the things they carried symbolism essay

• War Theme in O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” Words: 826
• Symbols and Themes in “The Things They Carried” Words: 1665
• ‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien: Reflection Words: 562
• Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” Review Words: 893
• Lieutenant Cross in O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” Words: 643
• Burdens’ Impact in “The Things They Carried” by O’Brien Words: 1182
• “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien: Analysis Words: 899
• Literature Studies: “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien Words: 841
• Role of Women in “The Things They Carried” Words: 556
• Literary Analysis: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien Words: 1100

Symbolism in The Things They Carried

Literature is the means of expressing the feelings and emotions that human being perceive during their lives. It is the form of art that allows people depict the most tragic and the most joyful events in their life, the most necessary and dangerous experiences, etc. The significant occurrences in the history of the whole countries and the mankind as such are also reflected in various literary works. This fact makes the literature into the means of the comprehensive overview of reality with the opportunity to look back in the past and analyze mistakes or take a look at the future and plan it. All these aspects are combined by Tim O’Brien in his The Things They Carried.

The very short story is the depiction of several days from the lives of a detachment of the American soldiers in Vietnam during the war. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, machine gunner Henry Dobbins, Lavender, and others are the young men with their own interests and problems but they are united by the danger of death and by the need to both save their lives and fulfill the tasks set for them in the war (O’brien, 798). Thus, Cross is obsessed with the thoughts of Martha, the girl he loves, and these thoughts prevent him from being an effective leader as Lavender becomes the victim of the Vietnamese troops and other soldiers start doubting the leadership skills of the Lieutenant (O’brien, 798).

Thus, trying to match the demands of the wartime with his personal issues, Cross decides that love and war are incompatible: “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead. He would dispense with love; it was not now a factor” (O’brien, 798) So, he chooses to be a better leader than live by memories about Martha. Having burnt her letters, Cross sees that it is better to be loved than to wage war but he has no choice but becoming a pragmatic and emotionless war-machine.

Accordingly, the symbolism of the short story under consideration can easily be traced. The Things They Carried is not all about the material things that soldiers have to carry in their bags to ensure nutrition, water supply, and safety in battlefield. This is rather the story about the emotional and psychological loads that each of Cross’ soldiers has: “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing” (O’brien, 798). Being former students, these men had to start killing other people and fulfilling the strategic governmental tasks. What they were afraid of is proving to be unable to do this, so they did their best to match the standards, although there was a lot to think about. Cross though of his love, Kiowa – about his family and religion (O’brien, 798). All this shows that war is the destructive instrument used not only to physically kill people, but to kill their hopes, dreams, wishes, and plans.

Drawing from this, this paper should be concluded by stating that literature is the means of the comprehensive overview of reality of which war and love are integral parts. Tim O’Brien emphasizes this fact in his The Things They Carried showing how incompatible the two aforesaid phenomena are but how often they coincide in people’s lives to destroy each other.

Works Cited

O’brien, Tim. 2008. The Things They Carried. In Making Literature Matter , eds. John Schilb and John Clifford, 798. Bedford/St. Martin’s; 4th edition.

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The Things They Carried

The symbolism of weight in the things they carried joshua scott fouche college.

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the first chapter presents the concept of weight in two opposing forms, that of the physical weight of the items they carry, and also the emotional weight of their past experiences. These messages imbue the pages with a striking solemness, that of which is shared between readers and characters alike, allowing O’Brien to enhance the themes of teamwork, human nature, and opposition to war.

The development of the physical weight of emotions is portrayed by two dominant characters in the chapter. The first is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, whose main focus during the chapter is on his love interest back home, Martha. The conflict first presents itself though the letters from her that he is reading. In the physical sense, they weigh practically nothing, probably not noticed in the grand scheme of the items he must carry while marching through villages. He is not physically affected by the letter, yet the empty, weightless words of her “Love”s, similar to the weightlessness of the letter itself, yield a tremendous amount of emotional strain on the Lieutenant. As his obsession with Martha physically develops across the chapter, through the introduction of her photographs and the pebble, he becomes...

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The Things They Carried

Tim o’brien.

Mortality and Death

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Social Obligation

In The Things They Carried , O'Brien often focuses on how the men in his stories, even if they volunteered to fight, joined the army because of the unspoken pressure to fulfill their obligations as citizens and soldiers. These social obligations range from that of wider society (government, city/town) and narrows to the nuclear (family, friends, personal reflection). After being drafted in "On the Rainy River," Tim O'Brien runs from his hometown and ends up…

Within the stories in The Things They Carried the characters tell many stories to each other, and the question always asked of the storyteller is "What's the moral?" In "How to Tell a True War Story," Mitchell Sanders tells O'Brien about a company who has to lie dormant and watchful in the pitch-blackness over a village. They begin to have auditory hallucinations: champagne glasses clinking, music playing, a full chamber orchestra. They aren't supposed to…

Storytelling and Memory

Storytelling in The Things They Carried operates on multiple levels: at the level of the book itself, the stories within stories, and the reflections on the value of these stories both in the context of the war and then post-war. "The Lives of the Dead" speaks to O'Brien's belief that stories have the power to give an entire life to those who have passed on. He refers to his childhood love Linda who passed away…

Shame and Guilt

Shame and guilt are constant and often inextricable themes in The Things They Carried . Soldiers felt obligated to go to war for fear of embarrassing themselves, their families, and their towns if they fled. This embarrassment is bolstered by the guilt of not being "masculine" enough—not being brave, heroic, and patriotic enough. O'Brien reflects on how he thought he had a secret reserve of bravery and heroism stored away, waiting for the moment when…

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