The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a novel about the experiences of a group of American soldiers during the Vietnam War. The fact that the narrator includes himself while also providing real names throughout the narrative creates a style of writing that borders fiction and non-fiction. The narrator introduces Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is the leader of the platoon of soldiers as well as his memories of Martha, a constant reminder of his unreciprocated love. When the platoon is faced with death, Cross reconsiders his priorities and burns everything that reminds him of his life before the war in order to avoid distractions (O'Brien 1). Throughout the story, the narrator is able to describe the items that every soldier has carried and their individual and collective struggles through the war. By describing what every soldier is carrying, the narrator is able to expose the physical and emotional burden that each soldier is carrying. Accordingly, the author is able to explore the character of each one of them by describing what the soldiers are carrying.
Several themes emerge in the course of the narrative but the most prominent is physical and emotional burdens. It is noteworthy that the things that the members of the platoon carry are literal as well as metaphorical. While it is true that they are carrying heavy artillery, their emotions also weigh them down. The emotional burdens that these men experience include love, longing, grief and terror. It is apparent that the physical loads that they carry draw attention to the emotional burden they experience. For instance, Lieutenant Cross is carrying maps and compasses and with these items, he has the responsibility for guiding and protecting every soldier in the platoon. Even after the war is over, the soldiers continue to experience the psychological burden of guilt, confusion, grief and other emotional experiences during the war. They also have to deal with the burden of trying to come to terms with the all their experiences before, during, and after the war. For instance, in ‘love’, Jimmy Cross attempts to unburden your heart by disclosing to the narrator that he has never been able to forgive himself for the death of Ted Lavender. Another example of a person who struggles with emotional burden after the war is Norman Bowker who in “Speaking of Courage” is in grief and confusion after trying to come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend is married and most of his friends are dead. The burden is too heavy to the extent that he results to driving without purpose around his hometown to try to lighten the loan and subsequently writes a long letter explaining to O’Brien how he has never felt normal after the war. Bowker’s emotional load is too heavy to bear that he eventually hangs himself to escape the burden. Unlike Bowker who tries without success to bear his psychological burden, the narrator who was a member of the platoon shares his experiences by writing about them, as he does in this story.
On the other hand, the soldiers carry the burden of fear of embarrassment and the need to protect their reputation because although every soldier is experiencing fear they cannot express their feelings because will expose their vulnerability to the fellow soldiers and by extension to the enemy. It is apparent from the story that the fear of being embarrassed before peers serves as a very powerful motivational tool in the war. While narrating his experiences in “On the Rainy River”, the narrator is able to explain his moral dilemma after getting his draft notice (37). On the one hand, he does not want to play a part in a war that he considers unjust but on the other, he does not want his peers to think of him as a coward. In this regard, the narrator fails to flee to Canada not because he is a patriotic person but because he is afraid of the community and his family labeling him a coward. As one learns from the story, many people only decided to participate in the war because they wanted to show their bravery and not because they were convinced that the war was for a good cause. This perception is symbolic of the conflict that the novel explores and the misguided expectations of a society and the uncertainty of individual soldiers regarding the right course of action.
Ultimately, the narrative reveals that O’Brien’s and other men’s fear of being ashamed is not only an effective motivator for even the most reluctant people to join the war but also affects the relationship between the soldiers. The apprehension that individuals have regarding social acceptance may seem inconsequential at the beginning but given the reality of death and the importance of unity within the platoon, the soldiers end up engaging in absurd and sometimes dangerous activities to ensure they gain acceptance within the group and the wider American society. One example of the extent to which individuals a were willing to go to gain acceptance is when Curt Lemon makes a decision to have his perfectly good tooth removed in “The Dentist” in a bid to ease his shame of having fainted at an earlier time when he had an encounter with the dentist (82). The stressful encounters that the young soldiers encounter are a source of psychological burden that increase the dangers of fighting. For instance, it emerges that Lieutenant Cross joins the war not because of his conviction but because of his friends and as a result, he turns out to be a confused and an indecisive leader who ends up endangering the lives of the soldiers he is supposed to guide and protect.
Besides the themes, the novel incorporates symbolism. There are various symbols in the novel including the dead young soldier, the sewage field, and the pebble that Martha gave to Cross. The pebble represents the connection between the two and this belief comforts him as he constantly struggles to overcome the challenges during the war. Consequently, it downs on Cross that the feelings, the hope, and the fantasies he was having about Martha were not realistic and the pebble now represented an obstacle on his ability to carry out his functions effectively as a soldier and a leader. Getting rid of the pebble becomes a symbol of his taking responsibility for the things that were happening around him in his capacity as a soldier and as a leader.
With regard to the dead young soldier in “The Man I Killed”, the narrator is not sure whether he is the one who killed the young Vietnamese soldier (118). However, the dead soldier becomes a symbol of thousands of dead Vietnamese soldiers. O’Brien tries to detach himself from the results of his actions but his guilt is apparent. His imagination regarding the life of the soldier he has killed, he includes various aspects that resemble his own life. By imagining the life of the dead soldier, the narrator tries to give dignity and a sense of identity to the Vietnamese victims.
Further, readers learn about the sewage field when Bowker is not able to resist driving around a lake while thinking about the things that happened to Kiowa, a Native American who emerges as the most morally upright person in the novel. Kiowa emerges as a symbol of American decency that drowns in the sewage of the Vietnam War.
Work Cited
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009
