Reflective Essay: The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Synthesis Essay In the Vietnam war, there were many soldiers at war with each other, and most soldiers were not prepared for the fight. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien was in the Vietnam war when he was young. The book was not in order but he still talks about his experiences while in the war. His purpose for writing this novel was because he wanted younger audience to know what happened in the war and what the soldiers experienced. O’Brien’s intended audience was young people who were not educated about the war and he discussed the themes shame/guilt and mortality/death. The chapter “The Things They Carried” gives an introduction about the men in the group, it also shows shame/guilt. The chapter talks about the equipment each soldier carried and how it affected them. During this chapter it focuses primarily on LT. Cross and his obsession with Martha. Eventually, after a death in the group, LT. Cross was distracted and he decides to burn the letters Martha sent him. “On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First LT. Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters… Lavender was dead. You couldn’t burn the blame” (O’Brien 22). This quote is important because it tells about why LT. Cross burned the letters and what other

The theme Mortality and Death goes with “Ghost Soldiers” because O’Brien was almost to death two times. First time he was shot in the stomach and second time was in the butt. First time Rat Kiley was there but the second time he was shot Kiley was not there and O’Brien did not like the new medic. A quote to go with this theme is, “It’s hard thing to explain to somebody who has not felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake” (O;Brien 183). This quote is talking about how when he got shot he was more aware of life and that he could die any