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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 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…
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
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.
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”.
Lt. Jimmy Cross is extremely affected by Martha as his one time girlfriend; he is obsessed with even the thought of her.-- So obsessed with her, he even becomes distracted to the point an accident occurs for which he blames himself for the longest time. That Martha was a distracting factor shown through Tim’s observations of Lt. Cross. He loved her so much. On the march, through the hot days of early April, he carried the pebble in his mouth, turning it with his tongue, tasting sea salt and moisture. His mind wandered.
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
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.
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 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
Lieutenant Cross’s letters serve as an escape from the rigors and stressors from the events that he must participate in. “He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains…elusive on the matters of love” (178), shows Lt. Cross escaping, if only for a moment, and believing in something he knows not to be true, or even feasible. Something as seemingly innocent as letters from a friend offered Lt. Cross a moment out of his present setting. Although he knows that Martha is being innocent with her letters to him, he still removes himself from his present situation and lets his mind wander. After he realizes he is distracted, he returns to his present station, and goes about his military duties. Lt. Cross had found a way to remove himself and travel to a fantasy world, which I believe to be important fo...
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
Though she keeps Lieutenant Cross going and able to make it day to day, she does so by distracting him from reality. She distracts him to a point that he thinks he is responsible for the death of one of his comrade. The reason he thinks this is because he was thinking about Martha so much that it was hard to stay focused, so when Lavender came back from peeing he was shot in his head and Cross felt responsible for his death. Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton thinks Cross feels so burdened about Lavender’s death she states that “After he burns Martha's' letters and photographs he vows “to do what they had always done,” but this time with “no more fantasies.” In the same way that they often discarded in the field what they no longer needed, Lt. Cross swears to “dispense with love,” to put it aside as an unnecessary burden.” He also says he feels like she is a distraction because while strunk was in the tunnel Cross was supposed to be supervising him but instead he had his mind on Martha. “Trouble, he thought---a cave-in maybe. And then suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha” (pg.11). He acts as if he has no control over his fantasy of longing to be with her. Rena Korb states “Jimmy Cross's ideals of home, fantasies of a girl back home, simply serve as deadly distractions.” She says this because of the death of Lavender and the irresponsible actions towards the rest of the
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
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
In “The Things They Carried,” Lee Strunk is set to investigating a tunnel while the others waited up top. Cross watches over the men, “but he was not there. He was buried” with thoughts of Martha (600). He wakes up from this glassy-eyed state to Ted Lavender being shot straight through the head. Both Lavender and Cross drop like cement, each in their own respects. Cross immediately feels great remorse sorrow, for “he had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence, Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (602). It’s one challenging thing to watch someone die, it’s even worse to have someone die on your watch, and it’s absolutely horrid to have someone die since you were slacking off. One of the worst possible forms of guilt shakes Cross to the very core. This literal and figurative gunshot suddenly makes Cross realize the foolishness of his obsession. He burns the letters and pictures from Martha symbolically but only further realizes that he “couldn’t burn the blame” (606). He wakes up to the true world he’s living in, takes in the war around him, and starts fresh, anew, ready to carry the weight of his