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The Things They Carried Fear Analysis

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Have you ever been scared? A type of fear that is life threatening? This is the type of fear many soldiers felt in the Vietnam war. Including the squad members that were in Tim O'Brien's novel ¨ The Things They Carried.¨ The theme of Tim O'Brien's book is that soldiers are stuck with the fear of not only dying but of being seen as weak by Family,friends and fellow squad members. The members of the team often noticed that the war wasn't always physical but a mental war in a lot of different ways. In the book there is a chapter tiled ¨the rainy river.¨ This is one of the prime examples of the fear that I mentioned earlier. In this chapter the author, Tim O'Brien, found himself in a position that would change his life forever. A decision that …show more content…

It all started when he passes out on the way to the dentist because he is scared. Later that night he decides to go back and have a tooth pulled out to show that he is brave and not scared. After he forces the dentist to pull his tooth he keeps it and shows his squad members to prove that he isn't afraid and is willing to fight. A third example of the theme in the book talks about squad member Norman Bowker. Before he left for war his father told him to come home with all possible metals. Norman knew this would be difficult, and feared disappointing his father. He fought through the fear and received almost every possible medal except one. Ever since he was never the same. He felt that he disappointed his father and that he would be looked down upon him for it. One day he drove around a lake thousands of times thinking of how or what he could of done to achieve his father's goals. After a while living through life Norman couldn't take the pain and fear. So he decided that the world would be better off without him, and he hung himself. As you can see this novel is full of theme. Most of the book revolves around fear and what others think about other people. At the end it is important to believe in what you think and not what others think. Also, to achieve your own success and not to fill other's dreams and

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Norman is unable to find words to describe his struggles and therefore can’t move on from the war. This just shows that the horrors don’t stop, even after the war. Norman is desperately grasping for a way to understand everything but he is unable to. Because of this, Norman, unlike Roy, is unable to cope and eventually takes his own life to escape his own mind. Additionally, Tim O’Brien himself has been greatly afflicted by the psychological aspect of war.

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The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

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Already he had passed them six times, forty-two miles, nearly three hours without stopping” (O’Brien 139-140). As if Norman was stuck in a loop, he drove around that lake, reliving moments of his life from when he was in Vietnam. He questioned, doubted, and second guessed things that had happened. He wants to tell his story to his friends but they all moved on with their lives while he was in Vietnam in the war, leaving him with no one. He wanted to talk to someone but he couldn’t.

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