The Things They Carried Women Analysis

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Women Are Everything in Times of War In Tim O’ Brien’s short story collection, The Things They Carried, women play a supporting role, not seen, but very much on the mind of the men. Women exist only on the margins of the narrative. They are scarcely remembered girlfriends, or they are beloved girlfriends who are only present in meaningful bits and pieces. Although women play a small role, it is a significant one in these six short: “The Things They Carried,” “Love,” “Spin,” “Sweetheart Of the Song Tra Bong,” “Stockings,” and “The Lives Of The Dead”. Female characters such as Martha, Mary Anne Bell, Linda, Kathleen, and Henry Dobbins’s unnamed girlfriend all affect the men of the Alpha Company—although in some of the cases, the women aren’t…show more content…
Their roles truly affect the men at war by toying and protecting with their modest minds. Although women are seen as mere objects of symbolism and representation of the men’s truest desires, stories wouldn’t be told without them. They serve the purpose of innocence and meaningful bits and pieces that saved these men in combat. They give a reason for their survival, hopeless romance, and sanity. They are scarcely remembered. Women play a small role in these six short stories: “The Things They Carried,” “Love,” “Spin,” “Sweetheart Of the Song Tra Bong,” “Stockings,” and “The Lives Of The Dead”. Beloved female characters such as Martha, Mary Anne Bell, Linda, Kathleen, and Henry Dobbins’s girlfriend all affect the men of the Alpha Company. The men romanticize the women and use their occurrence in writing, photographs, and even their imagination, as a manner of comfort and memento that humanity other than killing and war does exist outside the mayhem of Vietnam. They represent the part of life that the soldier’s were hoping and dreaming about, and they are getaway from war. Women kept these men sane and safe, but also made them hopeless and

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