Irony In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried focuses on the US war in Vietnam. In this novel the author provides numerous details about the war and tries to riseraise as many important themes based on situations. as possible. which are important according to the situation. O’Brien was a participant in the war himself. Almost all of the chapters in this book are narrated in a unique way. O’Brien emphasizes the theme of shame in his novel. The author uses this word in many different cases, the majority of which are connected to war and its characteristics. O’Brien argues that a soldier’s greatest motivation for going to and staying in the war is a fear of shame, even though many other factors can be considered as well like women.
The first part

They were ashamed of being weak. They were afraid that they would be referred to as cowards. “In different ways, it happened to all of them. Afterward, when the firing ended, they would blink and peek up. They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, then quickly hiding it.” Hiding their shame and fear was their first priority after the battle. The author himself shares this characteristic which shows itself in the chapter called “On the Rainy River.” Tim O’Brien stands in front of a really hard decision whether to go to war or run away from it. Many things are described in the process but the final decision which is made is actually based on shame itself. “All those eyes on me—the town, the whole universe—and I couldn 't risk the embarrassment. It was as if there were an audience to my life, that swirl of faces along the river, and in my head I could hear people screaming at me. Traitor! They yelled. Turncoat! Pussy! I felt myself blush. I couldn 't tolerate it. I couldn 't endure the mockery, or the disgrace, or the patriotic ridicule.” Character of narrator seems to be ashamed of being called the disgraceful words what motivates him or forces him to actually overcome his fear and go to war. In the scene where Tim O’Brien as a character gets wounded for the first time and Rat Kiley does everything to make sure nothing is going wrong with him even though the wound is not that serious.

Next to fear of shame, the theme of women as one of the motivations is emphasized in the novel. There are several instances where women are mentioned as some kind of a motivation for example: Henry Dobbins and his pantyhose of a girlfriend or Lieutenant Cross and pictures of Martha. These both facts can be considered as a motivation for a soldier mainly because of their love to them and the need to get back home from the war to see their loved ones. Indeed women play a large role in the novel itself but they cannot be considered as a motivation. Lieutenant Cross actually burns his girlfriend Martha’s pictures because they are a distraction for him. The analysis of the situation would be the following: something that is considered to be a distraction for a soldier cannot be any kind of motivation whatsoever. In case of Henry Dobbins later on in the novel author mentions that pantyhose of Henry are actually a superstition of some kind. It gives the soldier invincibility in the battle zone. Dobbins’s girlfriend actually left him while he was in war so this could not be a motivation for him either. Women are not mentioned because of motivation in this novel by any