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Soldiers In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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More than half a million service members face mental health challenges during and after war. During war, soldiers are exposed to many different traumatic events that raise the chances of facing mental health challenges. The most common mental health problems soldiers are more likely to carry with them after war is PTSD, depression, alcohol addiction, and anxiety. In the book, “The Things They Carried,” written by Tim O’Brien, characters carried things that are both literal and figurative. While the soldiers carry heavy physical items, they also carry mental, emotional, and physical baggage. To begin with, Norman Bowker is a character that carries mental baggage. For example, “The war was over and there was no place in particular to go. Norman Bowker followed the tar …show more content…

One character, in particular, is Jimmy Cross. “While Kiowa explained how Lavender died, Lieutenant Cross found himself trembling. He tried not to cry,” (16). Jimmy Cross was carrying the emotional baggage of guilt for the death of Ted Lavender. He experienced such emotional distress because he couldn't stop thinking about Martha the entire time the war started. He felt he did not focus on the safety and well-being of his fellow soldiers and because of that, he blames himself for the death of Ted Lavender, an emotional baggage that he had to bear with so long as the war had ended. Emotional baggage was also shown after Rat Kiley had shot a baby water buffalo. “Rat Kiley was crying. He tried to say something but then cradled his rifle and went off by himself,” (76). This shows that Rat Kiley's actions for shooting the baby buffalo had to do with the emotional baggage of grief that he was carrying for Curt Lemon’s death. Rat Kiley had lost one of his best friends in the most gruesome way possible right in front of him. His sadness and anger takes over him and that's why he ends up taking it all out on the baby

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    Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was determined to find Kiowa’s body the morning after his death. Cross believed Kiowa was a fine soldier and human being and there was no way he would allow such a good man to be lost under the sewage . Jimmy Cross believed he had made a mistake setting up camp where he did, and felt sick about it (O’Brien, 2010, p.157). If Lieutenant Cross had not set up camp where he did he believed Kiowa could still be fighting with them and now held the responsibility to write a letter to

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    In Tim O’brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried,” O’brien explains more than just what people face at war. O’Brien gives detail of each burden, struggle, and memory each soldier carries into the war. He describes of a battle more destructive than a war filled with guns, bombs, and knives. He describes of a mind battle, one in which is the hardest any man can face. A mind battle controls your every decision.

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    1363 Words  | 6 Pages

    They were kids; they didn’t know… they were giggling and calling each other yellow mother and playing a silly game they’d invented.” (69) Rat Kiley at first is seen letting loose in the war and being able to feel at home in a foreign place. This childish act between the two gives the book a calm before the storm as immediately after the two boys mess around, Curt Lemon dies. The silly game had ended with the first step into the spiral of madness Kiley soon fell into. With the tragedy of his friend, Rat Kiley starts to exaggerate his stories into a better one as if he were trying to escape his reality.

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    It also details the death of one of his fellow soldiers, Tim Lavender. Killed while separated from the rest of the men by a sniper. His death is taken harshly by the platoon’s leader a young Lieutenant Cross. Cross was distracted by personnel effects given to him by a woman he cared for named Martha back in the United States. While it is unlikely that Lt. Cross could have saved Lavender even without the personnel effects, he blames himself for the loss of one of his men.

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  • The Soldier's Fears In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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    The Soldier’s Fears First, in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” the tangible items carried by the soldiers reveal their fears of losing a connection to home, fear of the unknown, fear of reality. Holding onto their precious items from home helped them hold onto reality. Second, “the soldiers all had fears of the war and they all carried with them certain items that gave them the comforts of home.” (366). “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha” (366) he loved her and this was a way of keeping her close, “Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose and wrapped them around his neck as a comforter” (372) he must have felt wearing his girlfriend’s pantyhose connected her to him, “Kiowa carried an illustrated New Testament and an old hunting hatchet from his grandfather” (367) his grandfather must

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  • Lieutenant Cross In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1208 Words  | 5 Pages

    During the Vietnam War, Cross is struggling to maintain his focus as a lieutenant due to his love toward Martha. As the result of Cross’s emotions toward Martha during the war, it had resulted in an event which had led to one of his comrade’s death, Lavender. Lavender had died by being shot in when he went off to go pee as well as he popped a tranquilizer into his body on April 16. In “The Things They Carried”, the authors say “ He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence, Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.(Page 57, Lines # 381-384)”. The readers are being told that by having emotions at war can affect their surroundings.

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    1339 Words  | 6 Pages

    This caused him to feel like there was no escape from his own thoughts of war, causing him to feel like he does not belong. Norman ended up living with his parents and always trying to find another job, this made him feel like the town did not care about him. Norman had a schedule of going to the YMCA in the afternoons to play pickup basketball. Norman Bowker wrote a seventeen page note on his feelings he confirmed that; “ ‘The thing is,’ he wrote, ‘there’s no place to go. Not just in this lousy little town.

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    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    A similar guiltiness is displayed by Norman Bowker, after he feels that his lack of courage resulted in the grotesque death of Kiowa. The feeling of not doing enough to save a friend haunts many war veterans. For Bowker, his inability to save Kiowa and other experiences of Vietnam left him directionless in his life after the war, ultimately leading to his suicide a few years down the road. Unlike Tim, who uses his ability to create stories that capture the complicated emotions of war to cope in his life back in America, Norman feels alone since he is unable to share his inner feelings from Vietnam that still haunt

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    721 Words  | 3 Pages

    When faced with a choice between his own life and Kiowa's, he chose to save himself. It is his lack of courage that leads to Kiowa's death; yet, even though he watches his friend sink into the "cesspool," he tries to save him - but the end is inevitable. War seems to force responsibility and guilt for the deaths of friends and enemies alike. Soldiers returning home from the war carry this guilt with them, making them feel like outsiders in their past lives. After being cut off from the outside world, Bowker "drove along a seven-mile stretch of tarmac around the lake, and then he started over, driving slowly" (O'Brien).

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  • Taking A Look At War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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    Nobody can understand this feeling if they have not been to war themselves. After the war Norman struggles to find himself, he always feels trapped almost like he may have made it home but emotionally a part of him will always be at

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    Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried" is a short story that explores the experiences of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The story depicts the physical and emotional weight that soldiers carry with them during the war, highlighting the challenges that soldiers face both on and off the battlefield. Through the items that the soldiers carry with them, the story reveals the emotional and physical burdens of war and the masking of emotions because of masculine identity. The story begins with a list of items that the soldiers carry with them, ranging from physical items such as guns and ammunition to intangible items such as fear and guilt.

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  • Strategies In The Things They Carried

    1149 Words  | 5 Pages

    The soldiers learn to release their anger and grief through violence. This is demonstrated by Rat Kiley, as after Curt Lemon’s death he lashes out in anger on an innocent animal. Following Curt Lemon’s death, Rat goes up to the baby buffalo the soldiers had found and tied up for the night and brutally shot him. As Tim describes, Rat Kiley’s shot “wasn’t to kill; it was to hurt.” This shows that due to witnessing his friend's death Rat turns to violence as a response.

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  • Ptsd In The Things They Carried

    868 Words  | 4 Pages

    Norman’s thoughts really stress the idea of why so many Veterans keep all their thoughts concealed with the projected outcome. Veterans only want to communicate if people would clearly listen. Additionally, through dialogue, O’Brien exhibits Bowker’s self-conflict to express his experiences in war and stay sheltered. Norman arrives in the drive-up at Mama Burgers post-war and presses the intercom button to talk to the worker: “‘Well,’ he said, ‘how’d you like to hear about —’ He stopped and shook his head. ‘Hear what, man?’

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  • Coping Mechanisms In The Things They Carried And Tim O Brien

    1435 Words  | 6 Pages

    One paragraph stated the following “Curt Lemon was dead. Rat Kiley had lost his best friend in the world. Later in the week he would write a long personal letter to the guy's sister, who would not write back, but for now it was a question of pain. He shot off the tail. He shot away chunks of meat below the ribs...

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  • Soldiers In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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    Of the roughly 1.5 million soldiers who experienced combat in Vietnam, 810,000 returned from the war with PTSD, never to be the same. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a fictional story of a platoon’s journey in Vietnam. The story is centered around the physical burdens they must carry as part of their duty, but also the emotional weight of traumatic events they must shoulder. The story takes place at an unspecified time in Vietnam. It travels between Lieutenant Cross’s infatuation with a girl at home, the death of Ted Lavender, and lists of what the men carried at war; they include weapons, war supplies, provisions, and emotional burdens.

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