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Multiculturalism In The Things They Carried

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Either it being self defense, economic gain or for a political movement, War is influenced by many factors that lead to catastrophic results. Both the Gulf and Vietnam wars are explained by the article, “Military Multiculturalism in the Gulf War and After” and short story “The Things They Carried” that signify the blind eye displayed by humans during these wars. What allows Humans to process traumatic events is to turn the other way around and fill their minds with joyful moments in their life. A couple of ways are displayed in both the short story and article are the soldiers letting their mind escape and thinking about the things they brought with them from home and the public accepting the medias filtered perspective of war by supporting …show more content…

O’Brien captures this by the vivid details of Ted Lavender’s death. “…right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye. The cheekbone was gone. Oh shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy’s dead. The guy’s dead. he kept saying, which seemed profound- the guy’s dead. I mean really.” (O’Brien Pg-13) Ted Lavenders death was described in a disgusting way to only emphasize of the horrible gore of war and O’Brien wanted to signify the importance of knowing that. Lavenders death took a huge toll on the men around them because they finally experienced the nightmare they were trying to escape from. However, Lieutenant Cross took the death of Ted Lavender the worst because he felt responsible for it. “On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s Letters. Then he burned the two photographs… He realized it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental, too but mostly just stupid. Lavender was dead. You couldn’t burn the blame.” (O’Brien Pg-23) Lavenders death for Cross was a reality check for him, at the end of the day he could not allow his mind to wander about Martha. The death of Lavender remains in his conscience because he knew distracting his mind from nightmare he was living in is what got him killed and could potentially hurt the rest of his

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