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Soldiers In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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More than half a million service members face mental health challenges during and after war. During war, soldiers are exposed to many different traumatic events that raise the chances of facing mental health challenges. The most common mental health problems soldiers are more likely to carry with them after war is PTSD, depression, alcohol addiction, and anxiety. In the book, “The Things They Carried,” written by Tim O’Brien, characters carried things that are both literal and figurative. While the soldiers carry heavy physical items, they also carry mental, emotional, and physical baggage. To begin with, Norman Bowker is a character that carries mental baggage. For example, “The war was over and there was no place in particular to go. Norman Bowker followed the tar …show more content…

One character, in particular, is Jimmy Cross. “While Kiowa explained how Lavender died, Lieutenant Cross found himself trembling. He tried not to cry,” (16). Jimmy Cross was carrying the emotional baggage of guilt for the death of Ted Lavender. He experienced such emotional distress because he couldn't stop thinking about Martha the entire time the war started. He felt he did not focus on the safety and well-being of his fellow soldiers and because of that, he blames himself for the death of Ted Lavender, an emotional baggage that he had to bear with so long as the war had ended. Emotional baggage was also shown after Rat Kiley had shot a baby water buffalo. “Rat Kiley was crying. He tried to say something but then cradled his rifle and went off by himself,” (76). This shows that Rat Kiley's actions for shooting the baby buffalo had to do with the emotional baggage of grief that he was carrying for Curt Lemon’s death. Rat Kiley had lost one of his best friends in the most gruesome way possible right in front of him. His sadness and anger takes over him and that's why he ends up taking it all out on the baby

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954 Words | 4 Pages

In Tim O’brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried,” O’brien explains more than just what people face at war. O’Brien gives detail of each burden, struggle, and memory each soldier carries into the war. He describes of a battle more destructive than a war filled with guns, bombs, and knives. He describes of a mind battle, one in which is the hardest any man can face. A mind battle controls your every decision.

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1363 Words | 6 Pages

They were kids; they didn’t know… they were giggling and calling each other yellow mother and playing a silly game they’d invented.” (69) Rat Kiley at first is seen letting loose in the war and being able to feel at home in a foreign place. This childish act between the two gives the book a calm before the storm as immediately after the two boys mess around, Curt Lemon dies. The silly game had ended with the first step into the spiral of madness Kiley soon fell into. With the tragedy of his friend, Rat Kiley starts to exaggerate his stories into a better one as if he were trying to escape his reality.

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The story of Norman Bowker

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The Soldier’s Fears First, in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” the tangible items carried by the soldiers reveal their fears of losing a connection to home, fear of the unknown, fear of reality. Holding onto their precious items from home helped them hold onto reality. Second, “the soldiers all had fears of the war and they all carried with them certain items that gave them the comforts of home.” (366). “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha” (366) he loved her and this was a way of keeping her close, “Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose and wrapped them around his neck as a comforter” (372) he must have felt wearing his girlfriend’s pantyhose connected her to him, “Kiowa carried an illustrated New Testament and an old hunting hatchet from his grandfather” (367) his grandfather must

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990 Words | 4 Pages

Through centuries of great wars and battles, history has displayed brave men and women who have fought for their countries. These audacious people have helped propel countries for the greater good. However, the weight and responsibility, of the war, takes a heavy toll on soldiers that is often overlooked. Tim O’Brien, author of the novel The Things They Carried, records his stories, and the stories of his fellow soldiers during the war. However, three of these soldiers are affected in an outlandish way.

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One paragraph stated the following “Curt Lemon was dead. Rat Kiley had lost his best friend in the world. Later in the week he would write a long personal letter to the guy's sister, who would not write back, but for now it was a question of pain. He shot off the tail. He shot away chunks of meat below the ribs...

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As the soldiers realize this they begin to feel shame, Jimmy Cross blames himself for the death of Lavender, and Kiowa feels a sort of shame in that he cannot relate to this when he feels like he should (O’Brien

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This caused him to feel like there was no escape from his own thoughts of war, causing him to feel like he does not belong. Norman ended up living with his parents and always trying to find another job, this made him feel like the town did not care about him. Norman had a schedule of going to the YMCA in the afternoons to play pickup basketball. Norman Bowker wrote a seventeen page note on his feelings he confirmed that; “ ‘The thing is,’ he wrote, ‘there’s no place to go. Not just in this lousy little town.

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When faced with a choice between his own life and Kiowa's, he chose to save himself. It is his lack of courage that leads to Kiowa's death; yet, even though he watches his friend sink into the "cesspool," he tries to save him - but the end is inevitable. War seems to force responsibility and guilt for the deaths of friends and enemies alike. Soldiers returning home from the war carry this guilt with them, making them feel like outsiders in their past lives. After being cut off from the outside world, Bowker "drove along a seven-mile stretch of tarmac around the lake, and then he started over, driving slowly" (O'Brien).

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851 Words | 4 Pages

Nobody can understand this feeling if they have not been to war themselves. After the war Norman struggles to find himself, he always feels trapped almost like he may have made it home but emotionally a part of him will always be at

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He thought that they only way to get out of the war and not think about the war was suicide. Tim O’Brien it was a different ending then it was for Rat Kiley. O’Brien never killed himself like Rat Kiley did but they both hated the war and having to see the death of people around them. O’Brien hated what happened in Vietnam, the death of his friends, the fear he had, and the guilt that he had about going to war. For Rat Kiley his was out of the war was death, for O’Brien the way he dealt with the war was that he wrote stories about the war.

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Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried" is a short story that explores the experiences of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The story depicts the physical and emotional weight that soldiers carry with them during the war, highlighting the challenges that soldiers face both on and off the battlefield. Through the items that the soldiers carry with them, the story reveals the emotional and physical burdens of war and the masking of emotions because of masculine identity. The story begins with a list of items that the soldiers carry with them, ranging from physical items such as guns and ammunition to intangible items such as fear and guilt.

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1768 Words | 8 Pages

Rat Kiley, medic and soldier, who identifies as a savior of lives, but after one game gone wrong, he accidentally takes one. After passing a live grenade to Curt Lemon and killing him, Kiley “lost his best friend in the world,” and takes his anger on a water buffalo and goes “automatic. He shot randomly, almost casually”(O’Brien 75). Although this act of violence seems random, it shows the effects of death and how it comes up in different ways for these mentally tormented soldiers. After causing the death of his friend, Kiley couldn’t cope so he inflicted his anger onto the closest thing available.

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868 Words | 4 Pages

Norman’s thoughts really stress the idea of why so many Veterans keep all their thoughts concealed with the projected outcome. Veterans only want to communicate if people would clearly listen. Additionally, through dialogue, O’Brien exhibits Bowker’s self-conflict to express his experiences in war and stay sheltered. Norman arrives in the drive-up at Mama Burgers post-war and presses the intercom button to talk to the worker: “‘Well,’ he said, ‘how’d you like to hear about —’ He stopped and shook his head. ‘Hear what, man?’

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The soldiers learn to release their anger and grief through violence. This is demonstrated by Rat Kiley, as after Curt Lemon’s death he lashes out in anger on an innocent animal. Following Curt Lemon’s death, Rat goes up to the baby buffalo the soldiers had found and tied up for the night and brutally shot him. As Tim describes, Rat Kiley’s shot “wasn’t to kill; it was to hurt.” This shows that due to witnessing his friend's death Rat turns to violence as a response.

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