. While emotionally, he needs to escape the weight he carries internally, like feeling guilty for the crime he committed. Escape, while it is mental or physical, every individual needs the same outcome; to escape from what’s holding them back. In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien,

Norman is having issues with his life after the war, he cannot find anyone to vent his inner emotions over feeling responsible for Kiowa’s death. Back home, he doesn’t have anyone to tell stories to because he knows they wouldn’t truly accept what he has to say, considering most of his stories are immoral, and they’re not easily relatable and understood. This demonstrates how Norman is feeling isolated, and how he’s struggling to be able to cope in his own way because he doesn’t have someone to talk to. As a result, in hopes of relief, he contacts O’Brien and writes “a long, disjointed letter in which [he] described the problem of finding a meaningful use for his life after war” (O’Brien 149). Norman craves the idea of togetherness, by his repetition of wanting someone to be there, to simply listen to his stories and understand what he’s feeling, allowing him to finally escape his grief. Later, he claims, “ ‘...it is almost like I got killed over in Nam… That night when Kiowa got wasted, I sort of sank down into the sewage with him…’ ” (O’Brien 150). Therefore, connecting to how O’Brien has felt since that day, proving that O’Brien and Norman are together because they feel the same way about the same experience, Kiowa’s death. Importantly, this shows that stories have to power to

During the war, the soldiers all had a tight bond and were more together than separate because they always had each other's backs and supported each other. However, in the years ahead, the only way they can relate is from the past and the emotional weight they carry because of it. After the war, Jimmy visited O’Brien and “then for a long time neither of [them] could think of much to say. The thing to do…[was] switch to gin... and not much later [they] were laughing about some of the craziness that used to go on” (O’Brien 26-27). Even though both men had carried on with their lives, after the war, their stories still live on and are their only relation they carry. The men never had anyone else to truly talk to after war, so when presented the opportunity to talk about their past the men still continue to tell their same stories. Both of the men still carry their emotional baggage, and the act of storytelling allows the men to escape their grief because they finally have someone to speak to. For a “... full day....[they] talked about everything [they had] seen and done so long ago, all the things [they] still carried through [their] lives” (O’Brien 26). After all this time, they can still only talk and relate to topics about war because they live with a constant weight of guilt from the