The Outrageous Battlefield Burdens
The writer, Tim O’Brien applies the use of comprehensive description and realism as a mode to engage the reader fully in the actual activities throughout the story, “the things they carried”. The main theme of the story is carrying. It is the most emphasized aspect on the entire story, and it, however, serves a purpose of informing the reader about how much weight the war memoir had to bare. He mentions the list of the items the character carries along with him despite being seemingly tedious (Malu, p 42). The writer informs the reader that distant from war gears, the soldiers carried along ordinary items like candy, scripts from people they loved as well as cigarettes, which clearly brings out their compassion.
To focus on the number of items the soldiers had to carry along with them is a representation of how they had to survive with so much weight on them. Carrying was not only on the physical burden they had, but on also the emotional feeling in them. Looking at an example where he focuses on a character, Jimmy Cross, who blames himself for the death of one of his soldiers, Ted (O’Brien, p 16). That thought is a heavy burden that Jimmy Cross has to carry inside him. An additional symbol of the theme on carrying is the character Ted who brings along items of anxiety like the tranquilizer in addition to marijuana that alleviate, and make him sluggish. The items derail Ted thus making him to lack attention as he walk. This is the reason that got him shot to death.
Witnessing the metaphor “carrying” in O’Brien’s work suggest how valuable it was to him. The emphasis is to create a clear picture to the reader on the weight of the things a soldier has to carry along, both physical and emotional. It enables the reader find the way life is inconsistent in various ways (Malu, p 42). The theme is in place to let the reader has a picture of how much pain the soldiers had to go through during their period at war with the Vietnam. O’Brien employs the use of third-person on his work during the narration of the story. The story’s development is from a personal experience during the Vietnam War despite being a work of creative writing.
The story is personal; hence, its writing was from a first person point of view. However, the writer applies the use of a third person in some of his work, which serves a significant purpose to the reader. The writer tells more stories to develop the ability to increase the distance from the disturbing war occurrence witnessed in Vietnam. O’Brien tells several of his stories, more precisely those entailing an excruciating experience, in a third person perspective. This is so because the writer is trying to keep a distance between him and his experience at the Vietnam.
The colorful details, in addition to the reasonable recitation, were tools put to practice by the writer to prepare a narrative that goes beyond the experience of the Vietnam battle. These details concentrate more on the alternative things the soldiers tagged along to the battlefield that include internal thoughts, feelings, plus the sentiments (Malu, p 42). The writer makes the story livelier by the practical experience but lacking coherence as he narrates the story of how Ted Lavender lost his life during the war. The writer brings out the death of Ted all through the story. This shows that only somebody with that kind of experience in a similar incident could put down such a draft.
The reason for repetition is to depict the idea that the things they carried along with them had a significant purpose for individuals. O’Brien’s repetition appears to get to a climax when he exposed the heaviest thing that the soldiers had to carry with them when he said, “they carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die” (O’Brien, p 20). The story’s main characters were Cross and Martha. Cross was a Lieutenant while Martha was a college scholar who wrote to Cross. Lieutenant Cross had a sizeable burden since he was responsible for the men in his platoon. He had to deal with both his emotions as well as being responsible for the men in the platoon.
Jimmy Cross lost one of his men leading him into pain and emotional torture that transformed him from a boyish leader to a responsible one. This came by from the guilt feeling and the urge to take responsibility of his men. He had to put aside the thought of Martha and focus on protecting his platoon. This scheme related collectively to the actions and proceedings that took place in the entire story (O’Brien, p 17). The story included a collective aspect of a fiction that gives compelling reason for calling it a story. The writer focused most attention on a detailed explanation plus a realistic narration, which portrays the author’s personal experience during the Vietnam War. “The Things They Carried” was a story concerning the soul spirit in tremendous psychological pressure at a time that life was beginning, furthermore, the way soldiers transacted with the situation.
Work Citations
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Internet resource.
Malu, Kathleen F. Voices from the Middle: Narrative Inquiry By, For, and About the Middle Level Community. Charlotte, N.C: Information Age Pub, 2010. Print.
