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The Vietnam War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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The book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells a thrilling stories of the vietnam war.
The Things They Carried is a non linear book so it is a mix bag of stories at different times of O’brien’s life but they all relate back to the war in some way. O’ Brien used social obligation and shame and guilt to tell these stories.
First of all in the 1960s-1980s social obligation was more prevalent in society then it is in today's, and in one of the chapters in The Things They Carried “Rainy River” faces the issue of social obligation. Tim O’brien was drafted into the Vietnam war and his plan was to go up to Canada to dodge it. He stops at this lodge just outside of Canada, just 20 meters away from passing through he thinks what will happen to him if he does in fact decide to dodge it. Can he come back? What will his peers think? Will he be judge badly for not following through with the draft? “If you support a war, If you think it's worth the price, fine, but you have to put your own precious fluids on the line” (O’Brien40). He does not support the war but he felt obligated to go and serve his country. He feared the consequences if he dodge it. He was obligated by society. …show more content…

Lt. Jimmy Cross was head over heels for this girl named Martha. He wrote her everyday, and he carried her picture everywhere. Some years after the war he met up with Martha at a class reunion. He told her how he felt about her and she did not share the same feelings as he did; she let him out to dry, rejected him. After some years passed, Cross met up with O’brien. He told him this story, Cross said to him “And do me a favor and dont mention anything about this” (O’Brien29). Cross feared people knowing his rejection. O’Brien was obligated not to tell anyone because he knew cross was still in shame by

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Shame and self-hatred surface when Lieutenant Cross realizes “…Ted Lavender [is] dead because he [loves] her [Martha] so much and [cannot] stop thinking about her” (326). Furthermore, the pebble that once symbolized his affection for Martha is replaced with a figurative “stone in his stomach” (332), representative of his guilt. In order to begin to remove his distracting infatuation with Martha, Cross takes the following action: “On the morning after Ted Lavender [dies], First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross [crouches] at the bottom of his foxhole and [burns] Martha’s letters. Then he [burns] the two photographs” (336). Cross’ burning of Martha’s letters and photographs is a physical representation of the transformation in his personality and priorities.

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Most people don’t know much about what exactly happened in the Vietnam War. Should this war have even happened? Many Americans believe this war was unnecessary for the armed forces to participate in, especially because of the damage caused in WWII. Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They carry, offers a collection of short stories in which each expresses the different Vietnam experiences. Every story in this novel was impressive for its own unique reason.

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My own fault, he would say” (O’Brien 162). In his own thoughts, Cross essentially covers up his own guilt by blaming the havoc around the soldiers like the mortar rounds; and the resulting craters. Cross does this to alleviate the sense of guilt, but in reality, the majority of the blame is a direct result of Cross’s poor

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The Things They Carried-Tim O’Brien “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a collection of different short stories about American soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. The book focuses on the turbulent period in the American history where the author narrates the stories with insight and compassion to reach out to the audience. It is almost a hallucinatory book because it is neither O’Brien’s memoir nor a short stories nor a novel but an artful of combination of all these three. In the book, O’Brian narrates his experience in the Vietnam War but majority of the stories are fictional. The main character in the book has similar life experience as O’Brien himself.

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Before going to war, one could not fathom the emotional and physical strain it has on the body and mind. Once these men have fought in battle, the reality they face is overwhelming. What the soldiers experience is indescribable to those who were not there to witness it. In order to cope many soldiers will distract themselves from the hard truth that sits in from of them. In “Love,” Jimmy Cross keeps his mind on his love for Martha and how she is in love with him and they will be together when he returns from Vietnam.

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After losing a member of his team, Jimmy Cross was unhappy with the result and blamed himself for the lost of Ted Lavender and started to do what is necessary to win the war. Meanwhile after Mary Anne saw the village and what the soldiers go through everyday to protect their country, she changed changed by become one with the war and fighting among her country that she became one with vietnam. Jimmy Cross burned the letter as a way to show his new role as a leader while Mary Anne wore a necklace that has human tongues to represent the person, the war turned her to. Jimmy Cross and Mary Ann had someone that they love and care about, although Martha didn’t love Cross back, Cross stilled loved her so much that he evened told her that he loves her but she didn’t say it back.

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In the short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, the main character Tim O’Brien gets a letter notifying him that he has been selected for the draft; he is affected by this emotionally, physically, and he faces a moral dilemma because this war goes against what he believes in. Immediately upon receiving the letter O’Brien thinks, “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn’t happen. I was above it” (1003).

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Valor and Heroes in The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was published in 1990. The book is set during the Vietnam war, and It is narrated by O’Brien and tells about the war stories that happened. According to Kleinbard, “O’Brien provides a more substantive reality that has no heroes or valor.”

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All characters cope with different situations in their own ways. In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, his character cope with the effects of the Vietnam War differently. O’Brien’s character Mary Anne and Norman Bowker deal with the war the only ways they know how to. Various characters in O’Brien’s novel deal with the war and its repercussions that occur.

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Jimmy constantly daydreams about a woman named Martha as he leads his squad through Vietnam. He loves this woman so much that he brings along a photo of her which he guards and that play around with a rock in his mouth, licking it and so forth as he daydreams about her even if his relationship with Martha is a fantasy. After one of the soldiers named Lavender is killed, Jimmy realizes that he has to perform his duty to lead his squad. He realizes that he cannot be in love while be in a war at the same time. It shows that even death can cause someone to change.

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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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The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

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Emotional worry is a major weight the men carry while in war. Jimmy Cross, the leader of the men, carries a picture of Martha, a college student, whom Cross longs the love he feels for her to be returned back. By keeping the picture of her in his bag, he constantly thinks about her and this leads to a death on his part and the carry of guilt. Cross thinks about a date they went on and continually wishes he had done more to her. This creates a longing for Martha even

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Lieutenant Jimmy Cross had a similar powerlessness over his inner feelings, fueling a constant internal war between empathy and apathy. Cross wished to treat his soldiers as humans rather than units, but felt caught by his military training. His emotional struggle with Martha resulted in similar conflict. He wanted with such fervor to act upon his love, only to be rejected by her indifference toward him. Cross eventually decided to stand by his ingrained training, making his sole purpose the war effort, abandoning his passion and intensity.

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However, one does not simply wake up and decide to be a warrior in war. Many of the soldiers who fight in war are drafted forcefully and have no other choice but to serve their country. They are deprived of their education, family, and their freedom. These citizens lose their futures to the war. Many people overlook this aspect of war, and it needs to be addressed because everyone has a right to have a brighter future.

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