Guilt In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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Recommended: Symbolism of "The Things They Carried

Not all stories or novel are written to just entertain people when they are bored, some novels teach people a lesson, has a theme, or it is warning people from doing something that they might regret later. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, there are themes that the readers can get from reading the novel. One of the themes that are explored in this novel is that, guilt can sometimes be a good thing. Example of that was when the soldiers went to Than Khe and they were going through tunnels and it exploded, Lieutenant Cross was not paying attention but day dreaming about Martha so he did not have time to rescue Lavender. “ He felt shame. He hated himself. He d loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead,..” (The Things They Carried, 16). Cross felt guilty about what happened and decided to not think about Martha but keep his mind on the war and the soldiers from now on. Another example is when Lee Strunk lost his right leg and asked Dave not to kill him even after they had signed the contract that said that if any of them get in a wheelchair they have to end that person’s life to end their misery. “Later we heard that Strunk died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve Dave Jensen of an enormous weight” (Friends,63). Dave felt guilty for not ending Strunk’s life when he was on the wheelchair, so it felt better when he died without anyone killing him. Guilt is not a good thing, but …show more content…

When Kiowa died, the soldiers spent all their time looking for their friend’s body, even though he already died, they would not just let him be buried in the mud and people stepping on him. This shows ta they all cared about each other. Also, the young soldier’s reaction to Kiowa’s death,” He pictured Kiowa’s face. They’d been close buddies, the tightest..” (In the field,163). The soldiers built friendships at war, they became a

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    One of the most overlooked aspects in the life of a soldier is the weight of the things they carry. In Tim O'Brien's story, "The Things They Carried," O'Brien details the plight of Vietnam soldiers along with how they shoulder the numerous burdens placed upon them. Literally, the heavy supplies weigh down each soldier -- but the physical load imposed on each soldier symbolizes the psychological baggage a soldier carries during war. Though O'Brien lists the things each soldier carries, the focal point centers around the leader, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and his roles in the war. Lt. Cross has multiple burdens, but his emotional baggage is the most pressing. Of all the weights burdened upon Lt. Cross, the heaviest baggage is located in his own mind. Specifically, the heaviest things Lt. Cross carries are an emotional obsession over Martha's love, the physical consequences caused by his daydreaming of Martha, and an unrelenting guilt about Ted Lavender's death.

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  • Character Analysis: Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

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    One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way of connecting to their homes. The story depicts the soldiers by the baggage that they carry, both mentally and physically. After the death of one of his troops, Ted Lavender, Jimmy finally realizes that his actions have been detrimental to the squad as a whole. He believes that if he would have been a better leader, that Ted Lavender would have never been shot and killed. The physical and emotional baggage that Jimmy totes around with him, in Vietnam, is holding him back from fulfilling his responsibilities as the First Lieutenant of his platoon. Jimmy has apparent character traits that hold him back from being the leader that he needs to be, such as inexperience and his lack of focus; but develops the most important character trait in the end, responsibility.

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  • The Guilt They Carried in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried

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    The death of Kiowa is the point in this story, and arguably the entire novel, where the true nature of war becomes evident. His death in any situation would have been tragic, and camping in that “shit field” alone would have been an emotionally scarring experience; however, that these events had to coincide in time only multiplies the gravity of the situation. Interestingly, every soldier has his own way of grappling with such overwhelming feelings of grief for his highly-esteemed comrade. Yet what every man has in common is that in the end he concludes that he alone is the one ultimately responsible for Kiowa’s death.

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  • Lieutenant Jimmy Cross: The Things They Carried

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  • Coping Methods in the Things They Carried

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  • Feeling Death in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

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    In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the readers follow the Alpha Company’s experiences during the Vietnam War through the telling’s of the main character and narrator, Tim. At the beginning of the story, Tim describes the things that each character carries, also revealing certain aspects of the characters as can be interpreted by the audience. The book delineates what kind of person each character is throughout the chapters. As the novel progresses, the characters’ personalities change due to certain events of the war. The novel shows that due to these experiences during the Vietnam War, there is always a turning point for each soldier, especially as shown with Bob “Rat” Kiley and Azar. With this turning point also comes the loss of innocence for these soldiers. O’Brien covers certain stages of grief and self-blame associated with these events in these stories as well in order to articulate just how those involved felt so that the reader can imagine what the effects of these events would be like for them had they been a part of it.

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    The weights of desires, fears, and responsibility place great amounts of pressure on an individual. The soldiers in “The Things They Carried” all around lug a great deal of heavy weaponry and equipment. But the heaviest items are intangible things such as their emotions, shame and reputations. These intangible items cannot be discarded and thus, the men continue to “hump” by enduring their weight for the remainder of their lives. Lieutenant Cross realizes that the men “carry these things inside, maintaining a mask of composure” (369) and that unfortunately, the only way to release these things is death.

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    The narrator in “The Things They Carried” deals with the subjective conditions of war. Throughout the story, straining emotions often brought O’Brien’s teams emotions, especially after a death, causes a “crying jag” with a “heavy-duty hurt” (O’Brien 1185). The fury of emotion associated with death begins to erode the sharp minds of the soldiers and become mentally effective. After an event of large magnitude, it still began to take its toll on the protagonist as they often “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might dies” during the war (O’Brien 1187). The travesties that occurred with the brutality of war did not subside and began to affect those involved in a deeply emotional way. The multitude of disastrous happenings influenced the narrator to develop a psychological handicap to death by being “afraid of dying” although being “even more afraid to show it” (O’Brien 1187). The burden caused by the war creates fear inside the protagonist’s mind, yet if he were to display his sense of distress it would cause a deeper fear for those around him, thus making the thought of exposing the fear even more frightening. The emotional battle taken place in the psyche of the narrator is repressed directly by the war. The protagonist in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is also faced with the task of coping with mental

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    One of the hardest events that a soldier had to go through during the war was when one of their friends was killed. Despite their heartbreak they could not openly display their emotions. They could not cry because soldiers do not cry. Such an emotional display like crying would be sign of weakness and they didn’t want to be weak, so they created an outlet. “They were actors. When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying because in a curious way it seemed scripted”(19). Of course things were scripted especially when Ted Lavender died. It had happened unexpectedly and if they didn’t have something planned to do while they were coping they would all have broken down especially Lieutenant Cross. Cross...

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  • The Things They Carried

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    A lot of people change because of some tragic event or some mishappening in their life. They become more responsible, feel guilty and regret their behavior in the past. A friend of mine started taking care of his business after his father's death and stopped being an irresponsible jerk. He feels guilty about not having a good relation with his father. Whereas, the story "the things they carried" is about the fantasies, fears and desires and dreams of the soldiers. For instance, Ted lavender was afraid of death. Jimmy cross dreams about the girl Martha and lost his consciousness sometimes while marching and sitting. He also had some wild fantasies about her. He is a careless officer who doesn't pay any attention, no matter how hard he tries. He felt guilty about the death of his coworker Ted lavender. Ted died of a sniper shot in his head and that was the day irresponsible, daydreamer and careless jimmy changed into more responsible man focusing on war.

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  • Coping Mechanisms in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

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    During the Vietnam war, soldiers were not exposed to the traditional coping mechanisms of our American society, as illustrated in Tim Obrien's The Things They Carried. These men were forced to discover and invent new ways to deal with the pressures of war, using only their resources while in the Vietnamese jungle. It was not possible for any soldier to carry many items or burdens with them, but if something was a necessity, a way was found to carry it, and coping mechanisms were a necessity to survive the war.

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  • The Importance of Friendship in The Things They Carried

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    The soldiers feel that the only people they can talk to about the war are their “brothers”, the other men who experienced the Vietnam War. The friendship and kinship that grew in the jungles of Vietnam survived and lived on here in the United States. By talking to each other, the soldiers help to sort out the incidents that happened in the War and to put these incidents behind them. “The thing to do, we decided, was to forget the coffee and switch to gin, which improved the mood, and not much later we were laughing at some of the craziness that used to go on” (O’Brien, 29).

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