Symbolism In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Symbolism in The Things They Carried Symbolism is used in The Things They Carried many times, often to represent qualities, emotions, or states of minds. Tim O’Brien, the author and narrator of the story, expresses symbolism through forms of love, terror, and religion, and shows how all three have consequences in the Vietnam War. Symbols are very powerful in this story, and O’Brien does a good job of keeping the interest of the reader throughout this compassionate, yet saddening story of a group of infantrymen fighting for their lives, sanity, and loved ones during the War. Love is the most potent emotion felt throughout the story. Love is what kept some of the men alive in the war; it is also what killed some of the men. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross kept a photograph of Martha, a girl who is not his girlfriend, to keep the feeling of love. When Lt. Cross was checking on Lee Strunk, who was searching a tunnel, "suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha. . .

In the chapter, Church, the group set up at a small pagoda, turning it into a little fortress. They used a church of all things as a base of operations for seven to eight days. There were two monks there who helped to clean Henry Dobbins M-60, which symbolized all the soldiers’ sins in the war. The monks were symbolically washing away the soldiers’ sins by cleaning the gun. The church itself symbolized those things which they had done wrong, hopefully helping some of the men by staying there. Dobbins’s comment that “[a]ll you can do is be nice” is ironic by the washing of his hands. Washing his hands was seen as a sign of respect for the monks, who called him “Good soldier Jesus,” which is a reference to the Bible. Speaking of Bibles, Kiowa carried one everywhere he went. The Bible symbolized his hope that if he dies in the war, he will go to heaven and be with God. Kiowa believed it was “Just wrong.” to set up in a church, which is