Shame is felt differently by all, throughout different times and for different reasons. In the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he illustrates this clearly utilizing stories from the Vietnam War or of moments after. Tim O’Brien himself is a clear example of this, as the experiences he went through and wrote about within various settings in his book capture the theme of shame and what comes with it. Shame has extremely detrimental effects which are displayed many times throughout the story when talking about his experiences before the war, inside of the frontlines, and from a support role within the backlines. O’Brien’s real first instance of shame within the book is displayed before he even joined the war. It was explained within the fourth chapter, “On the Rainy River,” in which O’Brien was forced to participate in a war he did not want any part in. Within this chapter, he explains that when he was faced with the eminent doom of war, he ran away. …show more content…
Shame is an emotion that pushes one to do things they would never have done before. Whether that is returning to fight a war, sitting on an active battlefield, committing revenge against a fellow troop member, or all of them combined, shame is able to cause one to do that and more. Even when O’Brien is faced with completely different settings and experiences, the feeling of shame causes the same reaction. He became both irrational and overanalytical, pushing his mental and physical health to deteriorate rapidly. Shame is a dangerous emotion that all are vulnerable to, yet the important part is how one responds to it. In all instances O’Brien responds to his shame with senseless actions that end up putting him in either worse or dangerous situations. Sometimes reacting this way is inevitable, but being able to identify and react accordingly can save one from the worst of situations and maybe even save a
Prewriting: Introduction: Often revered as a battle to defend Vietnamese ideologies, the Vietnam War is personified by many as a horrendous, unnecessary war that yielded to many detrimental after-effects, specifically on soldiers. In O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, initially it seems to take the same old generic personification, but after further reading, it is evident that Tim O’Brien’s desire to take on a different representation. Rather than taking on the violent, bloody interpretation of war, O’Brien focuses more on the relationships developed between the soldier and the severities experienced whilst in war. Throughout the novel, the themes of shame and guilt are manifested through the post war stories of the veterans, demonstrating that no soldier is able to escape this perpetual chasm of culpability.
As a result, O’Brien struggles with his decision to do what he believes is right, as he wants to do what he thinks it right, but he cannot deal with the criticism of others. He says, “My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly was a sense of shame. I did not want people to think badly of me,” (51 and 52). Due to the societal standpoint at the time, he simply could not resist embarrassment others would bestow upon him.
O’Brien used lies to guard, protect and hide war given only people that don’t know the truth peace, love and those who know the truth of war the burden of keeping it to themselves. When O’Brien explained the stories of comrades Norman Bower and how he felt when he came home to his old town, how everything had changed to the point where only thing which actually remained the same to him is the old swamp lake. Even so everyone he knew are living a joyful life, he had to deal with a burden of what truly cause Kiowa death. Bower mention how Lieutenant Jimmy Cross told the squad to rest in a waste field full of human feces and how the storm turn the field to a landslide. As well mention how Kiowa was stuck in the waste mud, Bower tried to pulled him out try, try with all his might Kiowa was gone and if he doesn't leave he would had died, but still knowing the fact that he saved his life, it hurt him deep inside.
Heroes are meant to be strong, powerful, and unbreakable. O’Brien shows us the opposite of that when he begins to breakdown after killing the boy with the grenade. He not only regrets it, but begins to imagine a life he had before his death. He couldn’t stop looking at his deformed face and even thought of him later in life when he figured the boy coming towards him as he once did before his death. Heroes aren’t supposed to regret what they’ve done or even be traumatized, they’re supposed to rise above that and show their spirit.
Later on, we learn that his morals and “liberal values” should tell him that killing the young Vietnamese soldier and playing the prank on Bobby Jorgenson are wrong, but the intense emotions caused by O’Brien’s experiences in the war drive him to make the choices he
O’Brien’s own personal experience in “On the Rainy River” shows how the fear of shame is a powerful motivator in
The death witnessed during war is often a recurring thought in soldiers returning from war. This idea is explored in The Things They Carried, a novel about the Vietnam war. This novel explains the overall experiences of war and the trauma soldiers faced in and outside of war. The author, Tim O’Brien, carries a lot of guilt from war and wrote this book as a way to reflect on his experiences. Throughout the book, he argues that when soldiers experience the emotional burdens caused by death at war, they need to place blame in order to cope with their emotions.
O’Brien talks about the death of a young man with skinny wrists, skinny ankles, and a star-shaped hole in his eye. He gives him life by making him into a story, so that way he could be distracted by the fact that the young boy won’t be able to read it. He wrote this chapter to express his remorse, guilt, and shame for the boy that lost his life in front of O’Brien’s eyes, whether the death was by his hand or not. Although the title of this chapter, The Man I Killed, is about a man who died, it is unclear if O'Brien killed anyone in the war. Remorse can be described as a distressing emotion experienced by someone who regrets their actions which they have
(A) This is an answer to the question of how shame has the power to impact one's life. Shame impacts the lives of everyone because it brings a burden and worry and stress of disappointing those one loves. If Tim had talked about this situation he experienced during the war, he could have relieved some of the stress. However, he worries about the insults he could have received, so he chose not to tell.
This comparison is significant because O'Brien is terrified of the war before he sets foot on the battlefield, but as the chapter described, O'Brien is also afraid of disappointing his friends and family. This raises the internal conflict between duty and honor and the
His coping mechanism that he uses is through his writing about the Vietnam War. He is writing because he is trying to deal or understand what happened in the war. In the chapter “The Lives of the living Dead”, explains that through O’Brien’s writings, he able to come to peace at what he observed and did in combat. He may not understand why events had happened because he has not remembered the most traumatic experiences clearly. Even if his friends are dead, he will be able to remember them and his surviving platoon, through his stories to immortalize them.
When O’Brien writes, “[m]y conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame. Hot, stupid shame. I did not want people to think badly of me,” (49) which conveys O’Brien’s critique of society during that time, showing the expectations of young men in the United States through strong imagery. The feelings of shame can be seen throughout the book, each dealing with it in different ways and by themselves to appear
He was embarrassed about being shamed by the people he knew for going against his morals. Tim O’Brien knew he wasn't just carrying the faith and hope of others to fight in the war, but he was also carrying his intrusive thoughts and discomfort. The soldiers didn't just carry their bag of weapons, but “they carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried” (O'Brien 3). Digging deeper into the book's literal and figurative language, It tells us clearly what the soldiers carried weapons but even everyone’s problems, including Tim O'brien. O'brien carried the bundle of burdens that included the physical and emotional view of grief, love, and dread.
This quote epitomizes the trauma caused by war. O’Brien is trying to cope, mostly through writing these war stories but has yet to put it behind him. He feels guilt, grief, and responsibility, even making up possible scenarios about the life of the man he killed and the type of person he was. This
In the short story, “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, the author develops the idea that when an individual experiences a feeling of shame and humiliation, they often tend to neglect their desires and convictions to impress society. Tim, the narrator, starts off by describing his feeling of embarrassment, “I’ve had to live with it, feeling the shame”, before even elaborating on the cause of the feeling. Near the end of the story, he admits he does not run off and escape to Canada because it had nothing to do with his, “mortality...Embarrassment, that’s all it was”. The narrator experiences this feeling of intense shame and then he decides that he will be “a coward” and go to war. His personal desire is that he wishes to live a normal life and could never imagine himself charging at an enemy position nor ever taking aim at another human being.