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Gender Roles In The Things They Carried 'And Bluebird'

532 Words3 Pages

Gender roles influence every aspect of our lives from what we wear to the hobbies we keep to the way we behave every day. When a person steps out of the guidelines set forth by society for their gender there is often backlash of some sort, making it difficult for a person to escape the restraints of conformity. In today’s society we often mention the expectations and ideals for women to be and have but rarely do we touch on what is expected of men. They, like women, are required to act and appear a certain way. Men are thrown into roles that necessitate strength of character, body, and mind. Signs of weakness of any kind are shunned and frowned upon. The excerpt of the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the poem “Bluebird” by Charles Bukowski both show the theme of an image that males are expected to uphold. …show more content…

One line from the book states that “They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to” (O’Brien 77). Maintaining the image of being a man was more important to some of the soldiers than life itself. O’Brien implies that it was not courage that kept the men from giving into the pressures and hardship of war but the terror of being a coward. The men often mocked those who freed themselves by injuring themselves. Main character and narrator, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross stated the men “Sneered at sick call. They spoke bitterly about guys who had found release by shooting off their own toes or fingers […] It was fierce, mocking talk, with only a trace of envy or awe, but even so the image played itself out behind their eyes” (O’Brien

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