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Deaths Of War In All The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Deaths of War

No one ever thinks about what a soldier goes through when they lose someone from their platoon during a war. The emotional and physical burden a death brings, as shown in All the Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, can bring out the guilt and fear in a young man, who was thrown into a war.
The first death witnessed in Tim O’Briens platoon was Ted Lavender. This was when the war started to feel real for everyone, including Lt. Cross: “Lieutenant Cross found himself trembling. He tried not to cry….. He felt shame. He hated himself” (O’Brien 16). Lieutenant Cross was never properly trained, resulting in an inadequate leader. Lavender's death didn’t result in only pain and suffering, it was also inspiring: “He was now determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence… He would be careful to end flank security…. He would accept the blame for what happened to Ted Lavender” (O’Brien 24). As painful as Lavender's death …show more content…

Lavender's death may have been the realization everyone needed, but Kiowa’s death had the most effect on everyone: “Kiowa was gone. He was under the mud and water, folded in with the war, and their only thought was to find him and dig him out, then move on to somewhere warm and dry” (O’Brien 109). Kiowa meant so much to his platoon that they stopped fighting the war temporarily to find their friend, and give him the proper burial he deserved, after they overcame the guilt and responsibility for Kiowa’s death. The toll of Kiowa’s death affected everyone, but affected O’Brien most. “In a way, maybe, I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d mostly worked my way out (O’Brien 178). Kiowa was O’Brien’s closest friend in Vietnam, making his death extremely difficult, and guilt ridden; 20 years later, O’Brien finally forgives himself and accepts the ending. Death is never serene, and it will never get any easier, but grief can, and

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Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

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His bitter experience, a combination of self-hatred and sorrow at the loss of a comrade hardens him. As a form of atonement, he destroys all the letters and pictures he has of Martha. Lt. Cross re -dedicates himself to his current predicament allowing no distractions to enable the loss of another of his

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Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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In fact, O’Brien debunks the assumption that men go to fight in wars to become heroes, for he did not go to the war to be recognized as a hero. Instead, Tim O’Brien, like so many others, initially wanted to avoid the draft, but succumbed to the pressures of society, that still continues on to this day. The men, especially the draftees, never quite know what they’re getting into, and wars bring out every emotion in a person through different experiences. In his book, O’Brien states, “Getting shot should be an experience from which you can draw some small pride…” (182). This quote emphasizes the moments of the war in which men muster up what little they would have ever opened up to when they speak of their experiences.

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The Themes In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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And one by one, the others did it too. ”(O’Brien 226). But after each death, they all became numb to the feelings that came along with the passing of a brother or a Vietnamese citizen that was killed by their presence and the only way they could cope was by the humor that they had even if it seems twisted. But even then after all that time, O’Brien never lost all of himself to the war because he would always feel guilty that someone else perished at his hands, “ Later, I remember, Kiowa tried to tell me that the man would’ve died anyway. He told me that it was a good kill..”(133).

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Guilt In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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They each blamed each other and themselves for certain events, such as Kiowa’s death; all of which affected themselves as a person inside the war, and following the war. Within the book, Jimmy Cross explains his view and attitude towards the unexpected death: “There was nothing he could do now, but still it was a mistake and a hideous waste. He felt sick about it” (O’Brian 164). Cross’s feeling of guilt for Kiowa's death he feels was because of his lack of intuition and courage was the reason for his death. Not exclusively does Cross blame himself, but others also end up blaming Cross.

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Because O’Brien’s narration focuses on the development of Lieutenant Cross, there is a clear character transition in the story. After experiencing the death of a fellow soldier, Cross begins to feel the true weight of his leadership role. To describes the night that Cross wrestles with Ted Lavender’s death, O’Brien writes, “He tried not to cry. With his entrenching tool, which weighed five pounds, he began digging a hole in the earth. He felt shame.

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Death is an inevitable part of the life cycle. To bring those who are gone back to life, people must recreate their memories with the deceased through storytelling. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien shows that when someone experiences a loss, by telling stories of the lost one it will keep them alive through the mind and help one cope with them being gone. In the first chapter, The Things They Carried, O’Brien demonstrates the theme of telling stories to cope with death by how the platoon members talk about Ted Lavender’s death, “Like cement, Kiowa whispered in the dark.

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But one's sanity and basic humanity were also threatened psychologically as soldiers succumbed to the emotional trauma caused by fear, guilt and grief. I think the first change of heart was Jimmy, whose obsession with Martha led him to neglect his soldiers and resulted in Ted Lavender being shot on the spot on the way back to camp. He feels personally responsible for his death and is therefore "determined not to neglect his duties" (O'Brien). Furthermore, "from now on he would dress himself up as an officer. He will throw away his lucky stone ......

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This quote from the passage tells of the moral of the platoon. It was low, these men wanting no more to do with the war and only wanting to return home. These soldiers were inexperienced and not by choice, had been drafted into the war. It was their experience with Lieutenant Cross that they will not forget, the shared experience is one they all must carry after the war. The remaining survivors had no choice except to carry the burdens of grief, guilt, and pain.

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This is just one of many traumatic events that replay in soldiers’ minds. The witnessed horrors of war lead to perpetual impacts on a person. Within The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, he reveals the untold horrors that encompass war which leave lasting impacts, through in-depth descriptions of events, the tainting of morals, and post-war reality. Tim O’Brien uses an in-depth description of events to reveal the horrors of

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Ted Lavender Quotes From The Things They Carried

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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

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Guilt Quotes In The Things They Carried

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Throughout the entire story, the narrator explains how close the men become to each other. You become brothers and you trust each other with your lives. In the chapter, The Ghost Soldiers, Tim O’Brien sees the men he was on the platoon with and is

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Things They Carried Innocence Quotes

886 Words | 4 Pages

The loss of innocence and gain of war trauma affects almost every soldier in the war either during or after the war. Which is seen through the killing of Kiowa and the death throughout the chapters. O'Brien had tried to show Kiowa a picture at night with and turned a flashlight on and

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The Paradox Of War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is overcome by guilt when Ted Lavender, one of his men died, Lieutenant Cross then finds solace in the

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From our initial introduction we can see that Lieutenant Cross is distracted and not focusing on the war he’s fighting in. Instead, Cross’ mind is on a young girl back home who he is not even sure reciprocates his deep love for her but he clings to her memory because a sweetheart is often one of the few escapes from war a soldier has. “On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing” (O’Brien, 641). Cross does this throughout the story, drifting in between the war and his imaginary Martha, and it doesn’t pose an issue for him until an April afternoon.

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723 Words | 3 Pages

In this chapter, Lieutenant Cross shows deep grief over what happened to Ted Lavender. Cross was distracted that day, wondering whether Martha was a virgin or not. As the soldiers waited for the helicopter to carry Lavender's body away, they smoked his marijuana and told jokes, and because he carried tranquilizers they said he was probably too high to feel pain when he was shot. The methods of dealing with their grief were substance abuse, and joking around just to make it all seem like it was not real. Cross doesn’t participate in any of this, as he feels too guilty to mourn in this way.

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