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Social Expectations In The Things They Carried, By Tim O Brien

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“With you I serve. With you I fall down.” Taylor Swift states this in her song, “epiphany,” about her grandfather’s traumatizing fight in the Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II. Tim O'Brien, in his short story “The Things They Carried,” attacks a very similar ideal. From the outside viewer, in a world riddled with propaganda, soldiers in the US Military are seen as heroes with a passion for this country. However, O’Brien vulnerably uses his past experience in the military during the Vietnam War to express the reality of the war. The author of “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien, attempts to critique the social expectations for soldiers of the United States Military by utilizing various literary devices, such as syntax, repetition, …show more content…

Readers are introduced to the short story by hearing about the protagonist’s, Jimmy Cross, love, Martha. Marth represents purity and innocence, something Cross is without while a lieutenant in the Vietnam War. Cross often wonders if she is a virgin, as he dreams of multiple epiphanies of their future and past lives together, and the narrator repeats this thought an alarming amount. Tim O’Brien utilizes the relationship between Marth and Jimmy Cross to symbolize the downfall of innocence that soldiers undergo. At the beginning of the story, he utilizes her as a relief from the pain, but once this caused the death of Lavender, the relief ended. This caused Cross to burn the letters and photos and stated, “Virginity is no longer an issue. He hated her” (Obrien, 621). The statement, “Virginity is no longer an issue” symbolizes Cross’ understanding that purity does not exist in the same world that …show more content…

After shots were fired by the enemy, men would “touch their bodies, feeling shame, then hiding it” (O'Brien 619). The shame in this circumstance steamed from how they are ashamed to wish they would be injured to go home as well as being hit with survivor’s guilt. O'Brien repeats several times within the story how easy it would be to put “the muzzle against flesh . . . [and] squeeze the trigger and blow away a toe,” which, in turn, would send them to a place of refuge. But this is dishonor, something worse than death. But still, O'Brien expresses how men would dream of flying on an iron “bird” and screaming “I’m sorry, motherfuckers, but I’m out of it, I’m goofed, I’m on a space cruise” (O'Brien 621). The angry diction within this sentence, calling the other men “motherfuckers,” presents the idea that soldiers begin to have failing mental health and empathy. The use of hateful words is repetition throughout the story to show the anger within the men and the loss of social awareness. Overall, everytime O'Brien repeats something, often with differing tones, is symbolizing how in war ‘repetition itself [is] an act of poise, [a] balance between crazy and almost crazy” (O'Brien

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