Symbolism In Tim OBrien's The Things They Carried

People both today and back then have been traumatized by war’s brutal combat, fallen victim to cruel soldiers, and had war cause sorrow and grief to them. Through characters seeing death, characters that are soldiers, and characters that are not in combat, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See demonstrates that war affects individuals negatively, even if they are extremely

The literacy work of John Steinbeck shows how soldier won’t talk about their experience in war. Soldiers often have a difficult time cultivating with society after coming back. Steinbeck uses imagery to show what they face in the battlefield. He describes “their body and mind are so disturbed” and their “eardrums are tortured by blast and the eye ache from the constant hammering.”(18) To explain, the imagery shows soldiers face violent and chaotic attacks on the field leading them to be desensitize. The narrator also says, “At first your ears hurt, but then they become dull and all your

War can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. In “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect—the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside?

It is even crazier when one can love that special person even more, after they pass away. Nonetheless, that is not what it is called true love. The truest love of all is the one that remains the same by death, the one that is left unchanged. The narrator devoted his whole life to his woman, even in death. That is true love, when it is certain that there is love and it is a realization that both lovers could never live without each other. This goes hand in hand with the narrator, as he finds it difficult and almost impossible to part with the love of his life. He believes that without her, he finds no purpose in life. She does pass away, but that doesn’t stop him from being with her one bit. Death is the ultimate barrier, in this poem.

“The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, has the theme of physical, emotional, and mental burden in a series of detailed paragraphs in which he tells of all physical and psychological vexations. One of the most followed characters, Jimmy Cross, physically carries several key items that aid in the survival of his men. As platoon leader, cross carries “…a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a .45-caliber…” Not only does he carry these physical things, but each man in the platoon all carry objects based on necessity. “

Cross felt a surge in his brain that, “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had love Martha more than his men.” (pg.103) Lieutenant Cross had to take a few steps back from this object he ”loved” because he was losing his men. People who are here with him in the moment were losing their lives over Cross fantasizing about running in a sandy beach, or tying an object (Martha) to the bed for his own pleasure and escape.

One critic states that “Though Cross is distracted and dreamy about a girl Martha, he also carries the responsibility for the lives of his men. (Plot Summary). For example, the author tells a story about what he carries. He tells about how his friend Ted happens to die. While he was on watch Ted was shot. All he could think about was how Ted dropped “like cement”(O’Brien 6). Also the only reason that “Ted Lavender was dead was because he loved Martha so much and could not stop thinking about her” (O’Brien 6). He was thinking about running on the beach with Martha, a girl from back home. In reality, this girl does not love him but she acts like she does or tends to lead him on because he is going away to war. As this is a play on him in the book maybe she is just trying to give him something to look forward to after the war. She send him a rock from the beach that he kept in his mouth and would leave it their tasting the sea salt. Also, he had a photo of her and would often wonder who took the photo of her when he would look at the one of the two she gave him. This is suspenseful because not only does one want to know if he ever talks to her again after what happens. In addition, after his tragic death he threw the rock and burn the pictures so that he would not ever be distracted again. Every time he thought of the death of his friend it made him feel more guilty.

The men in The Things They Carried often think of the girls back home. To them it is an escape from the harsh reality that the find themselves in; one of death

This experience, above all other wartime horrors, changed the writer-to-be’s perspective on warfare and the human condition that causes it.

War has been a topic that is upsetting and off-limits for many. Although, it shouldn’t be. War has become a rising issue as veterans come back home. Authors use languages such as imagery, strong diction, and rhetorical strategies to stress the importance of talking about war. Some may also use personal experience to raise awareness of the effects on both sides of the war and to deal with post-traumatic events that happen to veterans.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross had a woman that he was in-love with, Martha. Martha had been a motivator of Cross, he had always thought about her and what he’d like to do with her. ”He would imagine romantic camping tips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire.” (Page 1). But as the war went on the thought of her had took over his mind. Not fully paying attention to the men during the war. While watching one of the men checking out a hole, he had spaced out of thinking about Matha. One of his men Lavender had been shot during a restroom break. Her name became a reminder of his death. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.” (Page 16)

In the same sentence that Jimmy Cross is introduced so is Martha. Martha is a junior English major at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey who has written him the letters that he keeps with him. These letters “were not love letters” (366), though letters that he cherished, keeping them safe from wear and tear. Her letters are described as “chatty”, telling of her every day life at the college. She talks about her favorite authors, Chaucer and Virginia Woolf. She quotes poetry and never mentions the War. Lieutenant Cross carries, along with the letters, two photographs of Martha, one of her against a brick wall and another in an action shot playing volleyball. Lieutenant Cross and is never too clear on her intentions and her letters do not aid in his clarity due to being signed “Love, Martha”, though he knows that to be the common way to sign a letter. Martha continues to write him throughout the war and sends gifts such as a lucky stone that she found on the beaches of the Jersey Shore. Jimmy Cross through most of this short story too wonders what her intentions are and what are her “truest feelings” (O’Brien 371). It is never clarified to the reader why Martha continued to write to Jimmy Cross nor what her intentions were with him. Martha’s character is developed in way that reads that she worries for Jimmy Cross but is not mature or is possibly oblivious to the way that her actions affect him. The thought of Martha is blamed for the situations that unfold in the short story. She sends letters and keeps contact with him for no known reason. In the story, there is no mention of her asking how Jimmy Cross is doing, or how the war is going. The way that her letters are described she aims to only talk about herself, making sure that he is updated with her daily rituals. It is possible

While all the characters in O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” brought heavy physical baggage, they also all carried heavy emotional baggage, made up of love, fear, and longing among many other things. In the beginning of the story, the author lists the literal things that some of the men carried with them in the war. The things that these men carried seemed somewhat strange at first, but as the story proceeds, it is easier to understand why they brought things such as pantyhose with them. The baggage carried by the soldiers Cross, Lavender represented emotional issues that weighed them down while they were at were. This story conveys what soldiers have to deal with along with the stress of being at war.

His hopeful mood allows the reader to comprehend the level of emotional connection he had to Annabel. This proves the speaker’s love never being deceased, despite being separated from his true love forever. On the contrary, in “Funeral Blues” though the deceased loved one is not revealed to be either a family member nor a partner to the speaker, it evident to see the pain and grief brought upon the speaker as he/she demands the whole world to

This poem shows that even after death takes away a person’s life, the people still, currently living still feel