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Theme Of War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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Death is always associated with the occurrences of wars. No matter what, there is no escaping the fact that people will die in battle. Throughout the book The Things They Carried there are scenes of extreme violence, and heart crushing deaths. Witnessing someone you know being killed, or even killing someone you do not know is very traumatizing to a person and their life, but it's war and that is just how it is. Tim O’Brien uses many examples from the war for his story to emphasise the theme of Death, and violence and that no matter what it is no one's fault, and everyone fault. When Kiowa dies in the story, a sequence of events occurs, and people are left wondering whose fault it is. Jimmy Cross soon after Kiowa's death is already writing to Kiowa's father saying “No Natural cover. And so late at night, when they took mortar fire from across the river...My own fault he would say.”(162) Jimmy as a leader felt responsible for something he had no control over, and feels like he did not protect him with the proper guidance. Also another guy in the crew felt responsible, a younger boy. “Like murder the boy …show more content…

Tim Lavender is shot and killed, and Jimmy feels responsible. He is always thinking about the girl of his dreams Martha, and wondering if she loves him the way he loves her. “He pictured Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her.”(6) Jimmy Cross feels that because he was so distracted and loved someone who he isn't sure feels the same, more than the men he is supposed to protect, that he caused Lavender's death. Jimmy had lost a friend, and he had to carry the burden and the pain of not only losing him, but the feeling of himself being the reason he is

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