The Vietnam War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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The Vietnam War was very impactful for war for not only Vietnam and the United States but for the rest of the world. This war was agreed on many but seemed to be disagreed on my by even more so it was a war with great conflict. Tim O’ Brien the author of The Things They Carried was writing about this war in his story. He was referring to the American soldiers in his story and talking about the objects or emotional “things” that they had to carry through this war. In this wonderful story, the main soldiers Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, Henr y Dobbs, Kiowa and many other soldiers are fighting this war and are “carrying things”. But these things are not necessarily objects. Everyone assumes that it is simple right, soldiers carry guns,…show more content…
In this story these soldiers are carrying something of a different nature. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is carrying the fact that he felt he is the reason that his friend and military teammate was killed in the war. He has an obsession with this woman back home that he is deeply in love with, that he misses extremely and during the war she is constantly on his mind. When Ted Lavender gets shot in the back of the head, it eats him up and he feels as though it is his fault From then on, he burns his pictures of his beloved Martha, and her letters because he feels as though that was the reason he as the leader of his military unit, let one of his members die. Kiowa is carrying the fact that he really does not trust white people at times because of the past mistakes they have made. He dies and does not get to return to his family. Norman Bowker who feels as though he is part of the reason Kiowa died because he failed to save him, yet reveals that it really was not him. After returning home he hangs himself on a rope to kill himself which surprises everyone. These soldiers are not only carrying their weapons and their warrior mentality because it is their job after all to kill the enemy for our

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