Oliwia Parafinska
Ms. Haughey
English Composition 102
28 April, 2023
Essay 3 Dealing with heavy emotions after traumatic life experiences is a tough feat, especially in situations that army soldiers go through. When taking a deeper look into the situation, it is clear that repression of emotions occurs more often than not. Pushing aside feelings seems like an easy, temporary escape, however, this repression has tremendous consequences on the psyche. In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien establishes the difficulty that soldiers in the Vietnam War have in terms of dealing with their emotional baggage which comprises grief along with fear. Discussing the physical items the soldiers carry along with them, readers are able to determine
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Emotions are a part of human nature, no matter what position you hold, however the situation in which soldiers are placed into is vastly different. Although it is expected that they put on a toughened facade, naturally fear will still attempt to creep and take over. O’Brien uses the physical items to symbolize the intangible emotional baggage that is carried with the men at war. For example, Lavender, who has fear instilled in him and does no job in hiding it, carries tranquilizers and extra protection. Other soldiers, like Cross, have items which bring them comfort in knowing that war will not last forever. Though these are the items that had tangibility, the symbolic baggage that came along with the items had far more effect on their psyche. The physical items allowed for the soldiers to escape their true emotions and in a way daydream of what was to come. The fear and terror would be repressed as they carried their good luck charms. While surrounded by death, these tangible items do their job in bringing temporary comfort, but the real issue lies with how these traumas will …show more content…
Death is expected to occur when at war, however no individual is taught how to deal with mass passings and the grief that comes along with it. In “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien discusses visible effects that death has on the soldiers. As they go through their days and experience death from left to right it is also evident that mentally, “they all carried ghosts” (O’Brien 1074). The ghosts described not only symbolize those who the soldiers killed, but also the emotional burdens that come along with the death. When humans experience death, the socially expected reaction is grief. While at war, death occurs in such masses that individuals become numb to it and no longer feel the need to express their grief. This leads to further repression and later on, affects the mental state of the individuals. After Lavender's death, Cross feels immense guilt and the war is now put into perspective for him. The comfort items are now seen as distractions and the repression of emotions now takes a different turn. No longer focusing on the positives of life after the war, Cross feels as though he has to face the war head on and address his emotions completely. Similarly in “Facing It”, Komunyakaa addresses the true number of deaths which allows for readers to put into perspective what effect this war must have had on its soldiers. Komunyakaa “[goes] down
The Things They Carried by American author Tim O’Brien, who was drafted in the Vietnam war, describes the experience of the American infantry fighting in Vietnam. O’Brien utilises various rhetorical devices to illustrate the immense emotional & physical burdens the soldiers were to bear to enlighten the reader about the true horrors of war. For example, O’Brien employs asyndeton & polysyndeton in sentences listing the many things the soldiers carried. “They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades…,” (O’Brien). The lists of items carried carry on, overwhelming & exhausting the reader of the physical burdens of war.
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried explores the experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam War, along with their thoughts and memories. Though the events that take place could be exaggerated or completely made up, the thoughts and feelings of the characters still shine through and feel very real. The stories use a grim and uncontrollable atmosphere juxtaposed with the normality of human action that works to suggest war is above common morality yet defends the humanity of the soldiers who fight it. O'Brien begins his novel by listing the various items soldiers would carry to emphasize the literal weight on their shoulders, helping the reader see the humanity in these fighters. He uses the numerical poundage, which gives an understanding of how
In the novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, the author describes a platoon marching through Vietnam at the time of the Vietnamese War. He does so by describing in detail the items that each of the men carry with them during their march. The things that the soldiers carry with them are not only tangible but intangible items as well, and what these things are depend fully upon each individual soldier. They carry Military Payment Certificates, the basic "necessities" for survival along with the bare minimum to make life as livable as possible during the time of war. The men decided on the items they wished to carry with them depending completely on their habits and rate of metabolism.
“Only the dead have seen the end of war. ”-Plato . As we read through the book we relize that soldiers have too much emotional truam due to the trumatic experiences they have gone through. These trumatic experience has caused soldiers to carry emotinal burdens when they come back home to society. In the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien shares his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam war and shows how much the war causes someone to carry emotional burdens.
O’Brien lists the items the soldiers are carrying, such as "matches, C-rations, malaria tablets, and two or three grenades. " These descriptions create a sense of realism and specificity, as well as emphasize the weight and burden of the soldiers' physical possessions. The soldiers are described as carrying their emotions with them at all times, even when they are not actively participating in the conflict. Yet, the emphasis on these tangible goods also helps to underline the weight of the soldiers' emotional baggage, which is intangible but no less substantial. For example, the line "They were afraid of dying
When people see and experience death, they lose a part of themselves and the experience forever changes a person. Death is all around and people experience it every day, especially during war. Soldiers are constantly surrounded by death and experience more trauma than an average person does. In the book The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien demonstrates how the horrific experiences of war cause people to lose their composure and act against their preexisting morality. Death is a constant at war, especially in Vietnam.
In Tim O’Brian’s book, The Things They Carried, he tells the story of Tim who serves in the Vietnam war and is immersed in a war filled with death. O’Brian through his theme of death helps create a story that illustrates the horrors of war, and shows how soldiers carried death both physically and psychologically. For instance, O’Brian conveys how closely war and death are associated together. On page 77, O’Brian writes, “At its core, perhaps, war is just another name for death, and yet any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it corresponding proximity to life” (77). This quote illustrates, how by coming close to dying, one can appreciate life that much more.
In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien writes about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and the troubles his men face throughout the war. He mentions the underlying truth of war and how each soldier carries something special with him along their journey. The items each soldier carries is important to them but also represents the mental challenges they face. Each soldier faces his own set of physical and mental problems whether it is during or after the war. O’Brien uses this as a way for us to understand the story as a whole.
For example, O’Brien describes the physical weight of the items soldiers carry, such as guns, ammunition, and grenades. However, he also describes the emotional weight of the war, writing, “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing – these were intangible yet had their own mass and specific gravity” (O’Brien 21). This quote illustrates how the soldiers, not only carry physical objects, but also the emotional weight of their experiences in the war. Furthermore, this story depicts “the weight of burdens that press on soldiers in the field and how they handle those burdens” (Farrell).
The death witnessed during war is often a recurring thought in soldiers returning from war. This idea is explored in The Things They Carried, a novel about the Vietnam war. This novel explains the overall experiences of war and the trauma soldiers faced in and outside of war. The author, Tim O’Brien, carries a lot of guilt from war and wrote this book as a way to reflect on his experiences. Throughout the book, he argues that when soldiers experience the emotional burdens caused by death at war, they need to place blame in order to cope with their emotions.
Soldiers struggled with the imprinted images of war that they could not escape even after returning home. The book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, is a powerful work of fiction that provides insight into the experiences of soldiers who fought in the war. Through the stories in the book, we can learn several historical lessons about the war and its consequences it has on the soldiers fighting it mentally and physically. To begin with, the first
It lists a variety of things that the soldier brought on their mission. For example, some of the things were intangible, such as sickness, guilt, and the atmosphere. Other soldiers were carrying physical objects, including P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wrist-watches, dog tags and etc. as listed in (O 'Brien). Throughout the plot of the story O 'Brien seem to focus on the things that were not important versus the things that 's were, and at the end, he was faced with a big consequence.
The soldiers carried military gear symbolic to the fear they carry with them in battle. Ted Lavender carried extra ammunition due to fear. The personal items the sol-diers carried are also precious and symbolic. Carrying their desires, homesickness, and love. Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose for comfort.
But no only in the war did they carry grief. “In the spring of 1956, when we were in the fourth grade…..” (O’Brien 216) “She had a brain tumor. She lived through the summer… and then she was dead….
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.