4.) Ted Lavender adopted an orphan puppy. This is a coping mechanism of his. He cared for the puppy as if it was a child; from feeding it with a plastic spoon to carrying it with him everywhere he went.The war made him feel anxious and gave him troubled mind. He used drugs to ease it. Therefore, cannabis was a necessity for Lavender. The text states, “Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope…” Lavender bled to death out of a single gunshot wound to the head. Subconsciously and without any questions asked the soldiers around him knew exactly what to do. This shows that death had become an ordinary part of life to them. They just wrap up the body and take it to the helicopter and act like nothing ever happened. In the chapter titled
Most war novels center on themes of valor and heroism. Some concentrate on the opposites of these virtues in an attempt to display raw realism. Harrison, right from the beginning of his novel, shows us both. The narrator of this first-person narrative paints a picture of a totally un-heroic bunch of soldiers preparing for debarkation. The drinking and debauchery are followed the next morning by a parade that the suffering soldiers must march through, while the people watch their ‘heroes’ leaving to bravely fight the good fight. While this clearly demarcates the innocent civilians from the savvy soldiers, it also shows the reader that the narrator is going to try to tell the real story.
In the story, “The Things They Carried”, author Tim O’Brien described specific items that each of his soldiers carried with them to the Vietnam War front. The items that the soldiers carried were for mental protection; they believed that the things they carried would take their minds off all the terror and violence that was going on around them. The protagonist, Lieutenant Jimmy cross, carries out letters from a girl named Martha, which leads to him losing his focus for the war and a lack of protection for his fellow soldiers. The death of Ted Lavender tested Lieutenant Cross’ loyalty to his men, his imagination of Martha, and the significance relating to each of the items the soldiers’ carry.
In O’Brien’s story “The Things They Carried”, Jimmy Cross thinks the death of his comrades, Ted Lavender is his fault but it’s not. Jimmy Cross was only 22 year old too young to be First Lieutenant. Jimmy Cross’s obsession with Martha reading and a daydreaming about her letters. In which Jimmy Cross’s mind could escape from the ugliness of the war. In Vietnam War, being a strong leader over the troop is impossible the war’s mission are undefined. Ted Lavender’s death was a great tragedy of the Vietnam War, and not the fault of Jimmy Cross.
Death also plays a big role in the health of a person 's mental state. It is the way a person handles death that determines how they are affected by it. The reactions that Cross and his troop have to the death of Lavender are very indicative of the psychological trauma that death in war can have on soldiers. Kiowa, a member of the troop, frequently refers to Lavender 's death with " 'boom, down '" or " 'zapped while zipping '" (108). However, he is not the only soldier who utters these two phrases. Rat Kiley, can only express the phrase " 'the guys dead '" (106) over and over again. The reactions these soldiers ' have are neither out of the ordinary nor normal for an environment and profession ravaged by death constantly. To make jokes or light of the death may seem as cruel and insensitive, yet it is a warped way of coping with death so that one does not become consumed by it like Cross does. Not only does he forgo love because of Lavender 's death, he also relives the death constantly. O 'Brien makes this very apparent in the way he presents Lavender 's death to the reader. He never tells Cross ' story in order from start to finish. Yet he intertwines the happenings before and after the occurrence of Lavender 's death with the actual day he dies. In this way the story can be viewed in the present and past. It can be read as if the events are happening as they are told, or as if the soldiers are reliving these memories years after the Vietnam war. Death can have such a lasting impact that it permanently scars a person mentally, so much that it haunts them years after the death itself took place. A memory lying dormant waiting to be awakened by a catalyst, such a balloon being popped that sounds like a gun shot. It is not only in the present that soldier deal with death, but also in future through flashbacks and night terrors. Death sticks with a person throughout their life. The
The text reveals that the soldiers have a hard time with the death of ted lavender. For example, they describe ted’s death as if he just ‘’flat fuck fell’’— [The things they carried] The lieutenant cross felt the pain of losing one of his men and he blamed himself for it. One of the characters Kiowa explained how fast it had been. The guy had dropped like so much concrete.’’ Boom – down like cement’’. The lieutenant cross felt the pain of losing one of his men and he blamed himself for it.
The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is an assortment of war stories set before, during, and after the Vietnam War. The stories are not written in chronological order, but rather a scattered remembering of events that occurred during O’Brien’s time during the war. When recalling certain memories, they tend to lead to other memories that develop into a story of their own. O’Brien will describe to the reader a death that occurs in the squadron and later will give more detail about that particular character. Ted Lavender’s character is an example of how O’Brien will tell his story. In the first story, the reader is informed of a death in the patrol, Ted Lavender, and later O’Brien describes him as a laid back person who took tranquilizers
The Work of Death seemed inevitable to soldiers who embarked on the journey known as the Civil War. Throughout the Civil War, human beings learned how to prepare for death, imagine it, risk it, endure it, and seek to understand it. All the soldiers needed to be willing to die and needed to turn to the resources of their culture, codes of masculinity, patriotism, and religion to prepare themselves for the war ahead of them. Death individually touched soldiers with it’s presence and the fear of it, as death touched the soldiers it gave them a sense of who they really are and how they could change on their death bed.
Throughout the seminar discussion various topics were addressed, but the argument students came back to the most dealt with the characters in the war and their experiences throughout the novel, more specifically, the negative effects the war had inflicted on them. Tim O’Brien’s argument in the novel was simply that war brings out the worst in people. O’Brien makes this argument clear through his usage of metaphors, imagery, and symbolism all as he builds up his complex characters throughout the novel.
Erich Maria Remarque, in his book All Quiet on the Western Front,demonstrates the horrors of war and the suffering, both mentally and physically, of the soldiers that are involved. Throughout the book that character and his friends are all in the and feel like they don’t have a purpose for fighting in the war. Every once in awhile one of his close friends dies. With each death all of the surviving characters think more and more about the reality that they face. Neer the end of the story, Paul and his friend Kat are the only ones of the group left. Kat was shot in the shin and Paul carried him all the way back to the medical tent over his shoulder. When Paul puts him down he realized that Kat
The novel “The things they carried” is set into motion with the background of a Lieutenant in an active duty team in Vietnam. Lt. Cross throughout this book is obsessed with a woman named Martha, someone he dated before he shipped to Vietnam. He is distracted by looking at her letters and photographs that she had wrote him in basic training. Cross questions her virtue and wishes that she could love him as much as he loved her. Cross is in battle with several people under his command, and he is unsure of everything he does throughout this book. Cross’s guilt is apparent when his men die throughout the book, however, is the lieutenant’s most showed when Ted Lavender dies. Cross confesses to O’Brien later on about how he has
He is mentioned among the lines as someone “who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head” (2). Fear is a constant emotion within the troop that increases with the death of Ted Lavender. The image of being shot in the head represents the horror that is among them. Also, going into a dark and deep hole and not knowing if one will be back or not, acknowledges the reality they are in. Later in the story, Lieutenant regrets the death of Lavender as “He felt shame. He hated himself” (16). One emotion after another one. The agony and the things they carried get heavier and heavier as the story progresses since Lieutenant recognizes that “… he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (16); a stone that symbolizes the emotional burden but can also be a physical load. Life is not different. Age progresses with a risk. Human are not immortal gods. We are vulnerable to the dangers of the outside and we are the pray of even the smallest virus in earth. A disease or a traumatic event can be the thing we carry. It is a condition that is heavy emotionally and physically. A stone in the body can be a buildup of calcium in a duct that obstructs fluid. This leads to emotional disturbances such as lack of sleep or loss of appetite. It is a path where humans cannot rest and must continue to walk with or without the emotional support. This physical thing we carry can be constant and permanent. As we age, we become more vulnerable to these diseases, challenging the smooth path we would all like to have to walk through. Furthermore, an illness does not only the result in physical changes but emotional challenges must be addressed as well. A stone affecting the anatomy of a human being also affect the cortex of the brain. Electrical signals traveling to the cortex of the brain cause unpleasant emotions. These changes the mood of the ill. Reality turns from positive to negative.
The death of a fellow human, whether it be soldier or friend or maybe even both, never goes silently into the night, no it happens and always has consequences. Whether they are physical or emotional there will always be damage. In Tim O'brien's The Things They Carried soldiers During the Vietnam War, as can be expected, deal with heavy burdens of guilt and shame but that’s only half the struggle. The other begins soon after the death occurs. Coping with the deaths, actions and crimes committed during this war is more often than not harder to get over than the emotional blow itself. Throughout this paper the following things will be discussed: the burdens the main characters in The Things They Carried and the emotional toll of each, the struggle
There is a truth universally acknowledged among those that have seen combat: war changes a man. Sometimes this a positive change, instilling bravery into the hearts of faint-hearted young men or creating bonds of camaraderie that will last lifetimes. Unfortunately, more often war sees a darker change in a man, sees him stuck down, left lifeless in soul if not body. WWII was a dark time for America, and many of the strapping soldiers that left for the glory of war came back injured, seeing ghosts on every front, sick in a way that many people did not understand. Tayo, in Leslie Silko’s Ceremony, is one such man, and Silko’s use of a wandering and fractured narrative showcases these symptoms, and brings to life the struggle soldiers had adjusting to home after visiting what some would call hell.
Before his death, more than sixty after the Battle of the Bulge, his father finally began sharing more intimate, painful wartime experiences, as we walked together around the Northern Portland neighborhood where they lived most of our lives. The walks were long even though the distances were short. His walker rattled and his feet barely cleared the cracks in the sidewalk as we ambled along. His memory ebbed and flowed, as past blurred with the present, and the new stories revealed a darker side of war.
A Soldier's memory gets erased of childhood memories and future and is replaced with the sight of blood splashing bullets of a man made killing machine held by another soldier only fighting on the other side. “So I take him on my back and finally start off to the dressing room.” (Remarque 87). War is one of the few places true brotherhood exists. No matter the cost a Soldier's actions might hold, they would do anything for their fellow brothers if it means their brothers would have another chance at life. In All Quiet On The Western Front, It writes the many stories of brotherhood Including the sad traumatizing stories from watching a Brother die to carrying his corpse to the dressing room without realizing it. “If it came down to it, could I take the bullet, I would. Yes I would for you” (For You). Even though Paul had no idea of the final blow to his friends head he still carried him endlessly and exhaustingly to the dressing room for Hope of his Brothers life.