ipl-logo

Shame In The Things They Carried

928 Words4 Pages

Tessa Jones Mrs. Buzanis Honors English 10 Per 4 6 February 2023 Impact of Guilt In Life (Th) In Tim O’Brien’s 1990 metafictional novel The Things They Carried, the author answers the question of how guilt affects the relationships that one has in their life because of the fear of disappointing those they love. (M) The author raises the question of how shame can impact the thoughts and actions of one's life, and answers this question through experiences characters live through in the novel. Their experience in the war impacts them for the rest of their life because of the trauma that it causes them. The war limits them from living a successful life in the future because they are so focused on the past. (Pt) The character, Tim O'Brien, struggles …show more content…

The surroundings, of chaos and gore and hatred, deeply impact him. (CE) There were some instances in his life where he is afraid to admit to his past and to things he had done in the war. (DE) In one instance he mentions something he could never tell to anyone, “Not to [his] parents, not to [his] brother or sister, not even to [his] wife” (O’Brien 37). (A) This is an answer to the question of how shame has the power to impact one's life. Shame impacts the lives of everyone because it brings a burden and worry and stress of disappointing those one loves. If Tim had talked about this situation he experienced during the war, he could have relieved some of the stress. However, he worries about the insults he could have received, so he chose not to tell. (CE) Before O'Brien heard about the war, he realized the war was something he did not want to participate in. (DE) He says to himself that [he] would not swim away from [his] hometown and [his] country and [his] life. [He] would not be brave” (O’Brien 55). (A) Although many …show more content…

To answer O'Brien's question of how embarrassment impacts the lives and relationships that one has, shame has the power to control one’s life. (CE) During the war, Tim faces the tragedy of having to end the life of someone on the other side of the war. (DE) He talks to the reader and mentions how “even now [he] hasn't finished sorting it out. Sometimes [he] forgives himself, other times [he] doesn’t” (O’Brien 128). (A) Even though several years have allowed some healing in his body, that single moment in time continues to haunt him. This goes to answer the question that O'Brien introduces that although sometimes there is little regret in one's mind, it will never completely go away. (CE) O'Brien continues his remarks by remembering many occurrences in the war. (DE) He teaches that it “had no memory, therefore no guilt” (O’Brien 137). (A) Tim forces himself to forget certain parts or particular experiences that he had in the war. This allows him to breathe a little and limit some of the guilt that he feels. If he doesn't remember things, he can't regret them because he didn't experience them. Although deep down, he recognizes the truth or lack of truth in war stories, it allows him to feel more joy and less shame. (CE) Furthermore, he seems to force himself to forget or deny that he killed a man, but he still recognizes that he stood there at that moment in time. (DE) He knew that he “was

Show More
Related
1618 Words | 7 Pages

Don't ask him to start remembering again’” (McLean 345-346). In other words, Jonathan’s mother is trying to push Jonathan away from learning or asking his father about the war. Jonathan asking his father what happened in the war could bring back such horrible memories that would possibly change him. In real-life, a lot of veterans have ptsd, anxiety attacks, depression, etc.

Read More
2052 Words | 9 Pages

Most people consider it an honour to be given the opportunity to fight for one’s country but in Tim’s case it is the opposite. He sees it as himself becoming “a coward” (187) by conforming to other’s expectations instead of fighting for his individual beliefs and “for more than twenty years [he’s] had to live with it” (172). The thought of throwing every one of his beliefs away and taking lives just to fit in is extremely degrading for him and makes him feel like the opposite of the hero he dreamed to be as a child. But it is this event that shows him what perseverance really is. Tim survives the war which itself is no easy task, but additionally he has to live with the feeling of betraying himself in the process.

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

The chapter also showed how the war shaped and changed the way Tim O’Brien thought and dealt with things. “After the rot cleared up, once I could think straight, I devoted a lot of

Read More
1435 Words | 6 Pages

The main point is how he has to deal with death from a young age to the combat zones. In a way he blames himself for the deaths of his friends or failing to save them, but he failed to understand that it is not his fault. He just needs to find a way to understand since he is forty three years old and has to find closure, O’Brien at the conclusion of his book said “I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story.” (233) He realized through his writing that he was carrying things with him that needed to be explained to him or it was going to hurt him mentally and physically.

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

“The emotions went from outrage to terror to bewilderment to guilt to sorrow… I felt a sickness inside of me. Real disease” (O’Brien 43). The idea of going to war brought up so many different feelings for Tim O’Brien including guilt. Tim O’Brien felt that if he didn’t go to war, then people would practically bully him and think that he was a coward for not going to the war. Tim experienced something that many people call an apparition, and his version of one was when many people he knew from the past were shaming him for not going to the war, and for running from it.

Read More
1292 Words | 6 Pages

In the short story, “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien focuses on this to show that everyone fighting in a war has a story. He spends the story describing the man he killed and searching for justification of his actions. He carries around guilt with him because of it, and his fellow soldiers try to help him justify and come to terms with his action by saying things like, “You want to trade places with him? Turn it all upside down= you want that? I mean, be honest,” (126) and “Tim, it’s a war.

Read More
1626 Words | 7 Pages

This makes him question if returning home and going to war is what he should be doing. “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward of a lot. I went to the war” (O’Brien,

Read More
457 Words | 2 Pages

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, shame and guilt is developed. This is so by O’Brien having flashbacks while the Vietnam War is on the rise. O’Brien develops shame as he remember a particular story that he has told no one, “This is a story I've never told before” (O’brien 39). He thought it would only bring shame and embarrassment for him and his family, “To get into it, I’ve always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us” (39).Soldiers felt obligated to go to war for fear of embarrassing themselves, their families, and their towns if they did not .

Read More
159 Words | 1 Pages

Overall, O'Brien's portrayal of shame in "The Things They Carried" demonstrates how this complex emotion can have a

Read More
899 Words | 4 Pages

(O’Brien 128.) With the tone being used in this quote, readers already know that the actions you commit in war have the ability to stick with you for the rest of your life, but they also learn that although a significant amount of time has passed, that doesn’t necessarily mean that becoming comfortable with the situation will become easier, because O’Brien and his other platoon members are the perfect examples of this. Dealing with situations like these can even become harder as you progress throughout life because every time you think of a resolution, more and more questions arise about what you should and shouldn’t have done. Readers recognize that the things they do, or don’t do in life can make them feel the same way as the war

Read More
813 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien tells the readers about him reflecting back twenty years ago, he wonders if running away from the war were just events that happened in another dimension, he pictures himself writing a letter to his parents: “I’m finishing up a letter to my Parents that tells what I'm about to do and why I'm doing it and how sorry I am that I’d never found the courage to talk to them about it”(O’Brien 80). Even twenty years after his running from the war, O’Brien still feels sorry for not finding the courage to tell his parents about his decision of escaping to Canada to start a new life. O’Brien presented his outlook that even if someone was not directly involved in the war, this event had impacted them indirectly, for instance, how a person’s reaction to the war can create regret for important friends and

Read More
944 Words | 4 Pages

Shame is felt differently by all, throughout different times and for different reasons. In the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he illustrates this clearly utilizing stories from the Vietnam War or of moments after. Tim O’Brien himself is a clear example of this, as the experiences he went through and wrote about within various settings in his book capture the theme of shame and what comes with it. Shame has extremely detrimental effects which are displayed many times throughout the story when talking about his experiences before the war, inside of the frontlines, and from a support role within the backlines. O’Brien’s real first instance of shame within the book is displayed before he even joined the war.

Read More
774 Words | 4 Pages

There were flares and mortar rounds, and the stink was everywhere- it was inside him, in his lungs- and he could no longer tolerate it”(149). Since the war the soldiers get flashbacks of different scenarios all the time. It takes a toll on how they think and the trauma, guilt, and grief they felt in that

Read More
1504 Words | 7 Pages

This quote epitomizes the trauma caused by war. O’Brien is trying to cope, mostly through writing these war stories but has yet to put it behind him. He feels guilt, grief, and responsibility, even making up possible scenarios about the life of the man he killed and the type of person he was. This

Read More
975 Words | 4 Pages

Tim knew that he was not a killer and that the war was going to be a stressful time for him. One of his biggest moments of feeling bad about what he did was when he killed his first soldier. O’Brien feels instant regret once he throws the grenade and kills the man. All other thoughts leave his mind, and his full focus and shock is on what he had just done. “I was terrified” he explains, “there were no thoughts about killing.

Read More

More about Shame In The Things They Carried

Related Topics

Open Document