The Things They Carried Guilt Analysis

Norman Bowker keeps his thoughts to himself, because of his difficulty expressing his emotions. He could not find the words to show and tell others how he felt from his experiences from the war. In doing so Bowker carries all the damage that war can do to a man during and after the war. The crucial healing process that includes telling one’s stories and thoughts of the war was something he could not do properly. Bowker had a possible chance of some therapy through the story in the book from O’Brien, but the story is not told in the correct way to Bowker’s true feelings, and leads to his emotional burdened death.

During the Vietnam War, the platoon came into a sewage field and were ambushed by mortar fire. Kiowa got hit by one and Norman Bowker attempted to save him, but he lost him. After the war Norman Bowker was never able to live in peace. He never had a stable life after the war. At the time he lived with his family and took part time jobs that lasted very shortly. The things he cared are now gone such as his childhood friend who drowned at a young age and his ex-girlfriend who is already married. Due to so much loss, Norman Bowker has little purpose in his life. He would take his family car and drive around the lake several times. He also wanted to speak to someone about his story during the Vietnam War such as his father but never had the courage to. Norman also requested O’Brien in a letter to add his story to his work. After three years later from 1975 he ended his life silently and without any

For countless of people today, the Vietnam war is just something from the past, but for Tim O’Brien, the Vietnam War will endlessly be with him. This one year in Vietnam changes the lives of this platoon from emotional pain, physical pain, as well as muscle pain will commence to cloud their vision. The weight of the things that they carried takes great effect on them that they have to continue to endure on this one year trip in Vietnam and remember these memories for the rest of their lives..

In life, everyone has obligations. People have responsibilities they have to tend to everyday, but sometimes there are passions of love or revenge that makes one stop thinking of what their true responsibilities are. For soldiers fighting in war, their responsibility is to take care of their men and make sure no one gets hurt. They fight for their country and protect the men who have become their family. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross went against his honor to protect his men. He let his responsibly go, which caused one of the men in his group to die. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross confronts the demands of the love for Martha, which conflicts with his responsibility in the war, which affects him and the story.

Jimmy Cross carries a picture of his love, Martha, with him every step he takes has he fights in the Vietnam War. He has a picture of her playing volleyball and a picture of her leaning against a wall. As he daydreams about Martha, Jimmy Cross feels hope and motivation to fight through the war and make it home to see his love. Martha does not love him back but Jimmy still fantasies about all the things he wants to experience with Martha. Because of Jimmy’s love for Martha and how he can look at the photos all night and day, these pictures symbolize hope and motivation but also distraction. The photos are a distraction to Jimmy. While he is thinking about the photos and dreaming of Martha, his men have died due to his distraction. The morning after Ted Lavender died he burned the pictures and the letters, but he knew he “couldn’t burn the blame” (494). After he burned the letters he remembers that, “...his

However, Lt. Cross fails to realize his responsibility is not in keeping his photographs and letters safe, but in leading his men safely. Because of his delusional dreams of Martha, he is unable to prevent the death of Ted Lavender. In dealing with such a guilt and regret, Lt Cross is forced to give up the one thing he loved “more than anything, more than his men,” (318) his beloved Martha. He forces himself to burn everything that was Martha, her pictures, the letters, and pebble she sent, “because she belonged to another world, which was not quite real…because he realized she did not love him and never would” (323).

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.

Martha, even though she is only ever mentioned in the beginning of the book, still plays a huge role in the lives of the soldiers. In some ways, she is a large part of how the platoon’s lives played out, even a part of why one man died. Lt. Jimmy Cross is extremely affected by Martha as his one time girlfriend; he is obsessed with even the thought of her.-- So obsessed with her, he even becomes distracted to

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.

Through the exchange of letters between Lt. Jimmy Cross and the center of his infatuation Martha in “The Things They Carried”, he allowed himself to become more obsessed with the thought of her. The letters simply state the events Martha encounter in her daily life, lines

"... but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing. He would feel himself rising. Sun and waves and gentle winds, all love and lightness." This quote from page 9 from the chapter The Things They Carried shows us that his mind is always distracted and on Martha, even when he is supposed to be watching over the land and fighting. He keeps his letters from her on all times, always hoping that the 'Love, Martha' she signs at the end of them means something more than it actually does, reading them so much to the point that he can remember what they say without looking at them. "First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastion College in New Jersey. In the late afternoon, after a long day's march, he would dig his foxhole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending. He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her

O’Brien begins the story with the First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross speaking about his knickknacks that Martha, a friend from back home in America, has sent him including letters, photographs, and a pebble from her last trip to the shore. Jimmy Cross has a plethora of responsibilities which must be carried out, yet he continues to put these to the side to focus on Martha and what he thinks of their relationship.

Jimmy's transformation begins when he decides to burn the pictures and letters of his girlfriend, Martha. To be a leader in war was meaningless to Jimmy Cross compared to the love he had for Martha. Cross' subsequent burning of Martha's letters suggests that he's determined to put such romantic ideas behind him. He repeatedly convinces himself that there will be no more fantasies about Martha. The burning of Martha’s things is symbolically used by O’Brien to signify a turning point in Cross’ development. Cross realizes that Martha's feelings for him were not those of love, for she is an English major, a girl who lives in the world of words. Cross was rationalizing his un-requiting love for Martha to create a “home world” inside his mind so that he could mentally escape from the war when he needed to.

Throughout the chapter of Ghost Soldiers, O’Brien objects vengeance but is confused by acceptance through morbid imagery, vindictive tone, and an unexpected shifts of inner thoughts to illustrate unity even after a mistake was made in the warzone. O’Brien begins to tell when Rat Keiley was the medic for their group. He describes getting shot and Keily coming to treat O’Brien. Afterwards, he begins to thank Keily for saving his life, and for making him feel completely better. His wounds needed to be healed, so he took about 1 month off, but once he returned, Rat Keily was wounded and sent off to heal.

In the chapter “Notes”, Tim O’Brien explains where his inspiration for the previous chapter, “Speaking of Courage”, comes from. He received a letter from his old friend Norman Bowker talking about how he lacks purpose in life after the war, how nothing seems real or worthwhile to him anymore. He explains how he read O’Brien’s other book and asks him to write a chapter about a war veteran in his own situation. Eventually, O’Brien writes the chapter to fit into his current narrative. He sends the published chapter to Norman and he says that it’s alright, but it’s missing key points; it’s missing the whole point. Later on, Norman hangs himself and O’Brien rewrites the chapter the way it was meant to be and puts it into his new book, The Things They Carried.