The Subconscious Mind In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

It can be said that physical objects own you, but it is what is in the heart that breaks you. This idea conveys the truth that abstract qualities exceeds those of the physical. Therefore, it is asserted that intangibles such as the psychological wellbeing of an individual is more important than the physical being of that individual. Like an emotional dream that never leaves the imagination, emotional burdens never leaves the brain. In his book, The Things They Carried , Tim O’Brien says that the subconscious mind plays a bigger part in war than the actual actions that occurs in war. He says ”they carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing—these were intangibles, but the tangibles had their own mass

and specific gravity, they had the tangible weight” (21). O’Brien supports the idea that the things the men thought about in their heads such as their fear, longing to see love ones, a their accountability for the dead and hope of a safe return were all the things that drove them crazy and impacted them more than the physical distress of war.
In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried” the description of Lavenders death by Kiowa, O’Brien’s interpretation of tunnel duty and blushing represents to what extent fear impressed on the soldier’s mental wellbeing.

The soldier’s fear came from their imagination, wanting to be courageous at times and at other times watching their friends die. During O’Brien’s portrayal of tunnel duty he repeatedly ask many questions such as “Will your flashlight go dead? If you screamed, how far would the sound reach? Would your buddies hear it?” (11). Viewed as odd questions by O’Brien himself, these questions, however, serve to infer the idea that like the endless, long tunnel the possibilities of what could happen to a soldier while at war were endless, but the main thing the men tried not to think about was death; even though they knew death was unavoidable. The questions served to cover up-the soldier’s fear of thinking about death. According to O’Brien the soldier’s also “carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing” (21). The soldier’s fear of being seen as an embarrassment was one of their greatest fears. They killed not because they wanted to, but to save their reputation. Their insides scorched when they would think that they would die as a a dishonorable soldier and also as one who failed to impress their fellow comrades. In an attempt to pee Ted Lavender was shot in the head and as Kiowa describes it was “like watching a rock fall, or a a big sandbag

or something—just boom, then down” (6). Symbolically the rock and sandbag personifies the weight to which Lavenders death effected the soldier’s. The death of Lavender hit them hard and continued to circulate in their mind and throughout the story to show how fearful they were of dying. The mens gruesome amount of fear is only one of the many things they carried that added on to their insanity.
In addition to fear, another emotional weight the men carried was their profound want to see a love one. The soldier’s themselves were forced into war, thus giving up the lives they used to have. Once at war, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross nostalgic reminiscent of Martha, the girl he loved served as his greatest burden. While on tunnel duty he “wanted to sleep in her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered” (11). He had a love for her that was cottony and fairy-tale like which was reflected by the poetic syntax. Throughout much of the chapter, The Things They Carried Martha preoccupies Lieutenant Jimmy Cross mind as he wishes to be with her “walking barefoot on the jersey shore” (9). He repeatedly mentions the weightless pebble Martha gave to him and how he always “wondered if Martha was a virgin” (2). Martha’s traits are those of someone who is to be treated delicately and reminds Jimmy Cross of the innocence that he still has left. The airy like pebble that Jimmy carries alleviates the terrible horrors of war. In the end however, his frenzy, recollective memory, and longing to see Martha causes him to have more gruesome pain than the war itself.
Along with Jimmy Cross, his fellow comrade Tim O’Brien also endured the pain of accepting accountability for the soldiers who died.

Jimmy Cross was responsible for all the men lives and actions. In reference to his last name Cross, he was like God. He was to watch his men and take care of them. However, he unintentionally allowed one of his soldiers Ted Lavender to get shot while peeing due to his negligence of once again daydreaming about Martha. In an attempt to accept the blame he “crouched at the bottom of the foxhole and burned Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs”(23), however, shortly he fully accepted the blame. He noticed that “Lavender was dead. You couldn't burn the blame”(23). He further learned that he had to forget about Martha which only took away his elated feelings and caused more internal grief. In another careless mistake, Jimmy Cross allowed his men to set up next the shit field which eventually cobbled up his soldier Kiowa. Through this experience he learned that “you could blame the war. You could blame the idiots who made the war”(177), but the blame was on everyone. Everyone felt some type of emotion which weighted on their hearts. In the chapter “Ambush” Tim O’Brien reflects on the man he killed and noted that “when I'm reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog” (134.) Though he accepts the responsibility for the man he killed, like many of the soldier’s he

conveys the idea that by accepting responsibility one accepts to feel sadness and the recurrent of events forever.
In contrast to the soldiers emotional darkness, they nonetheless had hope while at war. Some of the necessities that the soldier’s brought not only lessened the weight of the war, but also signified their wishful thinking of one day returning home. For example, in the short anecdote titled “Stockings” Dave Jenson who was known as the big guy brought his girlfriends pantyhose with him. Jenson loved that the pantyhose “kept him safe. They gave him access to the spiritual where things we soft and intimate, a place where he might someday take his girlfriend”(118). The pantyhose to Jenson signified him one day getting to put them on his girlfriend . Like Jenson, the other soldier’s also kept an optimistic outlook of one day returning home. At night they dreamed of being “carried away by jumbo jets” (22) where they would “feel the weights fall off”(22) and feel the “restful encumbered sensation, while sailing that big silver freedom bird over the mountains and oceans, over America, over the farms and great sleeping cities” (23). The Jumbo jet and the big silver freedom bird both signify the soldiers way of escaping the emotional hardship of war and overall escaping war itself. However, burden by the emotions of war they never stood a chance of ever escaping the war because it forever existed in their hearts, bones, eyes, hair, nose, mouth and all the anatomical parts of their body.
In conclusion, the physical objects the soldiers carried never out weighted the emotional pain that they held in their hearts. O’Brien lists all the necessities men brought to war, but throughout the book conveys the concept of emotional burdens. No matter who goes to war, whether it is soldier’s in the year 2016 or soldier’s earlier and after they will never be the same. It is not only soldier’s who carry emotional burdens as the firefighters, doctors, wives, students, mothers, fathers, and all humans across the world carry some type of mental baggage.