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War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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War is a very psychologically traumatizing event. In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, he highlights the harrowing effects war has on a person’s psyche. Characters such as Norman Bowker, Tim O’Brien, and Jimmy Cross are deeply affected by war, but how they deal with their guilt is completely different. Norman Bowker’s dealing with his war guilt is highlighted in “Speaking of Courage”. This story displays Bowker’s dealings after the war in his town and how he deals with guilt over his friend, Kiowa’s death. Bowker, while driving around the lake that his town surrounds, imagines a situation where he explains how he is coward to his father who repeatedly interrupts Bowker's story to say he already has 7 medals. He recollects the night …show more content…

O’Brien does not try to justify his actions, but makes up a life story that is very similar to his own to try to familiarize with the dead Viet Cong soldier he stumbles upon in the story “The Man I Killed”. The story O’Brien makes up highlights the dead soldier's life. Going from being teased for his women-like appearance at school and faking his excitement of fighting and being patriotic in front of his father and uncles. O’Brien continues to make up stories about the young Viet Cong soldier, how he went to continue his passion in math, going to study in Saigon and how he met this girl that liked him for his bony legs and small wrists. The way that O’Brien handles guilt after the war shows his own problems that arose during the war. O’Brien before he was drafted has a full-ride scholarship to Harvard for grad-studies. He creates this story for this Viet Cong soldier that bears many similarities to O’Brien’s supposed life, such as going Saigon to continue studies in math. O’Brien continues to create a backstory similar to his own for this dead soldier that he knows nothing about to handle to guilt of seeing him dead. He handles the guilt much better than Bowker for O’Brien does not kill himself after the

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