Guilt In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Umar Al-Khattab once said “no amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future.” The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is based on his experience in the Vietnam war from a soldier's perspective. He expresses his emotions well thought his writing by telling both factual and made up stories. He describes his experiences from during the war and after, a beautiful mixture of friendship, love and protection but also a tragedy of loss, rejection and regret. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the theme of regret leads to the theme of guilt, both of which are evidenced in the novel through O’Brien’s portrayal of recovering past events, memories, and storytelling. In the chapter “Love” by

This is when he runs away to Canada. A few days in Tim accompanied the old man on a fishing trip, still skeptical about the war. But then he starts to think, him and the old man have a conversation, he knew everything without a word. Almost as if he had been through the same thing. Tim O’brien is overwhelmed by guilt after a while, embarrassment too. He says “All those eyes on me- the town, the whole universe… That’s all it was” (O’brien 57). This quote explains how he does not want to be seen as the one who refused to go to war. He did not want people to make a mockery of him, but he did not want to go. But then he imagined all his loved ones and friends standing there on the shore. They were all ridiculing him, making him feel bad for not going to fight for his country. He said that was the point he could not handle. He was embarrassed too much for something that had not even happened

He describes what he first thought was drafted into the war and what he did. He escaped and went to Canada after deciding he did not want to go. He met an old man there who changed his decision without even trying and helped him through it. While on the boat for a fishing day, Tim started to rethink things about the war and if he would be brave enough to go. He started seeing his family and even his future kids. After crying for a while, he decided that he did not want to be a coward. He explained this by saying “The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forest and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to war” (O’brien 58). In this quote Tim O’brien uses the story of when he found out he had to go to war. He did not want to go but forced himself and regretted it. He did not regret going to the war afterwards but he did when he first made the choice. He called himself a coward for deciding that he was going to do it, based on everything he knew about war. He knew he would have to kill or that he could be killed himself, he felt stupid for convincing himself to go, like it was not the right choice but deep down he knew it was. At the same time he did regret talking and forcing himself into