Tough Quotes From The Things They Carried

The characters in The Things They Carried felt pressure to go to be tough, by going to war, not get emotional over girls, and being brave. Tim O'Brien got drafted to go to war during his summer off from college while he was working at a meat factory. He was not the kind of man to pay attention to the war he would rather study or focus on school work. When he got a letter telling him he was drafted to go into the war he was afraid. He thought about running away to Canada, but his fear of getting judged by society for not being tough was greater than his fear of the war. He was scared of society calling him names and thinking he was weak for not going. He said ¨ I would go to war- I would kill and maybe die- because I was embarrassed not to¨

He would miss and obsess over her everyday in battle. Other people judged him for this. Jimmy witnesses one of his men Ted Lavender get shot in the head. He blames himself because he feels it was his love for Martha that stopped him from focusing on his men. He said ¨ He felt shame. He hated himself he loved Martha more than his men, as a consequence Lavender was dead¨( O'Brien 16) He conformed to society's belief to not get overly emotional over girls and be tough. In society's mind it was bad to love a girl to much it would show you weren't tough enough to be a man. Since Jimmy loved Martha he blamed that on one of his men dieing because of the pressure of society. Like Jimmy Cross a man named curt lemmon felt the pressure of society. The pressure he felt was also to be tough. Curt was afraid of many things including the dentist. All the men are waiting by a tent waiting to see the dentist to get bad teeth pulled. Curt says ¨No way count me out. Nobody messes with these teeth¨..¨ but a few minutes later, when the dentist called his name Lemmon stood up and walked into the tent¨ (O'Brien 83) Curt would've loved to not go in and get teeth pulled he was scared, but when all the men were watching him to see what he would do he felt pressure to be tough and go

Women are taught that the skinner they are the better they look. This is shown is the way our clothes are sizes, and the way photoshop makes models look. In an article by Missy Rogers, she explains how she bought a pair of shorts two years ago and a pair of shorts this year. The shorts from 2 years ago are a size 4 so when she went to American Eagle she tried on a 4 and couldn't get them past her knees. She ended up buying a size 10. She thought that she must of just gained some weight but when she brought them home she compared the shorts and she was surprised to see that the size 10 waistband and width was the same as the size 4 she had bought from 2 years ago. Women are not getting any smaller but our clothing choices are. This is teaching girls to think there body is not the way it should be. Missy says “If a size 10 today used to be a size 4, what messages are you implying to younger girls?” This is just one way society is teaching girls not to love their own body another is with photoshop. Photoshop is taking a photo and morphing it to look anyway you want. Photographers may take a modles photo and make there skin better, hair longer, and stomach flatter. In the end we see the photo of an impossibly perfect looking person and not anyone real. The person we see on magazines and online is an impossible ideal image to be like. In the video “Standard Of Beauty & Photoshop | Model Before and