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Symbolism of "The Things They Carried
Symbolism of "The Things They Carried
Symbolism of characters in the things they carried
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Conflicts identified in literature are opposing actions, ideas, and decision that hold a plot together. Conflicts may be external (person against person) or it may be internal (struggles within the characters) (Clugston, 2014). In this week’s journal, I plan to discuss specific conflicts that I observed in Tim O’Brien (1990), The Things They Carried and William Sydney Porter (1906), The Gift of the Magi (Clugston, 2014).
First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is the main character in the story “The Things They Carried written by Tim O’Brian (Clugston, 2014). The specific conflict I observed were individual verses self and individual verses nature. Lieutenant Cross is perpetually at battle with himself over a girl back home who he loves and wishes she loved him back. Throughout
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the story the author uses flashbacks to describe circumstances that occurred when he met this girl to give the reader background information relevant to his internal conflict in which he faced. The author also used symbols such as the romantic camping trips to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This symbol was used as peace, comfort, and joy; a place of happiness in which Lieutenant Cross long for to happen again. (Clugston, 2014). Individual versus nature conflict was also evident in the story. The author describes the hot, mountain terrain environment as physical challenging. Additionally, the environment in which they were in caused infections and diseases which had a tremendous physical impact on their bodies. Lieutenant Cross character is at odds, Lieutenant Cross and his men are at war in Vietnam.
The beginning of the story reveals his focus was on Martha, her letters, and physically trying to be with her in his thoughts. As the story unfolds his true character is revealed within and he internally realizes he is caring more about a woman whom he may never see again vice the men whom he is responsible for their well-being and safety. In the end, Lieutenant Cross burned the letters and pictures of Martha and made a commitment to himself to be the leader and take care of his …show more content…
men. We all carry baggage and it’s not necessarily the trials we go thru it’s how we respond to them. We can grow and overcome them or we can allow them to defeat us. Lieutenant Cross was allowing himself to often go to a place of joy and daydreams about a gal he fancies. These daydreams, letters, photos and a gifted pebble he carries, leads him to focus elsewhere and not on his troops. Consequently he loses a soldier. Now he is faced with carrying that guilt and shame forever. He also grew and realized his shortcoming at the end of the story. Loosing Lavender snapped him out of his daydreams and longing for Martha. Being the senior officer in charge, he carried the full burden and responsibility of each member of his battalion. He refocused his energy and was determined to be the leader his men respected and looked up to. The symbols used in this story literal identify and help me identify an emotion or belief that I can relate to in my life (Clugston, 2014).
The allegory used in this story illustrates a dimension of both mental and physical baggage we carry and helps to explain the external and internal things the soldiers carried in a time of war. They were not all physical, but also emotional, and in Lieutenant Cross situation, the emotional things he was carrying had a greater impact on his abilities to do his job then the physical things he was carrying which helped illustrate the emotional impacts concept that existed outside the
story. In my second reading, The Gift of the Magi written by William Sydney Porter (1906), the core conflict in this short story is individual versus self. Della is emotionally upset, because she can’t get her husband a proper present for Christmas. This is also an internal conflict, because she is struggling within her own mind with the idea of not having an expensive present for her husband, and is also afraid he will not like her with her newly short hair (Clugston, 2014). Della’s character that is at odds is she feels unprepared for Christmas by not having enough money to purchase her husband a nice gift. Della learns of a way to ear quick money and decides to cut off her hair to earn twenty dollars. Jim was shocked to see his wife with no long hair and when he found out that Della cut off her hair to purchase a nice gift for him he was in disbelief because he had purchase a set of beautiful combs for Della to wear in her long brown hair. An irony of expression or sincere love was used in the story to identify Della’s love for Jim by her selling her hair to purchase a nice gift for Jim and for Jim purchasing nice combs for his wife to wear even though she couldn’t because she had cut off all her hair. The conflict presented in this story is significant. Even though they lived in poverty, they appreciated each other and of course the greatest give of all, their love for each other, they both possessed. The author uses situation irony in which the situation ends very differently than expected (Clugston, 2014). The story focused on giving and the importance of it to Della. As the author wraps up the plot, he uses a verse in the Bible “Matthew chapter 2 verse 11” to highlight giving, the unselfish sacrifice of a gift. Although Jim and Della were poor in the material things they were rich in their love for one another. The message that lies behind the story is gift giving and how it expresses the deep love and appreciation in a relationship. The symbols used in this story are the combs and the platinum fob chain representing a high social status and wealth, even though they were poor, both Jim and Della found ways to purchase expensive gifts for each other to show their deep appreciation and love for each other. The resolution supports the theme, which is sacrifice, by showing how they sacrificed things of value in order to give a gift to each other. Situational irony illustrates the theme, by each not knowing the other had sold their prize possessions to ensure they could get each other gifts.
53. The chapter is told centrally in the third person omniscient point of view, providing various insight on differing characters such as Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, Mitchell Sanders, a juvenile trooper, and Azar. The narrator isn’t limited to information and provides substantial background info and transcending details for each mentioned character. Essentially, the reader is given diverse point of views ranging from the many differing characters mentioned in the chapter.
Although their physical loads did not weigh the soldiers down, they definitely became their necessities. Certain physical burdens became items that helped them escape from the reality of being at war. Even though these men had things they had to carry, they elected to carry more. The items they carried were intended to illustrate aspects of their personality. All of them carried great loads of memories, fears, and desires. These abstract objects were an essential part of them and therefore could not be put down. They continued to carry these emotional burdens along with them throughout the war. And as Lieutenant Jimmy Cross came to realize, “It was very sad…the things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to
...nal lives, but O'Brien's choice to focus one soldier, Lt. Cross, lets the reader scope the depths of the human mind during an extremely stressful situation. As a young lieutenant, this man shoulders his own longing for love, the death of a fellow soldier, the guilt he places on himself, as well as the added duties of responsibilities for a platoon of men. The narrator provides one specific quote, which perfectly summarizes the mental aspects of war: "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing -- these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight" (443). Indeed, the intangibles in this story do have tangible weight -- weight that Lt. Cross must carry for the rest of his life.
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.
In the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, there are a lot of characters that carry burdens which manifest later into themes of the novel. The novel is about the Vietnam war and the experience of drafted 18-24-year-old individuals serving in a platoon squad together. For instance, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is a vital member of the Alpha Company carries vital things that later translate into the theme. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries compasses, maps, and responsibilities for the Alpha Company such as marching in a line and keeping guns clean. The character accompanied with all his objects is used as a metaphor for the war that has no structure. He is a leader in the eyes of the Alpha Company who see him as the oldest and wisest but
In the short story, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, each soldier carries many items during times of war and strife, but each necessity differs. This short story depicts what each soldier carries mentally, physically, and emotionally on his shoulders as long, fatiguing weeks wain on during the Vietnam War. The author Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam War veteran, an author, the narrator, and a teacher. The main character, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a Vietnam War soldier who is away at war fighting a mind battle about a woman he left behind in New Jersey because he is sick with love while trying to fulfill his duties as a soldier to keep America free. Tim O’Brien depicts in “The Things They Carried” a troubled man who also shoulders the
The novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien takes place in the Vietnam War. The protagonist, Lieutenant Cross, is a soldier who is madly in love with a college student named Martha. He carries around photos and letters from her. However, the first few chapters illustrate how this profound love makes him weak in the war.
Written by author Tim O’Brien after his own experience in Vietnam, “The Things They Carried” is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in “The Things They Carried” guides the reader through the complex development of characters by establishing their humanity during the inhumane circumstance of war, articulating what the men need for emotional and spiritual survival, and by revealing the character’s psychological burdens.
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.
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
But as was shown with Cross and Martha, it didn’t turn out that way. Trying to cope with all the death that he found in Vietnam, Cross does not believe that Martha isn't a virgin and believes that they still could have a life together. This was meant to be a comfort and safety mechanism when he was possibly faced with rejection and death all around him. It got to the point that it was all he thought about up to Ted Lavender's death. Trying to rid himself of the guilt, he “burned Martha’s letters”.
Horner states " throughout gender history, men have been pressured to react to deadly crisis according to the sacred rules of a male honor code. From Odysseus to King Arthur, from Ulysses to George Washington and from Aeneas to Norman Schwarzkopf, clearly the most widely accepted values of integrity, dignity, respect, self respect, valor and thus unquestioned masculinity hinge upon a commissioned response to fear and duty." (Horner, 1999) Tim Obrien shows that the classic battle of good versus evil. Lieutenant Cross's desires of Martha created an illusion that caused him to focus on himself, instead of his troops. The central tension comes between his imaginary love affair and the real responsibilities he has as the officer in command. He bypassed all his responsibilities, for his
In the book The Things They Carried Jimmy Cross chang as a charter he started out not caring only wanting to think about Martha and forgetting about war. After ted lavender dies he is determined to become a better Lieutenant for his men. It goes on to talk about the good things in war as well as the bad. The story is an eye opener for many who don't know much about
This Lieutenant Cross does not have it together. He is day dreaming about Martha a lot; he found himself zoning out; he blames himself for the death of one of his soldiers. But on closer inspection, it’s fair to say that he is trying very hard to be a good leader. We are not supposed to judge him; instead we need to empathize. Anyone in this situation would have a hard time staying on alert constantly. Doing everything according to the book, never having some sort of escape or valve to let off some of that pressure is not a behavior of human beings. All of them have a little indulgences, a way to staying psychologically safe in the midst of this horror. He is no different from the rest of the crew, His psychological escape was reading her letters and staring at her
Within Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” and James Joyce’s “Araby,” the two main protagonists share a similar internal struggle and conflict, despite being worlds apart in circumstances. O’Brien and Joyce both perfectly articulate the complete infatuation of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and “Araby’s” unnamed narrator with each of their respective loves. Even being separated by largely different writing styles, the reader follows the two with equal intrigue and wonder at the depth of their fascination, only to find them both within a moment of epiphany, where they realize the profound misfortune of their love. Amidst two largely different, almost opposite, stories these two young