In Tim O’Brien’s, “The Things They Carried ”, the story is set during the Vietnam war, the story’s main focus is on Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his one sided love for a girl named Martha. O’Brien also mentions the other men in Jimmy Cross’ squad. ,even though O’Brien never mentions much more than what the names of the men were and what they carried, you could still tell a lot about the men by just what O’Brien says. For example “Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried condoms,” (1002) From this you can tell that sex was important to Sanders because he felt the need to bring condoms to war with
He feels guilty because the men in his company are under his command and he was supposed to keep them safe, but he failed because he wasn’t paying attention. He kept daydreaming about Martha, who Lieutenant Cross had a crush on, when he should’ve been paying attention to the battle happening at the time. And as a result, he blames his obsession on Martha and himself for the death of Ted. To atone for the death of Ted, Lieutenant Cross decided to burn “Martha’s letters” (Tim O'Brien 22), pictures, and threw away a pebble that Martha had given him. He threw away all reminders of Martha to make sure that the memory of Martha would never distract him again so that his men won’t have to die like Ted
O’Brien sees that Jimmy has a lot of pictures of him and his friends who were soldiers in the war. When looking at the picture that Jimmy has, he sees a picture of Ted Lavender. Jimmy explains to O’Brien that he never forgive himself for Lavender’s death. O’Brien also sees a picture of Martha, the same one that Jimmy Cross had burned during the war. Jimmy explains to O’Brien it is the same picture, but a new one that Martha gave him.
In The Things They Carried, O'Brien explores how shame can be shown in different ways for soldiers, including shame over their own actions, shame over their weaknesses, and shame over their inability to connect with or help others. One of the most notable examples of shame in the novel is the character of Jimmy Cross, who feels intense shame and guilt over the death of one of his men, Ted Lavender. Cross blames himself for Lavender's death, feeling that he was too distracted by his own thoughts of Martha to properly lead his army. This shame continues to trouble Cross long after the incident, even after he has left Vietnam.
Highlighting the effects of war on the personalities and actions of the characters, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien dwells on the characters and contrasts their physical baggage with their emotional burdens in order to illustrate that the psychological impact of traumatic events weighs heavier on the minds of the soldiers than all of the provisions and supplies they shouldered. O’Brien does this by utilizing several literary devices, such as narration, point of view, characterization, symbolism, irony, and metaphor. Written from the third person point of view, the unnamed narrator discusses the inner thoughts and outer actions of Jimmy Cross, a lieutenant of an army unit in active combat in the Vietnam War. Along with their necessities
Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.
In comparison, The Things They Carried and The Battle of Ong Thanh video had several alike features such as youthfulness, unfamiliar surroundings, and the fear of dying. For example, in the video soldiers would talk about their experience and feeling towards it. As said in The Things They Carried, “In June of 1968, a month after graduation from Macalester College, I was drafted to fight a war I hated. I was twenty-one years old” (38). These men were scared, untrained, and no longer hopeful for the future.
Quotes: 1. “Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than 20 pounds of ammunition, plus the flask jacket and helmet and rations and water and toilet paper and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus the unweighted fear” (O’Brien 6). This quote characterizes Ted Lavender as an anxious soldier who was precautious, but his precaution did not save him
Moral Ambiguity and History within The Assault Harry Mulisch’s The Assault is a self-proclaimed “story of an incident” (3) wherein “the rest [of the events are] a postscript” (55). The incident in question is the murder of Anton Steenwijk’s parents, and the postscript refers to the future, where Anton uncovers details relating to the incident. Despite Mulisch’s definitive distinction between events, however, the incident itself is convoluted and its details shift over the span of the work. Through the development of major and supporting characters, Mulisch brings forth a diverse range of perspectives and reconstructs the history of the incident, thereby exploring the motif of moral ambiguity within The Assault.
Martha had a big effect on Jimmy cross 's during his adventure in Vietnam. “Jimmy Cross 's had loved Martha more than his man , and as a consequence lavender was dead now and this was something he had to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war and life.” Martha was a young lady that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was obsessed with. It was very possible the distraction of Martha caused lavender to die. Although Martha never loved cross.
Ted Lavender took extra precautions compared to the other soldiers. " Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot..." (O'Brien 1). The author writes this about Ted to show the readers that he was scared and felt the need to carry tranquilizers in addition to his army equiptment. Ted also felt the need to take dope to
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is overcome by guilt when Ted Lavender, one of his men died, Lieutenant Cross then finds solace in the
He accepted the blame of Ted Lavender’s death because he was more focused on Martha than he was about his troops. Wesley states that while Jimmy Cross accepts the blame he thinks this will make it all better by accepting heroic responsibility. This relieved the stress upon Cross and made him feel as if he was even more of a leader and not a coward. When Ted Lavender died they treated it as if it was nothing but a daily routine.
Cross blames himself, knowing “He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead…” (p. 121). First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is distracted by his infatuation for Martha, which ultimately results in Ted Lavender’s death, forcing Cross to realize his fantasies for Martha are wrong and that he is not fulfilling his duties as a lieutenant. Lieutenant Cross is inattentive to the war and his responsibilities because he is unable and unwilling to stop thinking about his adoration for Martha.
However, his true morals are revealed when the narrator shows signs of guilt like “My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears.” The narrator’s transition from superiority to guilt represents the reality that the acknowledgement of wrongdoings can either be done consciously or unconsciously, and that the latter has considerable negative
