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The Vietnam War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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The book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells a thrilling stories of the vietnam war.
The Things They Carried is a non linear book so it is a mix bag of stories at different times of O’brien’s life but they all relate back to the war in some way. O’ Brien used social obligation and shame and guilt to tell these stories.
First of all in the 1960s-1980s social obligation was more prevalent in society then it is in today's, and in one of the chapters in The Things They Carried “Rainy River” faces the issue of social obligation. Tim O’brien was drafted into the Vietnam war and his plan was to go up to Canada to dodge it. He stops at this lodge just outside of Canada, just 20 meters away from passing through he thinks what will happen to him if he does in fact decide to dodge it. Can he come back? What will his peers think? Will he be judge badly for not following through with the draft? “If you support a war, If you think it's worth the price, fine, but you have to put your own precious fluids on the line” (O’Brien40). He does not support the war but he felt obligated to go and serve his country. He feared the consequences if he dodge it. He was obligated by society. …show more content…

Lt. Jimmy Cross was head over heels for this girl named Martha. He wrote her everyday, and he carried her picture everywhere. Some years after the war he met up with Martha at a class reunion. He told her how he felt about her and she did not share the same feelings as he did; she let him out to dry, rejected him. After some years passed, Cross met up with O’brien. He told him this story, Cross said to him “And do me a favor and dont mention anything about this” (O’Brien29). Cross feared people knowing his rejection. O’Brien was obligated not to tell anyone because he knew cross was still in shame by

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