The soldiers live and fight in terrible conditions. This environment begins a cycle that causes the soldiers to despise the Iraqis. They are under constant fear of being attacked or blown up. They are living in a location, the desert, which they are not use to. “The dust, the fear, the high threat level, the isolation-all of that was the surge the soldiers knew .
130). By emphasizing the death of this man consistently throughout the chapter, it pin point the agony he felt once he killed basically a man who was not fit for war. Through the constant descriptions of the dead body, it shows the emotional truth behind the feeling of killing a human being and from that readers can understand the anguish of taking the life of another person. These soldiers also had to endure killing people “because they were embarrassed not to” and the men had to sacrifice themselves so “they died so as not to die of embarrassment” (21). In “The Things They Carried” chapter, O’Brien goes in to great detail to tell every little thing each soldier carried and a major thing they carried was the feeling of honor and to die a man.
The boys got hooked onto this propaganda and registered for WWI. This lead to deaths, trauma, and fear of the boys.The boys grow to hate war and what its all about. Kantorek is eventually drafted into war himself, and begins to despise his own teachings of what war was, after experiencing the trenches.
O’Brien and Thomas both depict situations where the concept of death is always lurking just around the corner. The realization of one’s mortality is often enough to shift one’s perception away from fantasy to cold, hard reality. O’Brien illustrates this point well as Lieutenant Cross’s obsession with a fading memory leads to a man’s death: “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men and as a consequence Lavender was now dead.” (O’Brien, 1990, p.20) Consequently he is forced to revaluate his motives and strive to move
Both of these ate away at the men; mind, body and soul. ‘Carry’ means to hold or support while moving, to transport, transmit, or transfer, but figuratively, ‘carry’ connotes bearing a grievance. After Ted Lavender was killed Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried Lavenders burden with him because he felt personally responsible for his death. He was to busy thinking about Martha the one he loved, even though he knew she didn’t love him in return. L.T.
The author of “The Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket”, Jack Finney, develops suspense throughout the entire story. His detailed descriptions of the character’s fears as well as his use of red herrings maintains the reader’s feeling of suspense. Finney initiates a foreboding within the title, “Dead Man’s”, which immediately leads you to believe that a character will die. He also describes in great detail how close the character is to falling to his death at any second, and is in this danger for a majority of the story. The title “The Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” creates a foreboding at the start of the story.
These thematic concerns are echoed in the related texts therefore linking the texts and reflecting how texts may represent society. Fear is a fundamental theme throughout the text 'The Story of Tom Brennan'. Fear becomes an obstacle for tom to move into the world, he feels unsure and paranoid of what his class mates have heard about him and his family. 'the old man told me that night that Harvey knew about the accident and Daniel and stuff. I didn't feel comfortable about it" this conveys the message that tom is both afraid and uncertain of where his new life may take him.
shows, but through real life people. It is almost certain that these men will probably experience some type of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “Combat fatigue,” “shell shock,” or “war neurosis” (Kulka) are all associated with PTSD. But with the weight of Lt. Cross’s men on his shoulders, their lives resting in his hands, is definitely hard. Battling the war of love in his head, asnd battling the Vietnam War as well, is a great means of PTSD in the making.
It is hard for him to deal with throughout the story because it causes him to think of many different things, not only about what he did, but about the man he killed. No matter what it may be, death was a huge part of the war and one of the hardest things to face and deal with. Whether they spent a day or a year in Vietnam, it changed the soldiers in some way, either physically, mentally or both. Even the men who were very mentally stable found it hard to deal with all the aspects of the war. It was very difficult
The dreadful reality of death in war is present within the story, “The Things They Carried”. The story makes it obvious that the Alpha Company Squad was deeply moved by the effects of war. Lieutenant Cross, took the death of Ted Lavender personally and struggled with it. There are a couple symbols that we can take from Ted Lavender’s death. The reader of “The Things They Carried” can become engrossed it the story and become easily moved.