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Multiculturalism In The Things They Carried

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Either it being self defense, economic gain or for a political movement, War is influenced by many factors that lead to catastrophic results. Both the Gulf and Vietnam wars are explained by the article, “Military Multiculturalism in the Gulf War and After” and short story “The Things They Carried” that signify the blind eye displayed by humans during these wars. What allows Humans to process traumatic events is to turn the other way around and fill their minds with joyful moments in their life. A couple of ways are displayed in both the short story and article are the soldiers letting their mind escape and thinking about the things they brought with them from home and the public accepting the medias filtered perspective of war by supporting …show more content…

O’Brien captures this by the vivid details of Ted Lavender’s death. “…right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye. The cheekbone was gone. Oh shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy’s dead. The guy’s dead. he kept saying, which seemed profound- the guy’s dead. I mean really.” (O’Brien Pg-13) Ted Lavenders death was described in a disgusting way to only emphasize of the horrible gore of war and O’Brien wanted to signify the importance of knowing that. Lavenders death took a huge toll on the men around them because they finally experienced the nightmare they were trying to escape from. However, Lieutenant Cross took the death of Ted Lavender the worst because he felt responsible for it. “On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s Letters. Then he burned the two photographs… He realized it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental, too but mostly just stupid. Lavender was dead. You couldn’t burn the blame.” (O’Brien Pg-23) Lavenders death for Cross was a reality check for him, at the end of the day he could not allow his mind to wander about Martha. The death of Lavender remains in his conscience because he knew distracting his mind from nightmare he was living in is what got him killed and could potentially hurt the rest of his

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Character Analysis Of Ted Lavender In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

339 Words | 2 Pages

He does not carry heavy things as his peers. In Spring of April he was shot to death. In addition, again and again of Ted Lavender’s relates to the plot by implying that there are more deaths to come in the war. His death is repeated frequently in the book “ shot in the head” from page number two and on page number three “ Ted Lavender was shot”.

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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Literary Analysis

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In the story Lieutenant Cross carries the death of Ted Lavender not only as a burden but also as motivation (O'Brien). Moments before Ted Lavender was shot, Lieutenant Cross was thinking heavily about Martha and how much he wanted her to be a virgin (O'Brien). After Lavenders death, Lieutenant Cross tried to keep calm. It says in the story that Lieutenant Cross “with his entrenching tool, which weighed five pounds, he began digging a hole in the earth” (O’Brien). This shows that Lieutenant Cross cared deeply about Ted Lavender and Martha, and he will continue to fight for those he truly did care about most in life.

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In war, soldiers and civilians will experience the loss of friends and families. In Tim O’Brien’s work, The Things They Carried, the reader is introduced to soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war who lose their comrades’ loves due to mishaps. These soldiers in combat, along with civilians, learn to accept or become numb towards death by understanding the situation they are in and by finding comfort in oblivion. Early in the plot, the reader is made aware of how the soldiers comprehend their allies’ deaths. According to the author, when Lieutenant Cross’ team was contemplating about who is to enter the tunnel, “Lee Strunk drew the number 17” then he laughed (O’Brien 10).

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708 Words | 3 Pages

At times, he neglects his troop to go daydream about Marta. In the first chapter the book says,” He pictures Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop

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1009 Words | 5 Pages

Cross blames himself, knowing “He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead…” (p. 121). First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is distracted by his infatuation for Martha, which ultimately results in Ted Lavender’s death, forcing Cross to realize his fantasies for Martha are wrong and that he is not fulfilling his duties as a lieutenant. Lieutenant Cross is inattentive to the war and his responsibilities because he is unable and unwilling to stop thinking about his adoration for Martha.

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1509 Words | 7 Pages

He accepted the blame of Ted Lavender’s death because he was more focused on Martha than he was about his troops. Wesley states that while Jimmy Cross accepts the blame he thinks this will make it all better by accepting heroic responsibility. This relieved the stress upon Cross and made him feel as if he was even more of a leader and not a coward. When Ted Lavender died they treated it as if it was nothing but a daily routine.

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754 Words | 4 Pages

Lavender carried dope, tranquilizers, and extra ammunition; the drugs acting as depressants to shut down the central nervous system and the extra ammunition acting in as a placebo for reassurment. He exuded cowardice. Ironically, Lavender’s death became unavoidable despite his precautions. He died simply, a single shot, no time for fear or panic. Moreover, soldiers carried symbols of their deplorable compulsions.

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934 Words | 4 Pages

Tim O’Brien states, “Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (O’Brien 16). In this quote, Tim O’Brien explains that since Jimmy Cross blames himself about Ted Lavender’s death, he will always be in lieutenant’s head. Thus, the lieutenant will always feel the guilt. With this, Tim O’Brien makes the reader think that Jimmy Cross is the person to blame since he is the head of the group and he has to pay more attention to his plans. Having questions about his love, Martha, in his mind instead of being careful about his men is the reason of him feeling guilty that “the lieutenant’s in some deep hurt” (17).

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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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In Tim O’brien’s war story, The Things They Carried, the narrator describes the life of American soldiers and provides evidence of how the war has impacted their lives. In the 1960’s, young American men were sent to fight in the war thousands of miles away from their homes. At this time, most men had no prior experience of fighting in a war. Naturally, the men had no idea what kind of brutality the war held also how much of a vital role the war would play in their futures. O’brien’s own experience with the war displayed that the fear of getting shamed before ones own peers played a main and also motivating factor for joining the draft.

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Coping Mechanisms In The Things They Carried Essay

2081 Words | 9 Pages

Lavender “went to heavy on tranquilizers” (O'Brien 31) to help him deal with the fear and uncertainty of combat. He is described as being "scared" and "nervous" throughout the book, and his drug use is a way for him to escape the reality of the war (O'Brien 31). However, Lavender's coping mechanism ultimately fails him, as he is killed while under the influence of drugs. His death serves as a reminder of a reminder that sometimes your coping mechanisms will not save you from the thing you are running

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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

655 Words | 3 Pages

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is stories centered around the American soldiers in the Vietnam war. O’Brien explains how the harsh atmosphere of war can mentally and physically traumatize a soldier. In order to escape this atmosphere some men fantasize about the women they love. The men do not think of the women as people with their own thoughts and feelings, instead they think of them as forms of comfort or motivation for survival. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Mark Fossie profess to hate the women they love because the women do not fulfil the fantasies the men have created.

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Reflective Essay: The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

747 Words | 3 Pages

Cross and his obsession with Martha. Eventually, after a death in the group, LT. Cross was distracted and he decides to burn the letters Martha sent him. “On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First LT. Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters…

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211 Words | 1 Pages

As they came across a photo of Ted Lavender, Cross expresses how he believe that Lavender’s death was his fault. They later switch from coffee to alcohol and try to focus on stories that were not so sad. Later that night when the mood has lightened up, O’Brien asked Cross about Martha. Cross told O’Brien of a story of how they met once again at their college reunion. At the reunion, Cross learned that

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1100 Words | 5 Pages

Truth The main characters in The Things They Carried are soldiers, watching people die every day. To lessen their fear of death, they do not pay much respect to the dead and treat the corpses as if they are live people; they demonstrate that the soul lives on even when the body does not. One of the ways the soul lives is through stories. In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, the final chapter, “The Lives of the Dead”, is essential because it is a perfect conclusion.

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613 Words | 3 Pages

The bluntness of the introduction of Ted Lavender’s death shows how sudden his death was and how death was an ordinary occurrence in the Vietnam war. Ted Lavender’s death plays a significant role in the novel. He carried tranquilizers and extra ammunition as precaution and a way to calm himself; however, he was still killed. His death is ironic because the items that were meant to protect him ended up weighing him down, which made him fall quicker when he was killed. This shows how no object could prevent the soldiers from dying and how death was a worry constantly on the soldiers

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