The Things They Carry Short Story Theme

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"The Things They Carry", is a short fictional story that follows the man Jimmy Cross and his time spent at war with his men in Alpha Company. The story tells of his love for Martha at home, where he carries her picture and writes to her regularly to express his love. Although she is focused on her life at college and seems not to return the same feelings as Jimmy, he continues to write to her. This literary work is absolutely a story because it contains themes of death and struggle, while expressing the life of a soldier in Alpha company in such a magnificent way as to inspire feelings and emotions from the reader. Because this is a fictional story inspired by war, "The Things They Carry" it is absolutely considered a story. If this was a non-fictional …show more content…

Unlike Mericans where the main character is structured to make you feel sympathy for her, this play makes you dislike the Troy quite a bit. There are several family members that are involved in this play including Troy's wife Rose (evolves into an ex-wife), Cory (his son), his friend Bono (evolves into his ex-friend), his mistress Alberta (who dies in child birth), and his bastard son Raynell. The plays main conflict is with his son where Troy refuses to sign his son's football college scholarship. Eventually, a violent fight breaks out between the two of them that causes Troy to lose his son forever. Family in this play is seen as less important to Troy than his own selfish desires. He pushes his family away by lying, cheating and punishing them to make himself feel better. At the end of the play, the plot takes the reader to Troy's funeral where Cory and Raynell are brought together even though they are reluctant to attend. The good effects that are produced are that the death of Troy brings his family closer, while the bad effects are that Cory and Raynell never experience the love of their father, with Cory in particular being prevented from fully achieving his dream of going to college on a football scholarship (Wilson,1985, p. 1430-1472). Ultimately, the family struggles in this play are resolved, while the family struggles in the short story Mericans does not seem to end in

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