Emotions of War: Parallels Between "The Things They Carried" and the real Vietnam
War is like fog, it moves to and fro, it comes as a slow moving loom and leaves like a flash; as it dissipates it leaves behind dampness. If the fog is war then the dampness is the emotions; that is the residual affects of war. The emotions are things that stick to everyone "In war, there are no unwounded soldiers (Narosky)". In war there will always be someone who feels guilt someone who feels anger, someone who feels detached depression and someone who feels all that and more as was in "The Things They Carried" as it is in real war. When wars are fought human beings cannot help themselves but to carry emotions, to feel is to be human to feel the guilt of the error of our ways to none to the least human.
SP4 Dustin setting fire to dwelling (during the My...
Rory Brien
Unidentified Vietnamese man and child killed by US...Everyone does things that make them feel guilty and shameful. We all do it though we don't like to admit to it. Guilt in the Webster's Dictionary is defined as remorseful awareness of having done something wrong and shame defined as a painful emotion caused by a strong sense of guilt. In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien each character carried a certain amount of guilt and shame with them. Most of this burden fell upon the leader Jimmy Cross. As the leader of the platoon Jimmy had to look after the well being of his men. Throughout the book his fails on several instances such as when Ted Lavender dies. At this point in the book Cross has an epiphany that the death of his man was due to his lack of concentration and leadership, "On that morning after Ted Lavender dies, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross...