Flaws In The Things They Carried

One’s greatest critic is always themselves. Be it being critical of how one looks, how one acts, or how one is perceived by others, the harshest judgement one receives comes from within. Presentation of oneself is especially important to soldiers, and thus, due to possibility of becoming a target, loss of respect, and personal standards they have for themselves, the soldiers in “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien feared looking weak above all else.
Appearing weak before an adversary is possibly the worst thing one can do in times of war, because once one shows weakness, they show the opposition that they are an easy target, and they get hunted down like an animal. In “The Things They Carried”, one night, the narrator, Tim O’Brien, was on watch, and he saw an enemy. It was a single person, probably just a patrol or scout unit, who posed little to no threat to the company or O’Brien. O’Brien, knowing the little danger of the situation, still completely obliterated the man. He described the man’s mutilated figure. “His jaw was in his throat.” “His other (eye) was a star shaped hole.” “The skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips.” O’Brien had no reason to kill him, or at least kill him this brutally, besides his fear of being targeted for showing weakness.

Possibly even worse than showing weakness to an enemy is showing weakness to an ally.

In “The Things They Carried”, for example,Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen had a fight. According to the narrator, “It was about something stupid - a missing jackknife - but even so, the fight was vicious.” The fight ended with Jensen demolishing Strunk, simply because he thought he stole an easily replaceable knife. However, the reason was probably more than that. Most likely, Jensen just wanted to make sure everyone in the party knew he wasn’t weak, because once you show weakness, you lose the ability to know who you can rely on in hard

times.
Finally, the men hold themselves to a higher standard than to be weak. Before he was taken to Vietnam, O’Brien attempted to flee to Canada to avoid the draft, as he was opposed to the war, and did not want to run off and die for a cause he did not believe in. However, when presented with a golden opportunity to flee across the border, he could not bring himself to do it. O’Brien saw this as a weakness, as he failed to stand with his beliefs. In the end, “All (he) could do was cry. Quietly, not bawling, just chest chokes.”
Weakness is something that, one way or another, everyone will face within themselves. The question is whether or not to hide it from others or even yourself, or to embrace it. This is a struggle shared by the soldiers in “The Things They Carried”, whether they are afraid of becoming a target, losing the respect of their allies, or if they hold themselves to a high standard.