Aunt Ida Pieces A Guilt Summary

It is based on necessity such as the standard fatigue jacket and trousers, canteens, MRE’s or C-rations, cigarettes, steel helmets, flak jacket, ponchos or sleep bags, a weapon such as the M-16, the M-60, or the .45 caliber pistol, or in Ted Lavender’s case dope. It is based on rank or field specialty such as Lt. Cross carrying the maps, compass and codebook, or Mitchell Sanders being the RTO carrying the PRC-25 radio, or Rat Kiley being the medic carrying his canvas satchel filled with morphine, and plasma and malaria tablets and surgical tape. It is based on mission, such as a mine detector is they though an area was especially littered with toe poppers and bouncing betties, and it is based on superstition, such as Lt. Cross’s good-luck pebble, Dave Jensen’s rabbit’s foot or Henry Dobbins carrying his girlfriend’s pantyhose. Despite the heavy load (each soldier carrying closer to a 100 lbs worth of gear) this story, isn’t about the physical weight, but rather the emotional and psychological toll a war can take on a person. The Things They Carried is about LT. Cross and his men, Rat Kiley, Henry Dobbins, Dave Jensen, Kiowa, Ted Lavender, Norman Baker, Lee Strunk and Mitchell Sanders and there time in Vietnam. The author talks about the various things that they had to carry and well as a number of events such as Mitchell Sanders cutting of the dead vietcongs thumb, to Lee Strunk being picked to going in a VC tunnel and to the sudden death of Ted Lavender, who was shot while walking back from

The central theme of the story is the age-old conflict of life and death. On a more personal level with First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the round character and protagonist of "The Things They Carried", it is a conflict of love, his antagonist and of war.

The symbols in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” are essential to understanding the soldiers and their lives during the Vietnam War. At the opening of the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross would dig into his foxhole and read the letters while imagining romance with Martha; however, at the end of the story after the death of Ted Lavender, he “crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters” (402). The inner feelings of Cross would be mistakenly ignored without the help of symbols throughout his travel through Vietnam. O’Brien uses the emotional and physical weight carried by the soldiers as a representation of their personalities and how they prefer to cope with the war. The

Lieutenant Cross was in love with a girl back home named Martha. He carried around letters that she wrote to him and pictures that she gave him. His obsession of Martha took his focus away from the war. “He had loved Martha more than his

Tim O’Brien writes about both the physical objects they carry as well as their emotional burdens. The objects that these soldiers carry serve as a symbolism for what they are carrying in their hearts and minds. The soldiers carry items varying from pantyhose, medicine, tanning oil, and pictures. Jimmy Cross is an inexperienced sophomore in college, he signs up for the Reserve Officers Training Camp because his friends are doing the course. Jimmy Cross doesn’t want anything to do with the war or anything to do with being a leader. The item that Jimmy Cross carries with him are pictures of his classmate named Martha.

One of the most overlooked aspects in the life of a soldier is the weight of the things they carry. In Tim O'Brien's story, "The Things They Carried," O'Brien details the plight of Vietnam soldiers along with how they shoulder the numerous burdens placed upon them. Literally, the heavy supplies weigh down each soldier -- but the physical load imposed on each soldier symbolizes the psychological baggage a soldier carries during war. Though O'Brien lists the things each soldier carries, the focal point centers around the leader, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and his roles in the war. Lt. Cross has multiple burdens, but his emotional baggage is

In Tim O’Brien’s story called “The Things They Carried” he writes about how a group of soldiers, who are in Vietnamese, are caring items that are important to them. Lieutenant Cross carries letters from Martha because he loves her. While he is day dreaming of Martha instead of watching out for his team, Lavender gets shots and dies. Cross feels guilty about Lavenders death because he was thinking about Martha; so he burns everything she gave him and he keeps himself and the rest of the soldiers on point.

“The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien is a novel whose theme is not only related to soldiers but to everyday people as well. The theme of this novel lies in the struggles that soldiers bear, both physically and emotionally. The title —The Things They Carried— and most of

Items they carried had been based on the necessity of that item and this necessity dictated (355). Amongst these was cigarettes, kool-aid packets, P-38 can openers, heat tabs, wristwatches, pocket knives, rations, water etc (355). Due to extreme war conditions, they carried armor, bandages, and a green plastic poncho that was “worth every ounce” (356). Lt. Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, which carried a strong significance throughout the duration of the excerpt. According to their rank or specialty, the soldiers carried a variety of weapons and accessories. They performed various missions while being resupplied every few days with “more of the same “(365). An increase in the amount of equipment carried translated to the increase in the amount of physical weight withheld. All these physical objects in which they carried weighed down on their emotional state of mind.

She selfishly praised quilts as "priceless" (91) whereas she thought the same piece was old fashioned and out of style when offered to her for college. By carrying the quilts she claims to carry the heritage, however, she shuns the lifestyle of her family, which is of course a part of her heritage.

In the first chapter in the book, titled The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross is one of the many examples throughout the novel in where a soldier has a way to escape from the realities of war. Cross, who is a lieutenant in his company, carries two photographs of a girl named Martha whom he truly loves and wishes nothing else but to be with her in the end. Along with the photographs, he carries letters from Martha herself as well as her good-luck pebble in his mouth. Martha’s letters has a huge impact on Cross’s escape on reality because those letters do not mention war at all but for him to stay safe. All of these items comforts Cross and eventually reminisce about the times when he was back home with Martha away from any war. He relives a moment when he was with Martha at the movies, and then remembers that he touched her knee but Martha did not approve and pushed his hands away. Now while he’s in Vietnam, he does nothing but fantasizes taking her to her bed, tying her up, and touching that one knee knee all night long.

Love is a powerful force, and Lieutenant Cross sometimes gets lost in his musings while thinking of Martha. O’Brien writes: “His mind wandered. He had difficulty keeping his attention on the war. On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing.” Like any sane person in his situation, Lieutenant Cross wants to escape – to anywhere else but the war. The war brings terrible experiences – fear, death, hunger, and pain beyond imagination. The only way that Lieutenant Cross can endure these things is by escaping to an imaginary life with Martha. Although to her, he is little more than a friend, to Lieutenant Cross, Martha represents innocence, perfection, and a world free from war.

Another piece of the literature that has similar attributes to the is the poem “My Mother Pieced Quilts.” The poem uses a mother’s handmade quilt to access and explore the poet’s childhood memories. Like how a quilt is made, the poem pieces together memories in order to show the reader a complete image between the speaker’s childhood and the mother’s strong influence. The speaker shows how her mother’s influential ways shaped into the person the speaker is today. For example, “But it was just that every morning I awoke to these October ripened canvases passed my hand across their cloth faces and began to wonder how you pieced all these together.” This quote shows the interest that the speaker has towards her mother’s quilt, she then explains in great detail how her mother threads pieces of fabrics together, obviously admiring her mother’s works. This reason shows how a person’s identity is influenced by his or her environment.

Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s panty-hose around his neck. Norman Bowker carried a thumb from a corpse that was given to him by Mitchell Sanders. Towards the end of the story Lieutenant Cross realizes he is not doing his job well if he is thinking about Martha. After Lavender is shot, Cross decides that he is going to straighten up and be the leader he should have been all along. Cross blames himself for Lavender’s death.” He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of war.”(O’Brien 101) Immediately, Cross has a talk about his new expectations.”Commencing immediately, he’d tell them, they would no longer abandon equipment along the route of march. They would police up their acts, they would get their shit together, and keep it together, and maintain it neatly and in a good working order.”(O’Brien 105) After Lavender is killed, Cross has the motivation to fulfill his role in war as the leader of the platoon.

Each soldier carried with them items, some tangible others intangible, which helped them to adapt their minds and escape from the setting so that they could survive the traumatic events taking place. “Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope.” “Rat Kiley carried comic books.” The soldiers in the story do not only have a physical battle to deal with but also a mental one. Most of these items were a necessity in order to bear the war. However, there were a few items that the soldiers carried not because they had to or because they needed it to survive physically but because they needed it in order to survive emotionally. One soldier carried his wife’s pantyhose; another carried a new testament. One soldier permitted his items to take control of him and become an obsession, a trauma that took his focus away from his priorities, the war, and his men.