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Characters In Tim OBrien's The Things They Carried

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Characters in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” went through various changes because of the Vietnam war. They witnessed gruesome deaths and injuries of fellow soldiers,k They gained courage and bravery but many lost who they were before the war. people that are put in terrible situations have to adapt to survive even if parts of their personality dies. In the chapter titled “The Things They Carried” Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was focused on his life back in the United States. At the beginning of the chapter he would rather think of Martha which was the girl he loved. Then suddenly one of his soldiers Ted Lavender was shot in the head. “ Lieutenant Cross found himself trembling. He tried not to cry...He felt shame. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead”. This is When Lieutenant Cross realized he was not back at the safety of his home but in a battlefield and his work must not be taken lightly. From that point on they “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing”. This shows Cross matured almost instantly and learned survival was number one priority. The fear of dying everyday was very stressful so they still joked around but that was just to stop them from growing even more insane. Another example of people changing because of the war was told in the chapter “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”.When Mark Fossie’s girlfriend Mary Anne shows up she was kind and gentle like the women back

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