Symbolism Of Stockings
In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author skillfully presents a paradox about war and how it is both horrible and beautiful. Through O’Brien’s vivid storytelling and sorrowful anecdotes, he is able to demonstrate various instances which show both the horrible and beautiful nature of war. Within the vulnerability of the soldiers and the resilience found in the darkest of circumstances, O’brien is able to show the uproarious emotional landscape of war with a paradox that serves as the backbone of the narrative. In the first instance, O’Brien explores the beauty in horror within the chapter “Love.”
The history and self-identity of the United States Marine Corps are based on operations in foreign environments. Since 1898, the United States military has been intervening in abroad. However, some of the US military interventions in other countries have been criticized, which include the Vietnam War. The Vietnam conflict is seen absolutely to have no sense politically, militarily, or economically, because “when a nation goes to war, it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause” (page 34). Therefore, the dispatching of the underage recruits to that war was to subdue them unduly to adversary-induced psychosomatic disorders.
This metaphor displays his uncertainty as per his crucial part in that moment in time. The soldier pictures himself as the hand on a clock, subject to the inevitable force of a clockwork motor that cannot be slowed or quickend. He realises that he does not really know why he is running and feels “statuary in mid-stride”. However, towards the end of the poem, all moral justifications for the existence of war have become meaningless- “King, honour, human dignity, etcetera Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm”, which is extremely dismissive of all the motives people provide for joining the army, explicitly stating that those motives do not justify and do not withstand the war. Disorientation is also highlighted in the line “Stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge That dazzled with rifle fire” where the confusion between the natural world and man-made world is expressed.
Throughout the war Dobbins views his girlfriend's stockings as “body armor” making him invulnerable. “But then, near the end of October, his girlfriend dumped him. It was a hard blow. Dobbins went quiet for a while, staring down at her letter, then after a time he took out the stockings and tied them around his neck as a comforter. ‘No sweat,’ he said.
The novella blatantly criticized the general public for romanticizing the war. When the narrator is on leave and goes to the performance in London, he is uncomfortable with the heroic way in which war is portrayed. The narrator thinks that “people should not be sitting laughing at jokes about plum and apple jam when boys are out dying in France.”. These people who sleep comfortably at night well fed, warm, and clean do not have the right to find comedy in war. Afterwards, when Gladys questions why the narrator would want to visit a place notorious for criminals instead of enjoying the attractions that London has to offer, he replies that he is a criminal since he has murdered someone.
Boots, a simple article of everyday accouterments for the soldiers turns out to be the epitome of the cheapness of human existence in the war, casualty, and then the revival of life through the boots. Kemmerich’s boots embody the parsimony of mortal subsistence in war. Kemmerich’s life is at wits-end, and Muller knows that he is next in line for the boots. “Muller returns to the subject of the boots. They would fit me perfectly.”
First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross faced a conflicting dilemma of love versus duty in Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried.” Jimmy Cross exhibited a loyalty to both the woman he loved, Martha, and to the men that he served in separate incidents in the narrative. In the beginning of the narrative, Cross found time to place himself in a state of day-dreaming about Martha because thinking about her provided an escape from reality. Because of the circumstances that Cross later found himself, his loyalties needed adjustment. He decided to place his men and his duty as their leader above anything or anyone else in the final paragraphs in order to protect his men, even at the expense of making life more difficult for himself and his men.
Soldiers feelings War changes people and soldiers carry many different feelings. The power of the intangible things we carry- fear, guilt, in the stories “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy”, “Soldier’s Home”, “Escape” and the Things they Carried. Soldiers carry the very powerful emotion of fear. In the story Charming billy, Paul Berlin carries fear. “Though he was afraid, he now knew that fear came in many degrees and types and peculiar categories…” (O’’Brien 4)
In the story written by Tim O’Brien called “The Things They Carried”, he tells a story set during a war about the evolution of young soldiers as their mindset is affected by what they see and feel. The soldiers each carry physical and emotional weights that allow them to keep their humanity but in war, the same things that are valued in the outside world become a distraction and potentially fatal. While Martha is not physically fighting the mind with them she is subconsciously in the mind of Lieutenant Cross. Martha represents everything war is not, she represents innocence, love, and affection, that to him is a way to get away from what’s going on around him. Martha is described as a very artistic person; she is a junior at Saint Sebastian college and in the letters Lieutenant cross carries with him she writes in a very beautiful way about trivial things like her professors, roommates and her midterm exams.
The Things They Carried “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story set during the Vietnam War. In the story, O’Brien lists many different items soldiers in the Alpha Company carried with them as they humped across the rugged terrain. Many carried necessities such as rations, matches, ammunition and things of that nature; however, many soldiers also carried quite peculiar objects such as condoms, pantyhose, and M&Ms. Readers can grasp a closer insight of the characters’ lives after further examination of the symbolism and meaning of the things they carried.
Soldiers were not viewed as brave men risking their lives, and the war was seen as an unnecessary event. This type of mentality is seen in the novel with the perceptions of the soldiers. The narrator expresses the view of the time period when he states, “They were soldiers’ coats. Billy was the only one who had a coat from a dead civilian” (82). The meaning behind this is very crucial because it establishes a definite division between soldiers and civilians.
Emotions are a part of human nature, no matter what position you hold, however the situation in which soldiers are placed into is vastly different. Although it is expected that they put on a toughened facade, naturally fear will still attempt to creep and take over. O’Brien uses the physical items to symbolize the intangible emotional baggage that is carried with the men at war. For example, Lavender, who has fear instilled in him and does no job in hiding it, carries tranquilizers and extra protection. Other soldiers, like Cross, have items which bring them comfort in knowing that war will not last forever.
Over all, this story allows us to observe changes within the mentalities of army officers. First, the trauma of living in a war zone can add a significant amount of intangible weight into someone’s life. In “The Things They Carried,” we discover that Cross’s men “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die (443).” Given that the majority of humans have experienced some form of trauma, we can understand how some men were driven to suicide and others into
The two Red Army men also help him with the cap. Next it is said that there was something symbolic in this and how that the doctor wanted to run out and help the boy and also say that salvation lays not in faithfulness to forms but instead liberation from them. This passage serves two purposes. It serves to show the horrors of the civil war and what it has done to the people and to criticize making image a priority over health.
The symbolism in, “The Jacket” supports the overarching theme: Be grateful for what is given. The boy in the story is ungrateful for the jacket his mother got for him so Soto is trying to get the point across that one should be grateful for what one is given because some people aren’t as fortunate. A person can’t be upset about what they have when there are other people who aren’t blessed enough to have it, beggars can’t be choosers. In the story, “The Jacket” Soto states, “I showed the cracks to my mother, who always seemed to be at the stove with steamed up glasses, and she said that there were children in Mexico who would love that jacket.”
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