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Guilt In The Things They Carried

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People, especially soldiers, deal with guilt in many different, sometimes harsh, ways. Though the ways the men in the book and people in real life deal with the feeling of responsibility may seem unhealthy, in some cases it is what is needed to heal. In The Things They Carried, Azar, Tim, and Norman Bowker all deal with guilt in different ways. Thinking too much, taking the blame, and making a joke out of a situation can all be unhealthy, but if the soldiers were using their coping methods in a more uplifting way, it could have solved several problems that arose later on. Throughout the story there are several references to the soldiers feeling guilty and responsible for actions that they could not control. All of the soldiers deal with …show more content…

His issues were all in his head, and they really became more extreme than they originally were. Bowker was overthinking everything; from his dad, to Max, to how Kiowa passed away. Instead of going to his father and trying to get over Kiowa’s death, Bowker submerges himself into a filthy pond that reminds him of Both Kiowa’s and Max’s death. By him doing this, he is making his weak point even weaker. The point that really started taking Norman in a downward spiral is explained in this quote; “The water felt warm against his skin. He put his head under. He opened his lips, very slightly, for the taste, then he stood up and folded his arms and watched the fireworks.” (O’Brien 148). If Bowker were to have talked to his father and stopped looping around the pond, he would have been able to get over his issues from the war. He overthunk all his guilt, which ultimately led him to his untimely …show more content…

Tim knew that he was not a killer and that the war was going to be a stressful time for him. One of his biggest moments of feeling bad about what he did was when he killed his first soldier. O’Brien feels instant regret once he throws the grenade and kills the man. All other thoughts leave his mind, and his full focus and shock is on what he had just done. “I was terrified” he explains, “there were no thoughts about killing. The grenade was to make him go away—just evaporate—and I leaned back and felt my mind go empty and then felt it fill up again. I had already thrown the grenade before telling myself to throw it” (O’Brien 126-127). O’Brien mourned the death of the man he just killed, and eventually he got over it. Sometimes facing one’s issues head on is the best way to

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