When we think of the word “baggage” it probably brings up an image of a bag or suitcase containing our personal items that we may bring on a trip. Another way to think to of “baggage” is not just in the physical sense, but also in a metaphysical way. People who fought in war carry both physical and metaphysical baggage during and after the war, especially the metaphysical baggage. The physical baggage would involve the items soldiers’ carry in their rucksacks, such as guns, maps, letters, and food, whatever they thought was found necessary. While the metaphysical baggage is the emotional load, such as the memories, fear, and guilt. There is even a psychological load that is carried by soldiers after the war. In The Things They Carried written …show more content…
Just from the title, a reader may think O’Brien is writing about the physical baggage soldiers carry upon their backs, but really it’s about the metaphysical baggage that really weighs them down. While it may be easy for soldiers to take off the physical load, the same cannot be said for the emotional load. In comparison, the short story “Wandering Souls” by Bao Ninh, part of The Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers, is about a Vietnam War veteran, who is struggling with the metaphysical baggage of their memories and guilt. Both authors use a combination of fiction and reality in their writings. In both The Things They Carried and “Wandering Souls” the theme of emotional and psychological baggage is depicted throughout the each of the …show more content…
The narrator is haunted by the memory of the “horrible slaughter which had wiped out his battalion” and ends up reliving that incident in his mind (Ninh 15). The detailed description of the bedroom could be an indication that he is not doing so well after the war. For instance, “a lone figure in [an] untidy, littered room where the walls peeled...where empty bottles were strewn and where the broken wardrobe was now cockroach-infested” (Ninh 15). This can be inferred as Kien having a hard time trying to adjust to life possibly. It was not easy for veterans to just jump back into the life they lived before they went off to war because they are not the same person anymore. They have experiences things that others who were at home might not understand what they went through. Similar to O’Brien, who found an outlet through writing about his time during the war, Kien also wrote his memories down. Kien is burden with survivor's guilt and the memories of his dead comrades. “Cruelly reviving the images of his comrades, of the mortal combat in the jungle… where his battalion had met its tragic end” (Ninh 15). He will never be able to forget what he saw, but he might be able to find some peace through his writings. By writing and sharing his writing, Kien would be sharing the burden he carries with others
Tina Chen’s critical essay provides information on how returning soldiers aren’t able to connect to society and the theme of alienation and displacement that O’Brien discussed in his stories. To explain, soldiers returning from war feel alienated because they cannot come to terms with what they saw and what they did in battle. Next, Chen discusses how O’Brien talks about soldiers reminiscing about home instead of focusing in the field and how, when something bad happens, it is because they weren’t focused on the field. Finally, when soldiers returned home they felt alienated from the country and
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
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.
Personally, I think O’brien’s emotions hit hard. You can’t just let go of something and someone like that. It’s something that will always be there in your mind. He said, “I’d wanted to take my daughter to the places I’d seen as a soldier. I wanted to show her the Vietnam that kept me awake at night.”He decided to show her his past, the important things in his life. If those things didn’t matter to him, would he still have took the time to show her? He not only showed her the field he fought on. He also showed her where his friend Kiowa had died. “Now, looking out at the field, I wondered if it was all a mistake. Everything was too ordinary. A quiet sunny day, and the field was not the I remembered”, he remembers it different. I picture he remembers it as a dark, dreary, noisy place. During their time at the field O’brien took his friends Kiowa’s moccasin’s and put them in some sort of “mush” where he passed away. He wanted to tell Kiowa that “he’d been a great friend, the very best”. “In a way, maybe I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d finally worked my way
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 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.
The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the word "weight" as "a mass or quantity of something taken up and carried, conveyed, or transported." Tim O'Brien's war story The Things They Carried, published in 1990, explores the theme of weight and its importance to men at war in considerable depth. The opening chapter of this book, which was originally written as a short story, is comprised of a collection of lists. O'Brien details for his reader both the physical objects, such as cigarettes, C rations, and packets of Kool-Aid, and the more intangible things, such as fear and silent awe, that weigh these soldiers down. With the amount of space that the author gives to enumerating the weight of these objects, one might assume that these objects are what are really important to these soldiers, but in reality it is the incalculable weight of their spiritual burdens that truly weigh them down.
In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien’s opening chapter describes a group of soldiers marching through the jungles of Vietnam. Subsequently, Tim O’Brien started revealing personal items each soldiers carries with them during the war. These soldiers carry some surprisingly heavy physical and emotional burdens thought the jungles of Vietnam. However, these emotional burdens are far heavier than anything ...
By allowing the reader the "[privilege of] the soldiers experience" (Chattarji) it shows how difficult it is to get rid of the weight as begins to define you and the more it becomes a part of a person the harder it is to remove an aspect of yourself. In his repetition, O'Brien wants to give readers a deeper meaning into the everyday struggles of soldiers. He portrays the ways that soldiers were effected in the war and focused on the burdens that developed. O'Brien highlights how war changes those involved as "[the individual dreams of soldiers rise and fall and] their hopes riddled by disillusionment, their fantasies broken by shrapnel edged realities" (Timmeran). Wartime altered soldier’s perception and caused them to develop these emotional and physical weights that followed them for years. When many solider returned they were now stuck with daily burdens that had started since the day they landed in Vietnam. Constantly, these soldiers endured the long lasting results of participating in the war and unable to escape or forget the weight that they endure. "The Things They Carried" serves as a constant reminder to readers about the true realities of soldiers and the impact of war. How soldiers are not stable as they return home because of these weights that have become a part of them and how simple acts such as carrying around a weapon has now manifested itself into an emotional burden that will not leave. Often the realities of being a soldier are not portrayed accurately but O'Brien attempts to put into perspective what it really is like to go through warfare by drawing on his own experiences as a foot
The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger once said “Perjor est bello timor ipse belli”, which translates to: “the dread of war is worse than war itself”. With this quote, Seneca identifies that war has both its physical and mental tolls on its participants. The psychological and emotional scars of war do much more damage to a solider than the actual physical battles. Tim O’ Brien repeats this idea many years later in his novel “The Things They Carried”, by describing how emotional burdens outweigh the physical loads that those in war must endure. What keeps them alive is the hope that they may one day return home to their loved ones. Yet, the weight of these intangible “items” such as “grief, terror, love, longing” overshadow the physical load they must endure since they are not easily cast away.
The Tale of Kieu is the most popular and adored Vietnamese literary work to date. It is a beautiful epic poem composed by Nguyen Du. The epic tells a breathtaking story of the woes of a young girl named Kieu. Through the life of Kieu, Du explores the concept of how much of our lives are preordained by fate or the cosmos, and how much is free will. From beginning to end, readers are captivated by the main character’s misfortune, resilience, and strong moral character. The Tale of Kieu is a riveting read that will challenge readers to think deeper about concepts such as fate, destiny, and karma.
During his deployment in Vietnam, Kiley experienced the dark elements of the war, indubitably changing his perspective of the war and him as a person-- from the deaths of his fellow soldiers to the unresolved issues, nightmares, and detachment from reality. What is left of Kiley is only a
Cultural associations give him confidence and maintain his individuality in a situation that calls for perfectly conforming soldiers so "Kiowa always took along his New Testament and a pair of moccasins
Going into a war leaves a physical and emotional mark on a person. Each person carries the weight of the war differently. Those who carry the war emotionally are effected morally compared to those who physically carry it. People possess tangible items and intangible items that both have significance on how a person mentally reacts in different situations. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, we see how the intangible items have more of a prominent impact on the character’s life. This directly relates to today’s world and all the war we have encountered first hand. The direct impact from the indiscernible items has a more lasting and never changing outcome comparatively.
The emotional impact of war had overpowered his will to live, causing him to choose the path of desertion, and later becoming an empty corpse at the base of a nearby mountain. Before leaving, Can explained, “I’m not afraid of dying, but this killing and shooting just goes on forever. I’m dying inside, bit by bit” (20). Similarly to Kien, the war had slowly numbed him and taken away his identity and his conduct. The only difference is that Kien had come to terms with his fate, whereas Can could never accept who he had become.