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Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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Unlike many forms of media about war, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a realistic depiction of war. The novel describes soldiers having fears and weaknesses. The soldiers in Alpha Company suffer and go through plenty of trauma-involving situations while in Vietnam. The war was very dehumanizing for the troops. The war was also mentally taxing on the soldiers who had to carry the burdens of deaths they encountered in the war. The war in Vietnam was dehumanizing, and The Things They Carried vividly portrays it. In “Night Life”, Rat Kiley goes crazy. O’Brien states, “Definitely not the old Rat Kiley. His whole personality seemed out of kilter” (210). In the story, Alpha Company could only move at night. Sleeping during the day and humping at night caused the soldiers …show more content…

Eventually he completely lost it and shot himself. In “The Man I Killed”, O’Brien details the Vietcong soldier he killed. He says, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other was a star-shaped hole” (118). In the chapter, O’Briend uses gory and crass details to describe the dead. It paints a picture of what war can do to someone. On one side it shows what can physically happen to a soldier, and on the other side it shows the mental toll a death can have on a soldier. O’Brien feels guilty for killing the soldier. The war in Vietnam was both physically and mentally dehumanizing for the soldiers in the war. Throughout the novel, Alpha Company places blame on themselves for the deaths of their fellow soldiers in Vietnam. Lieutenant Cross carries the burden of Ted Lavender’s death with him. O’Brien states, “Lavender is dead. You couldn’t burn the blame” (22). Lieutenant Cross was so infatuated with his “girlfriend” Martha that he was not able to be a good leader. His inability to lead well caused the death of one of his soldiers, Ted

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