Roles Of Women In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Jennifer Oduca

ENGL 001A

6:40-8:00pm

The Role of Women In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, there were hardly any major characters that were women. The men in the novel had various views about the women they love or hate. Women in the novel were often fantasized about, either from memory or with an imaginary future. While the women roles in the novel are minor, they hold an impact towards the men. In the novel, the role of women is used as an escape and a reminder of home. In the start of the novel, Lieutenant Cross carries a handful of items that dealt with a girl named Martha. He carries two pictures of her and letters that she had written to him.

“First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha…He would

“On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs.” (22)

Linda is one of the characters that affect O’Brien, who is also portrayed as a character in his own novel. Linda is one of the people that O’Brien falls in love with. He notices that she wears a red cap despite being teased about it. One day, it’s taken off of her head and everyone can see that she is balding and had bandages on her head.

“I could see bones and veins; I could see the exact structure of her skull. There was a large Band-Aid at the back of her head, a row of black stitches, a piece of gauze taped above her left ear.” (216)

In the end, Linda had died, but he had used Linda as an escape. He would imagine if she was still alive and their future together. He would invent hiss dreams and have Linda appear which would feel like a miracle to him.

“Lying in bed at night, I made up elaborate stories to bring Linda alive in my sleep. I invented my own dreams.”

When she was first introduced, she was dressed as a proper lady as well as acted like one.

“She had long white legs and blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly, too.” (89)

Mark Fossie had used her as an escape as they both thought about their future together down to the details of their house and their children. Before she entered the campgrounds, Mark Fossie would often babble about her and their future together. He would show her off to the other soldiers, excited that she would be flying over to visit.

“…for a fact that someday they would be married, and live in a fine gingerbread house near Lake Erie, and have three healthy yellow-haired children…” (90)

However, once she arrived, she takes on a transformation that baffles Fossie. Her transformation causes the imagination between her and Mark Fossie to be