Tim O’Brien’s, The Things they Carried is a riveting tale of struggle and sacrifice, self indulgence and self pity, and the intrapersonal battles that reeked havoc on even the most battle tested soldiers. O’Brien is able to express these ideas through eloquent writing and descriptive language that makes the reader feel as if he were there. The struggle to avoid cowardice is a prevailing idea in all of O’Brien’s stories. In “On the Rainy River”, O’Brien writes of intrapersonal struggle in its most profound form. The gripping torture of indecision seemed to paralyze Lt. Jimmy Cross in every move he made. Fear is what kept him away from the war, and fear is what made him join his countrymen in battle. A pacifist …show more content…
Issues of war ripped through families, cities, and eventually, the entire country. By making the decision to go to the war, some would place the distinction of bravery on Cross. He, however, felt like a coward. For he had given in to the society around him and their pressures. Instead of following his heart and staying true to his morals, Cross took the easy way out. By fighting in the war, he avoided the criticism and ridicule which marred draft dodgers and the lifetime of embarrassment that was sure to follow. The narrator is torn between two worlds. In his heart and mind, he knows that the war is wrong and unjust. In his family, town, and nation, however, he was expected to fight. He must cross a number of hurdles on his way to a life altering decision. It seems the man has gotten beyond the idea of self embarrassment. The problem for Cross, it seems, is the fact that his decision affects everyone around him. Like any young man in those times, he was scared. Not scared of death, but scared of life after the war. He knows that is he does not go to the war, his mother, his father, and all his friends will share the burden of his embarrassment. That is why he must go to the war. In a noble sort of way, Cross saves his family the embarrassment of draft dodging. In his mind, however, he is a coward, a man who simply put, could not stand up to himself in a time of turmoil. This lack of confidence and self assurance is something
The central theme of the story is the age-old conflict of life and death. On a more personal level with First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the round character and protagonist of "The Things They Carried", it is a conflict of love, his antagonist and of war.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a wonderful and personal look into one of this countries darkest times. The vivid imagery that the author uses lets the reader actually experience the feeling of actually being in the war. By using the cultural studies method of literary criticism, we can use the social conditions during the time of the writing to explore beneath the surface. What we find underneath just might be more interesting than the story itself.
Jimmy Cross being the immature lieutenant is affected being responsible of his men, and carries much of the war’s burden. Every time one of Cross’s men dies, he experiences deep regrettable feelings that he should have been a better
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was a character with many layers that he never actually showed. He had emotions that he kept inside him, and he was never truly focused on the war. He rarely talked to the other soldiers about how he felt about the war. Cross was burdened with responsibility and guilt. He blamed himself for the death of his soldiers, and he blamed himself for Martha not loving him the way he loved her. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a important character that is seriously affected by the war, and has conflicted
Meanwhile, the other soldiers in the company blame Lieutenant Jimmy Cross for stationing them in such a vulnerable position. Even Cross wavers between blaming himself The war created impossible situations where death was unstoppable, but that didn't stop those who survived from blaming themselves for the deaths of their friends—maybe if they'd just been a little braver, a little faster, a little smarter, they could have done something to save their
The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War that the author, Tim O’Brien, uses to convey his experiences and feelings about the war. The book is filled with stories about the men of Alpha Company and their lives in Vietnam and afterwards back in the United States. O’Brien captures the reader with graphic descriptions of the war that make one feel as if they were in Vietnam. The characters are unique and the reader feels sadness and compassion for them by the end of the novel. To O’Brien the novel is not only a compilation of stories, but also a release of the fears, sadness, and anger that he has felt because of the Vietnam War.
Lieutenant James Cross was just twenty years old when he was drafted into the Vietnam War. He had to leave behind his schoolboy crush, Martha, and all dreams of going through college. As time goes on during his war journey, he starts to realize his men he is leading, are not as important to him. O’Brien writes, “He loved Martha
In life, everyone has obligations. People have responsibilities they have to tend to everyday, but sometimes there are passions of love or revenge that makes one stop thinking of what their true responsibilities are. For soldiers fighting in war, their responsibility is to take care of their men and make sure no one gets hurt. They fight for their country and protect the men who have become their family. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross went against his honor to protect his men. He let his responsibly go, which caused one of the men in his group to die. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross confronts the demands of the love for Martha, which conflicts with his responsibility in the war, which affects him and the story.
He should have moved to higher ground for the night, should’ve radioed in false coordinates”(187). Hindsight is twenty-twenty and it is hard to watch Cross torment himself over a situation where, once again, he is only trying to do what is right. With the weight of the war on his back, Cross can see no reason other than his wanton lack of judgment for Kiowa’s death. He attempts to cope with his overwhelming guilt by composing a letter to Kiowa’s father right there in the shit field. “He would explain this to Kiowa’s father. Carefully, not covering up his own guilt, he would tell how the mortar rounds made craters in the slush… My own fault, he would say” (191). In another situation, perhaps, he could think rationally and realize that he could never have fathomed what the field would become when transformed by night and merciless rain. But with the backdrop of war, to Jimmy Cross there is no other reasonable cause for the death of his man.
In the first chapter in the book, titled The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross is one of the many examples throughout the novel in where a soldier has a way to escape from the realities of war. Cross, who is a lieutenant in his company, carries two photographs of a girl named Martha whom he truly loves and wishes nothing else but to be with her in the end. Along with the photographs, he carries letters from Martha herself as well as her good-luck pebble in his mouth. Martha’s letters has a huge impact on Cross’s escape on reality because those letters do not mention war at all but for him to stay safe. All of these items comforts Cross and eventually reminisce about the times when he was back home with Martha away from any war. He relives a moment when he was with Martha at the movies, and then remembers that he touched her knee but Martha did not approve and pushed his hands away. Now while he’s in Vietnam, he does nothing but fantasizes taking her to her bed, tying her up, and touching that one knee knee all night long.
20) O’Brien tells how these young men were drafted which were constantly in fear, they wished to be there obliviously but war takes up all of one’s attention; it played a big role in their life, changing their tactics, personality and becoming a new person. O’Brien uses this to show the stressful moments in war where one has pressure to be alive and in this case to fit in with everyone else and feel part of something, in a lonely place such as the war.
There are many levels of truth in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. This novel deals with story-telling as an act of communication and therapy, rather than a mere recital of fact. In the telling of war stories, and instruction in their telling, O'Brien shows that truth is unimportant in communicating human emotion through stories.
The chapter “On the Rainy River” from the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien follows a young college graduate who is drafted into a war he does not believe in. In an effort to dodge the draft by fleeing to Canada, he is inevitably stopped by his internal struggle. The author uses diction to demonstrate this struggle through the tone revealed. O’Brien’s tone in this chapter is ashamed, which is conveyed through the narrator’s driving emotions, others’ perception of his actions, and in his ultimate decision to go to Vietnam.
The story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is an enormously detailed fictional account of a wartime scenario in which jimmy Cross (the story’s main character) grows as a person, and the emotional and physical baggage of wartime are brought to light. The most obvious and prominent feature of O’Brien’s writing is a repetition of detail. O’brien also passively analyzes the effects of wartime on the underdeveloped psyche by giving the reader close up insight into common tribulations of war, but not in a necessarily expositorial sense.. He takes us into the minds of mere kids as they cope with the unbelievable and under-talked-about effects or rationalizing
During the war, women are used to reflect society’s abandonment of the soldiers through their insensitivity that ultimately leaves the soldiers to fight alone. For Lieutenant Cross, Martha writes long letters back and forth with him, but rarely do they ever speak of Cross’s life in battle. Merely, the only time war is mentioned is to say, “Jimmy, take care of yourself” (2). Considering the pages and pages of writing that Martha writes regarding her life, she does not put in the effort to ask about Cross, who risks his life every day. Simply, she tells Cross to