Free Things They Carried Essays: Character Analysis

The vast majority of heroes in novels display courage frequently, making it a characteristic praised by many. Once a character demonstrates their cowardly nature, he becomes looked down upon. Those unlucky enough can be named weak, wimpy, chicken, and so forth; however many do not understand that both courage and timidness are intertwined. In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, the author indicates that courage can be driven by both fear and cowardice. O'Brien never has interest in the war. Once he finds out he must venture off to war, the pure terror of risking his life for an unjust cause leads him to fleeing to Canada. Once he reaches Canada, he meets an old proprietor of a fishing resort. O'Brien relaxes for the next six days in Canada, having the time of his life. However, one day the old man and he decide to go fishing, and the old man stops his boat at

He envisions the town, people in his future, and people in his past. The pressure of the universe is too overwhelming for him: "Even in my imagination, the shore just twenty yards away, I couldn't make myself be brave. It had nothing to do with morality. Embarrassment, that's all it was. And right then I submitted" (57). O'Brien's embarrassment of being classified as a traitor engulfs him. His fear of cowardice forces him to submit; it forces him to go to war. Sitting on the shore with all of his loved ones staring at him, even though they are fictitious, shatters him, causing him to surrender to a futile cause. Tim O'Brien does not go to war because he believes in its vitality. He never goes to war because he knows it strengthens his country. He goes to war because he is consumed by the pure embarrassment of his cowardice. His bravery is nonexistent; it is a combination of fear and shame masquerading as courage that forces him to be a hero. Without his fear, he would never have submitted his life to the insignificant