Guilty In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

“Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you” (Veronica Roth). The book The Things They Carried written by Tim O’Brien centers on the Vietnam War and a platoon of soldiers. Although the novel is concentrated on war, it also focuses on O’Brien’s storytelling and the soldiers experiences over time. Dave Jensen and Norman Bowker are two soldiers that reveal guilt and shame through battle, as they end up feeling sorry for themselves due to the actions they take place in. Jensen and Bowker exhibit guilt and shame through their experiences as soldiers during war, and as these traits advance in the soldier's mind, O’Brien demonstrates it negatively through his writing. Dave Jensen exhibits guiltiness through his actions in

O’Brien conveys to the audience how the platoon made a pact with one another. The pact is if anyone of them got severely injured, to the point of the being in a wheelchair, to let someone automatically find a way to end their life. Moreover, when Lee strunk steps into a rigged mortar round, the mortar round severed his leg and knee after the round exploded. Resulting in a debilitated wound, Strunk pleads with Jensen for his life, “But you got to promise… Swear it to me—swear you won’t kill me” (63). Strunk and Jensen learn to “trust each other” as they share foxholes and team up on “ambushes” as they were not instant friends at first. Strunk sees his value of life as he is on the verge of giving up and dying through his new acquaintance with Jensen. Although Jensen felt guilty not completing the pact, he knew that it would not matter because he was saving a friend. He feels instant relief for knowing he would not be carrying the guilt of this incident. Jensen also knows that living with guilt can kill anyone faster in these places and O’Brien knowing, a slight relief can help him stay alive longer at war. Having a guilty conscious can lead into actions the mind wants you to complete, but having “friends” can lead you to push away your feelings and help another person that is not

The platoon set up camp in a sewage field meanwhile, rain and heat are mixing together, the earth bubbles with the excess heat and moisture. The author describes, rounds of mortar fell on the camp, and the field seemed to boil and explode. Bowker sees Kiowa sink into the muck and grabs him by the foot to try and pull him out of the muck. Since Kiowa seems lost, Bowker let him go in order to save himself from sinking deeper into the dirt. Bowker blames himself for what happened as he has a conversation with Max Arnold, "...' The truth,' Norman Bowker said, 'is I let the guy go.' 'Maybe he was already gone' ...' No, I could feel it. He wasn't. Some things you can feel” (147). As readers who are confronted with the truth of Bowker's story; he feels remorse for Kiowa. When he mentions, "the truth is I let [Kiowa] go" symbolizes his remorse for not being brave enough to save his friend. His deep regret overpowers him as he feels he should've tried harder on saving Kiowas life. Even if this signifies that he chose his life over his friend's, he now has to live with his repentance over this incident. Bowker’s extreme action of completing suicide is the way d O’Brien could tell his story. The pessimistic ending that O’Brien writes was the only way it can impact the readers to see what guilt and shame can lead to. As for Bowker, suicide